You don’t have to work too hard to make sense of the grunge in Simple Forms‘ new single. Called “Into Midnight,” it’s a four-minute cruncher that puts its double-guitar configuration to progressive use in atmospheric flourish that calls to mind some of what’s happening in European prog-heavy right now, bands like Iron Jinn or even Messa and a slew of others delving into sounds that might be disparate or dissonant in order to bring something specific to a given piece. The Portland, Oregon, five-piece were last heard from in June with the standalone “And Only Days” (posted here) and before that, it was January when they unveiled “Unprecedented Uncertainty” (posted here). You’d almost think these things were run on a schedule.

Naturally, I have no idea either way, but when Simple Forms started rolling out material publicly, it was this way as well. After four songs and much “members of” hoopla given the band’s associations with YOB, Norska, Hot Victory and Dark Castle, , they compiled them into their early 2023 self-titled debut EP (review here), which was a burner. If they’re going the same route — and again, I don’t know this — they’re at three singles, so maybe one more and then another four-tracker. And hey, if you wanna make math of it, you put two four-trackers together and that’s an eight-song LP. Kind of a nice way to make it easy on yourself, at least potentially, and taking their time has allowed Simple Forms (going by appearances on the listening end) to explore different styles around their basic underpinning in generalities like “heavy,” “doom” and so on. Jason Oswald sounding as established as he does here fronting the band is also its own narrative thread.

If you’re feeling, I don’t know, nuts?, I guess you can link back to all the other posts about the other songs — I’m fairly sure they’re all accounted for. If you’re not one for rabbitholes, the stream of “Into Midnight” is below and the rest is on their Bandcamp, which is where the minimal blue text below was sourced:

Music recorded at Red Rockets Glare in Portland, OR
Engineered and Mixed by Dominic Armstrong
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph

Simple Forms:
Jason Oswald – Vocals, Synth
Ben Stoller – Drums
Aaron Rieseberg – Bass
Dustin Rieseberg – Guitar
Rob Shaffer – Guitar

https://www.facebook.com/Simple-Forms-2159388204175112
https://www.instagram.com/simpleformsnw/
https://simpleformsnw.bandcamp.com/

Simple Forms, “Into Midnight” (2023)

Back in the day, you’d be at the merch table at a show and a band would have a clipboard for you to write your email address on, and then — maybe — you’d be added to their email list for updates and whatnot, if any were ever actually sent out. Social media took care of that, but I kind of feel like following a band on Bandcamp is something similar. Yeah, you get people pushing merch and such — which is appropriate — but you also get notified of new stuff, or of preorders going up, album announcements and so on. Those Bandcamp updates are how I get a fair amount of news these days, including from Oregon’s Simple Forms, who put up a new single called “And Only Days” on Tuesday.

The new song follows January’s head-spinner “Unprecedented Uncertainty” (discussed here) and brings together bright and progressive synth with aspects of hard grunge and heavygaze atmospherics. It is modern in the sense of sounding like the future, it costs a buck, and I don’t know if it’s heralding a debut LP or an EP to follow their early 2023 self-titled (review here), but every song this band has released so far sounds different and I’m incredibly curious to hear it all in the context of an album and see where the various points come together. “And Only Days” only further piques interest. Basically, it’s pretty friggin’ rad, and I wanted to give you a heads up in case you don’t already follow their Bandcamp.

So, here this from their Bandcamp:

“Hi friends! We’re very excited to release our newest single “And Only Days”! Please check it out! Enjoy and take care. -Simple Forms”

Music recorded at Red Rockets Glare in Portland, OR
Engineered and Mixed by Dominic Armstrong
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph

Simple Forms:
Jason Oswald – Vocals, Synth
Ben Stoller – Drums
Aaron Rieseberg – Bass
Dustin Rieseberg – Guitar
Rob Shaffer – Guitar

https://www.facebook.com/Simple-Forms-2159388204175112
https://www.instagram.com/simpleformsnw/
https://simpleformsnw.bandcamp.com/

Simple Forms, “And Only Days” (2023)

Yeah, I realize that I say the same shit every time I post a Gimme Metal playlist, but this is a good god damn show. New Simple Forms to start, new Sandrider, Merlock, Acid King, Polymoon, REZN, some WyndRider and Strider — both reviewed in the last week or so — then on to Enslaved as a shift into meaner fare with Tribunal, These Beasts, They Grieve, Fuzzy Grapes and Mammoth Caravan touching on various points in gruff doom and sludge before I come on again to mouthfart or whatever it is I do around saying ‘thanks for listening’ and turn it over to an 18-minute finish from Clouds Taste Satanic, who’ll head to Europe this Spring to support the 2LP record they released today on Majestic Mountain. Good god damn show.

There’s a flow to it that I like, from the Pacific Northwestern takes of Simple Forms and Sandrider at the outset to the lumbering of Mammoth Caravan before that last voice track, it has a groove. Because it airs at 5PM on a Friday evening, I’m not always able to blast out the show while I try to keep up with the chat — that’s Sesame Street time, these days, and all volume conflicts are resolved by my being yelled at and turning down the music, putting my phone on the lowest volume and holding it to my left ear or stepping out to the back yard to get stoned and listening there for a bit — but Dean Rispler, who actually assembles the thing from the playlist I turn in, is a genius and I always know that he’s got it down when it comes to conveying the flow from one song to the next. I rely on that, and he nails it every time. It honestly makes me look forward to these Fridays more.

If you listen, I hope you dig it. Thanks for reading either way.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 02.03.23 (VT = voice track)

Simple Forms	Unprecedented Uncertainty	Unprecedented Uncertainty
Sandrider	Alia	Enveletration
Merlock	Onward Strides Colossus	Onward Strides Colossus
VT
Acid King	Beyond Vision	Beyond Vision
Polymoon	Set the Sun	Chrysalis
REZN	Possession	Solace
WyndRider	Creator	WyndRider
Strider	Midnight Zen	Midnight Zen
Enslaved	Forest Dweller	Heimdal
Tribunal	The Path	The Weight of Remembrance
These Beasts	Code Name	Cares, Wills, Wants
They Grieve	Wither	To Which I Bore Witness
Fuzzy Grapes	Sludge Fang	Volume 1
Mammoth Caravan	Petroglyphs	Ice Cold Oblivion
VT
Clouds Taste Satanic	Flames and Demon Drummers	Tales of Demonic Possession

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 17 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

It’s probably fair to call Simple Forms‘ new single a song for our times. At very least, the Oregonian outfit would seem to have mined current vernacular for a particularly relevant alliteration. Thus comes the four-and-a-half-minute “Unprecedented Uncertainty” with a plot-twist of a sound that’s somewhere between atmospheric grunge and avant garde black metal, bearing a force of delivery that comes across in deceleration that, after compiling their initial singles into the self-titled Simple Forms EP (review here), signals the five-piece are moving forward with a clearer idea of what they want to do as a band.

Counterintuitive as that might be to the title “Unprecedented Uncertainty” itself, it comes through in the rhythmic intensity of the song, as well as the way the Rob Shaffer and Dustin Rieseberg‘s guitars seem to stand in their own place adjacent to but not necessarily always inside the tumult. Drummer Ben Stoller gets a workout from the moment the song kicks in from its kinda-horrifying intro, and that run of kick and toms and forward push does a lot of the work of drawing the track together, with Aaron Rieseberg‘s bass giving crucial density as the ground from which the vocals of Jason Oswald, more commanding here already than on the EP, echo outward.

One song does not (usually) an aesthetic shift make, but “Unprecedented Uncertainly” lays claim to stylistic territory that Simple Forms had not previously touched on with such purpose, and feels like they’re actively ‘figuring it out.’ All the more reason to follow along as they do. I don’t know what it will lead to for the rest of this year, let alone next, or new songs, or touring, or recording, or breaking up tomorrow and all of this is moot before I even finish this post — you might say the future is uncertain — but you’ll find the cover art, the barebones recording info I hoisted from their Bandcamp and, most importantly, the player itself tucked away safely at the bottom of the post. Listen and breathe.

Enjoy:

All but one could see, the canvas holds the deepest need…

released January 26, 2023
Music Recorded at Red Rockets Glare
Engineered by Dominic Armstrong and Raymond Richards
Mixed by Dominic Armstrong
Mastered by Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph

Simple Forms:
Jason Oswald – Vocals
Aaron Rieseberg – Bass, Synth
Dustin Rieseberg – Guitar
Rob Shaffer – Guitar
Ben Stoller – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/Simple-Forms-2159388204175112
https://www.instagram.com/simpleformsnw/
https://simpleformsnw.bandcamp.com/

Simple Forms, Unprecedented Uncertainty (2023)

If you missed the entire Quarterly Review, first of all, that’s okay. You’re not obligated. I only bring it up because it’s from that glut of 100 records that this playlist (and part of the last one) derives. It’s a good show, with a couple decent twists. I almost played the 18-minute Smoke song. Thought about it, but it gets a little droney and I worry about stuff like that getting lost in people’s audio feeds. You know, if they’ve got the thing streaming in the background or some such. I’m not fooling myself into thinking that, however many people are listening, they’re all paying the strictest attention to every minute of every song.

So it’s the seven-minute Smoke song, and the 14-minute Carrier Wave one. It was pretty easy to go and pick through the QR for stuff, to be honest. And there was enough that, even having done some last time, I might still be able to get more from it that would work for the show. That’s pretty killer, because unless I’m giving myself an excuse to get to know it, I don’t play stuff on here if I don’t think it’s at least worth hearing. In the meantime, this playlist rules. I can’t wait to hear what engineer Dean Rispler (he’s also in Mighty High and 70 or 80 other bands) does with the transition from Gaupa to Onségen Ensemble.

Thanks for listening if you listen. Thanks for reading either way.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 01.20.23 (VT = voice track)

Oktas	Collateral Damage	The Finite and the Infinite
Gaupa	RA	Myriad
Onségen Ensemble	Naked Sky	Realms
VT
Simple Forms	Reaching for the Shadow	Simple Forms
Farflung	Dludgemasterpoede	Like Drones in Honey
Smoke	The Son of Man	Groupthink
Chrome Ghost	Where Black Dogs Dream	House of Falling Ash
Onhou	Null	Monument
Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol	Jesus Was an Alien	Doom Wop
Alconaut	Slugs	Slugs
Daevar	Leila	Delirious Rites
Astrosaur	The Deluge	Portals
Grin	Aporia	Phantom Knocks
Mister Earthbound	Not to Know	Shadow Work
VT
Carrier Wave	Cosmic Man	Carrier Wave

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Feb. 3 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

We press on, until the end, though tired and long since out of adjectival alternatives to ‘heavy.’ The only way out is through, or so I’m told. Therefore, we go through.

Morale? Low. Brain, exhausted. The shit? Hit the fan like three days ago. The walls, existentially speaking, are a mess. Still, we go through.

Two more days to go. Thanks for reading.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #81-90:

Farflung, Like Drones in Honey

No question Farflung are space rock. It’s not up for debate. They are who they are and on their 10th full-length, Like Drones in Honey (on Sulatron, which suits both them and label), they remain Farflung. But whether it’s the sweet ending of the “Baile an Doire” or the fuzz riffing beneath the sneer of “King Fright” and the careening garage strum of “Earthmen Look Alike to Me,” the album offers a slew of reminders that as far out as Farflung get — and oh my goodness, they go — the long-running Los Angeles outfit were also there in the mid and late ’90s as heavy rock and, in California particularly, desert rock took shape. Of course, opener “Acid Drain” weaves itself into the fabric of the universe via effects blowout and impulse-engine chug, and after that finish in “Baile an Doire,” they keep the experimentalism going on the backwards/forwards piano/violin of “Touch of the Lemmings Kiss” and the whispers and underwater rhythm of closer “A Year in Japan,” but even in the middle of the pastoral “Tiny Cities Made of Broken Teeth” or in the second half of the drifting “Dludgemasterpoede,” they’re space and rock, and it’s worth not forgetting about the latter even as you blast off with weirdo rocket fuel. Like their genre overall, like Sulatron, Farflung are underrated. It is lucky that doesn’t slow their outbound trip in the slightest.

Farflung on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

—

 

Neptunian Maximalism, Finis Gloriae Mundi

Whether you want to namedrop one or another Coltrane or the likes of Amon Düül or Magma or whoever else, the point is the same: Neptunian Maximalism are not making conventional music. Yeah, there’s rhythm, meter, even some melody, but the 66-minute run of the recorded-on-stage Finis Gloriae Mundi isn’t defined by songs so much as the pieces that make up its consuming entirety. As a group, the Belgians’ project isn’t to write songs to much as to manifest an expression of an idea; in this case, apparently, the end of the world. A given stretch might drone or shred, meditate in avant-jazz or move-move-move-baby in heavy kosmiche push, but as they make their way to the two-part culmination “The Conference of the Stars,” the sense of bringing-it-all-down is palpable, and so fair enough for their staying on theme and offering “Neptunian’s Raga Marwa” as a hint toward the cycle of ending and new beginnings, bright sitar rising out of low, droning, presented-as-empty space. For most, their extreme take on prog and psych will simply be too dug in, too far from the norm, and that’s okay. Neptunian Maximalism aren’t so much trying to be universal as to try to commune with the universe itself, wherever that might exist if it does at all. End of the world? Fine. Let it go. Another one will come along eventually.

Neptunian Maximalism on Facebook

I, Voidhanger Records on Bandcamp

Utech Records store

—

 

Near Dusk, Through the Cosmic Fog

Four years after their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), Denver heavy rock and rollers Near Dusk gather eight songs across and smooth-rolling, vinyl-minded 37 minutes for Through the Cosmic Fog, which takes its title from the seven-and-a-half-minute penultimate instrumental “Cosmic Fog,” a languid but not inactive jam that feels especially vital for the character it adds among the more straightforward songs earlier in the record — the rockers, as it were — that comprise side A: “The Way it Goes,” “Spliff ’em All,” and so on. “Cosmic Fog” isn’t side B’s only moment of departure, as the drumless guitar-exploration-into-acoustic “Roses of Durban” and the slower rolling finisher “Slab City” fill out the expansion set forth with the bluesy solo in the back end of “EMFD,” but the strength of craft they show on the first four songs isn’t to be discounted either for the fullness or the competence of their approach. The three-piece of Matthew Orloff, Jon Orloff and Kellen McInerney know where they’re coming from in West Coast-style heavy, not-quite-party, rock, and it’s the strength of the foundation they build early in the opening duo and “The Damned” and “Blood for Money,” that lets them reach outward late, allowing Through the Cosmic Fog to claim its space as a classically structured, immediately welcome heavy rock LP.

Near Dusk on Facebook

Near Dusk on Bandcamp

—

 

Simple Forms, Simple Forms EP

The 2023 self-titled debut EP from Portland, Oregon’s Simple Forms collects four prior singles issued over the course of 2021 and 2022 into one convenient package, and even if you’ve been keeping up with the trickle of material from the band that boasts members of YOB, (now) Hot Victory, Dark Castle and Norska, hearing the tracks right next to each other does change the context somewhat, as with the darker turn of “From Weathered Hand” after “Reaching for the Shadow” or the way that leadoff and “Together We Will Rest” seem to complement each other in the brightness of the forward guitar, a kind of Euro-style proggy noodling that reminds of The Devil’s Blood or something more goth, transposed onto a forward-pushing Pacific Northwestern crunch. The hints of black metal in the riffing of “The Void Beneath” highlight the point that this is just the start for guitarists Rob Shaffer and Dustin Rieseberg, bassist Aaron Rieseberg and grunge-informed frontman Jason Oswald (who also played drums and synth here), but already their sprawl is nuanced and directed toward individualism. I don’t know what their plans might be moving forward, but if the single releases didn’t highlight their potential, certainly the four songs all together does. A 19-minute sampler of what might be, if it will be.

Simple Forms on Facebook

Simple Forms on Bandcamp

—

 

Lybica, Lybica

Probably safe to call Lybica a side-project for Justin Foley, since it seems unlikely to start taking priority over his position as drummer in metalcore mainstays Killswitch Engage anytime soon, but the band’s self-titled debut offers a glimpse of some other influences at work. Instrumental in its entirety, it comes together with Foley leading on guitar joined by bassist Doug French and guitarist Joey Johnson (both of Gravel Kings) and drummer Chris Lane (A Brilliant Lie), and sure, there’s some pretty flourish of guitar, and some heavier, more direct chugging crunch — “Palatial” in another context might have a breakdown riff, and the subsequent “Oktavist” is more directly instru-metal — but even in the weighted stretch at the culmination of “Ferment,” and in the tense impression at the beginning of seven-minute closer “Charyou,” the vibe is more in line with Russian Circles than Foley‘s main outfit, and clearly that’s the point. “Ascend” and “Resonance” open the album with pointedly non-metallic atmospheres, and they, along with the harder-hitting cuts and “Manifest,” “Voltaic” and “Charyou,” which bring the two sides together, set up a dynamic that, while familiar in this initial stage, is both satisfying in impact and more aggressive moments while immersive in scope.

Lybica on Facebook

Lybica on Bandcamp

—

 

Bird, Walpurgis

Just as their moniker might belong to some lost-classic heavy band from 1972 one happens upon in a record store, buys for the cover, and subsequently loves, so too does Naples four-piece Bird tap into proto-metal vibes on their latest single Walpurgis. And that’s not happenstance. While their production isn’t quite tipped over into pure vintage-ism, it’s definitely organic, and they’ve covered the likes of Rainbow, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, so while “Walpurgis” itself leans toward doom in its catchy and utterly reasonable three-plus minutes, there’s no doubt Bird know where their nest is, stylistically speaking. Given a boost through release by Olde Magick Records, the single-songer follows 2021’s The Great Beast From the Sea EP, which proffered a bit more burl and modern style in its overarching sound, so it could be that as they continue to grow they’re learning a bit more patience in their approach, as “Walpurgis” is nestled right into a tempo that, while active enough to still swing, is languid just the same in its flow, with maybe a bit more rawness in the separation of the guitar, bass, drums and organ. Most importantly, it suits the song, and piques curiosity as to where Bird go next, as any decent single should.

Bird on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

—

 

Pseudo Mind Hive, Eclectica

Without getting into which of them does what where — because they switch, and it’s complicated, and there’s only so much room — the core of the sound for Melbourne-based four-piece Pseudo Mind Hive is in has-chops boogie rock, but that’s a beginning descriptor, not an end. It doesn’t account for the psych-surf-fuzz in two-minute instrumental opener “Hot Tooth” on their Eclectica EP, for example, or the what-if-Queens–of–the–Stone–Age-kept-going-like-the-self-titled “Moon Boots” that follows on the five-song offering. “You Can Run” has a fuzzy shuffle and up-strummed chug that earns the accompanying handclaps like Joan Jett, while “This Old Tree” dares past the four-minute mark with its scorching jive, born out of a smoother start-stop fuzz verse with its own sort of guitar antics, and “Coming Down,” well, doesn’t at first, but does give way soon enough to a dreamier psychedelic cast and some highlight vocal melody before it finds itself awake again and already running, tense in its builds and overlaid high-register noises, which stand out even in the long fade. Blink and you’ll miss it as it dashes by, all momentum and high-grade songcraft, but that’s alright. It does fine on repeat listens as well, which obviously is no coincidence.

Pseudo Mind Hive on Facebook

Copper Feast Records website

—

 

Oktas, The Finite and the Infinite

On. Slaught. Call it atmospheric sludge, call it post-metal; I sincerely doubt Philadelphia’s Oktas give a shit. Across the four songs and 36 minutes of the two-bass-no-guitar band’s utterly bludgeoning debut album, The Finite and the Infinite, the band — bassist/vocalist Bob Stokes, cellist Agnes Kline, bassist Carl Whitlock and drummer Ron Macauley — capture a severity of tone and a range that goes beyond loud/quiet tradeoffs into the making of songs that are memorable while not necessarily delivering hooks in the traditional verse/chorus manner. It’s the cello that stands out as opener “Collateral Damage” plods to its finish — though Macauley‘s drum fills deserve special mention — and even as “Epicyon” introduces the first of the record’s softer breaks, it is contrasted in doing so by a section of outright death metal onslaught so that the two play back and forth before eventually joining forces in another dynamic and crushing finish. Tempo kick is what’s missing thus far and “Light in the Suffering” hits that mark immediately, finding blackened tremolo on the other side of its own extended cello-led subdued stretch, coming to a head just before the ending so that finale “A Long, Dreamless Sleep” can start with its Carl Sagan sample about how horrible humans are (correct), and build gracefully over the next few minutes before saying screw it and diving headfirst into cyclical chug and sprinting extremity. Somebody sign this band and press this shit up already.

Oktas on Facebook

Oktas on Bandcamp

—

 

Scream of the Butterfly, The Grand Stadium

This is a rock and roll band, make no mistake. Berlin’s Scream of the Butterfly draw across decades of influence, from ’60s pop and ’70s heavy to ’90s grunge, ’00s garage and whatever the hell’s been going on the last 10-plus years to craft an amalgamated sound that is cohesive thanks largely to the tightness of their performances — energetic, sure, but they make it sound easy — the overarching gotta-get-up urgency of their push and groove, and the current of craft that draws it all together. They’ve got 10 songs on The Grand Stadium, which is their third album, and they all seem to be trying to outdo each other in terms of hooks, electricity, vibe, and so on. Even the acoustic-led atmosphere-piece “Now, Then and Nowhere” leaves a mark, to say nothing of the much, much heavier “Sweet Adeleine” or the sunshine in “Dead End Land” or the bluesy shove of “Ain’t No Living.” Imagine time as a malleable thing and some understanding of how the two-minute “Say Your Name to Me” can exist in different styles simultaneously, be classic and forward thinking, spare and spacious. And I don’t know what’s going on with all the people talking in “Hallway of a Thousand Eyes,” but Scream of the Butterfly make it easy to dig anyway and remind throughout of the power that can be realized when a band is both genuinely multifaceted and talented songwriters. Scary stuff, that.

Scream of the Butterfly on Facebook

Scream of the Butterfly on Bandcamp

—

 

Holz, Holz

Based in Kassel with lyrics in their native German, Holz are vocalist/guitarist Leonard Riegel, bassist Maik Blümke and drummer Martin Nickel, and on their self-titled debut (released by Tonzonen), they tear with vigor into a style that’s somewhere between noise rock, stoner heavy and rawer punk, finding a niche for themselves that feels barebones with the dry — that is, little to no effects — vocal treatment and a drum sound that cuts through the fuzz that surrounds on early highlight “Bitte” and the later, more noisily swaying “Nichts.” The eight-minute “Garten” is a departure from its surroundings with a lengthy fuzz jam in its midsection — not as mellow as you’re thinking; the drums remain restless and hint toward the resurgence to come — while “Zerstören” reignites desert rock riffing to its own in-the-rehearsal-room-feeling purposes. Intensity is an asset there and at various other points throughout, but there’s more to Holz than ‘go’ as the rolling “50 Meilen Geradeaus” and the swing-happy, bit-o’-melody-and-all “Dämon” showcase, but when they want to, they’re ready and willing to stomp into heavier tones, impatient thrust, or as in the penultimate “Warten,” a little bit of both. Not everybody goes on a rampage their first time out, but it definitely suits Holz to wreck shit in such a fashion.

Holz on Facebook

Tonzonen Records store

—

 

Some more clarity from Portland, Oregon, five-piece Simple Forms, along with a second single from their forthcoming debut EP. I seem to recall bassist Aaron Rieseberg saying there were five tracks on the outing, so between “The Void Beneath” below and the prior-posted “Reaching for the Shadow” (also below), that’s a solid 10 minutes of audio from the new-ish project.

And speaking to that, if you missed it, guitarist Dustin Rieseberg checked in after that last post to let me know that, indeed, Simple Forms are the same lineup as Night Swim — the Riesebergs, both of Norska with Aaron also in YOB, along with guitarist Rob Shaffer (Dark Castle), vocalist Jason Oswald (Norska) and drummer Ben Stoller (Hot Victory) — and that the band changed their name so as not to be confused with someone else using the moniker. So it goes.

It’s hard to flesh out ideas of what the whole release might sound like from one or two songs given the various work of the players involved, but don’t be surprised when you click play on “The Void Beneath” and the word “heavy” comes to mind. The track has some twists and turns throughout its otherwise tidy five minutes and carries a melody to correspond, but you can and probably should hear it for yourself.

The way they’re putting out tracks makes me think the EP might show up before the end of the year if they’re self-releasing, but I wouldn’t be surprised either — all the less so given their pedigree — if someone picks them it up for a pressing in 2022. If they’re even looking for a label, I don’t know. Maybe I should hit them up for an interview and find out. Think they’re awake at six in the morning? Ha. Oh, Pacific Time.

Art, info and audio:

Check out our second single “The Void Beneath” from the forthcoming Simple Forms EP.

Recorded by: Fester at Stop/Start, Longplay, and Haywire Studios
facebook.com/stopstartstudio/
facebook.com/LongPlayRecording/
facebook.com/haywirerecording/

Mixed by: Fester in the Hypercube

Mastered by: Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering
telegraphmastering.com

Artwork: @theVioletAveline
www.violetaveline.com

Simple Forms are:
Aaron Rieseberg: Bass
Dustin Rieseberg: Guitar
Rob Shaffer: Guitar
Jason Oswald: Vocals/Mellotron
Ben Stoller: Drums/Synth

https://www.facebook.com/Simple-Forms-2159388204175112
https://www.instagram.com/simpleformsnw/
https://simpleformsnw.bandcamp.com/

Simple Forms, “The Void Beneath”

Simple Forms, “Reaching for the Shadow”

An honest moment: In my head, nobody listens to this show. Three people max, and I’m usually one of them. I don’t even think my mom listens anymore, which really is fair enough.

I expect more or less after every episode that the hammer is going to come down and Gimme — which regularly hosts metal luminaries for guest spots and even among its regular DJ roster has people relevant enough to make me scratch my head and wonder what I’m doing there — is going to shitcan my ass. Too weird, not enough metal, general you-suck as the cause. Or maybe I’m not even worth firing, I don’t know.

All I can do is put together what I think are cool playlists that offer something different and new. I love new music. I love the next album, the potential of new bands, the way sounds grow over time. And I don’t always like talking, but I do love sharing music and doing this show lets me do that, even if you’re only reading this and seeing the playlist as one of the countless lists of bands on the internet with new stuff out. That’s fine. Hopefully you check something out and dig it.

There.

Thanks for listening if you do and/or reading. I hope you enjoy.

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

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 10.15.21

Kryptograf	Cosmic Suicide	Cosmic Suicide
Simple Forms	Reaching for the Shadow	Reaching for the Shadow
Uncle Woe	Nine Kinds of Time	Nine Kinds of Time
Apostle of Solitude	Apathy in Isolation	Until the Darkness Goes
VT
Gristmill	Stone Rodeo	Heavy Everything
Snowy Dunes	Medicinmannen	Sastrugi
Octopus Ride	If You’re Happy	II
Wooden Fields	Should We Care?	Wooden Fields
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships	Core Fragment	Core Fragment
VT
Kanaan	Bourdon	Earthbound
Ascia	The Great Iskandar	Vol. 1
KITE	Infernal Trails	Currents
LLNN	Imperial	Unmaker
Churchburn	Genocidal Rite	Genocidal Rite
Replicant	The Ubiquity of Time	Malignant Reality
VT
JAVA	24 Zimbabwe	24 Zimbabwe

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Oct. 29 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

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