Posted in Whathaveyou on April 1st, 2026 by JJ Koczan
The new Slift single bears out what the advance info is telling you about the French trio’s upcoming fourth album, Fantasia, in that it hits rawer and is more straightforwardly composed. To me it sounds like Sandrider, nigh on heavy noise rock, which I’m not going to complain about, but if you got onboard when they were belting out 15-minute cosmic epics for your pandemic escapism, it might be a surprise. Unless you’re so jaded by now that nothing’s a surprise, in which case you might want to take a break, go hydrate, and try again later. Hey, it happens.
So, expect shorter, more direct songs. Can do. The album bio on their Bandcamp was long — I say this as somebody who writes those on occasion — but I took part of it and pasted it below as it seemed relevant to the discussion of the single in particular. I’ll be interested to see what the response here is. They’re taking a chance bringing their sound to earth, stylistically speaking.
So, from social media and Bandcamp, which is kind of like social media too. Not sure where that line is sometimes. Anyway:
Our new album “Fantasia” will cross the mirror and hit your town via Sub Pop Records next June 5th ! You can now preorder the record and other new artifacts via sliftrock.com.
In the meantime, we’re beyond excited to share with you “A Storm of Wings”, a song now available everywhere.
Infinite love and respect to all of you who keep art alive. We’ll see you on tour, until then, watch your feet in this perilous world and follow the moths… A storm of wings is coming !
Tracklisting: 1. Fantasia 2. Corrupted Sky 3. The Village 4. A Storm of Wings 06:25 5. Orbis Tertius 6. Waiting Man 7. The Day of Execution 8. Secret Mirror
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…SLIFT’s fourth album is called Fantasia. It’s their leanest and most direct record to date; taken together, its eight songs clock in at less than 50 minutes. It is also their most riveting album yet, a pointed saga about overcoming international upheaval delivered by a band bearing down, not wasting a single second in the process.
They wanted to write and render songs that recognized the turmoil of these days and to sing of a more hopeful vision, of a time when a reckoning arrives. SLIFT didn’t want to lose the message by playing too much. To wit, the longest song on Fantasia is the opening title track, a nine-minute preamble in which Jean Fossat screams of his desires for the world: rising above our pain, burying our dread, and finding, individually and collectively, “a fire for your soul.” The songs that follow aren’t lacking the complexity or intensity that have made SLIFT a rising, radical star in heavy music; it’s simply that they’ve found new ways to weave the complexities of their past inside every piece, like a tapestry that reveals a new layer every time you look. In doing so, they offer an affirming and urgent message: Together, we can still change the times in which we live.
Though only Jean and bassist Rémi Fossat are related, SLIFT is essentially a band of brothers. They’ve been friends with drummer Canek Flores since high school, and 2026 marks a decade together in this trio. They rehearse with religious regularity in a basement in the countryside near Toulouse, inside the jam room where they’ve long indulged their propensity for longform wonder. But they built the songs of Fantasia differently. Jean started many of the songs by himself, then quickly brought them to basement rehearsals with a clear and concise idea of how he imagined them taking shape. At first, SLIFT struggled to keep the songs tight, old habits making them wonder if this song or that one shouldn’t break the double-digit threshold. By the time they crossed France’s northern border into Belgium to record in the enormous live room at Daft Studios, though, the songs were lean, agile, and punchy. They made most of them in a single take.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 12th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Because it’s the future, the poster with the new round of lineup additions for Roadburn Festival 2026, in always-accommodating Tilburg, the Netherlands, is a video. And Roadburn is one of few places on the planet where ‘the future’ is a hopeful prospect. While you and I live in dystopic hellscapes of various shapes and oppressive, overwhelming, strip-you-of-your-rights-on-our-way-to-passively-if-not-actively-murdering-you realities, Roadburn unrepentantly brings a sense of optimism. The future isn’t that boot on your neck. It’s whatever you want it to be.
This is a message I appreciate as much as I appreciate being obliterated by bands on stage, and surely the likes of Inter Arma, Primitive Man and Slift meet that need here, among others. Look at Warning becoming a Roadburn house band. And a full-album performance from Blackwater Holylight for a record that isn’t out until Jan. 30 — the band will be back in Europe in May for more touring and more fests, and has a US tour slated for February/March, as I think went up yesterday. I have trouble keeping up sometimes with when things are actually getting posted these days. See horrors above.
A beacon amid perennial awfulness and distraction:
Maruja, billy woods, Inter Arma, aya and many more announced for Roadburn 2026
Roadburn festival has today announced a second wave of bands for the 2026 edition which will take place between April 16-19 in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Among the names announced today are festival favourites Inter Arma performing their epic 2014 release The Cavern for the first (and last) time, American rapper billy woods, and Manchester’s genre-bending four-piece Maruja.
Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers comments:
“As the path toward Roadburn 2026 unfolds, the energy around us is rising. Every connection, every sound, every spark of creativity is drawing us closer together as the festival comes into view. This second announcement marks another step on that journey, an open invitation to feel the pulse of what’s ahead.
“The artists at the heart of this year’s edition are each shaping worlds of their own, their past, present, and future intertwining in bold new ways. At Roadburn 2026, you’ll hear echoes of where we’ve been, glimpses of where we’re going, and the raw emotion of right now. Each performance will remind us that art can move us, heal us, and bring us together – that through music, we find our shared humanity.
“We’re letting optimism light the way. Let’s meet in Tilburg next April – alive, open, and ready to share this amazing energy, face to face.”
All ticket and accommodation options for Roadburn are on sale now and more information including the full line up can be found atroadburn.com
The latest additions to Roadburn 2026 are as follows:
Additions to Roadburn 2026:
Ak’Chamel aya Backengrillen Blackwater Holylight performing Not Here Not Gone billy woods Haress Inter Arma performing The Cavern Kowloon Walled City Mandy, Indiana Maruja Milkweed Orcutt Shelley Miller Pain Magazine Primitive Man performing Observance and a set of early years’ material titled Remembrance Prostitute RÓIS Saetia SLIFT Slow Crush performing Aurora and premiering a special audio-visual presentation of Thirst Slowhole Truck Violence Unsane performing Occupational Hazard Warning
These artists will join a slew of previously announced artists including Oathbreaker, Krallice, Agriculture, Habak and many more. The full line up can be found at roadburn.com
I don’t know what it was that Agriculture were soundchecking when I walked into John Dee from upstairs at Rockefeller, but it sure sounded a lot like CKY’s “96 Quite Bitter Beings,” which was cool because I just got that song out of my head last week for the first time since like 2003. So I was due.
Sleep did happen — the state, not the band — and I woke up two hours after my alarm to discover I hadn’t actually finished setting it. Didn’t matter; plenty of time to sit around and be anxious for the start of the day. I video called home — the house is a mess, which very much is how it goes when I’m gone — and all is well. Ate a couple bites and tried to sleep a bit more, but the three double espressos tearing ass through my bloodstream weren’t having it. Sometimes living in the moment means calling yourself dumb later.
Agriculture’s lights were going to be too much for my brain. I knew that going into the set, because soundcheck, but when it happened, it was still punishing. The overwhelm is part of it, purposeful. Part of what you sign up for. But the sandblasting and the immersion, coinciding, is why you stay. Watching them, I couldn’t get the parallel out of my head between the traditions of Norwegian black metal and their subversion in terms of weather. That is, if the ‘trvest’ of black metals was born in this place — and they have it scrawled on that basement wall for people to take pictures with, so it’s arguable — in the dark and cold of winter here, then the aural brightness of Agriculture, the natural-light-reflecting-on-water of their post-rock-style guitar floating above all the pummel and screech, feels correspondingly climate-born to Los Angeles, where the band are from. To paraphrase George Carlin, the sun probably sets 10 minutes from their rehearsal space. Of course they’d make black metal beautiful.
That’s a generalization, obviously. Broad strokes to cover lack of insight. The truth of their presentation is more emotionally complex and less niche-declarative, but transgressing just the same, though maybe black metal is used to it by now; a punching bag catchall genre to push against the borders of. The tie with Agriculture is in tonal heft and the honesty of their scathe and the atmospheres they build around it, and they’d be a sore thumb in the lineup if Desertfest was stoner-only, but neither day was. It’s all one big heavy melting pot, and genres evolve. Always cool to see it happen on the stage right in front of you, though.
But the lights got me, so I headed upstairs to the Rockefeller balcony ahead of Slift. I know. Not like Slift were going to take it easy on visuals. Still. The French heavyspace trio are riding the course of 2024’s Ilion (review here), and the fact that they’ve spent the better part of the last three years touring was not lost on their stage presence.
The story of their set was kind of that I blew it there as well. Got my photos and moved on. I was dragging, had basic human needs to attend to in food, water, bathroom, so broke out of Rockefeller a bit into the set in an effort to get my head right. I was saving the second half of Friday’s weedy muffin for later in the day, but there’s nothing like when the check-into-your-flight notification comes in while you’re trying to enjoy a busy afternoon of writing, taking photos, and general sonic obliteration.
Hippie Death Cult ruled last year at Desertfest New York (review here) and with their new live album, Live at Star Theater (review here), it felt like half the point of the damn thing was to argue in favor of showing up when the band inevitably comes through where you live — Parsippany, New Jersey, if you’re tour planning — when the opportunity presents itself. So there I was. I’d already bumped into guitarist Eddie Brnabic and drummer Harry Silvers at the hotel, and they and bassist/vocalist Lauren Phillips would soon take the stage to unroll a blanket of riffs onto the crowd, roll that same blanket back up again with the crowd in it, and then send it careening down the side of a mountain. I’m really, really looking forward to their next album.
Nothing against 2023’s Helichrysum (review here), mind you, but — and I think this is something the live LP posited as well — they sound like they’re just getting started. The lineup change that resulted in Phillips taking the lead vocal role, plus bringing Silvers in on drums, made them a different band. On the record and live, they’ve explored harsher, more direct and classic feeling ideas, but at the same time, begun to develop a character for themselves separate from what it was just a few years ago. This is a strength. Some bands would just fall apart. Hippie Death Cult have figured, are figuring out, how to make it work and progress from their new starting position.
And since much of this work has happened on tours, yes, I am very much convinced their best work is ahead of them. They can be warm and bluesy — Brnabic’s shred suits all sides — or sludge-nasty and it doesn’t matter. Songs like “Arise,” “Red Giant,” “Toxic Annihilator,” as they’re playing them now, are paving the way for a band who can crush or boogie or gallop at a measure’s whim.
Phillips let out a couple Tom Araya-esque screams while Silvers was on the double-kick, and they’re getting more comfortable bringing that kind of metal into their foundation in capital ‘h’ Heavier groove. They’re a monster band. They should get monstrous, and I think they just might continue to do that. This was their first time in Norway. Someone in the crowd shouted, “What took you so long?” Near-total reset takes some time, I guess, but it’s done Hippie Death Cult well in terms of the intensity level. They finished big and noisy — at some near-final point, I looked up and Phillips’ mic stand had disappeared — and I watched the whole set and wouldn’t have wanted it another way.
Back upstairs to Rockefeller for Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu. True, I saw them a couple weeks ago, playing their latest album, Muuntautuja, in full, no less, but whatever. I dug it then and wanted to investigate the band further. Seeing them again felt like a half-decent way to do that. The balcony was full before the floor, which the lightshow would soon justify, but the room was full by the start of the set.
The thing was, they’re a name I’ve seen around for well over a decade, and a band I’ve listened to before and appreciated for what it was but soon enough moved on. But after that Muuntautuja set at Roadburn, they kind of took up residence in the back of my head. I was glad to recognize a few songs from one show to the next, including the opener, and while they’re not usually the kind of band I’d go all-in on, and I’m positive I don’t know enough of their music to call myself a fan, after seeing them these two times, I do feel compelled to dig further.
There’s enough going on at any given moment in their songs to trace threads of influence and constantly end up in a different place. That’s black metal, straight up, but then there comes a synthier part, or a drone stretch, or some Ministry-style keyboard thrash. Krautrock guitars might meet up with some soul-grinding ferocity, and the band seem to delight in precisely that manner of fucking with norms; picking apart ideas about style and what the rules are, cherrypicking which ones they want to uphold and which they want to break and then breaking most of them anyway. Like Agriculture, they’re in-genre outsider art, but whatever the stylistic cast, Oranssi Pazuzu refuse and refute pigeonholing.
My scheduled break was next. I went back to the room, had that half a weedy muffin — I could not tell you the last time I ate an actual muffin; nine years at least; I don’t normally do breadstuffs — drank a bunch of water and took some ibuprofen, tried and failed to check in for my flight because my town has both a different mailing address and a hyphen in it (not joking) and confirmed an earlier decision about the course of my night.
Chat Pile were sub-headlining the Rockefeller, and Whores. would be on at 22.00 in John Dee. I skipped both in favor of Villjuvet at St. Edmund’s Church right around the corner from Revolver. I had gotten to see the inside of the church earlier in the day — it was active-catholic enough to give yer boy eucharistic flashbacks — and been told a bit about the project, the visual component and the work of Ruben Willem, who in addition to operating as Villjuvet is a producer and has either mixed or mastered releases for an entire slew of bands from Lonely Kamel to Håndgemang who were in Friday’s lineup, to Gluecifer, Suncraft and Kal-El. I could go on.
I’ve seen Chat Pile, again recently. It was cool. I’ve never seen Whores., and frankly part of the reason why is the danger of liking them and then having to admit to myself I like a band with that name, but I know people who swear by them, and I actually did end up watching them for a few minutes and they were killing to a packed room. But I was told ahead of time, “Villjuvet might be just your speed,” and was happy to take the recommendation to a path less traveled before finishing the night off back at Rockefeller for Elder. Slow and weird, you say? That sure does sound like my speed.
At 9PM, it was still pretty broad daylight, but the church was dark, the door ominously left open. I took a seat in the second pew — was not at all the first one there — and waited as more people came in. There was some white noise drone, but I’ll be honest and say a big part of me wanted to hear “Holy Diver,” though that went away when the actual show started.
You could follow the projections — branches and the like, nighttime ambience, loosely creepy but mostly for the soundtrack — up the white wall with the stained glass windows onto the wood ceiling as Villjuvet turned out to be very much indeed my speed. Willem played facing the projections before a sprawling pedal board, often kneeling as if to a true god being revealed. His drones came through in looped layers and hit high and low through guitar and bass amps. It was not a tune to take out earplugs, despite the lack of percussion. A couple popes later, church has really changed since I was last forced to go, probably around three decades ago. I recall a good time this January sharing religious traumas over a breakfast in Las Vegas. Life takes you weird places when… you expressly make it do that because you enjoy it.
Rockefeller was filling up quickly for Elder and I knew the second Whores. finished downstairs that crowd would flood out, which was exactly what happened. I was at the bar at John Dee at the time, chatting amiably as one does, and then it was time to head upstairs to cap the evening. A 6AM wakeup loomed large over the 11PM start-time — hazards of the trade at the end of a fest; it’s part of the thing — but with the band celebrating the anniversary of 2015’s Lore (review here), and having missed them when they came through Brooklyn with Sacri Monti, there was imperative.
I could go — and have gone! — on about Lore as both a creative statement and a breath of daring fresh air operating in an underground genre that can at times pride itself on traditionalism. I’ll gladly argue its influence is still felt and spreading, even as the band have continued to move forward. But there’s no denying it was a special moment for them, a progressive breakout in craft to which their work before had been leading. So, 10th anniversary it is. Not unreasonable.
Guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo got on mic before they started and thanked the crowd, thanked the fest, said it was an honor to close it out, and explained what they were going to do, and soon enough they were off into “Compendium” and on from there. I always loved “Deadweight” but I knew I wouldn’t make it that far into the set and I didn’t. I was glad to see them though, even briefly as I felt the pull of getting back to finish work and crash out ahead of the early start. The responsible thing. The me that knows I can’t sleep on planes would thank me in the morning, but it was a hard sell to the me looking down the ramp to walk out of Rockefeller and be done with the night and Desertfest Oslo more broadly.
But I did. If I’m fortunate enough to come back next year, I’ll try not to make it so tight, but that’s kind of how it has to be for me to be here in the first place, and a couple Elder songs is better than no Elder songs, so I guess my old-ass punk-rock guilt can fuck off. Time to crawl out of my own head a little bit.
Thank you to Desertfest Oslo for having me. Thank you Ole and Preben for the invitation and thank you to everyone who has worked here to make this happen. The sound, the lights, everything has been spot on, and for this being the second year this festival has taken place, they’d be entitled to a few screwups. I saw none. I did, however, see a bunch killer bands, a bunch of old friends, and some things I wouldn’t have been able to see anywhere else. I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity.
It is not lost on me that in the US this weekend, today, is Mother’s Day. Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for the work she does as a mother always, and for the sheer indulgence that allows me to exist as I do both at and away from home. She is so much more than the love of my life that is humbling she would deign to be it. I know I’ve said this before, but I am the luckiest boy you know.
Thank you to my mother, Pamela Koczan. Thank you to my sister, Susan Wright. Thank you to Cate Wright and Samantha Wright.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for saying hi, for giving a shit after so many years and so many typos and run-on sentences. Dumbassed blocks of text, just endless. Thank you for being here for it in some way at some point, maybe now. The support this site gets is what sustains me doing it. One more time, thank you.
More pics after the jump. No posts tomorrow (Monday) while I get caught up writing/living. Thanks again.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I don’t know what you say about Desertfest London beyond I wish I was going. That’s all I’ve got. It’s a beautiful thing the Desertscene crew put together for 2025. A thing to admire. Whether you look at it with Elder‘s ascent to headliner status alongside Zeal & Ardor and Earth, all representing an expanded-style mindset, or are stoked for the likes of Stoned Jesus, Lowrider, Maha Sohona (who told me on Facebook they have a new album completely done; sadly there was no follow-up with “…and here it is so you can hear it”), Josiah, Dopelord, Bobbie Dazzle and Slift, or if you’re just happy Elephant Tree are getting back out, or that 10,000 Years are getting a look, or Black Willows who are so fucking heavy, or maybe you’re me and you’re just happy for a couple killer American bands set to make the trip: Kind, Hippie Death Cult, Worshipper, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Castle Rat. I could go on here, but the point is there’s a lot to like. I won’t be there to see it, but knowing it’s a thing that’s happening on the same planet where I live is some comfort.
Oh, and yeah, like the headline says, day splits happened and Lowrider, Dopelord, Khan and a slew of others have joined the bill, which I guess is done now? We’ll see. Here’s what came down the PR wire:
DESERTFEST LONDON ANNOUNCES DAY SPLITS, DAY TICKETS & 15 NEW ARTISTS FOR 2025
Desertfest London have announced day-splits along with 15 more bands for 2025 in a line-up that promises to take its audience on a cosmic trip across the heavy realms this Spring in the heart of Camden Town.
The latest artists to join the 2025 fold include French celestial psych-metal trio Slift, seminal Swedish stoner rock trailblazers Lowrider, and Polish doom smokers Dopelord, making a long-awaited return to the Desertfest stage since their last appearance in 2018.
Elsewhere, Melbourne, Australia’s Khan will bring their hazy psychedelia back to the UK, while Norwegian quintet Dunbarrow have been summoned to bring their brand of proto-doom, played the old way, in a new age.
These latest additions join festival headliners Zeal & Ardor, returning to London to headline the Roundhouse after a triumphant sell-out of Shepherd’s Bush Empire on the heels of their critically acclaimed 2024 release ‘GREIF’.
Sunday sees Seattle drone legends Earth make their Desertfest debut, headlining the Electric Ballroom. This show marks their first appearance on UK soil in 6 years. Meanwhile, Friday headliners Elder will usher in the festival’s 13th edition with their progressive psychedelic sounds as they celebrate 10 years of ‘Lore’ at its rightful home on the Desertfest stage.
Desertfest 2025 Day Splits FRIDAY 16TH MAY 2025 ELDER STONED JESUS | LOWRIDER THE DEVIL & THE ALMIGHTY BLUES | ELEPHANT TREE | HIPPIE DEATH CULT SERVO | KIND | 10,000 YEARS | BLACK ELEPHANT | DEVILLE VOLCANOVA | YETTI | ERRONAUT | FREE RIDE | DRESDEN WOLVES
SATURDAY 17TH MAY 2025 ZEAL & ARDOR AMENRA | PALLBEARER | CONAN PLANET OF ZEUS | AVON | SONS OF ALPHA CENTAURI MAHA SOHONA | SCOTT HEPPLE & THE SUN BAND | TORUS GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE | JOSIAH EL MOONO | FROGLORD | WORSHIPPER | LONGHEADS BARBARIAN HERMIT | LUST RITUAL | WITCHORIOUS | VERMINTHRONE
SUNDAY 18TH MAY 2025 EARTH SLIFT | CHÖD | DOPELORD CASTLE RAT | KHAN | RICKSHAW BILLIE’S BURGER PATROL | DUNBARROW MR BISON | THE HAZYTONES | BOBBIE DAZZLE | BLACK WILLOWS KING BOTFLY | SLUMP | THIS SUMMIT FEVER
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
This post has been in the works for like a fricking week and a half, which has been plenty of time for Desertfest Oslo to put out the fourth of their four pre-holiday advent-Sunday announcements, completing the lineup for next May 9-10. The last two rounds are humdingers, with Lowrider, Slift, Dunbarrow, Årabrot, Gjenferd, Feral Nature, Akersborg, Wolfnaut and Villjuvet between them joining a bill that already includes Elder, Graveyard, Chat Pile, Elephant Tree, MessaTruckfighters, DVNE and more. For a two-dayer, it’s turned out to be pretty packed. Day splits are out probably like seven minutes after I post this, if I’m not already late on it.
Checking…
Not yet. Okay, I’d better post this as soon as I’m done typing then because I don’t want to already be late on something else. The following comes from two social media posts. I’ve been invited to this one. I’m going to do everything I can to be there. You should come too.
Here’s good reason why:
Desert Cruisers and Santa Clausers! 🌵🎅
Thank you so much for the support of our previous advent announcements.
It’s a trve holiday booster to see the shared excitement for Desertfest Oslo 2025 🪐✨💫
Today sees the third Sunday of advent, and we have four incredible acts for you.
Many of you have asked for them, and we can’t do anything but agree. Lowrider are making the short trip from Karlstad to Oslo to give us their soft lesson in flawless, melodic and dreamy stoner rock. This band have existed for what feels like forever. Maybe cause they have that rare ability to always seem current? As the stellar split release with their peers in Elephant Tree clearly showed. We’re stoked to have both bands coming to Oslo in May. Harmonies anyone?
Dunbarrow is coming. These local proto-legends have been a pivotal part of the Norwegian underground from their get-go, and they just keep on delivering. Tasty, riffy old school doom with a timeless sense for melody and aesthetics. Dunbarrow will do a VERY special show during Desertfest Oslo. We can’t wait to share more details around this at a later time. What we CAN share, however, is that you do. not. want to miss it.
On the other side of the musical spectrum, we are psyched to welcome Akersborg. As purveyors of anything cutting edge Akersborg fire on all guns, always, with their new skool, out of the box-leaning hardcore potpourri. They made their Desertfest debut in London last year, and we’re determined of their demolition of Oslo as well.
Last band out this Sunday is the blueprint template of what a new band with the right skill-set can accomplish in a very short period of time. Feral Nature, as well as Barren Womb, played our sister festival Høstsabbat in October, and holy motherfn’ shit. What happened? They deliver the kind of show impossible to ignore. The kind of show EVERYONE needs to see at some point. They basically seem like the future of rock, and we are stoked to show you what the fuzz is all about.
That’s it for now, folks, keep your eyes peeled next Sunday ☄️
Your merry Desertfest Oslo team 🎄
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From all of us, to all of you! 🎅
It is with joyful excitement we can announce the last batch of artists for Desertfest Oslo 2025.
The full lineup for next year is all we could hope for and then some. What a weekend to look forward to! 🪐
Please welcome French psych sensation SLIFT to Oslo. What they have accomplished in their bare 8 years of existence is unparalleled. Every show as good or better than the previous. SLIFT is a fierce, burning flame of excellence, and we are dead proud to host them. 🇫🇷
Also, Årabrot is joining us.
This is a one-of-a-kind band, with a solid foot in every edgy subgenre there is.
With an Amish-erotic flavor to all their endeavors, they are a spellbinding spectacle to witness on stage. It’s delightful when a band knows how to put on a show.
We simply can’t wait to see what they’re bringing, alongside their upcoming album in May. 🎸
Wolfnaut
Sometimes, experience is palpable. Like on the latest albums III and Return Of The Asteroid, which sounds absolutely massive, and definitely have that zonked stoner feel in every wah, in every twang, and at every turn. It makes the fact that they record the albums live in studio even more impressive.
Do yourself a favor and check out My Orbit Is Mine and Raise The Dead to tap into some of that Elverum stoner sorcery!☄️
Gjenferd
Get lost in this proto-maze of amps and Hammond organs! It’s the classic 70’s psych dish, made extra spicy with a guitar virtuous, seared to perfection with haunting vocals, and beautifully tied together with harmonies. Another speck on the starry Norwegian musical sky is created, and it will grow brighter and brighter. 👻
VILLJUVET will be there, and he’ll conjure up a special show just for Desertfest. Ethereal, mystical and haunting, a sole guitar accompanied by a plethora of pedals will paint a dark and supernatural picture well worth beholding. 🛸
What a bangin’, absolutely slaughter of a lineup! 🔥🪐
Keep your eyes peeled through the Christmas days, as the daysplit is ready to go as well
Posted in Reviews on February 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Admittedly, there’s some ambition in my mind calling this the ‘Spring 2024 Quarterly Review.’ I’m done with winter and March starts on Friday, so yeah, it’s kind of a reach as regards the traditional seasonal patterns of Northern New Jersey where I live, but hell, these things actually get decided here by pissing off a rodent. Maybe it doesn’t need to be so rigidly defined after all.
After doing QRs for I guess about nine years now, I finally made myself a template for the back-end layout. It’s not a huge leap, but will mean about five more minutes I can dedicate to listening, and when you’re trying to touch on 50 records in the span of a work week and attempt some semblance of representing what they’re about, five minutes can help. Still, it’s a new thing, and if you see ‘ARTIST’ listed where a band’s name should be or LINK where ‘So and So on Facebook’ goes, a friendly comment letting me know would be helpful.
Thanks in advance and I hope you find something in all of this to come that speaks to you. I’ll try to come up for air at some point.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Slift, Ilion
One of the few non-billionaire groups of people who might be able to say they had a good year in 2020, Toulouse, France, spaceblasters Slift signed to Sub Pop on the strength of that wretched year’s Ummon (review here) and the spectacle-laced live shows with which they present their material. Their ideology is cosmic, their delivery markedly epic, and Ilion pushes the blinding light and the rhythmic force directly at you, creating a sweeping momentum contrasted by ambient stretches like that tucked at the end of 12-minute hypnotic planetmaker “The Words That Have Never Been Heard,” the drone finale “Enter the Loop” or any number of spots between along the record’s repetition-churning, willfully-overblown 79-minute course of builds and surging payoffs. A cynic might tell you it’s not anything Hawkwind didn’t do in 1974 offered with modern effects and beefier tones, but, uh, is that really something to complain about? The hype around Ilion hasn’t been as fervent as was for Ummon — it’s a different moment — but Slift have set themselves on a progressive course and in the years to come, this may indeed become their most influential work. For that alone it’s among 2024’s most essential heavy albums, never mind the actual journey of listening. Bands like this don’t happen every day.
The only thing keeping Grin from being punk rock is the fact that they don’t play punk. Otherwise, the self-recording, self-releasing (on The Lasting Dose Records) Berlin metal-sludge slingers tick no shortage of boxes as regards ethic, commitment to an uncompromised vision of their sound, and on Hush, their fourth long-player which features tracks from 2023’s Black Nothingness (review here), they sharpen their attack to a point that reminds of dug-in Swedish death metal on “Pyramid” with a winding lead line threaded across, find post-metallic ambience in “Neon Skies,” steamroll with the groove of the penultimate “The Tempest of Time,” and manage to make even the crushing “Midnight Blue Sorrow” — which arrives after the powerful opening statement of “Hush” “Calice” and “Gatekeeper” — have a sense of creative reach. With Sabine Oberg on bass and Jan Oberg handling drums, guitar, vocals, noise and production, they’ve become flexible enough in their craft to harness raw charge or atmospheric sprawl at will, and through 16 songs and 40 minutes (“Portal” is the longest track at 3:45), their intensity is multifaceted, multi-angular, and downright ripping. Aggression suits this project, but that’s never all that’s happening in Grin, and they’re stronger for that.
A debut solo-band outing from guitarist, bassist, vocalist and songwriter Dave Cotton, also of Seven Nines and Tens, Pontiac‘s Hard Knox lands on strictly limited tape through Coup Sur Coup Records and is only 16 minutes long, but that’s time enough for its six songs to find connections in harmony to Beach Boys and The Beatles while sometimes dropping to a singular, semi-spoken verse in opener/longest track (immediate points, even though four minutes isn’t that long) “Glory Ragged,” which moves in one direction, stops, reorients, and shifts between genres with pastoralism and purpose. Cotton handles six-string and 12-string, but isn’t alone in Pontiac, as his Seven Nines and Tens bandmate Drew Thomas Christie handles drums, Adam Vee adds guitar, drums, a Coke bottle and a Brita filter, and CJ Wallis contributes piano to the drifty textures of “Road High” before “Exotic Tattoos of the Millennias” answers the pre-christofascism country influence shown on “Counterculture Millionaire” with an oldies swing ramble-rolling to a catchy finish. For fun I’ll dare a wild guess that Cotton‘s dad played that stuff when he was a kid, as it feels learned through osmosis, but I have no confirmation of that. It is its own kind of interpretation of progressive music, and as the beginning of a new exploration, Cotton opens doors to a swath of styles that cross genres in ways few are able to do and remain so coherent. Quick listen, and it dares you to keep up with its changes and patterns, but among its principal accomplishments is to make itself organic in scope, with Cotton cast as the weirdo mastermind in the center. They’ll reportedly play live, so heads up.
Already fluid as they open with the rocker “Into the Space,” exclamatory Chilean five-piece The Polvos! delve into more psychedelic reaches in “Fire Dance” and the jammy and (appropriately) floaty midsection of “Going Down,” the centerpiece of their 35-minute sophomore LP, Floating. That song bursts to life a short time later and isn’t quite as immediate as the charge of “Into the Space,” but serves as a landmark just the same as “Acid Waterfall” and “The Anubis Death” hold their tension in the drums and let the guitars go adventuring as they will. There’s maybe some aspect of Earthless influence happening, but The Polvos! meld that make-it-bigger mentality with traditional verse/chorus structures and are more grounded for it even as the spaces created in the songs give listeners an opportunity for immersion. It may not be a revolution in terms of style, but there is a conversation happening here with modern heavy psych from Europe as well that adds intrigue, and the band never go so far into their own ether so as to actually disappear. Even after the shreddy finish of “The Anubis Death,” it kind of feels like they might come back out for an encore, and you know, that’d be just fine.
The Cosmic Gospel, Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love
With a current of buzz-fuzz drawn across its eight component tracks that allow seemingly disparate moves like the Blondie disco keys in “Hot Car Song” to emerge from the acoustic “Core Memory Unlocked” before giving over to the weirdo Casio-beat bounce of “Psychrolutes Marcidus Man,” a kind of ’60s character reimagined as heavy bedroom indie, The Cosmic Gospel‘s Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love isn’t without its resentments, but the almost-entirely-solo-project of Mercata, Italy-based multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Medina is more defined by its sweetness of melody and gentle delivery on the whole. An experiment like the penultimate “Wrath and Gods” carries some “Revolution 9” feel, but Medina does well earlier to set a broad context amid the hook of opener “It’s Forever Midnight” and the subsequent, lightly dub beat and keyboard focus on “The Richest Guy on the Planet is My Best Friend,” such that when closer “I Sew Your Eyes So You Don’t See How I Eat Your Heart” pairs the malevolent intent of its title with light fuzzy soloing atop an easy flowing, summery flow, the album has come to make its own kind of sense and define its path. This is exactly what one would most hope for it, and as reptiles are cold-blooded, they should be used to shifts in temperature like those presented throughout. Most humans won’t get it, but you’ve never been ‘most humans,’ have you?
Massachusetts garage doomers Grave Speaker‘s self-titled debut was issued digitally by the band this past Fall and was snagged by Electric Valley Records for a vinyl release. The Mellotron melancholia that pervades the midsection of the eponymous “Grave Speaker” justifies the wax, but the cult-leaning-in-sound-if-not-theme outfit that marks a new beginning for ex-High n’ Heavy guitarist John Steele unfurl a righteously dirty fuzz over the march of “Blood of Old” at the outset and then immediately up themselves in the riffy stoner delve of “Earth and Mud.” The blown-out vocals on the latter, as well as the far-off-mic rawness of “The Bard’s Theme” that surrounds its Hendrixian solo, remind of a time when Ice Dragon roamed New England’s troubled woods, and if Grave Speaker will look to take on a similar trajectory of scope, they do more than drop hints of psychedelia here, in “Grave Speaker” and elsewhere, but they’re no more beholden to that than the Sabbathism of capper “Make Me Crawl” or the cavernous echo of “Earthbound.” It’s an initial collection, so one expects they’ll range some either way with time, but the way the production becomes part of the character of the songs speaks to a strong idea of aesthetic coming through, and the songwriting holds up to that.
While at the same time proffering his most expansive vision yet of a progressive psychedelia weighted in tone, emotionally expressive and able to move its focus fluidly between its layers of keyboard, synth and guitar such that the mix feels all the more dynamic and the material all the more alive (there’s an entire sub-plot here about the growth in self-production; a discussion for another time), Surya Kris Peters‘ 10-song/46-minute There’s Light in the Distance also brings the former Samsara Blues Experiment guitarist/vocalist closer to uniting his current projects than he’s yet been, the distant light here blurring the line where Surya Kris Peters ends and the emergently-rocking Fuzz Sagrado begins. This process has been going on for the last few years following the end of his former outfit and a relocation from Germany to Brazil, but in its spacious second half as well as the push of its first, a song like “Mode Azul” feels like there’s nothing stopping it from being played on stage beyond personnel. Coinciding with that are arrangement details like the piano at the start of “Life is Just a Dream” or the synth that gives so much movement under the echoing lead in “Let’s Wait Out the Storm,” as Peters seems to find new avenues even as he works his way home to his own vision of what heavy rock can be.
Unilateralis is the four-song follow-up EP to Polish heavydelvers Gozd‘s late-2023 debut album, This is Not the End, and its 20-plus minutes find a place for themselves in a doom that feels both traditional and forward thinking across eight-minute opener and longest track (immediate points, even for an EP) “Somewhere in Between” before the charge of “Rotten Humanity” answers with brasher thrust and aggressive-undercurrent stoner rock with an airy post-metallic break in the middle and rolling ending. From there, “Thanatophobia” picks up the energy from its ambient intro and explodes into its for-the-converted nod, setting up a linear build after its initial verses and seeing it through with due diligence in noise, and closer “Tentative Minds” purposefully hypnotizes with its vague-speech in the intro and casual bassline and drum swing before the riff kicks in for the finale. The largesse of its loudest moments bolster the overarching atmosphere no less than the softest standalone guitar parts, and Gozd seem wholly comfortable in the spaces between microgenres. A niche among niches, but that’s also how individuality happens, and it’s happening here.
You wouldn’t accuse Austria’s Sativa Root of thematic subtlety on their third album, Kings of the Weed Age, which broadcasts a stoner worship in offerings like “Megalobong” and “Weedotaur” and probably whatever “F.A.T.” stands for, but that’s not what they’re going for anyway. With its titular intro starting off, spoken voices vague in the ambience, “Weedotaur”‘s 11 minutes lumber with all due bong-metallian slog, and the crush becomes central to the proceedings if not necessarily unipolar in terms of the band’s approach. That is to say, amid the onslaught of volume and tonal density in “Green Smegma” and the spin-your-head soloing in “Assassins Weed” (think Assassins Creed), the instrumentalist course undertaken may be willfully monolithic, but they’re not playing the same song five times on six tracks and calling it new. “F.A.T.” begins on a quiet stretch of guitar that recalls some of YOB‘s epics, complementing both the intro and “Weedotaur,” before bringing its full weight down on the listener again as if to underscore the message of its stoned instrumental catharsis on its way out the door. They sound like they could do this all day. It can be overwhelming at times, but that’s not really a complaint.
Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Mateusz, bassist Michał and drummer Tomek, Polish riffcrafters Volt Ritual are appealingly light on pretense as they offer Return to Jupiter‘s four tracks, and though as a Star Trek fan I can’t get behind their lyrical impugning of Starfleet as they imagine what Earth colonialism would look like to a somehow-populated Jupiter, they’re not short on reasons to be cynical, if in fact that’s what’s happening in the song. “Ghostpolis” follows the sample-laced instrumental opener “Heavy Metal is Good for You” and rolls loose but accessible even in its later shouts before the more uptempo “Gwiazdolot” swaps English lyrics for Polish (casting off another cultural colonialization, arguably) and providing a break ahead of the closing title-track, which is longer at 7:37 and a clear focal point for more than just bearing the name of the EP, summarizing as it does the course of the cuts before it and even bringing a last scream as if to say “Ghostpolis” wasn’t a fluke. Their 2022 debut album began with “Approaching Jupiter,” and this Return feels organically built off that while trying some new ideas in its effects and general structure. One hopes the plot continues in some way next time along this course.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Last year, at what was my first time attending SonicBlast Fest in Âncora, Portugal, where it’s been held the last several years since moving from Moledo, I had a great, great time. Really. When I think every single day in multiple contexts about how I never seem to let myself enjoy anything — a perspective to which this blog stands as ready testament against, what with all the salivating and hyperbole — my time at SonicBlast is among the first counterpoints that comes to mind. I met new friends, I met old friends, I hung out with Dr. Space for like three days, and that dude’s the best. I stood on stage and watched Dozer, singing along and rocking out alongside friendly, welcoming faces. A rare moment overcoming insecurity. The place, the weather, the beach, the people are beautiful. And the music is very loud. For the rest of my life, I get to say I saw Ruff Majik supporting Elektrik Ram. For this I am deeply lucky.
The shape of my 2024 is such that when SonicBlast happens this year –Aug. 8-10, with the pre-show Aug. 7 set to feature Saint Karloff from Norway among others still TBA — I’ll be traveling with family elsewhere. That’s kind of a result of there only being so much summer between school years and my wife’s teaching semesters, so I’m rolling with it. I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to assume I’d be invited back to SonicBlast anyhow, but if the weekend comes and you don’t see me covering the likes of High on Fire, Margarita Witch Cult (who I think I might need to see), The Obsessed, Tons, Slift, and so on, it’s not because I didn’t have a good time there last year or wouldn’t be interested in watching Brant Bjork, Graveyard, Colour Haze and/or 1000mods (who ruled at Desertfest NYC and are maybe recording?), Truckfighters and probably four or five surprisingly hardcore-influenced acts on that huge stage, when in fact I very much would. Last year’s edition was unrealistically good. The photo pit was big enough to dance in. They even had chairs. I’d be back there in a second if I could. Maybe 2025 if I’m lucky and the world doesn’t end (again).
Poster by Branca — to whom I wasn’t brave enough to say hi last year, sorry — and the announcement from the festival’s socials follow in blue, as well as links and the High on Fire single in case you don’t want to just scroll down the site to find it in its own post:
We’re so proud to announce 13 more bands that’ll burn down SonicBlast Fest’s 12th edition!
Welcome the great @highonfireband, who will release the first single from their upcoming album today, @gayesuakyol @sliftrock @thenightbeats @theobsessedofficial @coffin_aus @jjuujjuu @margaritawitchcult @skemer_official @tonsofweed666 @cobrafuma and @silvershark_boogie 🔥🔥🔥
We’re also so glad to announce the first name to our warm-up party, at the 7th august, @saintkarloff ⚡️
Unfortunately Sunami won’t be able to make it to SonicBlast Fest 2024.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Should probably go without saying that this won’t be the last tour French heavy space rockers Slift announce supporting their upcoming label debut for Sub Pop Records, Ilion, or the last region. The record is set to release on Jan. 19, and from the looks of the below and the band’s ethic of hard touring up to this point, it seems likely they’re entering a genuine album cycle. They’ll do these dates in Western Europe and then likely run down a checklist of various other parts of Europe, North America, maybe South America, Australia/New Zealand. Wouldn’t be surprised if they popped up in Japan or Egypt or South Africa. The demand seems to be there, and the trio up to this point have been ready to go just about anywhere they’re asked. They’ve got a long road and a lot of work ahead of them.
The tradeoff, I suppose, is entering the next phase of their tenure as their exit-velocity ascent to the forefront of the international heavy underground has now led to things like listener expectations and the inevitable internet reactionary I-don’t-see-what-the-big-deal-is shrugs and shit-talking. That’s how you know they’re popular. But even my couchlocked ass got to see them this year, so if you haven’t sit tight and I’m sure they’ll get there faster than social media can complain about their not.
Speaking of socials, that’s where this comes from:
Oï !
Thrilled to announce that we’ll be on tour next year, starting with Europe & UK !
There’s some crazy venues, we can’t wait to see ya’ll during this new trip around the sun.
Tickets available via the farcaster portal : sliftrock.com
Peace (#128406#)(#128420#)✨ Poster by Caza Radical Production
SLIFT live: 23.02 Brighton UK Chalk 24.02 Manchester UK Gorilla 25.02 Dublin IE Whelan’s 27.02 Leeds UK Brudenell 28.02 London UK Electric Ballroom 29.02 Lille FR L’Aeronef 01.03 Paris FR Cigale 02.03 Saint-Malo FR Route du Rock Hiver 13.03 Toulouse FR Le Bikini 15.03 Nantes FR Stereolux 18.03 Bruselles BE Ancienne Belgique 19.03 Utrecht NL Tivolirendenburg 20.03 Köln DE Club Volta 21.03 Groningen NL Vera 22.03 Hamburg DE Gruenspan 24.03 Kobenhavn DK Loppen 25.03 Gothenburg SE Pustervik 26.03 Oslo NO John Dee 27.03 Stockhom SE Hus 7 30.03 Berlin DE Lido 01.04 Leipzig DE UT Connewitz 02.04 Stuttgart DE Im Wizemann 03.04 Esch sur Alzette LUX Rockhal 04.04 Zurich CH Mascotte 05.04 Lyon FR L’Epicerie Moderne 06.04 Marseille FR Espace Julien
recognized the turmoil of these days and to sing of a more hopeful vision, of a time when a reckoning arrives. SLIFT didn’t want to lose the message by playing too much. To wit, the longest song on Fantasia is the opening title track, a nine-minute preamble in which Jean Fossat screams of his desires for the world: rising above our pain, burying our dread, and finding, individually and collectively, “a fire for your soul.” The songs that follow aren’t lacking the complexity or intensity that have made SLIFT a rising, radical star in heavy music; it’s simply that they’ve found new ways to weave the complexities of their past inside every piece, like a tapestry that reveals a new layer every time you look. In doing so, they offer an affirming and urgent message: Together, we can still change the times in which we live.
