Well then, here we are. Day two of the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review brings a few records that I really, really like, personally, and I hope that you listen and feel similar. What you’ll find throughout is a pretty wide swath of styles, but these are the days of expanded-definition heavy, so let’s not squabble about this or that. Still a lot of week to go, folks. Gotta keep it friendly.

Deep breath in, and…

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Arð, Take Up My Bones

Hard to know at what point Winterfylleth‘s Mark Deeks decided to send his historically-minded solo-project Arð to Prophecy Productions for release consideration, but damned if the six-song Take Up My Bones doesn’t feel quintessential. Graceful lines of piano and strings give way to massively-constructed lumbering funeralia, vocals adding to the atmosphere overall as the story of St. Cuthbert’s bones is recounted through song, in mood perhaps more than folk balladeering. Whatever your familiarity with that narrative or willingness to engage it, Deeks‘ arrangements are lush and wondrously patient, the sound of “Boughs of Trees” at the outset of side B building smoothly toward its deathly sprawl but unrelentingly melodic. The longer “Raise Then the Incorrupt Body” and “Only Three Shall Know” come across as more directly dramatic with their chants and so on, but Arð‘s beauty-through-darkness melancholy is the center around which the album is built and the end result is suitably consuming. While not incomplete by any means, I find myself wondering when it’s over what other stories Deeks may have to tell.

Arð on Facebook

Prophecy Productions website

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Seremonia, Neonlusifer

Oh, Seremonia. How I missed you. These long six years after Pahuuden Äänet (review here), the Finnish troupe return to rescue their cult listenership from any and all mundane realities, psych and garage-fuzz potent enough to come with a warning label (which so far as I know it doesn’t) on “Neonlusifer” and the prior opener “Väärä valinta” with the all-the-way-out flute-laced swirl of “Raskatta vettä,” and if you don’t know what to make of all those vowel sounds, good luck with the cosmic rock of “Kaivon pohjalla” and “Unohduksen kidassa,” on which vocalist Noora Federley relinquishes the lead spot to new recruit Teemu Markkula (also Death Hawks), who also adds guitar, synth, organ and flute alongside the guitar/synth/vocals of Ville Pirinen, the drums/guitar/flute/vocals of Erno Taipale and bass/synth/vocals of Ilkka Vekka. This is a band who reside — permanently, it seems — on a wavelength of their own, and Neonlusifer is more than welcome after their time out of time. May it herald more glorious oddness to come from the noisy mist that ends “Maailmanlopun aamuna” and the album as a whole.

Seremonia on Facebook

Svart Records website

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The Quill, Live, New, Borrowed, Blue

Swedish heavy rockers The Quill mark 30 years of existence in 2022 (actually they go back further), and while Live, New, Borrowed, Blue isn’t quite an anniversary release, it does collect material from a pretty broad span of years. Live? “Keep it Together” and an especially engaging take on “Hole in My Head” that closes. New? The extended version of “Keep on Moving” from 2021’s Earthrise (review here), “Burning Tree” and “Children of the Sun.” Borrowed? Iron Maiden‘s “Where Eagles Dare,” November‘s “Mount Everest,” Aerosmith‘s “S.O.S.” and Captain Beyond‘s “Frozen Over.” Blue? Certainly “Burning Tree,” and all of it, if you’re talking about bluesy riffs, which, if you’re talking about The Quill, you are. In the narrative of Sverige heavy rock, they remain undersung, and this compilation, in addition to being a handy-dandy fan-piece coming off their last record en route to the inevitable next one, is further evidence to support that claim. Either you know or you don’t. Three decades on, The Quill are gonna be The Quill either way.

The Quill on Facebook

Metalville Records website

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Dark Worship, Flesh of a Saint

Though it’s just 20 minutes long, the six-song debut from Ohio’s Dark Worship offers dark industrial heft and a grim psychedelic otherworldliness in more than enough measure to constitute a full-length. At the center of the storm — though not the eye of it, because it’s quiet there — is J. Meyers, also of Axioma, who conjures the spaces of “Culling Song” and “We’ve Always Been Here” as a bed for a selection of guest vocalists, including Nathan Opposition of Ancient VVisdom/Vessel of Light, Axioma‘s Aaron Dallison, and Joe Reed (To Dust, Exorcisme). No matter who’s fronting a given track — Reed gets the lion’s share, Dallison the title-track and Opposition the penultimate “Destroy Forever (Death of Ra)” — the vibe is biting and dark in kind, with Meyers providing backing vocals, guitar, and of course the software-born electronic beats and melodies that are the core of the project. Maybe hindsight will make this nascent-feeling, but in terms of world construction, Flesh of a Saint is punishing in its immersion, right up to the howling feedback and ambience of “Well of Light” at the finish. Conceptually destructive.

Dark Worship on Facebook

Tartarus Records store

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More Experience, Electric Laboratory of High Space Experience

Nature sounds feature throughout More Experience‘s 2021 third album, Electric Laboratory of High Space Experience, with birdsong and other naturalist atmospheres in opener “The Twilight,” “Beezlebufo,” closer “At the Gates of Dawn,” and so on. Interspersed between them is the Polish troupe’s ’60s-worship psych. Drawing on sonic references from the earliest space rock and post-garage psychedelics — think Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, King Crimson’s “Epitaph” is almost remade here as the penultimate title-track — band founder Piotr Dudzikowski (credited with guitars, organs, synthesizers, backing vocals, harmonium, tambura, and cobuz) gets by with a little help from his friends, which means in part that the vocals of extended early highlight “The Dream” are pulled back for a grain-of-salt spoken word on “The Trip” and the later “Fairy Tale.” The synthy “The Mind” runs over nine minutes and between that, “The Dream” and the title-track (9:56), I feel like I’m digging the longer-form, more dug-in songs, but I’m not going to take away from the ambient and more experimental stuff either, since that’s how this music was invented in the first place.

More Experience on Facebook

More Experience on Bandcamp

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Jawless, Warrizer

Young Indonesian riffers Jawless get right to the heart of heavy on their debut album, Warrizer, with a raw take on doom rock that’s dead-on heavy and classic in its mindset. There’s nothing fancy happening here other than some flourish of semi-psych guitar, but the self-produced four-piece from Bandung kill it with a reverence of course indebted to but not beholden to Sabbathian blues licks, and their swing on “Deceptive Events” alone is enough proof-of-concept for me. I’m on board. It’s not about progressive this or that. It’s not about trying to find a genre niche no one’s thought of yet. This is players in a room rocking the fuck out. And they might have a bleak point of view in cuts like “War is Come,” and one does not have to look too far to get the reference in “The Throne of Tramp,” but that sense of judgment is part and parcel to originalist doom. At 50 minutes, it’s long for an LP, but as “Restrained” pays off the earlier psychedelic hints, “Metaphorical Speech” boogie-jams and “G.O.D.” rears back with each measure to spit its next line, I wouldn’t lose any of it.

Jawless on Facebook

Jawless on Bandcamp

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The Heavy Co., Shelter

Adding a guest guitar solo from Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell wasn’t going to hurt the cause of Indianapolis duo The Heavy Co., and sure enough it doesn’t. Issued digitally in 2020 and premiered here, “Shelter” runs a quick three minutes of psych-blues rock perfectly suited to the 7″ treatment Rock Freaks Records gives it and the earlier digi-single “Phoenix” (posted here), which had been the group’s first offering after a six-year break. “Phoenix,” which is mellower and more molten in its tempo throughout its six minutes, might be the better song of the two, but the twang in “Shelter” pairs well with that bluesy riff from guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, and Jeff Kaleth holds it down on drums. More to come? Maybe. There’s interesting ground here to explore in this next phase of The Heavy Co.‘s tenure.

The Heavy Co. on Facebook

Rock Freaks Records store

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Sound of Smoke, Tales

All that “Witch Boogie” is missing is John Lee Hooker going “boom boom boom” over that riff, and even when opener “Strange Fruit” or “Dreamin'” is indebted to the Rolling Stones, it’s the bluesier side of their sound. No problem there, but Freiburg, Germany, four-piece Sound of Smoke bring a swagger and atmosphere to “Soft Soaper” that almost ’70s-style Scorpions in its beginning before the shuffling verse starts, tambourine and all, and there’s plenty of pastoral psych in “Indian Summer” and 10-minute “Human Salvation,” the more weighted surges of which feel almost metallic in their root — like someone between vocalist/keyboardist Isabelle Bapté, guitarist Jens Stöver, bassist Florian Kiefer and drummer Johannes Braunstein once played in a harder-focused project. Still, as their debut LP after just a 2017 EP, the seven-song/43-minute Tales shows a looser rumble in “Devil’s Voice” behind Bapté, and there’s a persona and perspective taking shape in the songs. It’ll be hard work for them to stand out, but given what I hear in these tracks, both their psych edge and that sharper underpinning will be assets in their favor along with the sense of performance they bring.

Sound of Smoke on Facebook

Tonzonen Records website

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Red Mesa, Forest Cathedral

Coming off their 2020 full-length, The Path to the Deathless (review here), Albuquerque-based trio Red Mesa — guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye, bassist/vocalist Alex Cantwell, who alternates here with Frye, and drummer/backing vocalist Roman Barham, who may or may not also join in on the song’s willfully lumbering midsection — take a stated turn toward doom with the 5:50 Forest Cathedral single. The grittier groove suits them, and the increasing sharing of vocals (which includes backing), makes them a more complex act overall, but there’s not necessarily anything in “Forest Cathedral” to make one think it’s some radical shift in another direction, which there was enough of on The Path to the Deathless to warrant a guest appearance from Dave Sherman of Earthride. Still, they continue to do it well, and honing in on this particular sound, whether something they do periodically to change it up, never touch again after this, or see as a new way to go all-in, I’m content to follow along and see where it goes.

Red Mesa on Facebook

Desert Records BigCartel store

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Margarita Witch Cult, Witchfinder

In keeping with the tradition of over-the-top weed-doom band names, Margarita Witch Cult crawl forth from the birthplace of sonic weight, Birmingham, UK, with their debut two-songer cassingle-looking CD/DL Witchfinder. That’s not the only tradition they’re keeping. See also the classic riffer doom they capture in their practice space on the not-tape and the resulting rawness of “The Witchfinder Comes” and “Aradia,” bot nodders preaching Iommic truths. There’s a bit more scorch in the solo on “Aradia,” but that could honestly mean the microphone moved, and either way, they also keep the tradition of many such UK acts with goofball monikers in actually being pretty right on. Of course, they’re in one of the most crowded heavy undergrounds anywhere in the world, but there’s a lot to be said for taking doom rock and stripping it bare as they do on these tracks, the very least of which is that it would probably work really well on tape. If I was at the gig and I saw it on the merch table, I’d snag and look forward to more. I’ll do the same with the Bandcamp.

Margarita Witch Cult on Facebook

Margarita Witch Cult on Bandcamp

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Yeah, this is a good one. A lot of this comes from stuff that’s been and is being covered around here over the last couple weeks, and suffice it to say I’ve got no regrets about choosing any of these tracks. I was worried about White Manna getting lost in the Quarterly Review shuffle, so consider this an extra nod to check that out, and celebrating the new Big Scenic Nowhere, Lamp of the Universe, Weedpecker and Pia Isa records feels about right, as well as the Electric Moon collection, Phase, which put “The Loop” right back in my head like it had never left.

Upcoming stuff from Seremonia, Obsidian Sea, Fostermother, and SÖNUS give a glimpse of things to be released over the next month-plus, and the hardest part about including an Author & Punisher track is not rambling incoherently for 20 minutes about how great the rest of the record from which it comes is. I suppose there will be time for such things.

For now, I thank you for listening as always if you do and I’m grateful you see these words either way.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 01.21.22

Pia Isa	Follow the Sun	Distorted Chants
SÖNUS	Pay Me Your Mind	Usurper of the Universe
Weedpecker	Endless Extensions of Good Vibrations	IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts
VT
Fostermother	Hedonist	The Ocean
Frozen Planet….1969	Diamond Dust	Not From 1969
Author & Punisher	Drone Carrying Dread	Kruller
Wormsand	Carrions	Shapeless Mass
Dream Unending	In Cipher I Weep	Tide Turns Eternal
VT
Obsidian Sea	Mythos	Pathos
Lamp of the Universe	Descendants	The Akashic Field
Electric Moon	The Loop	Phase
Papir	7.2	7
Seremonia	Unohduksen Kidassa	Neonlusifer
White Manna	Monogamous Casanova	First Welcome
VT
Big Scenic Nowhere	The Long Morrow	The Long Morrow

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 4 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

The more time goes on, the more I dig this band. I’ll grant I’m a sucker for weirdo psych in general, but Finland’s Seremonia don’t at all hurt their case by bringing Teemu Markkula (also of Death Hawks) along for what’s sure to be a ride in their fifth album. Their last offering was 2016’s Pahuuden Äänet (review here), and it remains a hidden treasure in the vast Svart discography, waiting for those who’d stumble upon it in their webstore like Bilbo Baggins finding the One Ring to put it on and subsequently disappear into another realm altogether. The first single from Neonlusifer, titled “Unohduksen kidassa,” is out now ahead of the album’s Feb. 4 release, and preorders are up because that’s the way the world works.

The vibe awaits you:

New album from Finland’s eeriest heavy psych outfit Seremonia!

Neonlusifer is the fifth album by Finland’s greatest and eeriest heavy psych outfit Seremonia. The band’s latest wonderfully weird outing of dark psychedelia, Pahuuden äänet, came out in 2016. After a lengthy recording hiatus, Neonlusifer offers a highly addictive version of Seremonia’s trademark freak rock, opening a number of new doors of perception.

Fading and spacing out shortly after the 35 minute mark, Seremonia’s new album is an exceptionally tight package of heavy psych. While it certainly means a lot of hot fuzz riffs and catchy choruses, Seremonia would not be Seremonia without their fearless free form psychedelic experiments. So, somewhere between Neonlusifer’s uptempo earworm rock tracks you’ll find a slow burning free improv song about deep cosmic depression, drenched in haunted mellotron strings and beautifully melancholic flutes. You’ll find a folksy garage psych song that would be the perfect piece of music for your funeral. The experimental production spirit runs free throughout the entire album.

Neonlusifer’s strange tales of death, love, destruction, oblivion and hope are all delivered in Seremonia’s signature out-of-control, out-of-this-world psych punk groove. Angry fuzz guitars, unhinged drum thunder, all-around demented hippie psychedelia and the chilling vocals of Noora Federley. Iron fist in a velvet glove.

The album’s first single, Unohduksen kidassa, breaks some new ground for Finland’s coolest psych rock weirdos. The equal double vocals of lead singer Noora Federley and guitarist/producer Teemu Markkula sing a strangely soothing death lullaby, while other band members offer harmonic backing.

Written a couple of years ago by the band’s drummer/flutist Erno Taipale, Unohduksen kidassa sounds like a long lost late sixties garage prog gem. A timeless piece of music and poetry, of course filtered through and mutilated by Seremonia’s signature wild approach to psychedelic rock: the perfect song to be played at your funeral! Listen to Unohduksen kidassa via Svart Records’ YouTube-channel.

Seremonia’s new album Neonlusifer is out on the 4th of February 2022 via Svart Records.

19.11. Seremonia: Unohduksen kidassa (digital pre-order link)
https://orcd.co/y5k1rpp

04.02. Seremonia: Neonlusifer (pre-order)
https://svartrecords.com/product/seremonia-neonlusifer-album/

Seremonia
Noora Federley – vocals
Teemu Markkula -guitars, synth, organ, flute, vocals
Ville Pirinen – guitars, synth, guitars, vocals
Erno Taipale – drums, guitar, flute, drums, vocals
Ilkka Vekka – bass, synth, vocals

https://www.facebook.com/Seremonia666
www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords

Seremonia, “Unohduksen kidassa”

[Click play above to stream Seremonia’s Pahuuden Äänet in full. Album is out Sept. 30, 2016, on Svart Records.]

Even if one doesn’t speak Finnish, as I most certainly don’t, it’s hard to ignore the engaging oddity that Seremonia have become. Pahuuden Äänet (on Svart) is the fourth album the dark-psych rockers — working with the returning lineup of vocalist Noora Federley, guitarists Teemu Markkula and Ville Pirinen, bassist Ilkka Vekka and drummer/flutist Erno Taipale — have released since their 2012 self-titled debut (track stream here), and it follows last year’s Kristalliarkki (review here, stream here), which only upped the bizarro quotient from 2013’s second offering, Ihminen.

There have been elements consistent throughout their work in songwriting and a penchant for catchy bounce, but each record has found its own personality as well, and the 10-track/40-minute Pahuuden Äänet is no different. While roughly produced with a vintage sound in mind, as all their work has been, and given to a classic sense of boogie in “Sielun Kuolema” (“the death of the soul”) and “Me Kutsumme Sitaä” (“we call it”), there’s a sense of pushing “far out” as far out as far out will go on the brief “Sähkolintu” (“electric bird”), and where Kristalliarkki had its greatest impact in its 15-minute, two-part title-track, Pahuuden Äänet spreads some of that vibe around, so that the seven-minute “Ne Ovat Jo Täällä” (“they are already here”) and the later, six-minute “Riivatut” (“possessed”) both come across as patient, rich in their cultish swirl and still fitting with the overarching flow of the album, which winds up being one of its greatest assets.

They begin with Federley‘s echoing proclamations on “Orjat” (“the slaves”), itself longer than cuts like “Sielun Kuolema,” which immediately follows, and given to a languid initial groove. No strangers to the otherworldly, Seremonia do well throughout Pahuuden Äänet to blend ethereal and terrestrial impulses, but “Orjat” opens the record with particularly hypnotic motion, its second half tripping out instrumentally on effects-laden guitar repetitions, growing washes of noise and a growing sense of the weird-worship to come as the album plays out. As noted, “Sielun Kuolema” plays against this impulse with a faster, more straightforward rush, but the interplay between Markkula and Pirinen and the layering of vocals still makes it a standout, only bolstering its memorable hook. The album’s title itself translates to “the sound of evil,” so it’s no doubt with a sense of irony that the title-track has some of the sweetest sounds to be found herein.

Aside from providing Taipale with a subtle showcase of far-back push, “Pahuuden Äänet” boasts a weepy guitar line and sense of consuming melancholy that suits its place on the record, picking up in its last minute to a space rock thrust that almost seems to be snuck in, like Seremonia were trying to get away with something. It’s that sense of playfulness that makes their material so dangerous and really gives the impression they enjoy what they do. Helps as well that both “Sähkolintu,” with its key/guitar freakout, and “Ne Ovat Jo Täällä,” with its slow-wah drift circa the halfway point and own shift into exploratory madness, are an absolute blast, the latter breaking before five minutes in to gleefully wander beneath a forest canopy of noise that presumably serves as the end of side A.

“Me Kutsumme Sitaä” starts the second half of the tracklisting at as full a speed as Seremonia move on Pahuuden Äänet, the thrust underscored by Vekka‘s bass and Taipale‘s drums nonetheless putting the guitars forward along with Federley‘s reverb-soaked voice. They’ve come to excel at this kind of 45RPM-ready burst, but there’s not much for which I’d trade the creepy bass/flute intro of “Riivatut,” or the forward build that it begins. Just before two minutes in, the song takes off and Seremonia revel in their class-M space impulses, seeming to draw together the various sides they’ve shown already — the boogie, the psych, the experimentalism — it’s all there even before they land in the engulfing wah wash march that ends the track, leading to the standout push of “Kuoleman Planeetta” (“death planet”), less of a speedy shuffle than “Sielun Kuolema” — another cut with a direct reference to “death” in the title; I learned something today — but no less rhythmically engaging in an easy groove ridden to a natural conclusion that in no way overstays its welcome, stopping short to move into the molten, flute-topped start of “Riudut Ja Kuolet” (“squares and killing”), with a spoken-word verse and thudding behind its chanted chorus.

That’s swapped out circa 2:30 in favor of a push derived either from classic rock, classic metal or both (or neither?) that seems to throw out the songwriting rulebook but works all the same, particularly with closer “Uusi Aamu Sarastaa” (“the new morning dawns”) behind it. Perhaps because one might expect Seremonia to finish with another turn of effects and improv-sounding strangeness, “Uusi Aamu Sarastaa” caps the record with a relatively straight-ahead feel — take that, expectation — which is also a noteworthy turnaround from the last album. There are a few here, further proving that while Seremonia have clearly established a sonic niche within quirky, heavy, and psychedelic cult-ish rock, they’re not at all content to rest on that in terms of creative growth. They’ve kept an impressive pace to this point and show no signs of slowing, so it seems only fair to look forward to their next one even while still enjoying Pahuuden Äänet.

Seremonia on Facebook

Seremonia at Svart Records

Svart Records on Facebook

You think you’re weird and that’s adorable, but Seremonia are working on a completely different scale when it comes to the bizarre. The Finnish cult-psych troupe will issue their fourth long-player, Pahuuden Äänet, on Sept. 30 through respected purveyor Svart Records, and it just so happens that the label has preorders up now. Svart is also streaming the closing track of the album, “Uusi Aamu Sarastaa,” which you can hear below. It seems to shift the vibe somewhat from where the band was their last time out, on 2015’s Kristalliarkki (review here), but I would not at all expect any single song from a Seremonia record to speak for the entirety of the release at this point, and neither should you.

Still, as a sampling, it speaks to some of the darker spirit that the PR wire refers to in the info that follows, as well as the cover art, which you can see here:

SEREMONIA set release date for new SVART album, reveal first track

Seremonia, Finland’s finest heavy psych outfit, travels to the outer limits and beyond with their fourth full-length album, Pahuuden äänet. Set for international release on September 30th via Svart Records, Pahuuden äänet (“Voices of evil” in English) boldly goes and explores previously unknown dark corners of the heavy psych universe.

It takes the lyrical story of Seremonia’s previous album, Kristalliarkki (“The Crystal Ark” in English), and shoots it across space and time into a feverish dystopian nightmare. This time, the apocalyptic visions have cosmic proportions, and lyrically, it’s the band’s gloomiest & doomiest album to date.

Musically, it’s even more diverse and adventurous than the band’s previous acid rock experiments. It’s Seremonia’s signature “’60s metal” sound, but the colossal doom-prog parts are more colossal and the passages of melancholic beauty more beautiful than ever before. There’s classic pop songwriting, spacey synthesizer freak-outs, dystopian dirges, victorious twin-lead guitars, out-of-control space-punk blasts, and plenty of glorious hard rock riffage to accompany the stories of cosmic horror.

And yes, Noora Federley’s vocal delivery is still blood-chillingly cool, Erno Taipale’s drumming still a pure force of nature, and the stringed instruments out-of-controlled by Teemu Markkula, Ville Pirinen, and Ilkka Vekka still make up an electric storm of fuzz. Here for yourself at Svart’s Soundcloud HERE with the new track “Uusi aamu sarastaa.”

Tracklisting for Seremonia’s Pahuuden äänet
1. Orjat
2. Sielun kuolema
3. Pahuuden äänet
4. Sä?hko?lintu
5. Ne ovat jo täällä
6. Me kutsumme sitaä
7. Riivatut
8. Kuoleman planeetta
9. Riudut ja kuolet
10. Uusi aamu sarastaa

Seremonia:
Noora Federley – vocals
Teemu Markkula – guitar
Ville Pirinen – guitar
Erno Taipale – drums, flute
Ilkka Vekka – bass

www.facebook.com/seremonia666
http://svartrecords.com/shoppe/home/3823-seremonia-pahuuden-aeaenet-lp.html
www.facebook.com/svartrecords
www.youtube.com/svartrecords
www.twitter.com/svartrecords

My personal favorite moment in the new Seremonia video for “Tee Mitä Tahdot?” Thanks for asking. It’s when, amid all the Finnish band’s demon iconography, analog tape warble, cultish whathaveyou, ’70s bikerisms and odd punches to the face, a clip art hockey player shows up just after the solo, about two minutes in. I’m not a hockey fan, so I can’t necessarily tell you if that’s supposed to represent any particular player or someone perhaps out of Finnish hockey history, but as I made my way through the three-minute clip, it’s just random enough to truly represent the ethic of the song, the title of which translates to “Do What Thou Wilt.”

The track, which underlines its catchy chorus with visualization of the title, comes from Seremonia‘s earlier-2015 third album, Kristalliarkki (review here, track stream here), a joyous rite of weirdo heavy psych no less analog-naturalist than the video for “Tee Mitä Tahdot.” Whether or not you speak Finnish (sad to say I do not), it provided an immersive front-to-back experience, less geared toward sonic heft than an overarching atmosphere of ’70s cultistry — you know the names and you don’t need me to drop them for comparison. What singled out this record over its predecessors was a looming spirit of early prog, and while I wouldn’t speculate as to what moves the band might make stylistically their next time out — they’ve worked quick to-date, so “next time out” could be any minute now — it provided another edge to their increasingly individualized take.

If you feel like you’re ready to have your mind destroyed and your soul reaped, I submit the following hedonism.

Enjoy:

Seremonia, “Tee Mitä Tahdot” official video

Today, Finnish heavy psych rockers Seremonia premiere the new video “Tee mitä tahdot” exclusively HERE. Directed by David Aje Forsberg and with illustrations by guitarist Ville Pirinen, “Tee mitä tahdot” hails from Seremonia’s critically acclaimed third album, Kristalliarkki, released this past May by Svart Records. With lyrics (still all in their native tongue) revolving around the spiritual cult practices and teachings of a mysterious doomsday cult, Kristalliarkki (English: “The Crystal Ark”) also explores the cultist mindset musically.

The heavy riffing, the psychedelic solos, the out-of-control drum fills, the blood-chilling vocal delivery, and the collective free rock freak-outs all go way beyond just playing good ol’ heavy rock: Seremonia is a band on a sacred mission, possessed by the black flame of rock ‘n’ roll. Kristalliarkki bears their trademark garage doom sound and catchy riffage, and adds an abundance of acid rock experimentalism, proto-punk anger, sacred music bliss, and even some cosmic jazz flavors in the 15-minute title track of the album. It’s a hard-rocking hard rock record, but a wonderfully weird one – even by Seremonia’s weirdo standards. Eat more psychedelic fruit exclusively HERE, with the video for “Tee mitä tahdot.”

Seremonia on Thee Facebooks

Seremonia at Svart Records

The Finnish title of opener “Vihkimys” on Seremonia‘s third album, Kristalliarkki (review here) — due out May 8 on Svart Records — translates to “initiation,” and for anyone who hasn’t yet gotten on board with the five-piece’s blend of classic garage, buzztone cult rock and psychedelic weirdness, no doubt its chanting incantations will be just that. The follow-up to 2013’s Ihminen and 2012’s Seremonia debut (track stream here) is more fluid and comfortable in its boogie than the band have ever been, and that seems only to allow them to be even stranger in their conjurings, the album making odd turns as it moves (mostly) at a shuffling clip toward its sprawling title-track through cuts like “Musta liekki,” “Alpha ja Omega” and the wah-drenched “Lusiferin lapset,” the Finnish cadence of the lyrics as delivered by vocalist Noora Federley — joined in the band by guitarists Teemu Markkula and Ville Pirinen, bassist Ilkka Vekka and drummer Erno Taipale — only adding to the late-’60s-made-heavy psychedelic otherworldliness of the overarching vibe.

As they have on their past two full-lengths, Seremonia craft a proto-metal all their own, not retro in the sense of simply copying methods of songwriting and production, but taking those methods and creating an individual identity from the focus on natural tones, weighted grooves and eerie melodicism. More “forest power” than “flower power,” the five-piece add flourish of strange shooting sounds, Echoplex and fuzzy organ tones to “Vapauden polku,” which is the longest track on Kristalliarkki save for the 14-minute first part of the two-part title-track finale (the second part of which, it’s worth noting, is 1:14), resulting in an almost animalian effect between the rolling verses. That scratching organ gets a solo in the second half where the guitars otherwise might stand on their own, and in the last minute, the track launches from a final verse into an airy final chorus that would seem to indicate their having found the “path to freedom” referenced in the title.

From there, Kristalliarkki launches some of its most insistent boogie in “Kuolema voitta” en route to the more lumbering, flute-laden groove of “Jokainen askel” and the aforementioned two-part closer, but we’ll pause at “Vapauden polku” for the time being since that’s the track I have pleasure today of hosting as a premiere ahead of the album’s arrival in a week’s time. The last couple years have made Seremonia something of a well-kept secret, and though there’s little doubt part of that is linguistic, I’ll say because I feel like it needs to be said that while I don’t speak Finnish — I wish I did, and not just so I’d be more likely to know what Seremonia were talking about — the atmosphere of Kristalliarkki, its warmth of tone and presence, its grooving push, its carefully executed flow, carry over despite any barrier language might present. There. It’s said.

I hope you take a listen to “Vapauden polku” on the player below, and I hope you enjoy:

Finnish heavy psych rockers Seremonia dive deeper than ever into the dark psychedelic abyss with their third album Kristalliarkki (The Crystal Ark). With lyrics (still all in their native tongue) revolving around the spiritual cult practices and teachings of a mysterious doomsday cult, the album also explores the cultist mindset musically.

The heavy riffing, the psychedelic solos, the out-of-control drum fills, the blood-chilling vocal delivery and the collective free rock freak-outs all go way beyond just playing good ol’ heavy rock. Seremonia is a band on a sacred mission, possessed by the black flame of rock’n’roll.

Kristalliarkki bears their trademark garage doom sound and catchy riffage, and adds an abundance of acid rock experimentalism, proto punk anger, sacred music bliss and even some cosmic jazz flawors in the 15-minute namepiece of the album. It’s a hard rocking hard rock record, but a wonderfully weird one. Even by Seremonia’s weirdo standards.

Noora Federley – vocals
Teemu Markkula – guitar
Ville Pirinen – guitar
Erno Taipale – drums, flute
Ilkka Vekka – bass

Seremonia on Thee Facebooks

Seremonia at Svart Records

Here we are, the final day of The Obelisk’s Quarterly Review. I won’t lie and say it’s been easy this whole time, but the challenge has been worth it. Will I do another one? I guess that depends on how backed up records get. Even with all of this, I haven’t managed to fit in everything, so yeah, it doesn’t seem unlikely I’ll wind up with fodder for more of this kind of thing. Once again, not at all a hardship to have people interested enough in having me write about their music to send it to me. Not at all something I’m going to complain about.

Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read or share the link or whatnot, and of course to bands and labels for caring enough to send the music.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Bubonic Bear, Shaved Heat

In and out of their three-song Shaved Heat tape in under 10 minutes, one could hardly accuse Philly guitar/drum duo Bubonic Bear of being overly elaborate in their approach, but the tracks, particularly closer “Clean,” drive home their post-hardcore rawness with suitable intensity. No frills, just impact. Vocals are raw shouts and the blue tape, which is limited to 50 copies through Bastard Sloth Records, has a kind of avant garde charm, underground in the house-show sense and mean, mean, mean, but probably nice enough to talk to. “Chlorine,” “Witch Pyle” and “Clean” are arranged shortest to longest, but all three hover around three minutes and tear into frenetic turns and let’s-call-it-spirited pummel. Andrew and Dustin, the pair involved, have a slew of EPs and splits and one full-length under their belt, and their six-plus years together are evident in the sheer fact that they can execute material so chaotic without having it fall apart under their stamping feet.

Bubonic Bear on Thee Facebooks

Bastard Sloth Records

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The F.T.W., Vendetta Kind of Mood

From its biker chug to its unabashed confrontationalism and attitude-laced approach to songs like “Who Crowned You King” and “Axe to Grind,” The F.T.W.’s Vendetta Kind of Mood just screams oldschool New York. Not the New York that’s the family-friendly (as long as you’re rich) center of the fashion world, but the New York that was really eager to tell you about how it was going to kick your ass, if not actually do so. The 10-track vinyl self-release is clean in its production and straightforward structurally, but has a gritty undercurrent anyway, showing some thrash (or is that NYHC? So hard to tell sometimes) influence in “Bleed Out” and a bit of rawer punk in “Billy Bats,” though they wait till the closer to actually extract a “Pound of Flesh,” which they slice with a choice solo and some Judas Priest riffing from guitarist TheMajor Nelson, joined in the trio by bassist/vocalist Michael Dolan and drummer Jason Meraz. Something tells me they’re not abbreviating “for the win.”

The F.T.W. on Thee Facebooks

The F.T.W. on Bandcamp

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Seremonia, Kristalliarkki

Kristalliarkki is the third offering from Finland’s Seremonia on Svart Records, and while all of their albums have thrilled in that quiet, warm-toned, psych-proto-ritual kind of way, the crystal ark is where it’s at. The record lands big with penultimate 14-minute sprawler jam “Kristalliarkki I,” open enough to set down a blanket and have a picnic next to the tree line, but before they get there, the five-piece of vocalist Noora Federley, guitarists Teemu Markkula and Ville Pirinen drummer/flautist Erno Taipale and bassist Ilkka Vekka vibe out fuzzy hypnosis on eight shorter native-language tracks, otherworldly from the word “go” and held together with a glue of ‘70s-style shufflebuzz on “Lusiferin Lapset” and the quick bouncer “Kuolema Voittaa” that beg to be dug on repeat visits. At just 1:14, “Kristalliarkki II” taps punker soul to close out with a sudden finish that leaves one wondering what the hell just happened, and no doubt that’s exactly what Seremonia had in mind.

Seremonia on Thee Facebooks

Seremonia at Svart Records

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JPT Scare Band, Acid Acetate Excursion & Rape of the Titan’s Sirens

A twofer! Kansas City acid rockers JPT Scare Band – Jeff Littrell (“J”), Paul Grigsby (“P”) and Terry Swope (“T”) – dig into their archival material to couple their first two records, Acid Acetate Excursion and Rape of the Titan’s Sirens, for Ripple Music. Both were recorded in the ‘70s but not released until 1994 and 1998, respectively, and the trio’s blown-out heavy continues to wear its years well, the bluesy fire in Swope’s guitar work leading the way through 81 minutes of long-range jams and classic vibes, still underrated after all these years. The second record has more bite tonally than the first, the recording is rougher, but I won’t take anything away from the force behind the 13-minute “King Rat” from the debut either. Think of it as an archival release more than a reissue, and if you haven’t yet been introduced to JPT Scare Band, think of the vinyl as an educational expense.

JPT Scare Band website

Ripple Music

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Libido Fuzz, Kaleido Lumo Age

Bordeaux trio Libido Fuzz trip out pretty hard on heavy ‘70s influences, but I feel like their Kaleido Lumo Age debut LP (on Pink Tank Records) is all the more praiseworthy for the simple fact that it doesn’t sound like Graveyard. Casting off much of the blues that seems to have afflicted so many the world over, Thibault Guezennec, Pierre-Alexis Mengual and Rory O’Callaghan dip back maybe a couple years before ’71, let’s call it ’68, but filter the Hendrix and The Who influences through modern tonality, which means that a boogier like “Raw Animal” and the proto-stoner shuffle of “Enter the Occult” satisfy in concept and execution. Each of the evident two sides caps with a cut past the eight-minute mark, and both “Redemption of the Bison” and album closer “Haight Ashbury” offer significant heavy psych immersion, though it’s the side B finale that ultimately wins out thanks to its second half journey into noise wash, lysergic swirl, last-minute nod and epilogue of birdsong-esque feedback.

Libido Fuzz on Thee Facebooks

Libido Fuzz at Pink Tank Records

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Dopethrone, Hochelaga

Filth-caked Montreal trio Dopethrone eat crust and shit riffs on their Totem Cat-released fourth record, Hochelaga, coating themselves in backpatch-worthy tone and throat-searing screams that would do Bongzilla proud. Weedian scummery through and through. Save for “Dry Hitter,” each of Hochelaga’s seven tracks starts with a sample, as if to emphasize the utter stoner fuckall with which Dopethrone – guitarist/vocalist Vincent, bassist Vyk and drummer Borman – execute their rolling grooves and lumbering viciousness once it kicks in. “Sludgekicker,” “Vagabong” and “Riff Dealer” tell the tale, and the record’s 40 minutes play out in largely unipolar but universally righteous fashion, “Scum Fuck Blues” summing up the ethic nicely with the line, “Smoke, drink, die.” Dopethrone make a show of their rawness, but Hochelaga’s fullness of tone and clarity of aesthetic speak to an underlying sense of knowing what they’re doing, and a record this cohesive doesn’t happen by accident, much as it might be telling you otherwise. That doesn’t mean they’re not also high as hell, just that they can keep it together.

Dopethrone on Thee Facebooks

Dopethrone on Bandcamp

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The Moth, And Then Rise

A presumed sequel to their 2013 debut, They Fall, Hamburg trio The Moth‘s sophomore full-length, And Then Rise, pulls off heavy rock ethics with a heavy metal sense of purpose and basks in an overarching tension throughout its nine tracks. Fast or slow, doomed or thrashing, cuts like “Battle is Over” and “Travel Light” carry a progressive feel to match their hooks, later doomers like “Slowly to Die” and closer “Fire” – which hides a bonus track in its span – holding onto the tightness even as the relinquish in terms of pacing. Dark atmospherically but brazenly intricate, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Freden, bassist/vocalist Cécile and drummer Tiffy are never showy or putting on a technical clinic, but everything seems to be geared toward the purpose of enhancing the songs, which of course is the ideal. Because the sound is so condensed, it might take a couple listens for And Then Rise to sink in – not saying the chug of “Last Times” doesn’t also have immediate appeal – but The Moth’s genre-bending compositions prove worth the active engagement.

The Moth on Thee Facebooks

The Moth on Bandcamp

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War Iron, Precession of the Equinoxes

I’m pretty sure War Iron could play fast and it would still sound slow. They don’t really try it. Deep, deep low end is cut through by indecipherable-but-get-their-point-across-anyway screams on the Northern Irish four-piece’s third album, Precession of the Equinoxes, which plods out a grueling extremity of doom across its four included tracks, the shortest of which is the 7:37 “Summon Demon Scream the Abyss,” a harsh ritual of sonic heft and disaffection well met by its compatriots, from the churning opener “Bludgeon Lord,” to the title-track – which actually does up the pace somewhat, relatively speaking (and yes, it still sounds slow), and only temporarily – which crushes hopes and eardrums alike leading into the closer “From Napalm Altar,” a final affirmation of the deathly miseries at heart in War Iron’s approach, vocalist Baggy going high-low with screams and growls over the Ross’ guitar, Dave’s bass and Marty’s drums. It is a fearsome and challenging listen.

War Iron on Thee Facebooks

War Iron on Bandcamp

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Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters, Earth Hog

Guitarist/vocalist Owen Carty, formerly of underappreciated, coulda-been-contender sludge rockers Dopefight, lends his riffy services to the cumbersomely-named trio Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters (also stylized all-lowercase), who make their debut with the self-released five-song Earth Hog EP. Bassist Will Hart and drummer Mark Buckwell swing heavy and land hard on the opening title-track, and there’s not much letup from there, wah bass and cowbell leading to some fervent stomp in the second half of “Chopsticks and Bad Meatballs,” which starts out as a punk song, and “Devil’s Buttermilk” brazenly tackling Southern riffing without the chestbeating that way, way too often accompanies. More cowbell there too, because if you’re going to do something, overdo it. “Mother Chub” and “Riff Richard” close out, the latter with a slowdown that emphasizes the point: the kush may be bad, but the riffs are primo. Silly name or not, I’ll take this shit any day of the week, and considering Earth Hog was recorded in a living room, I have the feeling it’s only going to get louder from here. Right on.

Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters on Thee Facebooks

Chubby Thunderous Bad Kush Masters on Bandcamp

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Red Mess, Drowning in Red

With a sense that they’re continuing to feel out where they want to be sonically, Brazilian three-piece Red Mess follow-up last year’s Crimson EP (review here) with the newly-issued two-tracker Drowning in Red – apparently working on a theme chromatically – the cuts “Daybreak’s Dope” and “Ready to Go” impressive in performance and tone as guitarist/vocalist Thiago Franzim shreds out on the latter atop Lucas Klepa’s bass and Douglas Villa’s speaker-popping kick. Each song has a markedly different approach, with “Daybreak’s Dope” topping seven minutes via a Sleep-style rollout while, true to its title, “Ready to Go” seems to have no interest in holding its shuffle still. Pairing them shows sonic breadth, and in the case of the second, a bit of ‘70s influence to coincide with what they showed on Crimson, though the results will still ultimately be familiar. They’re making progress, though, and their cohesiveness and catchiness through stylistic shifts is encouraging.

Red Mess on Thee Facebooks

Red Mess on Bandcamp

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