Behold, the last day of the Quarterly Review. For a couple weeks, anyhow. I gotta admit, even with the prospect of doing it all again next month looming over my head, this QR has been strikingly easy to put together. Yeah, some of that is because of back-end conveniences in compiling links, images and embeds, prep work done ahead of time, and so on, but more than that it’s because the music is good. And if you know anything about a QR, you know I like to treat myself on the last day. Today is not at all an exception in that regard. Accordingly, I won’t delay, except to say thanks again for reading and following along if you have been. I know my own year-end list won’t be the same for having done this, and I hope the same for you.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Kanaan, Earthbound

F-U-Z-Z! Putting the jazzy drive they showcased on 2020’s Odense Sessions on hold, Oslo trio Kanaan — guitarist/percussionist Ask Vatn Strøm (guitar, percussion, noise), Ingvald André Vassbø (drums, percussion, Farfisa) and Eskild Myrvoll (bass, synth, Mellotron, some guitar) — get down to the business of riffs and shred on the clearly-purposefully-titled Earthbound, still touching on heavy psychedelic impulses — “Bourdon” is a positive freakout, man — but underscoring that with a thickness of groove and distorted tonality that more than lives up to the name. See also the cruncher “Mudbound,” which, yeah, gets a little airy in its back half but still holds that thud steady all the while. Simultaneously calling back to European instrumental heavy of two decades ago while maintaining their progressive edge, Kanaan strike a rare — which is to stop just shy of saying “unique” — balance that’s so much richer than the common Earthless idol-worship, and yet somehow miraculously free of pretense at the same time. 46 minutes of heavy joy.

Kanaan on Facebook

Jansen Records website

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Spacelord, False Dawn

Not to be confused with Germany’s The Spacelords, Buffalo, New York’s heavy blues purveyors offer a melody-minded eight songs across the 44 minutes of their third self-released long-player, with the vocals of Ed Grabianowski (also guitar) a distinct focal point backed by Rich Root‘s guitar, bass, drums and production. The two-piece deftly weave between acoustic and electric guitar foundations on songs like “How the Devil Got Into You” and “Breakers,” with a distinctly Led Zeppelin-style flair throughout, the Page/Plant dynamic echoed in the guitar strum as well as the vocals. “Broken Teeth Ritual” pushes through heavier riffing early on, and “All Night Drive” nears eight minutes with a right-on swinging solo jam to follow on the largely unplugged “Crypt Ghost,” and “M-60” nears prog metal in its chug, but the layering of “Starswan” brings a sweet conclusion to the proceedings, which despite the band’s duo configuration sound vibrant in a live sense and organic in their making.

Spacelord on Facebook

Spacelord on Bandcamp

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Altareth, Blood

The opening title-track of Altareth‘s debut album, Blood, seems to be positioned as a direct clarion call to fellow Sabbathians — to my East Coast US ears, it reminds of Curse the Son, which should be taken as a compliment to tone and melody — but the Gothenburg five-piece aren’t through “Satan Hole” before offering some samples and weirdo garage-sounding ’60s keyboard/horn surges, and the swirling lead that consumes the finish of “Downward Mobile,” which follows, continues to hint at their developing complexity of approach. Still, their core sound is slow, thick, dark and lumbering, and whether that’s coming through in centerpiece “Eternal Sleep” or the willful drudgery that surrounds the quiet, melodic break in “Moon,” they’re not shy about making the point. Neither should they be. The penultimate “High Priest” offers mournful soloing and the nine-minute closer “Empty” veers into post-Cathedral prog-doom in its volume trades before a solo crescendo finishes out, and the swallowed-by-sentient-molasses vibe is sealed. They’ll continue to grow into themselves, and Blood would seem to indicate that will be fun to hear.

Altareth on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

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Negură Bunget, Zău

The closing piece of a trilogy and reportedly the final offering from Romanian folk-laced progressive black metallers Negură Bunget following the 2017 death of founding drummer Gabriel “Negru” Mafa, Zău begins with the patient unfolding and resultant sweep of its longest track (immediate points) in “Brad” before the foresty gorgeousness of “Iarba Fiarelor” finds a place between agonized doom and charred bark. Constructed parabolically with its longer songs bookending around the seven-minute centerpiece “Obrazar,” Zău is perhaps best understood in the full context in which it arrives, as the band’s swansong after tragic loss, etc., but it’s also complex and engrossing enough to stand on its own separate from that, and in paying homage to their fallen comrade by completing his last work, Negură Bunget have underscored what made them such a standout in the first place. After the wash of “Tinerețe Fără Bătrânețe,” closer “Toacă Din Cer” rounds out by moving from its shimmering guitar into a muted ceremony of horn and tree-creaking percussion that can only be called an appropriate finish, if in fact it is that for the band.

Negură Bunget on Facebook

Prophecy Productions store

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High Fighter, Live at WDR Rockpalast

High Fighter — with guitars howling, screams wailing and growls guttural, drums pounding, bass thick and guitars leading the charge — recorded their Live at WDR Rockpalast set during lockdown, sans audience, at the industrial complex Landschaftspark Duisburg- Nord depicted on the cover of the LP/DL release. It’s a fittingly brutal-looking setting for the Hamburg-based melodic sludge metal aggressors, and in their rawest moments, tracks like “When We Suffer” and “Before I Disappear” throw down with a nastiness that should raise eyebrows for any who’d worship the crustiest of wares. Of course, that’s not the limit of what High Fighter do, and a big part of the band’s aesthetic draws on the offset of melody and extremity, but to listen to the 34-minute set wrap with the outright, dug-in, At the Gates-comparison-worthy rendition of “Shine Equal Dark,” it’s hard not to appreciate just how vicious they can be as a group. This was their last show with founding guitarist Christian “Shi” Pappas, and whatever the future holds, they gave him a fitting sendoff.

High Fighter on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Spier Kitten, Major Label Debut

This is fucking rad. Long-running Welsh trio Spider Kitten probably don’t give a shit if you check it out or not, but I do. Major Label Debut runs less than half an hour and in that time they remind that there’s more expressive potential to heavy rock than playing to genre, and as cuts like “Maladjusted” reinvent grunge impact and the brooding “Hearts and Mindworms” blend Melvins-born weirdo impulses and naturalize Nine Inch Nailsian lyrical threat, there’s a good sense of doing-whatever-the-hell-they-want that comes through alongside deceptively thoughtful arrangements and melodies. The weight and post-Dirt sneer of “Sandbagged (Whoa, Yeah)” may or may not be parody, but hell if it doesn’t work, and the same applies to the earlier blast-punk of “Self-Care (Makes Me Wanna Die),” both songs in and out in under three minutes. Give it up for a band dwelling on their own wavelength, who’ve been hither and yon and are clearly comfortable following where their impulses lead. This kind of creativity is its own endgame. You either appreciate that or it’s your loss.

Spider Kitten on Facebook

Spider Kitten on Bandcamp

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Snowy Dunes, Sastrugi

Even discounting the global pandemic, it feels like an exceptionally long four years since Stockholm’s Snowy Dunes issued their sophomore album, 2017’s Atlantis (review here). “Let’s Save Dreams,” which is the second cut on Sastrugi, was released as a single in 2019 (posted here), so there’s no question the record’s been in the works for a while, but its purposefully split two sides showcase a sound that’s been worth the wait, from the straightforward classic craft of the leadoff title-track to the dug-in semi-psychedelic swing of 11-minute capper “Helios,” the four-piece jamming on modernized retro impulses after dropping hints of prog and space-psych in “Medicinmannen” (9:14) and pushing melancholy heavy blues into shuffle-shove insistence on side A’s organ-laced closer “Great Divide” with duly Sverige soul. Pushes further out as it goes, takes you with it, reminds you why you liked this band so much in the first place, and sounds completely casual in doing all of it.

Snowy Dunes on Facebook

Snowy Dunes on Bandcamp

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Maragda, Maragda

A threat of tonal weight and a certain rhythmic intensity coincide with dreamy prog melodies in “The Core as a Whole” and “The Calling,” which together lead the way into the self-titled debut from Barcelona, Spain’s Maragda, and an edge of the technical persists despite the wash of “Hermit,” a current perhaps of grunge and metal that’s given something of a rest in the brightness of “Crystal Passage” still to come — more than an interlude at three minutes, but instrumental just the same — after the sharply solo’ed “Orb of Delusion.” Payoff for the burgeoning intensity of the early going arrives in “Beyond the Ruins,” though closer “The Blue Ceiling” enacts some shred to back its Mellotron-y midsection. There’s a balance that will be found or otherwise resisted as Maragda explore the varied nature of their influences — growth to be undertaken, then — but their progressive structures, storytelling mindset and attention to detail here are more than enough to pique interest and make Maragda a welcome addition to the crowded Spanish underground.

Maragda on Facebook

Spinda Records on Bandcamp

Nafra Records on Bandcamp

Necio Records on Bandcamp

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Killer Hill, Frozen Head

Extra super bonus points for Los Angeles heavy noise rockers Killer Hill on naming a song “Bullshit Mountain,” and more extra for leaving the incidental-sounding feedback in too. Frozen Head follows behind 2019’s About a Goat two-songer with six tracks and 22 minutes that pummels on opener “Trash” and its title-track in a niche thick-toned, hardcore-punk born — the band is members of Helmet and Guzzard, so tick your ‘pedigree’ box — and raw, churning metal raised, “Frozen Head” veering into Slayery thrash and deathly churn before evening out in its chorus, such as it does. Sadly, “Laser Head Removal” is instrumental, but the longer trio that follow in “Bent,” the aforementioned “Bullshit Mountain” and the all-go-until-it-isn’t-then-is-again-then-isn’t-again “Re Entry” bask in further intentional cross-genre fuckery with due irreverence and deceptive precision. It sounds like a show you’d go to thinking you were gonna get your ass beat, but nah, everyone’s cool as it turns out.

Killer Hill on Facebook

Killer Hill on Bandcamp

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Ikitan, Darvaza y Brincle

Distinguished through the gotta-hear-it bass tone of Frik Et that provides grounding presence alongside Luca “Nash” Nasciuti float-ready guitar and the cymbal wash of Enrico Meloni‘s drums, the Genoa, Italy, instrumental three-piece Ikitan make their first offering through Taxi Driver Records with the two-track cassingle Darvaza y Brincle. The outing’s component inclusions run on either side of seven minutes, and the resultant entirety is under 14, but that’s enough to give an impression of where they’re headed after their initial single-song EP, Twenty-Twenty (review here), showed up late last year, with crunch and heavier post-rock drift meeting in particularly cohesive fashion on “Brincle” even as that B-side feels more exploratory than “Darvaza” prior. With some nascent prog stretch in the soloing, the complete narrative of the band’s style has yet to be told, but the quick, encouraging check-in is appreciated. Until next time.

Ikitan on Facebook

Taxi Driver Records store

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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.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

Oh, it was a cold and snowy Sunday night, but the rawk was hawt, and so on. Okay, so maybe I’m not much for the introductions, but I dug this episode. I want to screw with what I’ve kind of made the “format” of this show, and starting out with Kings Destroy, Clamfight and Forming the Void in honor of the show I saw on Saturday at the Saint Vitus Bar was fun. So it’s a little more than just be being like, “Duh, I like this record so here’s this song by this band,” though of course that pretty much applies here as well. I don’t know. Just something a little different. Branch out a bit. Try not to set rules for myself.

Speaking of a lack of rules, this one gets a little weird. Look out for Return to Worm Mountain and Hhoogg in the second hour, and then Volcano leading into longer tracks from Sons of Morpheus and Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree. That last song from the latter is 17 minutes long, and hell yeah I was going to include it. So good. That record is an unexpected turn from them, but absolutely awesome, so if you know it, all the better, and if not, maybe you’ll dig. Dig dig dig.

New tunes besides from Hexvessel, Snowy Dunes, High Reeper, Yatra and the sadly-defunct Cloud Catcher, and a classic riff-roll from Spirit Caravan round out what I thought was a pretty killer mixtape, so yeah, if you checked it out last night or get to listen to it tomorrow morning, thank you.

Here’s the full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 03.03.19

Kings Destroy	Fantasma Nera	Fantasma Nera*
Clamfight	Echoes in Stone	III
Forming the Void	On We Sail	Rift
BREAK
Yatra	Smoke is Rising	Death Ritual*
Hexvessel	Wilderness Spirit	All Tree*
Snowy Dunes	Let’s Save Dreams	Let’s Save Dreams*
High Reeper	Bring the Dead	Higher Reeper*
Cloud Catcher	Beneath the Steel	The Whip*
BREAK
Spirit Caravan	Cosmic Artifact	Jug Fulla Sun
Hhoogg	Journey to the Dying Place	Earthling, Go Home!*
Return to Worm Mountain	Song for the Pig Children	Return to Worm Mountain*
Smokey Mirror	Sword and Scepter	Split w/ Love Gang*
Volcano	No Evil Know Demon	The Island*
BREAK
Sons of Morpheus	Slave (Never Ending Version)	The Wooden House Session*
Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree	Cinitus	Grandmother*

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Radio airs every other Sunday night at 7PM Eastern, with replays the following Tuesday at 9AM. Next show is March 17. Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Radio website

The Obelisk on Thee Facebooks

Maybe you’ve been wondering what Stockholm heavy blues-jammers Snowy Dunes have been up to since the release of their second album, Atlantis (review here), in 2017. Well, changes. As in, going through them. Their label folded in what by most reports I’ve seen was an unceremonious clusterfuck — as that kind of thing sometimes is — and they’ve not only swapped out drummers, but added a fifth member in keyboardist/guitarist Alex Gatica, so yeah, combined with playing shows all the while and writing new material, that’s probably enough to eat up a year or so.

2019, then, is the inevitable bounce-back. Snowy Dunes have a batch of new songs and more in the works with intentions toward a yet-unnamed third long-player, and their new single, “Let’s Save Dreams,” carries just as much of a sense of self-reflection as it does an outward psychedelic shimmer. The underlying current of heavy tonal presence is still there, but “Let’s Save Dreams” tips the balance in Snowy Dunes‘ sound even more toward classic fare, the contributions of Gatica on organ alongside guitarist Christoffer Kingstedt, bassist Carl Oredson, new drummer Jonathan Wårdsäter and vocalist Niklas Eisen, do much to stand out the song from Atlantis and the band’s preceding 2015 self-titled debut (discussed here), expanding the scope of their sound even as Eisen‘s vocals keep it grounded in a hook that delivers the title line not only in imploring fashion, but in such a way as to excite one as to the possibilities of doing just that.

One could hardly ask more of what’s essentially a teaser single and a heads up to their audience that they’re on their way back from what, if it wasn’t the brink, probably looked a little bit like it for a while there. You can check out the suitably trippy and colorful video for “Let’s Save Dreams” below, followed by some comment from Oredson filling everyone in on what’s been happening in the land of Snowy Dunes.

Please enjoy:

Snowy Dunes, “Let’s Save Dreams” official video premiere

Carl Oredson on “Let’s Save Dreams”:

In October, 2017, our drummer, Stefan Jakobsson, left the band to pursue his own musical projects. We decided that we wanted to continue as Snowy Dunes and reached out to Jonathan Wårdsäter (Mamont, Bad Acid) to see if he was interested. Luckily for us, Bad Acid where beginning to fold and he immediately jumped on board.

We had, for some time, considered adding someone who could play keys and also handle some guitar work so we contacted Alex Gatica (Carubine, Rymddröm) and he gladly stepped into that position. Both Jonathan and Alex are amazing musicians who quickly learnt our back catalogue and withing a couple of weeks we did our first gig with the new lineup.

We dedicated a lot of rehearsal time to jamming and trying to come up with ideas for new songs and realized we suddenly had a plethora of new ideas. A couple of these ideas morphed into Let’s Save dreams, our first co-written song with the new members.

“Let’s Save Dreams” is a bit of a departure for us from the heavy, stoner riffage, as all of us draw a lot of inspiration from the late ’60s and early ’70s. The melodic psych vibes just came naturally to us. We also continued to work with the amazing graphical artist Robin Gnista for this single release. Robin has done our previous two album covers and did the cover for the latest Brant Bjork album.

We are currently working hard on writing for our as of yet untitled third album, which we plan on recording this fall. In the meantime we hope everyone enjoys our new single and video!

Snowy Dunes are:
Christoffer Kingstedt: Guitars
Carl Oredson: Bass
Niklas Eisen: Vocals, etc.
Alex Gatica: Keys, Guitars, Vocals, etc.
Jonathan Wårdsäter: Drums

Snowy Dunes on Thee Facebooks

Snowy Dunes on Instagram

Snowy Dunes on Twitter

Snowy Dunes on Bandcamp

Snowy Dunes website

Please note: This post is not culled in any way from the Year-End Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2017 to that, please do.

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We’re almost at the finish line for 2017, and if I’m honest, it’s not a minute too soon. I think if one more record comes out this year my head is going to explode.

A perpetual onslaught of cool music is, of course, nothing to complain about. It just seemed like every time I thought I had a handle on where the year was going, some other announcement came through and knocked me on my ass. What’s that? The Obsessed are putting out their first album in more than two decades? Oh and Monolord have a new one coming? Radio Moscow just signed to Century Media? Arc of Ascent are back? Samsara Blues Experiment are back? Causa Sui are putting out a live album and a studio album? Sasquatch are going to Europe and sneaking a record along with them? All of a sudden I’m out of breath feeling like I just ran a lap.

It’s been madness this year. Between an emergent neo-psych movement in the wake of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and others, and the ongoing and constant reshaping of doom and heavy rock from practitioners new and old, I don’t know how anyone could ever claim to keep up with any of it.

You know I do the best I can, so when you look through this list, please keep in mind that these are my picks and the result of applying my own standard, which if you’ve ever seen a list on this site before you probably already know is a combination of things like what I view as being important on a critical level and things like what kept me coming back as a listener. What were the year’s biggest releases and what couldn’t I get enough of? Sometimes those two things come together around one record and it’s beautiful. That’s usually your album of the year, or close to, anyhow.

No sense in delaying further. I hope if you haven’t heard some of this stuff you’ll give it a shot, and if you have something you felt strongly about it, you’ll let me know in the comments. Thanks in advance for keeping it civil, and of course for reading.

Here goes:

30. Geezer, Psychoriffadelia

Released by Kozmik Artifactz and STB Records. Reviewed May 16.

Coming off of what was their strongest album to-date in their 2016 self-titled (review here), New York heavy psych blues trio Geezer decided it was time to take the groove for a walk. And so they did. Psychoriffadelia is the result — a looser collection of jams and willfully unrefined heavy blues, reveling in the politically incorrect on “Dirty Penny” only after basking in the post-Monster Magnet hypnosis of “Red Hook” and the earlier roll of the more straightforward “Hair of the Dog” and “Stressknots.” Everything Geezer has done to this point has pushed their sound to new places. Psychoriffadelia is no exception.

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29. Orango, The Mules of Nana

Released by Stickman Records. Reviewed March 27.

More than a touch of twang on opener “Heartland” sets a tone of Americana-infusion for Orango‘s sixth LP, The Mules of Nana, but the 10-tracker is ultimately much more about harmony-laced classic heavy smoothness than playing to prairie-minded sensibilities, though roots spread wide through a natural, dirty blues just the same. However they get there, “Hazy Chain of Mountains,” the softshoe-ready funk of “Head on Down” and the peacefully progressive finish of “Ghost Rider” bring ’70s-style thrills in songwriting and their precise, gorgeous execution. Underrated record from an underappreciated band.

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28. Radio Moscow, New Beginnings

Released by Century Media. Reviewed Oct. 6.

Cali boogie kingpins and all-around marvelous frenetic bastards Radio Moscow were in top form on their Century Media debut, and if it was a new beginning they were searching for, they met it head on with a sound as classic and organic as ever. Arguably the most powerful power trio in their game, they tore through cuts like “No One Knows Where They’ve Been” and “Deceiver” while offering flourish in the trip-out “Woodrose Morning” and subdued blues-psych on the penultimate “Pick up the Pieces.” Very much to form, but cast of a form that still manages to outclass all challengers.

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27. Spaceslug, Time Travel Dilemma

Released by Southcave Records, BSFD Records and Oak Island Records. Reviewed Feb. 10.

And so here we have the first of what will no doubt be several records about which I’m going to say they should be higher on the list. Poland’s Spaceslug have emerged from the moist ground created by their own tonality and on their sophomore full-length, they proffered warm depth of fuzz and a corresponding melodic and psychedelic reach that was resonant even before they brought in ex-Sungrazer bassist Sander Haagmans for a guest spot on the title-track. It’s been out for 10 months and still delivers every time I put it on, which is often.

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26. Mothership, High Strangeness

Released by Ripple Music and Heavy Psych Sounds. Reviewed March 7.

Three albums into a tenure marked by hard-driving riffs, scorching solos and relentless road work, there’s little Texas trio Mothership need to do at this point to prove themselves to their audience. At the same time, High Strangeness brought considerable expansion to their range overall, whether it was the exploratory “Eternal Trip” or the semi-metallic insistence behind “Midnight Express,” while staying tied together with lyrical and instrumental hooks. High Strangeness set a new standard for Mothership, plain and simple, and easily surpassed the considerable accomplishments of their 2012 self-titled debut (review here) and 2014’s Mothership II (review here).

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25. Eternal Black, Bleed the Days

Released by Obsidian Sky Records. Reviewed Aug. 1.

There was a lot about Eternal Black‘s Bleed the Days that chugged its way into the post-Wino oeuvre of US-style trad doom, but the gruff, lumbering and impeccably riffed outing was nonetheless one of 2017’s best debut full-lengths, and it was the songwriting that got it there. Already sounding sure in the vibe captured, cuts like the plodding brooder “Sea of Graves” and “Stained Eyes on a Setting Sun” showed potential in mood and atmosphere as much as sheer sonic heft — though of course there was plenty of that to go around as well. Doomers missed it at their peril.

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24. Kadavar, Rough Times

Released by Nuclear Blast. Reviewed Sept. 6.

It kind of feels like a slight to have Berlin trio Kadavar appear anywhere outside of at least a top 10 on any kind of list whatsoever, ever, but that’s not my intention at all. Rather, their fourth album and third for Nuclear Blast found them at an important stage in their progression — past the novelty of the vintage feel in their early work, after having proven their songwriting could translate to a modern context, and embarking on a process of expanding their sound. Rough Times, which was as current as current could be, met that goal and beat it easily with a barrage of memorable choruses and a dark streak one could only consider suitable for our age.

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23. Shroud Eater, Strike the Sun

Released by STB Records. Reviewed June 28.

The biggest surprise about Shroud Eater‘s long-awaited sophomore long-player was also its most encouraging aspect — namely how it found the Miami trio bringing together various impulses shown on a number of shorter releases over the course of the six years since their debut, ThunderNoise (review here), came out in 2011, and still managed to utterly crush when it so chose. With a swath from sludge to drone and back again, this was no minor feat, and that the songs they brought to bear were so memorable at their heart as well makes me hope all the more it’s not 2023 before their third album arrives.

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22. Enslaved, E

Released by Nuclear Blast. Reviewed Oct. 4.

What’s left to say about Norwegian progressive black metal innovators Enslaved 14 records into their career? Plenty as it turns out. The introduction of new keyboardist/vocalist Håkon Vinje in place of Herbrand Larsen brought a new twist on a signature element of Enslaved‘s approach. Vinje utterly owned his role, and his performance alongside guitarist Ivar Bjørnson, bassist/vocalist Grutle Kjellson, guitarist Arve “Ice Dale” Isdal and drummer Cato Bekkevold resulted in a fresh urgency that made the band’s sound even more potent and set their ongoing creative evolution on a new branch of its self-directed path.

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21. Arc of Ascent, Realms of the Metaphysical

Released by Astral Projection and Clostridium Records. Reviewed April 6.

Some five years on from 2012’s The Higher Key (review here) and seven out from their debut, Circle of the Sun (review here), and with bassist/vocalist Craig Williamson firmly entrenched in his always excellent Lamp of the Universe psych-drone-folk solo-project, I wasn’t sure there would be another offering from New Zealand heavy psych-rock trio Arc of Ascent, but Realms of the Metaphysical took shape from an ether of riffs and echoes atop resilient underlying structures and revitalized the group with new drummer Mark McGeady in the lineup with Williamson and guitarist Matt Cole-Baker. Remains to be seen if this marks a priority shift for Williamson or it’s a one-off, but its arrival was welcome either way.

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20. Causa Sui, Vibraciones Doradas

Released by El Paraiso Records. Reviewed Oct. 20.

With the various glories already offered in 2017 on the Live in Copenhagen (review here) 3LP, one didn’t necessarily expect a new studio outing from Danish instrumental psych masters Causa Sui, but Vibraciones Doradas found them as vibrant as ever, bringing forth a surprising amount of tonal weight on songs like “El Fuego,” warm fuzz for the basking on opener “The Drop” and spaciousness on the closing title-track. Somewhat more straight-ahead in its rocking groove than 2016’s Return to Sky (review here), the five-track/38-minute long-player showed yet again why Causa Sui are always welcome and that any news of a new release from them, live, studio, whatever, is good news. This was the kind of record that could make your day if you let it.

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19. Telekinetic Yeti, Abominable

Released by Sump Pump Records. Reviewed April 10.

The Iowa-based duo of guitarist/vocalist Alex Baumann and drummer Anthony Dreyer, operating as Telekinetic Yeti, released what I considered to be the debut of the year, both for the fullness of its tonality and the accomplishment in songcraft it already showed. Powered by cuts like its lumbering title-track and the gloriously fuzzed runner “Stoned and Feathered,” it could’ve been another band’s second or third record for the level of cohesion on display and the obvious awareness on the part of the band of what they wanted to do with their sound and the just-as-obvious result of their bringing it to life.

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18. Cloud Catcher, Trails of Kozmic Dust

Released by Totem Cat Records. Reviewed Dec. 9, 2016.

While I admit I’m still not 100 percent certain on whether to spell “kozmic” in the title with a ‘k’ or with a ‘c’ on the end, that question did nothing ultimately to diminish enjoyment of Denver emergents Cloud Catcher‘s sophomore outing. Topped off by one of the best album covers of the year, the follow-up to their 2015 debut, Enlightened Beyond Existence (discussed here), took the progressive casting of that record to a place entirely more raw and rock-driven, willfully roughing up the edges even as it showed marked creative growth on a relatively quick turnaround. The must-hear bass tone of “Beyond the Electric Sun” and “Super Acid Magick” was icing on a cake of choice riffing and Hendrixian lead swirl, and the shuffle they elicited was enough to make even the most stubborn of asses (i.e. mine) think about moving.

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17. Ruby the Hatchet, Planetary Space Child

Released by Tee Pee Records. Reviewed Aug. 29.

After the neo-garage manifestations of their 2015 sophomore outing, Valley of the Snake (review here), it was clear Philly psych rockers Ruby the Hatchet were a force when it came to songwriting. What was less obvious was what they’d do with that going forward. On Planetary Space Child, at least, the answer is they’ll take it to Freaktown. The melody-happy, organ-laced swirlmasters conjured presence kosmiche enough to justify the album’s title, and around the cast-in-moon-rock structures of the swinging “Pagan Ritual” and the playfully doomed “Symphony of the Night,” Ruby the Hatchet built a multifaceted weirdoist triumph the likes of which simply doesn’t come along every year, establishing themselves as more reliable and less predictable than ever: an absolute win.

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16. Alunah, Solennial

Released by Svart Records. Reviewed March 1.

It’s been the case more or less all along with UK forest rockers Alunah that their nature-minded material and heavy rolling grooves have had their haunting aspects, but with the production of Conan‘s Chris Fielding behind it, Solennial — their fourth LP and first on Svart — brought this to new levels entirely. The songs, memorable like footprints in the woods, are somewhat bittersweet in context now, since founding guitarist/vocalist Sophie Day announced in September she was leaving the band, but as the group will move forward led by guitarist Dave Day and recently acquired new singer Siân Greenaway, intrigue remains high at what the future might bring and the impact of Solennial is undiminished.

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15. Mindkult, Lucifer’s Dream

Released by Transcending Obscurity Records and Caligari Records.

Virginia-based doomgazing garage cult solo-project Mindkult has thus far managed to keep some of the mystique around its sole inhabitant, Fowst, which is admirable in a way. As the multi-instrmentalist, vocalist and producer this year answered the promise of last year’s Witch’s Oath (review here) debut, he did so around a swath of purposeful miseries, loose devil worship and other dark thematics, casting an atmospheric darkness matched head-on by the tonal murk of his riffs. Through this, however, the songwriting was no less memorable than on the first offering, and as the project moves forward, one can only hope that Fowst will continue to use that as the core aspect buried six feet under his other, formidable stylistic achievements. That certainly was how it worked out on Lucifer’s Dream.

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14. Argus, From Fields of Fire

Released by Cruz del Sur Music. Reviewed Sept. 1.

Behold ye perhaps the most underrated band in heavy metal. Regardless of subgenre, style, strata, whatever, it’s hard to listen to From Fields of Fire and think of Pittsburgh’s Argus as anything else. The five-piece’s fourth album continued to owe part of its sound to doom, but was much more encompassing than simply that, touching on aspects of classic metal with a command that left one wondering how they hadn’t yet been tapped to open for Judas Priest on that band’s next tour. Victory abounds on a per-song basis throughout the nine-tracker, and whether it was the emotional crux of “Hour of Longing” or the catchy fistpump righteousness of “Devils of Your Time” or the 11-minute progressive reach of “Infinite Lives/Infinite Doors,” Argus once again crafted a work nigh-unmatched in poise and class.

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13. Uffe Lorenzen, Galmandsværk

Released by Bad Afro Records. Reviewed Nov. 6.

For the first outing ever to be issued under his real name, Denmark’s Uffe Lorenzen — aka Lorenzo Woodrose of garage-psych pioneers Baby Woodrose — danced between acid folk singer-songwriterisms like “Flippertøs” and more expansive jamming on “På Kanten Af Verden,” all the while retaining his distinct structural and arrangement sensibilities and creating a flowing vibe that was nothing less than a pure joy of classic-form psychedelia. The most serene and pastoral freakout one was likely to witness in 2017, easily, Galmandsværk resounded in the Mellotron-laced “Høj Som Et Højhus” and was no less at home in the acoustic spaciousness of the earlier “Remits Tyranni,” able to wander where it pleased and find steady ground in molten surroundings.

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12. The Flying Eyes, Burning of the Season

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed Oct. 11.

A welcome return from a viciously underappreciated band, The Flying Eyes‘ Burning of the Season marked the Baltimore four-piece’s first offering for Ripple Music and first since 2013’s Lowlands (review here), a four-year stretch during which the band kept busy touring Europe and South America, the latter also being where they recorded these songs with Gabriel Zander at Estudio Superfuzz in Brazil. The tonal depth resulting from that process was enough to make the collection a highlight, but it was the songs themselves that most stood out, benefiting from the band’s expanded reach and legitimate, hard-won maturity. Especially for a group who’ve done so much work on the road over their years — to be fair, the US has been pretty low priority in that regard — they remain a secret kept too well.

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11. Bell Witch, Mirror Reaper

Released by Profound Lore. Reviewed Dec. 27.

Doomed extremity simply unmatched in its scope. The song of the year for 2017. An accomplishment the likes of which is prone to happen maybe once or twice in a generation. None of this seems to really speak to the entirety of the achievement that is Bell Witch‘s Mirror Reaper — the single-song, 83-minute full-length issued by the Seattle duo like a challenge in the face of mortality itself. Beautiful, devastating and weighted like the grave, its sprawl utterly consumed the listener, and I firmly believe it will be years before its depths are fully processed. Some offerings are bigger than the year in which they’re released. Mirror Reaper would seem to function on a scale of its own, and though it could easily be read as a litmus test for audience punishment, the truth of the listening experience is both more emotionally complex and more fulfilling than simple hyperbole can capture.

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10. Monolord, Rust

Released by RidingEasy Records. Reviewed Oct. 26.

The story all along with Gothenburg’s Monolord has been tone. Tone tone tone. Crush crush crush. Riffs riffs riffs. Nothing wrong with any of that, but their third album, Rust, proves once and for all that there’s more to the trio than “cool riffs bro” and post-Electric Wizard nod. Catchy cuts like “Dear Lucifer” and rolling opener “Where Death Meets the Sea” brought a sense of space leading to the later sprawl of “Forgotten Lands” and “At Niceae,” and the band settled into an individualized, lumbering psychedelia that moved forward from 2015’s Vænir (review here), not leaving behind the heft that earned them their reputation, but not at all being limited by it either in scope or overall approach. Three records in, Rust brought forth Monolord‘s greatest sonic expansion yet and gave rise to the feeling that their true potential was just starting to come to fruition. Also, crush crush crush. Cool riffs, bro.

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9. Vokonis, The Sunken Djinn

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed June 5.

The Sunken Djinn is Vokonis‘ second full-length in as many years, and in addition to serving as their Ripple debut where 2016’s Olde One Ascending (review here) landed via Ozium Records, it was a feast for hungry riff hounds. In defiance of its quick turnaround, it showed a firm evolution taking place within the upstart Swedish trio of guitarist/vocalist Simona Ohlsson, bassist/backing vocalist Jonte Johansson and drummer Emil Larsson, whose range overall was greater in tracks like “Rapturous” and the torrential “Blood Vortex” while nonetheless controlled in its delivery. Their Sleep-y origins still a factor sound-wise, Vokonis were able just the same to push themselves ahead into new sonic ground in fittingly lumbering fashion, and the character they brought to “The Sunken Djinn,” “Calling from the Core” and the noise-caked “Maelstroem” seemed to speak to a burgeoning sense of atmospheric focus taking hold as well. Still so much potential here.

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8. Electric Moon, Stardust Rituals

Released by Sulatron Records. Reviewed April 7.

Do I even need to remotely justify having Electric Moon‘s first studio album in six years on this list? Was it not just like a love-letter issued by the cosmos itself? What more explanation could possibly be necessary? Not that the German trio haven’t dropped copious, glorious live outings all the while, but to have Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt, “Komet Lulu” Neudeck and Marcus Schnitzler follow-up 2011’s The Doomsday Machine (review here) with four cuts culminating in the 22-minute sprawl of “(You Will) Live Forever Now” was high on the list of the year’s most satisfying psychedelic journeys. Constantly exploring, their methods always seem geared toward finding the molten essence of space rock itself, and though the songs on Stardust Rituals were a little more crafted than some of their straight-up improv jams, they nonetheless showed there are many avenues one might take to get to the heart of the sun.

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7. Sun Blood Stories, It Runs Around the Room with Us

Self-released. Reviewed May 1.

This one is personal, and by that I mean I love this fucking band. Similar to my experience with their 2015 sophomore outing, Twilight Midnight Morning (review here), the third record by Boise-based trio of Ben Kirby (vocals, guitar, synth, percussion), Amber Pollard (vocals, guitar, theremin, percussion) and Jon Fust (drums, keys, percussion, noise) was one that I simply could not put down. Even now, seeing the name of the record is all I need to have songs like “The Great Destroyer” and the immersive midsection in “Come Like Rain” and “Time Like Smoke” stuck in my head, let alone the ultra-brazen, searingly-pissed “Burn” noise assault that finished the album and in the span of 90 seconds turned all the psychedelic warmth and serenity on its face with a visceral anger completely unforeseen and jarring, turning it from a depth-laden execution of adventurous neo-psych and indie into a project of conceptual artistry with all the efficiency of the chemical reaction it sought to portray. If you missed it, your loss.

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6. The Atomic Bitchwax, Force Field

Released by Tee Pee Records. Reviewed Dec. 7.

Songs like “Alaskan Thunder Fuck,” “Humble Brag” and “Earth Shaker (Which Doobie U Be?)” assured that the defining character of Force Field, the sixth album from New Jersey’s The Atomic Bitchwax, was pure scorch. That made the 12-cut outing a more than worthy follow-up for 2015’s  Gravitron (review here), which introduced this more speed-rock-minded, aggressive delivery from the tight-as-nails trio, and while they proved they could still lock in a slower groove on the organ-topped finisher “Liv a Little,” head-spinners like the instrumental “Fried, Dyed and Layin’ to the Side” and “Houndstooth” came across like the fruit of the band pushing themselves to the limits of their physical ability in terms of tempo, and their ride along the edge of that line brought thrills at every turn. And make no mistake, there were a lot of turns. Fortunately, bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, guitarist/vocalist Finn Ryan and drummer Bob Pantella seemingly had a corresponding hook in their pocket for each one of them. This band is a national treasure.

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5. Atavismo, Inerte

Released by Temple of Torturous. Reviewed Feb. 21.

Warm, fuzzy tones, rhythmic shifts right out of classic progressive rock, melodic intricacy and periodic excursions into glorious psychedelic drift: I’m not sure what wasn’t to like about Inerte, Atavismo‘s second full-length behind 2014’s Desintegración (review here). Comprising five tracks of unmistakable flow and jam-laden fluidity, it was immersive with landmarks along the way to keep the listener from getting too lost, and whether or not one spoke Spanish, the three-piece of Jose “Poti” Moreno (ex-Viaje a 800, Mind!), bassist/vocalist Mateo and drummer/vocalist Sandri Pow (also ex-Mind!) made it easy to follow along their purposefully meandering path, offering guidance no less skillful on the 11-minute fuzz-freaker “El Sueño” than the dream-toned linear build of “Belleza Cuatro.” There were very, very few albums I listened to more this year than this one, which is precisely why it is where it is on this list.

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4. Samsara Blues Experiment, One with the Universe

Released by Electric Magic Records and Abraxas Records. Reviewed May 4.

Four years between records isn’t at all an unheard of stretch. It’s not the longest on this list by any means. But with Berlin heavy psych rockers Samsara Blues Experiment, it really seemed like the band was done, so to have them come back with such force on One with the Universe was, as I know I said at several points throughout the last 12 months, one of the year’s total highlights. Tracked by former bassist Richard Behrens, the group’s fourth album answered the extended-track spread of 2013’s Waiting for the Flood (review here) with a deeper sense of sonic variety, and while the 15-minute title-cut and opener “Vispassana” still had plenty of room for jamming out and even six-minute centerpiece “Glorious Daze” found room for some flourish of organ and sitar, guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters, drummer Thomas Vedder and bassist Hans Eiselt rightly featured the chemistry they’ve built as a trio live and brought to the songs a renewed sense of vigor, sounding — and hopefully being — truly inspired. Waiting for the Flood capped a period of marked productivity across several years. Fingers crossed One with the Universe begins that cycle anew.

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3. Elder, Reflections of a Floating World

Released by Armageddon Shop and Stickman Records. Reviewed May 23.

You just can’t consider Elder‘s Reflections of a Floating World outside the context of the progressive achievement that was their prior outing, 2015’s Lore (review here). Where the trio — based now between Massachusetts and Berlin, Germany — took their first two outings, 2008’s self-titled debut (discussed here) and 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring (review here), to find their sound, which they began to showcase on the 2012 Spires Burn/Release EP (review here), it was Lore that brought to fruition the potential that had always been waiting to be unleashed by the trio of guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto, and Reflections of a Floating World had the daunting task of being the next further step from that landmark moment. To say the band rose to the occasion is perhaps to undersell the cohesion at work in consuming-but-cohesive pieces like opener “Sanctuary” or “Blind” or “Staving off the Truth,” which brought together clear-headed psychedelia around a wash that seemed to stem as much from rhythm as melody. As they’ve matured stylistically and become a major touring presence, Elder have made themselves perhaps the most pivotal American heavy rock act going, and Reflections of a Floating World brings them to the discovery of yet another apex while at the same time giving zero indication it will be the last one they find.

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2. Colour Haze, In Her Garden

Released by Elektrohasch Schallplatten. Reviewed March 9.

Of course, the bonus of writing about Colour Haze in just about any context is that you get to put Colour Haze on while you’re doing it, and in the case of the 12th LP from these Munich heavy psych forebears, that’s an even more appealing prospect. After stripping down some of the arrangement flourish with 2014’s To the Highest Gods We Know (review here), the 13-track/73-minute 2LP In Her Garden brought a revitalized sonic expansion, but as ever, it wasn’t just the horns or the strings or the blend of keys and acoustics that made In Her Garden the unbridled joy that it was and continues to be — it was the underlying performance from guitarist/vocalist Stefan Koglek, bassist Philipp Rasthofer and drummer Manfred Merwald that gave the album the stem on which its garden grew. That’s not to say Jan Faszbender‘s work on modular synth, Rhodes, and Hammond or the arrangements of strings, tuba, bass-clarinet and trombone throughout hurt anything, just that as Colour Haze have grown into incorporating these elements into their groundbreaking aesthetic, they haven’t left behind the organic chemistry and necessary live feel that has helped them influence a generation of followers over their more than 20-year career. One came through as much as the other on In Her Garden, and that balance gave the overarching warmth of their self-recorded tonality yet another level on which to engage their audience. I’ll be a sucker for Colour Haze for as long as I live, and I have absolutely no problem admitting to and owning that.

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1. All Them Witches, Sleeping Through the War

Released by New West Records. Reviewed Jan. 27.

It was clear early on that Nashville four-piece All Them Witches were contending hard for Album of the Year with Sleeping Through the War, their fourth long-player and second for New West following the mellow vibes of 2015’s Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here). What finally sealed it? The songs. Working with producer Dave Cobb, the each-member-essential lineup of bassist/vocalist Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod, key-specialist Allan van Cleave (Rhodes, Mellotron, piano, organ, etc.) and drummer/graphic artist Robby Staebler solidified their approach in exciting new ways on early cuts like the grunge-crunching “Don’t Bring Me Coffee” and the shuffling “Bruce Lee,” which hit in succession following the fluid lead-in of opener “Bulls,” an introduction of the organic psychedelia and heavy blues that the loose-swinging of “3-5-7″‘s nigh-on-gospel chorus and subsequent, almost maddeningly catchy “Am I Going Up?” would continue to push outward, thereby setting a linear course into a consciousness-capturing side B with “Alabaster” and the jammier “Cowboy Kirk” and “Internet” playing between melodic nuance and mindful, go-with-it drift. The unflinching strength of the material was matched perhaps only by the understatement of its delivery, which was the more staggering considering how easily the arrangements of background vocals on “Am I Going Up?” or  “3-5-7” could have come through as overblown or self-indulgent, and by the time they got down to the light weirdo-bluesy stomp of “Internet” — the key lyric and hook being, “Guess I’ll go live on the internet” — there was no doubting the genuine nature of the realization Sleeping Through the War represented for All Them Witches. Coupling that feeling of achievement with the sheer repeatability of the listening experience itself left no doubt that 2017 belonged to these tracks and the marvelous way the band wove between them, and that whatever other sounds All Them Witches may go on to explore and whatever else they may accomplish as a result, Sleeping Through the War was a truly special moment in their evolution that, as with the best of offerings in any year, will continue to resonate long after the calendar page has turned.

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The Next 20

You know, I used to feel like once you got past a top 20, the numbers were arbitrary. Then I felt that way about the top 30. This year, I think I agonized more about what to include in numbers 31-50 than I did between 30 and the album of the year. Put that in your “go figure” file while you chew on these picks:

31. Cities of Mars, Temporal Rifts
32. The Midnight Ghost Train, Cypress Ave.
33. Snowy Dunes, Atlantis
34. Rozamov, This Mortal Road
35. PH, Eternal Hayden
36. Sasquatch, Maneuvers
37. Young Hunter, Dayhiker
38. The Devil and the Almighty Blues, II
39. Ufomammut, 8
40. John Garcia, The Coyote Who Spoke in Tongues
41. Paradise Lost, Medusa
42. Beastmaker, Inside the Skull
43. Arduini / Balich, Dawn of Ages
44. Primitive Man, Caustic
45. Motorpsycho, The Tower
46. Arbouretum, Song of the Rose
47. Hymn, Perish
48. Youngblood Supercult, The Great American Death Rattle
49. Pallbearer, Heartless
50. Dool, Here Now There Then

There’s so, so much good stuff here. So much. The Cities of Mars debut was a treasure and the only reason it wasn’t on my top debuts list was because I haven’t had the chance to go back in and put it on. The Young Hunter record? Some of their best work yet. Hell, that Arduini / Balich album alone! Then you’ve got huge releases by Pallbearer, Ufomammut, Paradise Lost, Primitive Man, on and on. Like I said at the outset, one more album and my head was gonna explode this year. Way too much to ever hope to keep up with. One thing though I felt like I really wanted to emphasize including was Dool. They’re in the last spot, but make no mistake, in atmosphere and songwriting that album was something really special and loaded with potential. It’s not there because it came in last. It’s there to highlight the point of how much it should be on this list.

What’s that? More records? Okay…

Honorable Mentions

In case you also weren’t completely overwhelmed this year, maybe another batch of records will do the trick. Here’s some presented alphabetically:

Anathema, The Optimist
Blackfinger, When Colors Fade Away
Child, Blueside
Cortez, The Depths Below
Demon Eye, Prophecies and Lies
Elbrus, Elbrus
Electric Wizard, Wizard Bloody Wizard
Ecstatic Vision, Raw Rock Fury
Five Horse Johnson, Jake Leg Boogie
Mirror Queen, Verdigris
The Obsessed, Sacred
T.G. Olson, Foothills Before the Mountain
Outsideinside, Sniff a Hot Rock
Queens of the Stone Age, Villains
Siena Root, A Dream of Lasting Peace
Six Organs of Admittance, Burning the Threshold
Steak, No God to Save
Summoner, Beyond the Realm of Light
Valborg, Endstrand
With the Dead, Love from With the Dead

Plus: Abronia, Lewis and the Strange Magics, Iron Monkey, Band of Spice, Puta Volcano, Galley Beggar, Heavy Traffic, Coltsblood, REZN, Green Meteor, Demon Head, Lord, Grigax, The Raynbow, Carpet, Norska, Les Lekin, Slow, Ixion, and I’m sure more that I’ll add as the names continue to pop into my head.

I did this back in June as well, but I also want to draw attention to a swath of quality live albums that came out this year. The top pick should be no surprise if you’ve been hanging around the site of late:

Live Albums:
1. SubRosa, Subdued Live at Roadburn
2. Causa Sui, Live in Copenhagen
3. Slomatics, Futurians Live at Roadburn
4. My Sleeping Karma, Mela Ananda – Live
5. Wight, Fusion Rock Invasion
5. Death Alley, Live at Roadburn

Thank You

It’s been a hell of a year, obviously. Musically and otherwise. As always, I cannot possibly come close to thanking you enough for your incredible and ongoing support of The Obelisk, of what this site is, what it’s become over its nearly nine-year run, what it will continue to become going forward from here. It is astounding to me and deeply humbling that you would possibly take time out of your busy day and your busy life to check out what’s going on here, and words fail me continually when it comes to feeling like I can properly convey my appreciation for that. Thank you for reading. Thank you for reading. Thank you for reading. Tattoo it on my forehead.

Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for understanding how much I need to be doing this, to Slevin for keeping the site running on the technical end, to Behrang Alavi for taking over hosting earlier this year, to my family for their ongoing support, to The Pecan for sleeping late some mornings and giving me time to write, and to everyone who ever shared a link on social media or made a comment on a post or anything like that. To long-time readers and to newcomers alike — thank you so much. This year has seen a fair share of ups and downs, but the support this site gets sustains me in ways I never expected it could, and that would be impossible without you. Please know how crucial that is to me.

Well, that should do it. I know there are probably disagreements about where things landed on the list, what was included, what was left out, etc., as there always are. All comments are of course welcome — only thing I’d ask is you please keep it civil and respectful of the opinions of others. Otherwise, have at it. Please.

And one more time, thank you for reading.

So this is something I’ve never done before. I’m not exactly what you’d call an early adopter when it comes to new technology, but this weekend I finally signed up for Spotify and decided to give a shot at putting together a year-end playlist through that rather than doing the standard podcast. Aside from a kind of ongoing latent concern about essentially giving away downloads of music that doesn’t belong to me via the old mp3 files — no one’s ever said anything and I always figured it was okay since songs were bundled together as one file — this just seemed more useful in allowing people to explore different artists, albums, etc. If you disagree, I’m sorry.

I can’t say I won’t ever go back to the other way, or that I’ll actively enjoy having a Spotify account enough to keep it, and so on, but it’s something new to try, so I’m giving it a shot. The playlist turned out to be nine hours and 12 minutes long, and once I got going, I couldn’t really resist making it 65 tracks, what with it being the 64th podcast and all. One to grow on.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for listening:

Track details:

• Artist, Track, Album, Runtime
• Elder, Sanctuary, Reflections of a Floating World, 00:11:13
• All Them Witches, Am I Going Up?, Sleeping Through the War, 00:05:33
• Lo-Pan, Pathfinder, In Tensions, 00:06:22
• MOON RATS, Heroic Dose, Highway Lord, 00:04:27
• Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, Medicine, Medicine, 00:06:38
• Mindkult, Lucifer’s Dream, Lucifer’s Dream, 00:09:06
• Brume, Reckon, Rooster, 00:09:12
• Riff Fist, King Tide, King Tide, 00:11:20
• Monolord, Dear Lucifer, Rust, 00:08:41
• Hymn, Serpent, Perish, 00:07:32
• Vinnum Sabbathi, Gravity Waves, Gravity Works, 00:08:26
• Electric Wizard, Wicked Caresses, Wizard Bloody Wizard, 00:06:43
• Ruby the Hatchet, Symphony of the Night, Planetary Space Child, 00:07:08
• Telekinetic Yeti, Colossus, Abominable, 00:08:56
• Bong Wish, My Luv, Bong Wish, 00:02:31
• Radio Moscow, New Skin, New Beginnings, 00:03:02
• Cloud Catcher, Celestial Empress, Trails of Kozmic Dust, 00:05:41
• The Atomic Bitchwax, Humble Brag, Force Field, 00:02:52
• Sasquatch, Just Couldn’t Stand the Weather, Maneuvers, 00:06:27
• Kadavar, Die Baby Die, Rough Times, 00:04:18
• Cities of Mars, Children of the Red Sea, Temporal Rifts, 00:08:27
• Argus, You Are the Curse, From Fields of Fire, 00:06:23
• Comacozer, Hylonomus, Kalos Eidos Skopeo, 00:13:43
• Samsara Blues Experiment, One with the Universe, One with the Universe, 00:15:02
• Orango, Heirs, The Mules of Nana, 00:04:46
• Siena Root, Tales of Independence, A Dream of Lasting Peace, 00:03:39
• Demon Head, Older Now, Thunder on the Fields, 00:04:17
• Sun Blood Stories, Great Destroyer, It Runs Around the Room with Us, 00:06:11
• Spaceslug, Time Travel Dilemma, Time Travel Dilemma, 00:10:07
• Arc of Ascent, Hexagram, Realms of the Metaphysical, 00:07:34
• Causa Sui, Seven Hills, Vibraciones Doradas, 00:07:24
• Alunah, Fire of Thornborough Henge, Solennial, 00:05:32
• Vokonis, Calling From The Core, The Sunken Djinn, 00:06:03
• Enslaved, Sacred Horse, E, 00:08:12
• Dvne, Edenfall, Asheran, 00:07:04
• The Midnight Ghost Train, Break My Love, Cypress Ave., 00:03:33
• The Obsessed, It’s Only Money, Sacred, 00:02:35
• Mothership, Crown of Lies, High Strangeness, 00:05:41
• Geezer, Red Hook, Psychoriffadelia, 00:06:02
• Uffe Lorenzen, Flippertøs, Galmandsværk, 00:02:46
• Youngblood Supercult, Master of None, The Great American Death Rattle, 00:04:01
• Beastmaker, Nature of the Damned, Inside the Skull, 00:03:26
• Pallbearer, I Saw the End, Heartless, 00:06:21
• Paradise Lost, Blood and Chaos, Medusa, 00:03:51
• Rozamov, Wind Scorpion, This Mortal Road, 00:08:49
• Eternal Black, Sea of Graves, Bleed the Days, 00:06:33
• Demon Eye, Politic Divine, Prophecies and Lies, 00:03:40
• Snowy Dunes, Ritual of Voices, Atlantis, 00:07:17
• The Devil and the Almighty Blues, Low, II, 00:08:49
• Abronia, Glass Butte Retribution, Obsidian Visions / Shadowed Lands, 00:06:09
• John Garcia, Kylie, The Coyote Who Spoke in Tongues, 00:04:58
• Tuna de Tierra, Raise of the Lights, Tuna de Tierra, 00:07:09
• Colour Haze, Lotus, In Her Garden, 00:07:05
• IAH, Stolas, IAH, 00:08:39
• Fungus Hill, Are You Dead, Creatures, 00:08:54
• Atavismo, El Sueño, Inerte, 00:11:18
• Tuber, Noman, Out of the Blue, 00:08:14
• Spidergawd, What You Have Become, Spidergawd IV, 00:03:44
• Puta Volcano, Bird, Harmony of Spheres, 00:05:07
• Ufomammut, Core, 8, 00:05:15
• Kings Destroy, None More, None More, 00:14:03
• PH, Looking Back at Mr. Peter Hayden, Eternal Hayden, 00:16:44
• Mt. Mountain, Dust, Dust, 00:17:15
• Electric Moon, Live Forever Now (You Will), Stardust Rituals, 00:22:41
• Bell Witch, Mirror Reaper, Mirror Reaper, 01:23:15

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Snowy Dunes have caught a heavy blues. They’re far from the only ones. The last couple years have witnessed a nascent surge of soul-driven heavy rock, and whether manifest in the high-order pop hooks of Snowy Dunes‘ Swedish countryfolk Blues Pills, the grit of New York’s Geezer or the dug-in jams of Australia’s Child, these worldwide examples are tied together through a blend of sonic fluidity, songcraft, open atmosphere and underlying naturalism that carries across this core sound as a next logical step forward for what in the earlier part of the decade might’ve been more straight-ahead boogie rock recorded on vintage gear.

Atlantis, which is the second Snowy Dunes long-player and sees release through HeviSike Records, follows a well-received 2015 self-titled debut (discussed here) and finds the returning four-piece of guitarist Christoffer Kingstedt, bassist Carl Oredson, drummer Stefan Jakobsson and vocalist Niklas Eisen pushing themselves creativity and refining the processes laid forth their last time out. The first album had a thrilling sense of spontaneity, and Atlantis does likewise, though the band stuck closer to home and recorded in Sweden with Anders Oredsson rather than travel as they did for the first record, which was tracked with Dead Meadow‘s Steve Krille.

Does that make Atlantis less of an adventure? Not necessarily. While there are fewer moments of left-the-tape-running-to-see-what-would-happen flourish among Atlantis‘ five songs/42 minutes, those same songs are well served by a tighter approach overall, and with its booking title-track installments — beginning with “Atlantis, Part II,” which is also the longest cut at 10:55 (immediate points) and ending with the build-into-apex-and-then-drift-away “Atlantis, Part III” — the record is not at all without a sense of journey in the front-to-back listening experience.

If anything, that sense is all the more resonant in Atlantis than it was on Snowy Dunes, because where the debut was so tied to the idea of the band jamming off the cuff in the studio — thereby keeping themselves to that one physical place even if using it as a launch point for musical exploration as they were — Atlantis comes across as roaming more freely on the whole. Between “Atlantis, Part II” and “Atlantis, Part III” — and if you’re wondering what happened to “Atlantis, Part I,” Snowy Dunes released it digitally as a single in Jan. 2016; it’s a 19-minute improv jam also recorded by Oredsson that carries some genuinely glorious moments — the band offers a three-song salvo of organic engagement. It’s up to “Atlantis, Part II” to set the scene, and the song does, with an initial strike of piano keys forward and backward that begins Atlantis on an atmospheric note and leads into trades back and forth of volume swells and psychedelic drift that are fluidly executed enough to leave little question why the band might’ve named the album after a sunken city.

As a frontman, Eisen made a striking and personality-filled impression on the self-titled, and he does so on “Atlantis, Part II” as well, but shines even more on the subsequent “Testify,” which picks up directly on beat from the opener and plays off gospel traditions in an insistent heavy rock push marked by Jakobsson‘s fleet turns stamped with Kingstedt‘s wah, dropping to Oredson‘s bass to begin a wonderfully immersive middle third build and hits its peak as it rolls toward its eighth minute with Eisen speaking in tongues before the guitar leads the way back into a final runthrough of the album’s most memorable chorus and another scorching but still welcoming solo. The win is immediate, the party is a blast, but if you’re looking for a highlight in terms of vibe, centerpiece “The Trident and the Moon” answers the liquefaction of “Atlantis, Part II” with deep-running psych immersion and ballad-style storytelling in its lyrics, the vocals working subtly in layers atop the vast seascape of guitar and steady movement of drums and bass.

The second half of the song is given to another linear build answered by a late return to the chorus, but as with that midsection of “Testify,” it’s all about the dynamic and the chemistry Snowy Dunes bring to their execution of same. Both are palpable. And as “The Trident and the Moon”‘s nine and a half minutes come to an end ahead of the shorter “Ritual of Voices,” which though it features some choice vocal work beginning with spoken echoes and unfolding to spacious proclamations, is even more marked out by the wash created by the guitar and the hypnosis conjured thereby.

Casting off momentarily some of the bluesy feel — it’s never too far gone — Snowy Dunes retool the balance to emphasize the psychedelic side of their sound, and in this swirl, they find a rhythmic punch held together deftly by the drums and bass as Kingstedt utterly soars and leaves a trail of fire behind him along his way. It comes to a head and cuts out quick at seven minutes, but “Ritual of Voices” is a distinct stretch of Atlantis and demonstrates the ability of the band to emphasize multiple aspects of who they are in their songwriting. After that, the plunge into “Atlantis, Part III” feels almost like a return to solid ground, but is warm and welcome all the same. The closer is the shortest slice of Atlantis at just over six minutes long — and a decent portion of its last minute is silent — but that’s still plenty of time for Snowy Dunes to shift from the initial languid verses into a kinetic payoff that smoothly works into the roll-credits guitar line and melodic progression that ends the record with no less a consonant naturalism than it began.

So far as I can tell, “Atlantis, Part II” and “Atlantis, Part III” — and, for that matter, the prior “Atlantis, Part I” — don’t tie together in terms of actual sonic theme, but in their ambience they relate much of the same story, and it’s a narrative of continued growth on the part of the band and further development of who they are as individual players and together as a functioning unit. The signals are clear throughout Atlantis that Snowy Dunes are not finished with this evolutionary process, and frankly that only renders the songs more exciting, since even as they bask in a more complete realization than one found on the debut, they hold forth a potential no less vivid, and indeed make Atlantis a work of discovery.

Snowy Dunes, Atlantis (2017)

Snowy Dunes on Thee Facebooks

Snowy Dunes on Bandcamp

HeviSike Records on Thee Facebooks

HeviSike Records on Twitter

HeviSike Records on Bandcamp

HeviSike Records website

Snowy Dunes, Snowy Dunes (2015)

It does not take long for Snowy Dunes‘ 2015 self-titled debut to demonstrate why it has been so continuously well-received by the heavy rock underground in and beyond Europe. Released by the band digitally and issued via Rock Freaks Records as a gatefold 2LP, the nine-track/51-minute first offering from the Stockholm, Sweden, feels like something special at the outset, and the fact that the four-piece of guitarist Christoffer Kingstedt, bassist Carl Oredson, drummer Stefan Jakobsson and vocalist Niklas Eisen traveled to Los Angeles to record with Dead Meadow bassist Steve Kille only reinforces this position. Their psychedelic blues, whether portrayed in the 90-second harmonica-and-voice of “Watch out for Snakes,” the ultra-Hendrixian purple-haze-all-in-the-brain funk of “Electric Love,” or the nine-minute swaggering jam that follows on “Diablo” and finds Eisen calling out the moves the band will make in the second half of the song — “Alright we’re gonna do this for you, do some harmonies,” and then they do — is a right-on-target preach to the converted, and the sense of righteousness it finds in its execution is even more prevalent for the live-sounding feel behind it. That is, Snowy Dones‘ Snowy Dunes goes far out — way far out — and all the while it sounds like, hey man, these songs just happened. Could’ve been different on any other day. The vague possibility that that’s actually the case would seem to make the record something even more vital, but it’s really just the starting point of an ultra-organic breadth that unfurls across its extended but immersive runtime.

When one thinks of the generational surge of heavy psychedelia throughout Europe that’s taken place over the last five or 10 years, it’s usually the post-Colour Haze bringers of tonal warmth who come to mind, or the slew of groups embroiled in even jammier fare, improvised or not. Lately, neo-psych influenced by space rock has emerged to converse with the Californian post-Earthless swirl set and the massive influence of Australia’s King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard, and that will no doubt continue to reshape the underground in the next few years to come, but Snowy Dunes set themselves apart with their self-titled. While they for sure have their psychedelic aspects, and their jammy side comes to such a prevalence particularly later in the record that one wonders if Eisen isn’t making up his lines on the spot for a song like “Bad Wolf,” and whether he is or not is ultimately secondary since that’s the vibe the band are giving off. In terms of modern comparison points, Snowy Dunes have way more in common with Australia’s Child or a super-slowed-down Radio Moscow than they do the bulk of what’s coming from even the bluesiest corners of Europe, let alone Sweden, although one could just as easily argue that the classic mentality behind “Tranquil Mountain Lake” or “Dawn” is born just as much of Swedish retro rockism as of any outsider heavy blues. At a certain point, this becomes splitting hairs and the important factor — the deep sense of identity imbued within Snowy Dunes‘ material on their debut album — is lost. If it’s one or the other, I’d rather listen to the songs.

And Snowy Dunes certainly make that easy. Whether you’re flipping the vinyl platters over as you go or making your way through digitally, their Snowy Dunes brings its tracks to life with a rare level of flow, and while at 51 minutes, it borders on what one would generally think of as unmanageable — or at least less-manageable than standard single-LP length — there’s no more redundancy in “Turn Around,” “Watch out for Snakes” or “Desert Cold” — the latter as close as they come to naming a song after the band — than is intended, and the bring-the-listener-into-the-studio feel of the tracks as the recording progresses becomes one of the greatest assets with which Snowy Dunes works, though I won’t discount Eisen‘s easy-flowing soul or the bass tone Oredson uses to anchor the material without actually holding Kingstedt‘s wah-laced tonality down from meandering where it will (worth noting that the last thing you hear on the record is Oredson being introduced by Eisen). That dynamic emerges almost immediately on “Tranquil Mountain Lake” and remains firm across the bulk of the tracks, but amid the ebbs and swells of “Desert Cold,” and the blowout at the end of “Turn Around,” there’s plenty of heft brought to bear as well; Snowy Dunes just keep it baked perfectly so that whether they want to boogie on “Bad Wolf” or let loose one more time in closer “The Light” with starts and stops filled out by a croaking voice from Eisen, they can. Hell, by the time they get to that point, Snowy Dunes have shown pretty clearly that, wherever they’re looking to travel in a given path, they know just how they want to get there.

Snowy Dunes got a mention in my list of the best debut albums of 2015, but especially having had the chance recently to revisit the vinyl edition, it’s held up remarkably well. Early 2016 brought word of a concept album follow-up, Atlantis, and a 19-minute first installment thereof streaming at their Bandcamp page. Updates have trickled out since, including cover art this past May, but I’ve yet to catch wind of a firm release date for it. Part of that, perhaps, is Snowy Dunes sorting out a label situation for the release, but either way, whenever it arrives, Atlantis has a considerable task ahead of it in following-up Snowy Dunes, which has only continued to flourish where many of the other “best debut albums” on that list linked above have fallen by the wayside. Some records just grow on you over time, I guess.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading and listening.

—

Spent a pretty decent portion of this week out of my head, and not really in a good way. You might recall last Friday, my wonderful, now 32-weeks-pregnant wife The Patient Mrs. and I headed to New Jersey because my 102-year-old grandmother had been taken to the hospital. No one ever found out how she broke her hip, but it wound up requiring surgery. They put in two rods, like she was gonna get up and start running laps afterward. They said physical therapy. Uh huh. Then the lady had a stroke the next night and that put the kibosh on that.

As of this writing, she’s still alive. I guess you don’t get to be 102 and then just drop dead suddenly — clearly at that point you’re working on your own scale as regards time. She can’t swallow water, won’t eat, but took in some ice cream the day before yesterday — so fucking typical for my family — and yesterday she was moved to a hospice facility out of the hospital. They’re not going to do any physical therapy for the hip. They’re not going to think she’s really coming back to full consciousness at any point from here on out. They’re going to let her be, give her as much ice cream as she wants/is willing to take, and wait. We’re all waiting. Death limbo.

102 years old. There is no dignity at the end of life. You can die in a famous glorious battle and still shit your pants when you go. I’m not looking her to have a righteous, graceful departure. Wouldn’t be her style anyway. But she’s 102, and her body, acting on the purest, most unthinking of instinct, still can’t bring itself to let go and not squeeze every single last second out of her life. The arrangements are made, everything’s in order. It’s like she’s late to her own party. Obviously I’m sad to see her die — she’s been a major presence in my life for my 35-plus years and especially when I lived in NJ and after I got married and was a bit more of an adult, we got to be pretty close — but I also know there’s no way in her conscious mind she’d want to go on the way she is. And my poor mother. Ugh.

The Patient Mrs. and I came back to Massachusetts last weekend, said our goodbye and made our way back north, but I’ve been in touch with my family all week and gotten a steady string of updates, been conferenced in with doctors and so on. We wait. Excruciating. And I feel guilty for living five hours away from them, which I do anyway, but even more in situations like this.

Anyway, that’s my vent. Thanks for letting me have my moment.

This weekend is the baby shower in CT for The Pecan, who again, is due in October near to my own birthday. I don’t know who’s coming, but I know we’ll be there. Then on Wednesday I fly to Ireland for the Emerald Haze fest (info here) that I still can’t believe I’ll be fortunate enough to attend. The Patient Mrs. is also traveling this week — to San Francisco for a conference; she’s not even going to have time to go to Amoeba Music, much to my vicarious dismay — so plenty of chaos abounds. I’ve got a couple extra days on the back end of my trip to see Dublin slated as well, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting, but there are reviews to write so I’ll get stuff done anyway.

What will I do if Gramma dies in the interim or while I’m away? Cross that bridge when I come to it.

To put it another way, the notes for next week? They’re even more “subject to change” than usual. Here they are anyhow:

Mon.: Motorpsycho track premiere; Vision Éternel video premiere.
Tue.: Ruby the Hatchet review; new video from Cosmic Fall.
Wed.: Six Dumb Questions with Destroyer of Light; Ufomammut review.
Thu.: Biblical track premiere.
Fri.: Emerald Haze coverage.
Sat./Sun.: Emerald Haze coverage.

Much to do, much to do. The Obelisk stuff has been good because it’s given me something to focus on and deflect stress into. Gotta listen to this, gotta write about that, etc. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate you reading and being a part of this site, how much it means to me to have this be a conversation. Thanks to everyone who checked out that Ozzy piece earlier this week, or shared the Earthless news, or who commented on the Queens of the Stone Age review on Thee Facebooks, or who entered the Vokonis giveaway. Turned out to be a pretty killer week, even if I was distracted for most of it. If you’re reading, that’s on you, so yeah, thanks.

Please have a great and safe weekend, and please check out the forum and radio stream.

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