Sneaking it in on a Friday? What is this madness? Fair question. The wretched truth is that in slating this Quarterly Review — welcome, by the way — I ran into a scheduling conflict with a stream I booked for Oct. 14. I wasn’t sure how to resolve the logistics there, and 10 reviews plus a full-album stream is more than I have brainpower to write in a day, even if I do nothing else, so think of this as like the soft-launch grand opening of the Fall 2025 Quarterly Review. I’ll go all through next week and then wrap up on Monday the 15th. 70 total releases covered, 10 per day, during that time.

It’s gonna be a lot, and I’m sure as always happens there will be other things I’ll fall behind on, but to be perfectly honest with you, I could really, really stand to force myself to sit down and engage the hardcore escapism of getting lost in 70 records one after the next, so I think I might actually enjoy this this time through. Famous last words, but last time was one of my favorite QRs ever, so I’ve got momentum on my side. I’ll keep you posted as we go, and while I’m here, have a great weekend. We’ll pick up with more on Monday.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Faetooth, Labyrinthine

While being terrible for most everything else, 2025 is a good year to go dark. Faetooth do so — darker, anyhow — with their sophomore album, Labyrinthine, and find a place where doomgaze and sludgier, scream-topped distortion can meet without seeming any more incongruous than the Los Angeles trio want it them to be. The record runs a substantial 10 songs/55 minutes, and songs like “Iron Gate,” “Hole,” “White Noise,” and “Eviscerate” derive as much of their atmosphere from the band scorching the ground beneath them as from the more subdued, murky and melodic stretches. With these elements put together in a cohesive whole sound, Labyrinthine is less an aesthetic revolution than a (welcome) generational refresh to doom and sludge, with the band set on a path of progression toward an increasingly individualized stylistic take. Idiot dudes will talk shit because they’re women. Don’t listen to idiot dudes. Listen to riffs. Faetooth have plenty to get you started.

Faetooth Linktr.ee

The Flenser website

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Earthbong, Bring Your Lungs

The mighty Kiel, Germany, trio — oops, they just became a four-piece; heads up — recorded Bring Your Lungs this past April while on their first-ever tour of Australia. It’s a three-song, about-35-minute live-in-studio collection, and they’ll reportedly press it to vinyl in no small part so they have copies to take with them when they return down under in 2027. I guess it went well. Bring Your Lungs leaves little question as to why as the band put themselves in line among the heaviest sons of Sleep in the suitably-half-formed oeuvre of bong metal. Even the shortest of the three, the middle cut “Wax” (7:38) lays tonal waste(d), while “Fathead” (11:17) and “Goddamn High” (15:59) bark and crush and caveman plod, hitting into a slowdown and a speedup, respectively, that convey both the plan underlying the mire and the willfully, gleefully insurmountable nature of that mire itself. They’d like to teach the world to stone. Can’t help but think it’d be better for it.

Earthbong on Bandcamp

Black Farm Records store

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Nuclear Dudes, Truth Paste

We may not have circa-2005 Genghis Tron to manifest the in-brain chaos of modern overwhelm, but Jon Weisnewski (Sandrider, Akimbo) stands ready with the extremist shenanigans industrial grind of Nuclear Dudes to pick up the slack. Following the punishing radness of 2023’s Boss Blades (review here), Weisnewski, his keyboards, a buttload of samples and guitar here collaborate with vocalist Brandon Nakamura to manifest a cacophonous stew that almost gets away with tapping into “Welcome to the Jungle” on album opener “Napalm Life” (get it?) by making it almost completely unrecognizable. Further punishment is dealt with semiautomatic fervor on “Concussion Protocol” and “Juggalos for Congress,” but the 11-track/23-minute entirety of Nuclear Dudes‘ second full-length comes across like an intentional brainema, so approach with caution and know that, if it feels right, you’re not alone.

Nuclear Dudes on Bandcamp

Nuclear Dudes on Instagram

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Void Sinker, Echoes From the Deep

A quick glance at the social media for Italian stoner-droner heretofore solo-project Void Sinker, and one finds that sole denizen Guglielmo Allegro is currently searching for a bassist and a drummer to fill out the lineup. Unquestionably this would be a significant change to the proceedings on the five-song/69-minute Echoes From the Deep, which plunges frontal-lobe-first into undulating waveforms and its own distorted expanse. A clear progression of notes can be heard later in closer “Andromeda” (16:21) and “Hollow” is minimalist to the point of being barely there for most of its nine minutes, but obviously a certain kind of meditative monolith is constructed from lead cut “Cetus” onward. There are no shallow dives here, and one can’t help but wonder what Allegro might have in mind for filling out these arrangements with a rhythm section. Will Void Sinker adopt more straightforward stoner-doom riffing, or is the intention to try to make this kind of drone actually convey a sense of movement? Your guess is as good as mine, but for now, the trance induced is noteworthy.

Void Sinker Linktr.ee

Void Sinker on Instagram

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Hebi Katana, Imperfection

Raw oldschool doom with a punker edge permeates Hebi Katana‘s first album for Ripple Music and fourth overall, Imperfection. And the title becomes somewhat ironic, because while the implication is they’re talking about a warts-‘n’-all sound perhaps in reference to the production rawness of the seven-track/35-minute outing highlighted by cuts like “Dead Horse Requiem” and “Blood Spirit Rising,” which shuffle-pushes into and out of a pastoral midsection, as well as the finale “Yume wa Kareno,” it just about perfectly suits the material itself, and the band bring vigor to the deceptively catchy “Praise the Shadows” that, while dark in atmosphere, speaks to a dynamic that’s developed in their sound over time. That is to say, they might be a ‘new band’ to listeners outside the band’s native Japan, but Imperfection conveys their experience in craft and in its chemistry. If it wasn’t recorded live, close enough. They’re not reshaping genre, but there is perspective at work, to be sure.

Hebi Katana website

Ripple Music website

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Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust

That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust, a two-songer full-length with each consuming about 23 minutes of a vinyl side, sure feels like a landmark, but that seems to happen when Melbourne trio Khan are involved. Here they set a sprawl matched by few in heavy progressive psychedelia as the three-piece of Josh Bills (vocals, guitar, keyboard, recording, mixing, mastering), Will Homan (bass) and Beau Heffernan (drums) enact a linear build across the massive soundscape of “That Fair and Warlike Form,” as sure in their purpose as they are defiant of the expectation that these extended pieces might just be jams. Rather, that opener and “Return to Dust” are structured pieces, and resonate emotionally as well as immerse the listener in their clear-eyed breadth. “Return to Dust” is a level of triumph not every act achieves, and “That Fair and Warlike Form” is no less impactful throughout its procession. One of the best of 2025, but less about the fleeting moment than providing a place to dwell long-term. That is to say, it’s a record that has the potential for its own cult, never mind the wider following amassed by the band.

Khan Linktr.ee

Khan website

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Sarkh, Heretical Bastard

The first Sarkh LP, Helios (review here), arrived through Worst Bassist Records in 2023 and was a purposeful adventure across genre lines, taking elements of post-rock, heavy riffing, and even aspects of black metal and more extreme ideas into a context that became its own. The shimmer at the outset of “Helios” that starts their second full-length, Heretical Bastard, speaks immediately of communion, and as the German instrumentalists have set about refining and coalescing their sound, ambience remains central to what they do regardless of how outwardly heavy a given part gets, which, in tracks like “Kanagawa” and “Glazial,” is pretty gosh darn heavy, never mind the chug that pays off “Zyklon” or the wash that culminates 11-minute capper “Cape Wrath,” though admittedly, the latter is more about push that heft. It’s movement either way, and Heretical Bastard‘s greatest heresy might just be how convincingly invisible it makes the (yes, imaginary) lines that divide one style from another. A band on their own path, forging their own sound. If you can’t respect that, it’s your loss.

Sarkh on Bandcamp

Worst Bassist Records website

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

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Professor Emeritus, A Land Long Gone

Eight years on from their well-received 2017 debut, Take Me to the Gallows, Chicagoan classic doom metallers Professor Emeritus reach pointedly into the epic with A Land Long Gone, their second record. The band’s traditionalism of form means there’s something inherently familiar about the proceedings, and certainly they’re not the only ones with an affinity for ’80s metal of various stripes these days, but in addition to being distinguished by the forward-mixed vocals of Esteban Julian Pena, the sheer weight of “Pragmatic Occlusion” and “Defeater” and the crescendo of “Kalopsia Caves” sets well alongside the graceful flow of “Zosimos” or the later, partly-acoustic “Hubris,” portraying the dynamic and sense of character brought into the material. Like Philly’s Crypt Sermon, they’re not pretending the intervening decades didn’t happen — you wouldn’t call A Land Long Gone retro, I mean — but their collective heart clearly bleeds for the classics just the same; Trouble, Candlemass, Iron Maiden. If that’s your speed, their blend of chug and soar should hit just right.

Professor Emeritus website

No Remorse Records website

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Florist, Adrift

Florist know what they’re here for, and as they push through the let’s-start-with-the-universe’s-frequency “432Hz” into the modern, cavernous, riffage and nod of “Another Moon,” my brain sings a hearty fuck yes. They pack 29 minutes of rad into Adrift, their sophomore, six-songer LP, and while they’re not shy about lumber in “Grow” and the closer “Adrift (Part B),” that’s only one end of a style that’s able to move with marked fluidity across a range of tempos that, with a vibrant production, fullness of tone and hard-hit drums shoving it all, make for a refreshing take on what are unrepentantly familiar ideas. That is to say, there’s no pretense in Florist. Volume worship, riff worship, whatever you want to call it, it matters so little when the band are bashing away at “Out of Space” and hell’s bells it’s actually fun. Like, real life fun. The kind you might have with friends in a crowded room with the band on stage killing it through a set likewise heavy and intense but unashamed of the good time it’s having. Also giving, as one might a gift.

Florist website

Threat Collection Records website

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Church of Hed, Under Blue Ridge Skies

Ohio’s Paul Williams has released three ‘audio travelogues’ of the Blue Ridge Highway, with the Moog-only Under Blue Ridge Skies preceded directly by A Blue Ridge Spaceway and Our Grandfather the Mountain earlier this year. Maybe you have, and if so, that’s awesome, but to my knowledge I’ve never been on the Blue Ridge Highway, so I can’t necessarily speak to how the droney “Ghost Over a Pointed Top” or the kraut-style blips and bloops of “See Mount Mitchell” correlate to the experience of driving it. I’ll soak my ignorance in the keyboardy melancholia of “A Carolina Elegy,” which closes with evocations of past storms and forebodes of those still to come. Likewise, I’m not sure what the title “Abbott’s Fantasia” is a reference to, if anything at all, but you don’t get much more dug in than entire compositions played out on various layered, hyper-specific, probably-vintage-and-expensive-to-repair synthesizers, and it’s a kind of nerdery for which I’m very much on board.

Church of Hed website

Church of Hed on Facebook

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Before Show

We sat on the plane for more than an hour before taking off, and sat for another hour before going to the gate after landing. Nine hours on a seven-hour flight. In between, a shitty, shake-you-awake ocean-crossing, with the elbow of the woman sitting next to me rubbing into my lovehandle the entire time. God I hate flying.

I managed to sleep some, and that’s fortunate since with the extra delay I missed my first ride to the festival and needed to wait for the next one, about two hours later by the time I got through customs and got my bag. I was already falling asleep sitting there. Slept in the car too on the way to Netphen.

Pickup was a bit before 2PM, I think? Somewhere in there. I had time to go to the hotel to drop my stuff off before the first band would start — I also snuck in brushing my teeth — but that was it, the day was starting. Some day I will come to Freak Valley a day early, to rest and relax and check out the setup process before it all starts. Not 2025.

So I’d be a wreck by the end of it, but the first day of Freak Valley was set to roll, and it was time to roll with it. Here’s how that went:

—

Sarkh

I made it. It was like five minutes before Sarkh went on, my credentials weren’t where they were supposed to be, but Ralf in back handed me a pass and told me to go and I did. Saying hi to the folks in the photo pit and others walking around. It was Freak Valley pretty much from the moment I walked in, and since I was late, probably well before that too, but solidified as same when fest-mainstay and all around nice guy Volker Fröhmer picked up the mic to introduce the instrumental trio Sarkh as he’ll introduce every band that plays this weekend, and the trio got underway with their black-metal-tinged take on heavygaze or heavy post-rock, whatever you want to call it when the guitar floats and the groove is pummeling you. Sarkh took part in last year’s International Space Station Vol. 2 four-way split (review here), which was on Worst Bassist Records (that’s Komet Lulu’s label; she’s a regular here), and starting off the day, they were immersive in a way you would want. They brought people to the front, and in the true spirit of this thing, were dug in from the outset. I count myself lucky to have seen them, and that’s a welcome beginning point for any weekend of rock and roll.

The Polvos!

Each day of Freak Valley 2025 has at least five acts I’ve never seen before, and The Polvos! followed on in that regard from Sarkh, coming from Chile to play to the early-assembled and waiting Freaks. I don’t know how long a flight that is, but I have to think the crowd made it worth the trip, packed as the grass was. Flowing cosmic heavy pervaded, not as metallic in the underpinning as was Sarkh, but certainly not lacking presence with three guitars. They were never quite out of control, but were jam-based, for sure, and the midtempo push helped put the crowd where the band wanted them to be, not quite lulled, but not far off, families with babies and kids, Deutschebros and loner weirdos and so on were all subject to The Polvos!’ creeper grooves, which got a little more forceful as they went on, unless that was me dreaming, but stayed vibrant all the while, mellowed again and blew it out again. They brought records to sell and said as much from the stage. I reviewed last year’s Floating (review here), and wouldn’t at all mind a revisit, especially after the show.

The Thing

This was about the time I remembered coffee exists, and that’s fortunate, because dragging ass as I was, I’d never have made it up for The Thing, who are from New York and were an entirely unknown quantity to me, despite my relative proximity to their hometown as compared to say, Siegen. They were young and rocked on stage in such a way as to make ke think they’ll take good stories home from this tour, and with the US connection and some psych-blues in their sound, I couldn’t help but recall how much this festival supported Baltimore’s The Flying Eyes when they were going, not to mention The Midnight Ghost Train. Not as madcap as the latter or as blues-specific as the former, The Thing were indeed their own Thing, and with a backstage coffee and a double-espresso from the booth out front, I felt like I was able to dig all the more into what they were doing — a bit of All Them Witches’ loose genre-awareness, but not necessarily adherence — and a party aspect that came through alongside some neospace swing. Thoroughly modern, and I’m not complaining about that. Also the weekend’s first drum solo. I think I wasn’t the only one in the crowd who didn’t know them — that’s a lie; I’m the most ignorant — but they had people moving up front and that energy was infectious… now that I’d had some goddamn coffee and wasn’t falling asleep sitting on the ground. Note to self on these dudes. Further investigation required.

The Dead Reds

English rockers The Dead Reds did an acoustic set for Rockpalast — who are here filming select sets, as always — earlier, and I saw them setting up for it. I guess from their retroist look, I was expecting hard ’70s boogie, but they turned out to be moodier and more flow-minded than all-swing-all-the-time; not that groove was lacking, but it came in a different context than my judging-a-book-by-its-cover, know-nothing ass anticipated, and the real fun was in finding that out. Some post-Janis blues twang on the vocals, but they were vibes for the era thereof, and noted from the stage it was their first time in Germany. Freak Valley has been sold out pretty much since it was announced as taking place — there’s a steady crew of regulars, others come and go each year, but generally speaking, if you come here, you want to come back, and I guess you get enough of those year after year and a band like The Dead Reds — like, communists? — have a full lawn to play to as the centerpiece band of the day. The mood was set enough that my man with the hippie-sticks busted ’em out by stage right. Others sat on blankets, stood in the sun, drank in the back, or wandered. I decided it was time for another coffee. Just one more for the night to come.

Jools

Brash, dually-fronted UK hard-punkers Jools released their new album, Violent Delights, at the beginning of this month. They’re not a band I know — told you I was the most ignorant — and probably not in my wheelhouse sound-wise, what with all the punk rock and the stage outfits and such. Nothing against young, in-shape people getting naked — that’s what being young and in-shape is for — but yeah. Certainly the crowd was into it, and the band were tight and energetic and everything they needed to be to sell it from the stage, including some between-song banter. They perhaps were picking up with some of what Amyl and the Sniffers brought last year in terms of intensity, showcasing punchy material with due verve and push, flexible enough to bring on hints of more metallic tones and to bask in that next-generation take on heavy whatever that is flourishing across the globe in this otherwise dumbest decade in the history of decades, but mostly in it for the charge, and bearing songs suited to that. I don’t know that I’ll dive into the record, but Jools were a sight to behold.

Windhand

Even my most known quantity for the day, Richmond, Virginia, murkmakers Windhand, had something new on offer in their return as a five-piece with Leanne Martz — who’s also playing alongside vocalist Dorothia Cottrell for solo sets, also ex-Heavy Temple, in Darling, etc. — on second guitar. This lineup of the band — there’s a new bassist as well, and it’s Tommy Hamilton from Druglord — is about a month out from playing their first show together, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t sound like Windhand. Guitarist Garrett Morris, drummer Ryan Wolfe and Cottrell could hardly do otherwise, and with a liquid light show from Mad Alchemy, they tied together the threads of doom, grey-toned psychedelia and grunge in their songs as one would expect a veteran band to do, and though I’m pretty sure I said as much last time I saw them, which was Fall 2023, nearly two years ago, I’ll double down on taking a new Windhand LP whenever one was ready to go. They’ve got a defined sound, to be sure, but you can’t listen to their records and accuse them of only doing one thing. They’ve evolved organically over the last 15 years, and I’ll put them up there with anyone of their generation in doom, and yes, that includes Pallbearer and YOB.

My Sleeping Karma

Finally. Genuinely one I’m crossing off my list. I’ve been a fan of My Sleeping Karma since their first album, now 19 years old, and had never seen the band before. I suspect that put me in the minority of the crowd, who no doubt were far more expert in what was coming, but while bittersweet in light of drummer Steffen Weigand passing away two years ago, the band’s moving forward felt naturally in homage to their drummer, and the music retains his spirit as André Stein, who was close to the band even before joining, has taken up the drummer role. He joins guitarist Seppi, bassist Matte and synthesist Norman in the lineup, and at the risk of honesty, they were my most anticipated band of the festival. So how was it, at last, after so long? Well, they pretty much had me at the line check. From there, they did the hug that I’ve seen photos and videos of however many times and gradually hit it in a way that was laid back but not lacking energy in André’s drumming, and Seppi’s guitar lines and Matte’s bass sort of wove around each other with the synth tying them together; the stuff of classic My Sleeping Karma to my mind. The tonal depth of their records and the space in their sound were accordingly on display, and though I don’t think they were a loud as Windhand, neither were they trying to be. People went off for them, dancing and such even as midnight came and went, and perhaps the highest compliment I can give the set is it lived up to my hopes, which were unreasonable, to be sure. The sound was spot on. They were hypnotic, no less with Mad Alchemy still on the oils, but had a presence on stage, and while they’ve always been instrumental, their songs are memorable for the varying paths they take, their riffy divergences, and the blend of elements that’s so much their own. I’m so glad I got to see them. It was a long time coming.

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Next Morning

The hotel coffee is so good I could melt into it. I’m at the Ewerts this year, where I’ve never stayed before. It’s smaller, seems family-owned, which is cool, has a small and gorgeous bar (where I got the coffee; the breakfast room is around the bend the other way). I was so tired last night as My Sleeping Karma were wrapping up that I decided to hoof it the 2.25 km (1.4 mi) from the AWO grounds. I got about a third of the way in the pitch black of night alongside what seems to be the main road of Netphen, at least that I’ve seen, and a cab came into view. I was asleep not terribly long thereafter. That too was a long time coming.

It’s gorgeous again today, supposed to be spectacular all the way through, so I’m looking forward to getting back out, but first shower and some of that hotel breakfast for cheese and eggs, what with the life force and such. Thanks for reading. More pics after the jump.

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In the interest of honesty, I’ll admit to tearing up a bit when I saw My Sleeping Karma would be playing Freak Valley in 2025. That’s a band I’ve listened to for 20 years, whom I’ve never seen, and who will be making their return to the stage this weekend as they play their first show since the passing of drummer Steffen Weigand in June 2023. Already I had very much hoped to be at Freak Valley next year — it would be my fourth in a row and it is a continual honor to be invited — but I think this pushes it to what social media might classify as a ‘life event.’ To think I might in a mere matter of months be ‘marked safe’ from never having seen My Sleeping Karma. If you need me, I’ll be daydreaming about standing in that photo pit when the music starts.

That’s not to discount Dead Meadow or Motorpsycho, certainly, or Sarkh, The Polvos! or The Thing — the latter are new to me as of this writeup, despite relative geographic proximity — just excited on a personal level. Fingers crossed I get to be there — as a policy, I never believe it all the way until I’m on the plane — for all of it. I did write the short announcement below (emojis and final line added later) and it went up last week, but I’m behind on stuff with the holiday, so forgive. The fest is sold out, as usual.

Here’s the latest:

Freaks,

From the bottoms of our freaky hearts, thank you for once again making Freak Valley Festival completely sold out. 💯

We haven’t finished with 2025 yet, though. Today brings six new additions to the lineup:

⚡Motorpsycho⚡
⚡Dead Meadow⚡
⚡My Sleeping Karma⚡
⚡The Thing⚡
⚡The Polvos!⚡
⚡Sarkh⚡

Of course, Norway’s heavy prog legends MOTORPSYCHO need no introduction. They’ll probably have three or four new albums out by June.

DEAD MEADOW will be touring on their upcoming album ‘Voyager to Voyager,’ making an emotional return to the stage.

We consider MY SLEEPING KARMA family, and their return to Freak Valley is a rightly anticipated reason to celebrate. It is an honor to host them as they also return to the stage in 2025 for a busy and emotional time. ❤️

We also welcome hard-driving New York garage rockers THE THING, Chilean cosmic fuzzlaunchers THE POLVOS!, and atmospheric progressive metal instrumentalists SARKH to the lineup for next June.

We look forward to welcoming you too. More to come early in the New Year.

We wish you a Heavy Christmas and a Fuzzy New Year

https://www.facebook.com/freakvalley
https://www.instagram.com/freakvalleyfestival/
http://www.rockfreaks.de/
http://www.freakvalley.de/

Dead Meadow, “The Space Between”

[Click play above to stream International Space Station Vol. 2 in full. The split is out Aug. 20 on Worst Bassist, Weird Beard and Echodelick Records.]

In addition to being the most expensive thing ever built, the International Space Station is the most resounding proof ever manifest of the potential for what humanity can accomplish when we, in even momentary or compartmentalized fashion, put aside our differences and genuinely collaborate. Human potential, circling the planet above our heads every 90 minutes or so. Worst Bassist Records (Germany/EU), working in conjunction with Weird Beard Records (UK) and Echodelick Records (US), offers the second installment of its split series, International Space Station Vol. 2, both in tribute and in some of the same cooperative spirit. Like its 2022 predecessor, International Space Station Vol. 1 (review here), the assemblage features four bands, including the Americans Verstärker, from Kentucky, as well as Kombynat Robotron (from Germany), Speck (from Austria) and Sarkh (from Germany). It’s not quite the same as Europe, Russia, Canada and America spending billions of dollars to construct the ISS itself, module by module, but as one would hope, each band brings something of their own to the overarching scope of International Space Station Vol. 2, while keeping to the abiding space rock theme, in essence if not necessarily genre tropes. It’s cosmic one way or the other, to be sure.

As with Vol. 1, each band on Vol. 2 is given a side to work with to make a full 72-minute 2LP. Verstärker lead off and bring the first of the split’s delves into krautrock across “Weltraumtraum” (12:16) and “Kvant” (5:46), the latter of which is an immersive, multi-tiered drone that gradually emerges from the second half of “Weltraumtraum.” The two are likewise exploratory, if in different ways, as the first cut starts out with a more urgent gallop on drums and a bassline that keeps it cool but still moves, guitar feeling out the spaces in the swirl. A boogie takes hold until about four and a half minutes in, where the change marked by a stop of drums leads to a heavier outbound thrust. About force more than escape velocity, the next two minutes of push give over to mellower bassy jamming and guitar effects floating overhead, a little ghostly, but there. The drums keep the tension so that when “Weltraumtraum” starts to build back up it makes sense, and even after the crescendo, until just about 10 minutes in, the drums hold out amid the residual synth and guitar echoes. Once they go, it’s the sci-fi drone of “Kvant” all the way — an initial and not at all last hypnotic stretch as International Space Station Vol. 2 broadens its reach.

Kombynat Robotron bring a reset at the start of their lone inclusion “Montan” (15:31) and answer the proggy flow of Verstärker‘s longer piece with an easy movement of their own. Shimmering guitar over a krautrock groove probably shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with the band, this split series, or the style more generally, but Kombynat Robotron bring a Yawning–Man-in-space sensibility to the guitar work and subtle gotta-go of the rhythm. A crash and stop at five minutes in marks the divergence from where they’ve been to where they’re going, which is to a more actively swirling solo section, with crash cymbal adding to the build as they move further into the maybe-improvised unknown. Howls and wails circa 8:20 preface a pickup in the toms, and the Kiel trio carry their procession in willfully, increasingly noisy style across its back half, such that when it ends with a feedbackscape, it makes sense, feeling all the more vibrant and nebular in their fusing of elements. As the only band with one song here — everyone else does a long one and a short one, like Verstärker — Kombynat Robotron still use their time well to emphasize performance as well as exploration. “Montan” is duly massive as a result.

The immediate impression when Speck set forth with “Flaniergang” (16:03), with “Bes, So Bes” (4:29) following, is cleaner in tone, but it’s the urging motion of the drums that is most consuming. Accompanied by a bassline one might be tempted to call “solid” were it not so utterly liquefied, the drums mark out the path the song will take and give everybody — yes, including you — the chance to get on board before the real takeoff. That comes shortly after three minutes in as the guitar comes forward and the groove opens up with chugging interstellar build. Hints of heavy psych melodicism persist in the guitar, and that’ll do quite nicely, thank you, but Speck bring the proceedings back down for a quick refueling ahead of the next launch, which comes in short order. It’s not the last either — they sneak in a third redirect in the last two minutes that makes “Flaniergang” even more exciting, capping with feedback that leads directly into the cymbal wash of “Bes, So Bes,” a slow-rolling improv-feeling jaunt into low gravity that isn’t shapeless but which is clear in its less-rigid structure, and at this point in the split, calling something “less rigid” is really saying something.

Given the unenviable task of rounding out the final of the 2LP’s four sides, Sarkh flip the script and put the shorter song first, topping “Helios” (6:17) with a sample in its early going and sweeping in with heavier tones and some of the post-metallic expanse they’ve established as well within their reach. By the time they’re three minutes in, “Helios” is crushing and sprawling in kind, and they continue to set airy post-rock guitar against what in context sounds downright pummeling as the song churns to its purposeful ending, a stretch of low hum making the transition between “Helios” and the concluding “Cape Wrath” (11:37). Terrestrial, if not cavernous in its sound, and once again, remarkably heavy, “Cape Wrath” turns from the patterned riff that begins it, drops the drums and resets for a breath around ambient guitar, and thereby sets out on one big, last build, the payoff of which is your explanation for why Sarkh appear last on International Space Station Vol. 2 — once you go in the black hole, there’s no getting back out. It’s okay though, because as gravitational as they get, Sarkh retain enough presence and intentionality to bring “Cape Wrath” to a close with a change to sparse standalone guitar, not unlike that which set out that build to begin with.

And really, who knows where or when that was. On the cosmic-web-defined, impossible-to-comprehend-by-our-bacteria-brains scales of time and space in the universe, International Space Station and the structure that inspired the series in the first are — like everything else human beings have ever done and likely will ever do — small achievements, but they share that aspect of realized potential, and like the different sections of the ISS being assembled in orbit some 255 miles above the surface of the planet, each band’s material adds to the complexity of what’s portrayed by the whole, which is a fresh, multidimensional space rock that speaks no less to an optimistic future. The eons-long course of civilization’s history has wrought little that is more worth celebrating, and International Space Station Vol. 2 feels suitably reverent.

Verstärker on Facebook

Verstärker on Instagram

Verstärker on Bandcamp

Kombynat Robotron on Facebook

Kombynat Robotron on Instagram

Kombynat Robotron on Bandcamp

Speck on Facebook

Speck on Instagram

Speck on Bandcamp

Sarkh on Facebook

Sarkh on Instagram

Sarkh on Bandcamp

Worst Bassist Records on Facebook

Worst Bassist Records on Instagram

Worst Bassist Records on Bandcamp

Worst Bassist Records website

Echodelick Records on Facebook

Echodelick Records on Instagram

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

Echodelick Records website

Weird Beard Records on Facebook

Weird Beard Records on Bandcamp

Weird Beard Records store

I know I’ve said this before, but I continue to believe there’s something extra rad about a four-way split. Two, generally pretty cool, but often leads to a sense of one band competing with the other or at least a tendency on the part of the listener to compare them, which is just the same thing from the other side. Three, well fine as long as you don’t have any intention toward vinyl. But a four-way 2LP split breaks up in a satisfying way, as everybody gets to showcase their aural wares on their own side, and there’s usually enough breadth of personality between the four bands that the listener is more inclined to take everything as it comes. As Worst Bassist Records showed with three first installment of the four-way split series International Space Station (review here) in 2022, ‘take it as it comes’ is precisely the best way to go in hearing it.

Jointly released through Weird Beard Records in the UK and Echodelick Records in the US, and I believe available to preorder from all of them, International Space Station Vol. 2 once again brings together an intercontinental assemblage in Verstärker (from the US, despite the maybe-misleading umlaut), Kombynat Robotron and Sarkh (from Germany), and Speck (from Austria), and everybody but Kombynat Robotron already has a song streaming. And Kombynat Robotron aren’t being jerks or holdouts or whathaveyou, but they’ve only got one song on their side. Fair enough up keep it under wraps for now.

If you do want to hear that — and we both know you do — come back Aug. 19, as I’ll be streaming the album in full that day with what I’m sure will be a duly slobbering review full of obscure Star Trek references and cosmic buzzwords picked up from the PBS S0ace Time science videos my daughter watches with ironically religious fervor. So it’ll be awesome, in other words.

For now, art, info and copious linkage follow. Engage:

The long awaited vol. 2 of the Intrernational Space Station arrives!

2-LP in a fat gatefold cover, colored wax, limited to 500
LP 1: orange wax
LP 2: blue wax
CD in digisleeve lim. 100

Four international bands (Verstärker, Kombynat Robotron, Speck, Sarkh) contributing 1 LP side each, instrumental, about how to watch the ISS crossing their skies from time to time… or being overwhelmed by the rough beauty of the ocean…

Long and psychedelic tracks pulsating through space and try to follow the way of the space station around our globe and even beyond, to contribute you the opportunity to travel through your inner cosmosis while listening, only interrupted by the needle lifting, which could just be some stops at random interstellar stations, to release and gain passengers.

2-LP in a fat gatefold cover, colored wax, limited to 500
LP 1: orange wax
LP 2: blue wax

Out via Worst Bassist (DE+World), Echodelick (USA) and Weird Beird (UK)
August 20th 2024
Comes with Download Code

CD out via Worst Bassist on Aug. 20th.

Verstärker

Verstärker from Kentucky, USA, play monotonic motorik sound, surrounded by soundscapes and beautiful noise.

Groove, shifts, scapes, beauty, intensity, it’s all there.

Kombynat Robotron

Germany’s high flying neo-krautrockers continue on side B with their floating and dynamic longtrack.

Speck

Side C kicks off with Austria’s instrumental psychedelic mantra jammers Speck, who created a journey through mind and space until…

Sarkh

… the ISS takes another turn over Germany and brings you a force of nature to end all this, with side D.

You’ll be torn apart and re-built again through the heavy and yet delightful instrumentals.

1. Verstärker – Weltraumtraum
2. Verstärker – Kvant
3. Kombynat Robotron – Montan
4. Speck – Flaniergang
5. Speck – Bes, so bes
6. Sarkh – Helios
7. Sarkh – Cape Wrath

https://www.facebook.com/verstarker
http://instagram.com/verstarker/
https://verstarker.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/KombynatRobotron
https://www.instagram.com/kombynat_robotron
https://kombynatrobotron.bandcamp.com/

http://www.facebook.com/speckspeckspeck
http://www.instagram.com/speck_speck_speck
https://speckspeckspeck.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/SarkhWorship/
https://www.instagram.com/sarkh.evolve
https://sarkh.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/worstbassistrecords
https://www.instagram.com/worst.bassist.records
https://worstbassistrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.worstbassist.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ERECORDSATL
https://www.instagram.com/echodelickrecords/
https://echodelickrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.echodelickrecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/WeirdBeardRecs/
https://weirdbeardrecs.bandcamp.com/
https://theweirdbeard.bigcartel.com/

Various Artists, International Space Station Vol. 2 (2024)

Welcome back to the Summer 2023 Quarterly Review. I hope you enjoyed the weekend. Today we dig in on the penultimate — somehow my using the word “penultimate” became a running gag for me in Quarterly Reviews; I don’t know how or why, but I think it’s funny — round of 10 albums and tomorrow we’ll close out as we hit the total of 70. Could easily have kept it going through the week, but so it goes. I’ll have more QR in September or October, I’m not sure yet which. It’s a pretty busy Fall.

Today’s a wild mix and that’s what I was hoping for. Let’s go.

Quarterly Review #51-60:

Weite, Assemblage

Founded by bassist Ingwer Boysen (also High Fighter) as an offshoot of the live incarnation of Delving, of which he’s part, Weite release the instrumental Assemblage as a semi-improv-sounding collection of marked progressive fluidity. With Delving and Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo and Mike Risberg in the lineup along with Ben Lubin (Lawns), the story goes that the four-piece got to the studio with nothing/very little, spent a few days writing and recording with the venerable Richard Behrens helming, and Assemblage‘s four component pieces are what came out of it. The album begins with the nine-minutes-each pair of the zazzy-jazzy mover “Neuland,” while “Entzündet” grows somewhat more open, a lead guitar refrain like built around drum-backed drone and keys, swelling in piano-inclusive volume like Crippled Black Phoenix, darker prog shifting into a wash and more freaked-out psych rock. I’m not sure those are real drums on “Rope,” or if they are I’d love to know how the snare was treated, but the song’s a groover just the same, and the 14-minute “Murmuration” is where the styles unite under an umbrella of warm tonality and low key but somehow cordial atmosphere. If these guys want to get together every couple years into perpetuity and bang out a record like this, that’d be fine.

Weite on Facebook

Stickman Records store

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Mizmor, Prosaic

The fourth album from Portland, Oregon’s Mizmor — the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, vocalist, etc.-ist A.L.N. — arrives riding a tsunami of hype and delivers on the band’s long-stated promise of ‘wholly doomed black metal.’ With consuming distortion at its heart from opener/longest track (immediate points) “Only an Expanse” onward, the record recalls the promise of American black metal as looser in its to-tenet conformity than the bulk of Europe’s adherents — of course these are generalizations and I’m no expert — by contrasting it rhythmically with doom, which instead of fully releasing the tension amassed by the scream-topped tremolo riffing just makes it sound more miserable. Doom! “No Place to Arrive” is admirably thick, like noisy YOB on charred ambience, and “Anything But” draws those two sides together in more concise and driving style, vicious and brutal until it cuts in the last minute to quiet minimalism that makes the slam-in crush of 13-minute closer “Acceptance” all the more punishing, with plenty of time left for trades between all-out thrust and grueling plod. Hard to call which side wins the day — and that’s to Mizmor‘s credit, ultimately — but by the end of “Acceptance,” the raging gnash has collapsed into a caldera of harsh sludge, and it no longer matters. In context, that’s a success.

Mizmor on Facebook

Profound Lore Records store

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The Whims of the Great Magnet, Same New

With a couple quick drum taps and a clearheaded strum that invokes the impossible nostalgia of Bruce Springsteen via ’90s alt rock, Netherlands-based The Whims of the Great Magnet strolls casually into “Same New,” the project’s first outing since 2021’s Share My Sun EP. Working in a post-grunge style seems to suit Sander Haagmans, formerly the bassist of Sungrazer and, for a bit, The Machine, as he single-track/double-tracks through the song’s initial verse and blossoms melodically in the chorus, dwelling in an atmosphere sun-coated enough that Haagmans‘ calls it “your new summer soundtrack.” Not arguing, if a one-track soundtrack is a little short. After a second verse/chorus trade, some acoustic weaves in at the end to underscore the laid back feel, and as it moves into the last minute, “Same New” brings back the hook not to drive it into your head — it’s catchy enough that such things aren’t necessary — but to speak to a traditional structure born out of classic rock. It does this organically, with moderate tempo and a warm, engaging spirit that, indeed, evokes the ideal images of the stated season and will no doubt prove comforting even removed from such long, hot and sunny days.

The Whims of the Great Magnet on Facebook

The Whims of the Great Magnet on Bandcamp

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Sarkh, Helios

German instrumentalists Sarkh follow their 2020 full-length, Kaskade, with the four-song/31-minute Helios EP, issued through Worst Bassist Records. As with that album, the short-ish offering has a current of progressive metal to coincide with its heavier post-rock affect; “Zyklon” leading off with due charge before the title-track finds stretches of Yawning Man-esque drift, particularly as it builds toward a hard-hitting crescendo in its second half. Chiaroscuro, then. Working shortest to longest in runtime, the procession continues with “Kanagawa” making stark volume trades, growing ferocious but not uncontrolled in its louder moments, the late low end particularly satisfying as it plays off the guitar in the final push, a sudden stop giving 11-minute closer “Cape Wrath” due space to flesh out its middle-ground hypothesis after some initial intensity, the trio of guitarist Ralph Brachtendorf, bassist Falko Schneider and drummer Johannes Dose rearing back to let the EP end with a wash but dropping the payoff with about a minute left to let the guitar finish on its own. Germany, the world, and the universe: none of it is short on instrumental heavy bands, but the purposeful aesthetic mash of Sarkh‘s sound is distinguishing and Helios showcases it well to make the argument.

Sarkh on Facebook

Worst Bassist Records store

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Spiritual Void, Wayfare

A 2LP second long-player from mostly-traditionalist doom metallers Spiritual Void, Wayfare seems immediately geared toward surpassing their 2017 debut, White Mountain, in opening with “Beyond the White Mountain.” With a stretch of harsher vocals to go along with the cleaner-sung verses through its 8:48 and the metal-of-eld wail that meets the crescendo before the nodding final verse, they might’ve done it. The subsequent “Die Alone” (11:48) recalls Candlemass and Death without losing the nod of its rhythm, and “Old” (12:33) reaffirms the position, taking Hellhound Records-style methodologies of European trad doom and pulling them across longer-form structures. Following “Dungeon of Nerthus” (10:24) the shorter “Wandering Doom” (5:31) chugs with a swing that feels schooled by Reverend Bizarre, while “Wandersmann” (13:11) tolls a mournful bell at its outset as though to let you know that the warm-up is over and now it’s time to really doom out. So be it. At a little over an hour long, Wayfare is no minor undertaking, but for what they’re doing stylistically, it shouldn’t be. Morose without melodrama, Wayfare sees Spiritual Void continuing to find their niche in doom, and rest assured, it’s on the doomier end. Of doom.

Spiritual Void on Facebook

Journey’s End Records store

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The River, A Hollow Full of Hope

Even when The River make the trade of tossing out the aural weight of doom — the heavy guitar and bass, the expansive largesse, and so on — they keep the underlying structure. The nod. At least mostly. To explain: the long-running UK four-piece — vocalist Jenny Newton, guitarist Christian Leitch (formerly of 40 Watt Sun), bassist Stephen Morrissey and drummer Jason Ludwig — offer a folkish interpretation of doom and a doomed folk on their fourth long-player, the five-song/40-minute A Hollow Full of Hope taking the acoustic prioritizing of a song like “Open” from 2019’s Vessels into White Tides (review here) and bringing it to the stylistic fore on songs like the graceful opener “Fading,” the lightly electric “Tiny Ticking Clocks” rife with strings and gorgeous self-harmonizing from Newton set to an utterly doomed march, or the four-minute instrumental closer “Hollowful,” which is more than an outro if not a completely built song in relation to the preceding pieces. Melodic, flowing, intentional in arrangement, meter, melody. Sad. Beautiful. “Exits” (9:56) and “A Vignette” (10:26) — also the two longest cuts, though not by a ton — are where one finds that heft and the other side of the doom-folk/folk-doom divide, though it is admirable how thin they make that line. Marked progression. This album will take them past their 25th anniversary, and they greet it hitting a stride. That’s an occasion worth celebrating.

The River on Facebook

Cavernous Records store

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Froglord, Sons of Froglord

Sons of Froglord is the fourth full-length in three years from UK amphibian conceptualist storytellers Froglord, and there’s just about no way they’re not making fun of space rock on “Road Raisin.” “Collapse” grows burly in its hook in the vein of a more rumbling Clutch — and oh, the shenanigans abound! — and there’s a kind of ever-present undercurrent sludgy threat in the more forward push of the glorious anthem to the inanity of career life in “Wednesday” (it doesn’t materialize, but there is a tambourine on “A Swamp of My Own,” so that’s something), but the bulk of the latest chapter in the Froglord tale delivers ’70s-by-way-of-’10s classic heavy blues rock, distinct in its willingness to go elsewhere from and around the boogie swing of “Wizard Gonk” and the fuzzy shuffling foundation of “Garden” at the outset and pull from different eras and subsets of heavy to serve their purposes. “Froglady” is on that beat. On it. And the way “A Swamp of My Own” opens to its chorus is a stirring reminder of the difference drumming can make in elevating a band. After a quick “Closing Ceremony,” they tack on a presumably-not-narrative-related-but-fitting-anyway cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s “Born on the Bayou,” which complements a crash-laced highlight like “The Sage” well and seems to say a bit about where Froglord are coming from as well, i.e., the swamp.

Froglord on Facebook

Froglord on Bandcamp

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Weedevil & Electric Cult, Cult of Devil Sounds

Released digitally with the backing of Abraxas and on CD through Smolder Brains Records, the Cult of Devil Sounds split EP offers two new tracks each from São Paulo, Brazil’s Weedevil and Veraruz, Mexico’s Electric Cult. The former take the A side and fade in on the guitar line “Darkness Inside” with due drama, gradually unfurling the seven-minute doom roller that’s ostensibly working around Electric Wizard-style riffing, but has its own persona in tone, atmosphere and the vocals of Maureen McGee, who makes her first appearance here with the band. The swagger of “Burn It” follows, somewhat speedier and sharper in delivery, with a scorcher solo in its back half, witchy proclamations and satisfying slowdown at the end. Weedevil. All boxes ticked, no question. Check. Electric Cult are rawer in production and revel in that, bringing “Rising From Hell” and “Esoteric Madness” with a more uptempo, rock-ish swing, but moving through sludge and doom by the time the seven minutes of the first of those is done. “Rising From Hell” finishes with ambient guitar, then feedback, which “Esoteric Madness” cuts off to begin with bass; a clever turn. Quickly “Esoteric Madness” grows dark from its outset, pushing into harsh vocals over a slogging march that turns harder-driving with ’70s-via-Church–of–Misery hard-boogie rounding out. That faster finish is a contrast to Weedevil‘s ending slow, and complements it accordingly. An enticing sampler from both.

Weedevil on Facebook

Electric Cult on Facebook

Abraxas on Instagram

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Dr. Space, Suite for Orchestra of Marine Mammals

When I read some article about how the James Webb Space Telescope has looked billions of years into the past chasing down ancient light and seen further toward the creation of the universe than humankind ever before has, I look at some video or other, I should be hearing Dr. Space. I don’t know if the Portugal-based solo artist, synthesist, bandleader, Renaissance man Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (also Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, etc.) has been in touch with the European Space Agency (ESA) or what their response has been, but even with its organ solo and stated watery purpose, amid sundry pulsations it’s safe to assume the 20-minute title-track “Suite for Orchestra of Marine Mammals” is happening with an orchestra of semi-robot aliens on, indeed, some impossibly distant exoplanet. Heller has long dwelt at the heart of psychedelic improv and the three pieces across the 39 minutes of Suite for Orchestra of Marine Mammals recall classic krautrock ambience while remaining purposefully exploratory. “Going for the Nun” pairs church organ with keyboard before shimmering into proto-techno blips and bloops recalling the Space Age that should’ve had humans on Mars by now, while the relatively brief capper “No Space for Time” — perhaps titled to note the limitations of the vinyl format — still finds room in its six minutes to work in two stages, with introductory chimes shifting toward more kosmiche synth travels yet farther out.

Dr. Space on Facebook

Space Rock Productions website

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Ruiner, The Book of Patience

The debut from Santa Fe-based solo drone project Ruiner — aka Zac Hogan, also of Dysphotic, ex-Drought — is admirable in its commitment to itself. Hogan unveils the outfit with The Book of Patience (on Desert Records), an 80-minute, mostly-single-note piece called “Liber Patientiae,” which if you’re up on your Latin, you know is the title of the album as well. With a willfully glacial pace that could just as easily be a parody of the style — there is definitely an element of ‘is this for real?’ in the listening process, but yeah, it seems to be — “Liber Patientiae” evolves over its time, growing noisier as it approaches 55 or so minutes, the distortion growing more fervent over the better part of the final 25, the linear trajectory underscoring the idea that there’s a plan at work all along coinciding with the experimental nature of the work. What that plan might manifest from here is secondary to the “Liber Patientiae” as a meditative experience. On headphones, alone, it becomes an inward journey. In a crowded room, at least at the outset it’s almost a melodic white noise, maybe a little tense, but stretched out and changing but somehow still solid and singular, making the adage that ‘what you put into it is what you get out’ especially true in this case. And as it’s a giant wall of noise, it goes without saying that not everybody will be up for getting on board, but it’s difficult to imagine the opaque nature of the work is news to Hogan, who clearly is searching for resonance on his own wavelength.

Ruiner on Facebook

Desert Records store

—

 

I was pretty late turning in the playlist for this episode. Not as late as I could’ve been, mind you, but late enough. It kind of got away from me, as will happen from time to time with… everything, I guess. But I got it done and decided against doing a voice track to go with it because I didn’t want to take the extra time from the engineer, a nice guy named Henry who puts up with my late ass on the regular, when he has other stuff to work on. Plus, there’s some good flow to these tracks and I don’t need to screw that up sounding like a doofus, so yeah.

A couple of tracks from the upcoming Heavy Psych Sounds stuff — Cosmic Reaper and Acid Mammoth. You’ll note too the new Monolord single “I’m Staying Home” opens the thing. Kudos to those guys on being topical, even if the track was recorded in 2019. And then we do some long songs in the middle and get heavy and aggro at the end, just to change it up a little bit. Keep things lively some 51 episodes in. Still can’t tell you how flabbergasted I am Gimme has let this go on so long. I’m just gonna ride it out and see where it goes, like I do.

Thanks for listening and/or reading. Hope you dig the show if you check in.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 01.22.20

Monolord	I’m Staying Home	I’m Staying Home
Cosmic Reaper	Hellion	Cosmic Reaper
Lammping	Jaws of Life	New Jaws
Scorched Oak	Desert	Withering Earth
Kabbalah	Stigmatized	The Omen
Acid Mammoth	Berserker	Caravan
Kombynat Robotron	Signal Hill	Spontane Emission
Hammada	Domizil	Atmos
Giants, Dwarfs and Black Holes	In the Circle	Everwill
Sarkh	Morast	Kaskade
Wowod	Proschenie	Yarost I’ Prochenie
Dread Sovereign	Nature is the Devil’s Church	Alchemical Warfare
Nomadic Rituals	Them	Tides

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 5 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks