So this is it for the second of two Quarterly Review weeks around here, bringing the total to 100 releases covered since last Monday, with 10 more still to come next Monday.

110 releases, mostly (not all) from about April through November.

That’s insane. More, I’m not in any way prepared to call it or any other Quarterly Review comprehensive. It’s nowhere near everything that’s come out or is coming out. It’s a fraction at best. There’s just so much.

I’m not going to attach a value judgment to that. It’s not good, it’s not bad; it simply is. My processes remain largely unchanged, and whether it’s a net positive that the underground is either sparse and fractured or flooded with bands to such a point that Gen-X reunions underwhelm in the face of so much good, new music being made, I’ll be here regardless. And even if there were a fifth as many bands out there as there are right now, no doubt I still couldn’t keep up.

See you Monday.

Quarterly Review #91-100:

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Elder, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios

While it’s by no means Elder‘s first captured-live release, as they’ve put out festival sets from Roadburn and Sonic Whip in years past, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios answers any what’s-all-this-about questions with the sound of the performances themselves. It’s a single LP, somewhere about 40 minutes long, and in Elder terms that translates to three songs — “Merged in Dreams/Ne Plus Ultra” (15:33), “Lore” (13:54) and “Thousand Hands” (9:21) — so by no means is it expansive, or comprehensive in representing this era of Elder‘s presence on stage or scope in songwriting. Why put it out instead of some recorded tour night or a compilation of songs from different shows? Same answer as before: the sound of the performances. For sure Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios is a fan-piece, but it is live, and Elder sound fantastic — and it’s probably a pretty decent memory for the band to celebrate — so you’re not at all going to hear me argue.

Elder on Facebook

Stickman Records website

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Kandodo, theendisinpsych

Simon Price, now formerly of UK heavy psych forebears The Heads, returns with the first Kandodo outing since 2019’s K3 (review here) and a reoriented focus on intimacy rather than operating in a full-band style. That is to say, the five-track/44-minute release sounds like the solo album it is. That, however, doesn’t stop “Fuzzyoceans” from casting an expanse in its just-under-11 minutes, with a central rhythmic bounce around which layers of synth and guitar conjure a wash of experimentalist flourish. Lo-fi beatmaking starts in “Chamba7,” the opener, and sounds higher budget as “Theendisinpsych Pt. 1” borders on psych techno — “Theendisinpsych Pt. 2” follows immediately and moves from sustained keyboard notes and a sampled David Bowie radio interview to an evocative, shimmering drone; it isn’t arhythmic, but it doens’t have a ‘beat’ per se — and becomes part of the avant garde soundscape (the lightning part) in closer “Freefalling,” which unfolds in stages of variable volume and hum with some howling leads snuck in near the end. It’s a deep dive and at times a challenging listen. So yes, exactly what one would hope.

Kandodo on Facebook

Kandodo on Bandcamp

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High Reeper, Renewed by Death

When High Reeper‘s third LP, Renewed by Death, was announced back in July, it was notable how much the album’s narrative seemed to position them as a metal band rather than heavy/doom rock, which even though 2019’s Higher Reeper (review here) had its harder-hitting moments, is kind of how I’d come to think of them. The eight songs of Renewed by Death aren’t hyper-aggressive — though you wouldn’t call “Torn from Within” ‘chill’ by any means — but they feel sharper in their composition than the last record, and if High Reeper want to say that “Lamentations of the Pale” and “Jaws of Darkness” are their take on doom metal, I’d only emphasize how much that take feels like High Reeper‘s own in being cognizant of the traditional metal and doom aspects of their sound and making them groove as fervently as they do. The Eastern Seaboard is lucky to have them.

High Reeper on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Kanaan & Ævestaden, Langt, Langt Vekk

A low-key highlight of 2024, the collaboration between Norwegian neofolkers Ævestaden and heavy progressive instrumentalists Kanaan — titled Langt, Langt Vekk and comprising nine songs of varied intent, arrangement and origin — resounds with creative depth. It’s in Norwegian, and plays a lot off of traditional folk instrumentation and vocal styles — not to mention the songs themselves, which are also traditionals — but as the two sides come together even just on a three-minute instrumental piece like “Fiskaren,” there’s an organic forested space rock to be found, and whether it’s the somehow-catchy “Farvel” or “Habbor og Signe,” the cosmic-leaning “Vallåt efter C.G. Färje” or the wistful progeadelia that resolves in “Vardtjenn,” the reverence for the material is palpable, and also the reverence for the process itself, for each of these two entities contributing to something grander than either might be able or inclined to conjure on their own. That the collection worked out to be gorgeous, both worldly and otherworldly, and to cast such a breadth while remaining cohesive in mood is a credit to all involved. It could’ve been an absolute mess. It very much is not.

Kanaan on Instagram

Ævestaden on Instagram

Jansen Records website

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MC MYASNOI, Slugs are Legal Now

Slugs are Legal Now contains two live sets from experimental doomers MC MYASNOI, one from Harpa and one from R6013, both venues in the band’s hometown of Reykjavík, Iceland. The setlists are identical at six-per, but the performances are varied in a way that becomes part of the personality of the whole, which is immersive in its droning stretches, sometimes harsher in the noise being made particularly on the rougher R6013 songs, but still able to be heavy in a piece like “Step on Ur Neck” in a way that feels conversant with the likes of Ufomammut or Boris, and neither the moody post-darkjazz of “Nytrogen” nor the drums-and-rumble-do-a-minute-or-two-of-free-psych “lea%rdi%rdx2%rcx” a short time later (watch out for your speakers with that one), do anything to dissuade that impression. “Terror Serpentine” finishes both halves of Slugs are Legal Now with 11 minutes of grim sprawl, and in the culmination, that it’s the keyboard that’s shredding instead of one or the other of the guitars feels suitable to the weirdo nuance MC MYASNOI seem to come by so naturally and pair with a progressive will to grow by screwing with convention. Not going to be for everybody, but those ready to take a risk might find the reward waiting.

MC MYASNOI on Instagram

MC MYASNOI on Bandcamp

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Turkey Vulture, On the List

Back after two years with further affirmation of their comfort with the EP format, Connecticut two-piece Turkey Vulture run a condensed gamut in the six songs and 12 minutes of On the List, with the duo of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Jessie May and drummer/backing vocalist Jim Clegg giving specifically Misfits-y early punk impressions on “Fiends Like Us,” which “Untitled” takes more of a garage angle on in following before they metal-up for “Dollhouse” and the 48-second grind-punker “Adults Destroy,” which leads to thrashing in “Harvest Moon” offset by doomly swing, and the closing “Jill the Ripper,” going out on a note that toys with goth Americana in the vein of The Bad Seeds and boasts banjo, guitar, percussion and, crucially, accordion from Steve Rodgers in a multifaceted guest spot. The accordion makes it. Turkey Vulture‘s output is generally pretty raw and that’s true with On the List as well, but there’s character in them coinciding with the flow from one aspect of their sound to the next between the songs, and the EP ends up conveying a lot about what works in the band for something that’s 12 minutes long.

Turkey Vulture on Facebook

Turkey Vulture on Bandcamp

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Ghost:Whale, Dive:Two

Doubly-bassed Brussels longform doom explorers Ghost:Whale certainly don’t get any less consciousness melting on the second disc of Dive:Two, which manifests its plunge across three extended pieces each given the title “Dub:Whale” and assigned a Roman numeral, but by then the five songs of the album’s first 67 minutes (as opposed to the 57 of the concluding trilogy) have already passed in the hypnotic, cosmic-doom push of “Under Pressure” and the synth-laced chug nod in the second half of “Les Danses des Sorcieres” that seems to come to a head in the speedier “Ultimas Palabras.” The shortest inclusion at nine minutes and by its finish spending some time cruising around a Truckfightersian desert, “Ultimas Palabras” gives over to “Godzilla” and “Eye of the Storm,” a kind of second LP within the first CD, led into by the synth of “Godzilla” — not a cover — and arriving at the farthest reach in the electronics-infused expanses of “Eye of the Storm,” for which the drums mostly sit out and the noise spends 21 minutes venturing into the unknown. Ghost:Whale are not fucking around. And obviously the “Dub:Whale” tracks are a divergence in intention, harnessing the power of repetition in a different way, but either it’s a logical extension or my brain has just gone numb from the low-end. Fine in any case, honestly.

Ghost:Whale on Facebook

Forbidden Place Records store

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Sheepfucker and Kraut, Bring Your Sheep

Do I really need to tell you these guys are up to some shenanigans? They called the band Sheepfucker and Kraut, for crying out loud. Heavy rock chicanery ensues over eight tracks rife with willful misbehavior, culminating with “Broner” after turning the album’s progression into a kind of playground running between heavy rock, classic and psychedelic instrumentalism, metal and jams. It’s not a little, and I guess a namedrop for Mr. Bungle is somewhat obligatory, but the Bulgarian outfit make themselves welcome in the swath of ground they cover, punkish in their glee on top of everything else in “Bobanei” and the pop-adjacent “Look at Me,” which would seem to have some satire behind its chorus but is a standout hook just the same. They’re not all nonsense, or at least not at the expense of their songwriting in “Rich Man” and “Jolly Roger,” or “Did You Know” mirroring “Look at Me” in the penultimate spot on side B, but if people having fun while making music is a problem for you, I mean, really, you might want to have a good long think on what that’s all about. Yeah, it’s over-the-top. That’s the idea.

Sheepfucker and Kraut on Facebook

Threechords Records on Instagram

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LungBurner, Natura Duale

In some ways, LungBurner‘s second LP of 2024, Natura Duale, reminds of earliest Yatra in bringing together vicious sludge metal and a breadth of atmosphere, but the Atlanta outfit have more of a post-metallic bent as the solo of “Barren” nonetheless dares to soar, and opener/longest track (immediate points) “Requiem” establishes the first of the album’s nods in a build of standalone guitar in the spirit of YOB, and in combination with a churn that wouldn’t feel out of place on Neurot and a crush in centerpiece “(Prey) Job” that opens to a classic stoner metal swagger in its verse, the righteousness here takes many forms, most of them dark, grueling and heavy — this definitely applies to the Celtic Frosting put on the proceedings by the finale “Astral Projection” — but not without a corresponding reach or purpose. LungBurner are served by the complexity of character, and Natura Duale grows more vivid as it goes.

LungBurner on Facebook

Electric Desert Records on Bandcamp

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Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands

With their material steeped in fantasy and horror/sci-fi lore, a goodly portion of it being of their own making, Michigan’s Bog Wizard continue to find the thread between tabletop gaming and sometimes monolithic sludge. The bulk of Journey Through the Dying Lands, which is their second release in a row done in collaboration with a game company, is dedicated to opener “I, Mycelium,” which stretches across 19:50 and unfolds in stages that don’t bother to choose between being brutal or fluid, the band winding up coming across as dug-in as one might expect Bog Wizard to be in the endeavor. There are two more studio tracks, in “Dodz Bringare,” which is black metal until it slams into the doom wall, and “Hagfish Dinner,” on which they depart for two minutes of harmonized chant-like vocals over resonant acoustic guitar. They’re not done yet as Ben Lombard (guitar/vocals), bassist Colby Lowman and drummer/vocalist Harlen Linke offer a glimpse at some live-on-stage banter before tearing into the thrasher “Stuck in the Muck” and backing it with another live track, this one a take on “Barbaria” from 2021’s Miasmic Purple Smoke (review here) that by the time it builds to its galloping finish has already long since demanded every bit of volume you can give it.

Bog Wizard on Facebook

Bog Wizard on Bandcamp

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Why call your band Sheepfucker and Kraut? I don’t really have a good answer for that question, since to my knowledge in the course of human history up to apparently seven years ago, no one had done it. It certainly gets the attention. I’m all for a bit of stonerly charm — one assumes the sheep finds it less humorous — but yeah, obviously the Sofia, Bulgaria-based outfit aren’t shooting for mass appeal. FM radio need not apply, which is just fine since FM radio also doesn’t exist anymore in this context.

However Mr. Sheepfucker and Mr. Kraut got together, the band built out to be an international four-piece with roots in Italy, Germany, Guatemala and Bulgaria, and their 2022 debut, Pipes — streaming below — rules. I hadn’t heard it until the announcement of the follow-up came through, because I suck at being cool like I suck at everything, but check out “Love is Dead” or the instrumental “Burning Churches” and the vibe should catch on quickly enough. Driving fuzz, catchy in a post-QOTSA careen, but more raucous and punk in “Fire” and self-aware in the stoner roll of “Cosmic Universal Studio.” Their alignment with Threechords Records brings word of a follow-up, Bring Your Sheep, which is to see release in October. I’ll go ahead and hope that the title isn’t indicative of a theme in the songs themselves.

All kidding aside — and I’m not kidding when I say The Obelisk doesn’t endorse fucking sheep, any other animals, furniture, or anything/anyone against their will — as much as the moniker makes Sheepfucker and Kraut seem like a toss-off, the songs are there. I haven’t heard Bring Your Sheep yet, but I consider myself lucky to have caught up to Pipes at this point and look forward to the follow-up to come.

The PR wire brought the signing and album announcement. Bring Your Sheep is due in October:

Since forming in 2017, the Sofia (Bulgaria) based duo quickly managed to get well known on the local stoner scene, but staying like that was no more acceptable for them. That’s why, in the beginning of 2019, the Sheepfucker (Sardegna, Italy) and Mr. Kraut (Germany) welcomed the bassist Riccardo Sunda (Italy).

Their rough heavy, a little bit chaotic stoner melodies with cracked powerful vocals turned groovier and the band became well known in the local rock clubs. The search for uniqueness led them to the doorstep of a thrash metal guitar player, Dr. Espresso (Guatemala), and their first full album, Pipes, was released on digital form in 2022.

Riccardo Sunda was replaced with a new bass player, Mr. Goodnews (Bulgaria) and that way, Sheepfucker and Kraut became an energetic, creative and aggressively unusual stoner band, originating from an Italian-German collaboration, enhanced with heavy Guatemalan fuzz, whose hypnotically heavy-thrash riffs were softened by the gentle note of the Bulgarian bass. The vocals were enriched by all the band members, and Dr. Espresso, who manipulatively and aggressively is using his Explorer guitar, is leading us to virulent rhythms and to the knotty basslines of Mr. Goodnews.

The band and the sound were finally completed, the band now shares the stage with WeedWolf, Godsleep, Villagers of Ioannina City, Mondo Generator etc, and gaining more and more experience, they started to work on their second album, “Bring Your Sheep”, which will be released in early October 2024 by Threechords Records on limited “black sheep” edition 180 gr vinyl, limited “sauerkraut” edition, CD and super limited cassettes.

https://www.facebook.com/sheepandkraut
https://www.instagram.com/sheepfuckerandkraut_official
https://sheepfuckerandkraut.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@sheepfuckerandkraut3730

https://www.instagram.com/thelabrecords/
https://www.facebook.com/threechords.net/
https://www.instagram.com/threechords_record_store/

Sheepfucker and Kraut, Pipes (2022)

[Click play above to stream Obsidian Sea’s Pathos in full. Album is out tomorrow on Ripple Music.]

Sofia, Bulgaria, doomers Obsidian Sea release their fourth full-length, Pathos, tomorrow, Feb. 4., on Ripple Music. It is the three-piece’s second offering for the label behind 2019’s Strangers (review here), where 2015’s Dreams. Illusions. Obsessions. (discussed here) was on Serpent Eve and Nuclear War Now!, and their debut, Between Two Deserts, came out in 2012 with the doomly backing of Solitude Productions. If all this backing tells you anything, it should be about the quality of the work the band do and the doom-for-doomers vibe they bring to the forefront of their sound.

Like its predecessors, Pathos, which runs seven songs and just about 40 minutes flat, is a play to genre, but saying that does nothing to account for the lushness of the melodies in “The Long Drowning” or “I Love the Woods,” the understated depth of tones that show up in a track like the centerpiece “Mythos” with its creeper proto-metal midsection, or the dramatic flourish of closer “The Meaning of Shadows.” Opening with “The Death of Wonder,” the trio of guitarist/vocalist Anton Avramov, bassist/backing vocalist Delyan Karaivanov and drummer Bozhidar Parvanov, dare quickly on a bit of classic-style progressive psychedelia, and their effort in doing so pays dividends in the emergent chase of the lead cut’s back half as well as elsewhere, in the solo-heavy “Sisters” for example, or the organic, understated finish of the aforementioned “I Love the Woods.”

They are not excruciatingly slow, by any means, but neither do Obsidian Sea rush, instead seeming to let each piece find both its own path and its place within the fluid scope of the album in its entirety. It is a performance-based record in that the focus of the listener is moved to what the band themselves are doing at any given time, but that does not mean Pathos is void of atmosphere either; it just happens to be that the atmosphere cast by the songs is natural enough to remind that there are people here making the music. In “The Long Drowning” after “Lament the Death of Wonder” launches with some tension at the outset, there’s a subtle angularity to the riffing, but this is obviously a band who are aware of the traditionalism they’re working toward.

There’s more king-and-castle about their sound than emotional downerism, but “The Long Drowning” is still doom at its core, and though some might liken it to more commercial fare like Ghost because of its midtempo chug and near-goth melody, the same holds true of “Sisters,” which follows. Obsidian Sea have kept the harder edge that typified their output beginning a decade ago and have showcased their growth in kind, bolstering lyrical declarations in the Sabbath-swing-with-NWOBHM-poise “Mythos,” which has a speedier tempo until it doesn’t, the guitar leading that transition as it seems to call the shots most of the way through.

To wit, five of the seven inclusions — the exceptions are “Lament the Death of Wonder” and “The Revenants” — end with a guitar solo. “I Love the Woods” is about half there, turning back for a last measure through its downtrodden central progression, and the solo is part of a big, cymbal-wash finish in “The Meaning of Shadows,” but I’d argue that in context that counts too. This coincides with the songs being almost entirely of similar length between about 5:20 and 6:30 minutes long, but much to its credit, Pathos doesn’t come across as samey.

“The Long Drowning” gallops and careens in its back half — Karaivanov‘s bassline no less a highlight than any of the shred laid on top of it — while “Mythos” flips that around, quicker in its first half, more hook-based and languid amid the extra layers of strum near its conclusion. Likewise, “I Love the Woods” turns to a different kind of storytelling lyrically, and especially when taken as the first part of the closing duo with “The Meaning of Shadows,” it transitions between the more outwardly doomed feel of “The Revenants” and the more classically progressive “The Meaning of Shadows,” which seems at first a subdued note on which to wrap the album, but gradually builds to its more intense finish, a current of what might be organ or other keys running alongside the guitar, bass and drums — there’s a hum there, and vocal layers sweep in to complement at around 5:08 — and sticking around for the culmination that follows in about the last 30 seconds of the song, a relatively quick end but very definitively the end.

Something one might experience standing in front of a stage at any number of festivals the world over with a stake in proclamations of “true”-ness. Obsidian Sea fit as much with that sense of aesthetic as they subtly work to defy it throughout Pathos, but the seven songs are perhaps most surprising in their unhurriedness. It’s not just that they’re playing slow — they’re not, at least compared to some; compared to others they definitely are; welcome to the subjective universe — but that they hold to such a methodical feel and each procession is executed with such a purposeful feel that it’s that much easier to be moved along with it.

And whether that’s the more bounce-happy first couple minutes of “Mythos” or the melancholy, heavy blues-style duggery of the verse in “The Long Drowning,” Obsidian Sea don’t leave anything to question as to their intent throughout the songs, and while they’re speaking most to an audience who perhaps already knows where they’re coming from — that is, one who’ll hear the rolling crash after two minutes into “The Revenants” and nod along accordingly — the unity of the material stems from the production, which isn’t flat, but refuses to be overblown.

I won’t say a bad word about letting fly and seeing what happens, and certainly there are moments of that as well throughout Avramov‘s shred-prone stretches, but it is the restraint inherent in how the material is crafted, and how much it comes across as crafted, that gives Pathos is feel of mastery. A decade after their debut, one wouldn’t expect any less from Obsidian Sea, but even with that consideration, their songwriting has never reached further or come through with such cohesion. They’d already figured out who they want to be as a band. This is them refining their own definition of what they do.

Obsidian Sea, “I Love the Woods” official video

Obsidian Sea on Facebook

Obsidian Sea on Instagram

Obsidian Sea on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music on Twitter

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

If in 2019 you caught wind of Sofia, Bulgaria’s Obsidian Sea making their label debut on Ripple Music with Strangers (review here), you’re probably not wondering why I’m stoked on the advent of a follow-up coming in February. If you missed that record — and hey, that shit happens; to me almost daily — then dig into the classic-doom-meets-proto-NWOBHM vibes of lead single “Sisters” on the player at the bottom of this post and I think you’ll be more than caught up enough to proceed. Traditional Sabbathian doom delivered with depth and melodic flourish, individualism in the guitar solo, heft in the groove, and righteousness in the melody. It’s not dark just to show off the fact that it can be, but it’s got an edge to its rhythm that portends grimmer spaces to be explored. I like it. Can’t say it simpler than that.

And hey, maybe you will too. That’s the whole thing about sharing music. That’s why it’s enjoyable.

To the PR wire:

OBSIDIAN SEA: new album details + first single unveiled!

Sofia-based 70’s heavy rockers and kings of epic melodies OBSIDIAN SEA announce the release of their fourth album ‘Pathos’ on February 4th through Ripple Music. Raise your horns to the sound of their brand new single “Sisters”!

Written during months of isolation, their upcoming fourth album ‘Pathos’ is a work in which the trio injected heaviness, and a feeling of naive exuberance, aggression, dreamlike melancholy and introspection all at once — “a therapeutic process of emotional release through the music, but also one of establishing a truer human connection within the band” as described by the trio. This is a record by a band that intends to express utmost honesty without any fear or apology.

About the album theme, vocalist Anton Avramov explains: “The very word “pathos” has, through time, accumulated a rich and sometimes contradictory meaning ranging from pity to disdain, implying care or confrontation. In any sense, it was a fitting title for an album dealing with themes like mourning the lost sense of wonder, longing for a renewed connection with one’s existence that was once seen through myth, fable, rite, and could perhaps still be reached by hope, humility and sacrifice. What could be seen thus as simply a juvenile escapist fantasy could perhaps be thought of as a rather sober look upon the fragility of the romantic and the insistence that a world bereft of wonder is also deprived of honesty and therefore inspiration.”

OBSIDIAN SEA – New album ‘Pathos’
Out February 4th, 2022 on Ripple Music
Preorder available from December 4th at this location: https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/pathos

TRACKLIST:
1. Lament the Death of Wonder
2. The Long Drowning
3. Sisters
4. Mythos
5. The Revenants
6. I Love The Woods
7. The Meaning of Shadows

OBSIDIAN SEA is
Anton Avramov – Guitars And Vocals
Delyan Karaivanov – Bass And Backing Vocals
Bozhidar Parvanov – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/ObsidianSeaDoom/
https://www.instagram.com/obsidian.sea.band
https://obsidian-sea.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://twitter.com/RippleMusic
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

[Click play above to stream the title-track of Strangers by Obsidian Sea. Album is out March 22 on Ripple Music.]

Classic doomers Obsidian Sea mark a decade of existence and make their debut on Ripple Music with their third full-length, Strangers. The three-piece were last heard from with 2015’s Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions (discussed here), and with their new album, they present a tidy six songs and 40 minutes of material that ranges from the ultra-Sabbathian double-layered lead work in opener “The Birth of Fear” to the more complex proto-metallic crunch in nine-minute side A finale “A Shore Without a Sea,” to the subtly progressive execution on that song’s side B counterpart, “The Play.” Their intentions pointed squarely at the doom of olde, the focus from the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Anton Avramov, bassist Delyan Karaivanov and drummer Bozhidar Parvanov is more about traditionalism than range, but there is a spaciousness to the proceedings nonetheless, and for as basic as the elements at play might seem in their sound — guitar, bass, drums, riffs, solos, vocals, etc. — they never fail to set an atmosphere throughout Strangers that breathes new life into the aesthetic with which their working and becomes crucial to the stamp they leave on it with this material.

Strangers isn’t overly showy in terms of trying to convey some threat, and it’s not outwardly morose as plenty of doom can be, and neither is it totally defeated, but even in the brash riff of “The Birth of Fear,” there’s a sense of struggle that comes through, and as that first and crucial hook is set as an opening statement of Obsidian Sea‘s intention for what will follow, they hold to that mindset. It’s not theatrical, and it’s not melodramatic, but as “Every Heart Hides a Killer” taps Pagan Altar via earliest Witchcraft, there’s an unsettling vibe that comes across, and the band seem to revel in it in Avramov‘s next layered solo and the lumber that ensues from there, but it’s telling that they end that second cut in a subdued fashion, as it speaks to the underlying patience in their songwriting.

The kind of doom they’re playing shouldn’t be in a hurry, and Obsidian Sea aren’t. They don’t lurch exactly, but neither do they sound rushed. “The Birth of Fear” and “Every Heart Hides a Killer” both move at a smooth pace, the opener just a bit faster, and seem more concerned with establishing the course of the record than catching the listener off guard with any sudden or stark changes. To wit, the build into a nodding chug and solo part in “Every Heart Hides a Killer” is well telegraphed ahead of time, and the chorus earlier in “The Birth of Fear” is clearly placed at the outset to grab attention. At the same time, there’s something very carefully done about Strangers that comes through beneath the surface of the album. It is very purposefully divided into two sides, each of which caps with a nine-minute track — “A Shore Without a Sea” and “The Play,” respectively — and to listen to Avramov and Karaivanov‘s tones and even the raw gut of Parvanov‘s drumming, it’s clear that Obsidian Sea aren’t conjuring their sound by happenstance.

As one might expect for a third LP, the band have an idea of their sound and how to realize it in the studio. No doubt some of it came together on the fly as is inevitable in a recording process, but the composition and delivery of these songs are thoughtful and able to engage with nuance despite being outwardly traditional. It’s in this manner that Obsidian Sea carve out their niche within the genre and work to make their sound their own in a way they haven’t before. This, obviously, is the ideal for a band in their position, and maturity suits them all the more since they have the substance of craft to support their own stylistic manifestation. As “A Shore Without a Sea” gracefully unfolds along its plotted trajectory, the band’s control over that direction is complete, and they are able sound-wise to find that place in between in such a way as to shape genre to suit the needs of their material. Again, the ideal.

“Strangers” and “The Demolished Man” function not unlike “The Birth of Fear” and “Every Heart Hides a Killer” on side A, but the title-track fleshes out the vocals with a second layer, and “The Demolished Man” most gruelingly communicates the downtrodden spirit of the album through a slower pace and a sense of arriving at its referenced vanquishing, departing from vocals just past the halfway mark and continuing along an instrumental path for the remainder of its six minutes. Both sides of the record work shortest to longest, so there’s no shortage of symmetry to be read throughout, but as it’s slower and more outwardly depressive, “The Demolished Man” makes a fitting penultimate cut, since it seems to push downward as far as Obsidian Sea are willing to go while still allowing for “The Play” to summarize the entire proceedings. Is that organ I hear at the start?

Either way, the closer fleshes out Strangers‘ sound effectively, bringing together tempo shifts like that around the 4:30 mark and stretches of softer melancholy and more tempestuous riffing all to serve the purpose of defining Strangers as a whole. In so doing, it denotes a release of marked artisanship, making use of the tenets of classic doom without sacrificing its own persona at their altar, and creating songs that find a place for themselves amid the expressive history of the genre that is as much personal as it is reaching out for connection. Their variability in songwriting is drawn together via a thread of tone and melody woven across the material, and they use this as the backdrop for bringing a doom to bear that is at once homage to what’s come before and a sign of what the future might bring. It can be a difficult outing to pin down at first, but the manner in which its spirit plays out across its run is well worth the effort of repeat listens.

Obsidian Sea on Thee Facebooks

Obsidian Sea on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Thee Facebooks

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

I was fortunate enough not so terribly long ago to have been put onto Obsidian Sea‘s second album, Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions (discussed here), so the news that the band has been picked up by Ripple Music for the follow-up due out next month, titled Strangers, is nothing but welcome. The Bulgarian trio practice a style of doom that’s stylistically intricate but still steeped in tradition, and as you can hear in “The Birth of Fear” streaming below, you could just as easily tag them a classic-style band as a garage doom outfit as a practitioners of the dark heavy psychedelic arts. Awesome.

My hope is to have more to come on this one — i.e. a track premiere or some such — before it’s released on March 22, so stay tuned for that (I hope), and here’s some background from the PR wire in the meantime:

Introducing OBSIDIAN SEA: Bulgarian Heavy Psych Trio to release new album STRANGERS with RIPPLE MUSIC | Share new song ‘THE BIRTH OF FEAR’

Formed in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2009 by guitarist/singer Anton Avramov and close friend/drummer, Bozhidar Parvanov, Obsidian Sea is a doom metal band whose style shifts atmospherically through heavy rock ‘n’ roll, dark variants of 70s doom metal, and psychedelic and progressive rock.

Following the release of a four-song demo in 2010, their first full-length debut, Between Two Deserts was officially released in 2012. Out of necessity, Obsidian Sea quickly became a trio with the addition of Ivaylo Dobrev on bass and the band soon played their first few live shows alongside the likes of Ufomammut, 1000mods, Abysmal Grief, Dopelord and a whole host of local acts such as Upyr, Sativa, Muddy, Trysth and The Lost Underdogs; each band making a vital contribution to the development of a small but promising doom/stoner/sludge scene in Bulgaria. As well as playing live in their homeland, Obsidian Sea has also played in Greece, Serbia and Austria, while taking part in the Doom Over Vienna Fest in 2017.

The second Obsidian Sea album, Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions was recorded in the Autumn of 2014 and released by the band themselves as a limited-edition CD and cassette on the Bulgarian label, Serpent Eve Records. 2016 brought a line-up change – Ivaylo Dobrev was replaced on bass by Delyan Karaivanov – and in March 2016, Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions was repressed on vinyl and CD by Nuclear War Now! Productions (USA).

Strangers is released on 22nd March 2019 through Ripple Music. Stream and share new song ‘The Birth of Fear’ HERE.

Pre-order the album HERE

OBSIDIAN SEA is:
Anton Avramov – Guitars, Vocals
Delyan Karaivanov – Bass, Backing Vocals
Bozhidar Parvanov – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/ObsidianSeaDoom/
https://obsidian-sea.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://twitter.com/RippleMusic
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

Intensity takes multiple forms on Brond‘s self-released debut album, Graveyard Camptfire, whether it’s found in higher-speed, hardcore-influenced material like “Impossible Downhill” or the intricacy of the progressive riffing on “Harvest the Sun.” The Sofia, Bulgaria-based four-piece find room to in the eight tracks and 43 minutes to blend elements from grunge on songs like “Failure” with an underlying core of heavy rock and roll, and if anything is clear from the very opening of “Enter Shamari” onward, it’s that they’re free to go wherever they feel the song wants them to go at any point in the process. All four members of the band — guitarists Vili Popov and Petar Peikov, bassist Oleg Shulev and drummer Maksim Stoimenov — contribute vocals, and this adds even more diversity of sound to the proceedings, which the foursome manage to hold together despite the breadth of their approach.

By way of an example, one might consider the seven-minute title-track itself, which moves from an airy opening lead to driving forward motion, a semi-metal thrust that gives way to one of the record’s most resonant hooks. The push ratchets up shortly on “Voice of the Void,” but this only seems to emphasize how much ground Brond cover along their way. A consistency of craft allows them to tip their hats to modern progressive metal — twisting riffs in a post-Mastodon vein put to their own purposes — and still make a chiefly melodic impression on songs like the aforementioned “Harvest the Sun,” the arrangement of multiple vocalists proving to be yet another strength put to welcome use. Likewise, the clear-headed approach to the production and a resulting crispness in the presentation carries that impression across all the more, and especially for a debut release, Brond sure sound a hell of a lot like they know what they’re doing.

Graveyard Campfire is being given a limited LP and CD pressing and the band will have copies with them as they embark on their European tour at the end of this month. Today I have the pleasure of hosting the premiere of “Failure” ahead of the April 18 release date for the album itself. You’ll find it below, followed by a quote from the band about the track, their upcoming tour dates, and more background.

Please enjoy:

Maksim Stoimenov on “Failure”:

“‘Failure’ comes from a pretty dark place, one of the implications of living with a constant hangover is the feeling of ineptitude to deal with life in general. A feeling that’s becoming more and more prevalent in society with or without “drugs” in our lives. Social media for example, can make you feel as much as a failure as any substance abuse. The song covers the denial, bargaining and acceptance phases after taking a good hard look in mirror after a long night.”

EUROPEAN TOUR 2018 ANNOUNCEMENT

We’re beyond stoked to announce that we will be hitting the road in April/May and we can’t thank enough all of the venues and promoters that helped us organise this endeavour. We will bring as the eternal Mike Watt would say “mersh”, so anyone attending will have the chance to grab one of the limited 100 copies of the LP and CD.

28.04 | PRAGUE | CZ| PANOPTIKON BARIKADA
30.04 | POTSDAM | DE | 2 STEPS DEEPER
01.05 | HAMBURG | DE| GO MOKRY
02.05 | AACHEN | DE | WILD ROVER
04.05 | HEUSDEN | NL | JONOSH
05.05 | LYON | FR | LE FARMER
07.05 | ZÜRICH | CH | EBRIETAS
09.05 | BUDAPEST | HU | ROBOT
10.05 | VIENNA | AT | KRAMLADEN
11.05 | LENDAVA | SL | MANSARDA
13.05 | ZAGREB | CR | Klub Mo?vara
19.05 | BUCHAREST | RO | COBRA FEST 2.0
23.05 | SOFIA | BG | MIXTAPE 5

In 2015 BROND released their debut EP “Feint” through Magnetic EyeRecords (US) with the lyrical themes including running forever, jumping into volcanoes, the social implications of living in a post-communist country, oils spills and humanity’s inherent greed. It was produced by Aaron Harris (ex-ISIS, Palms) and mastered by Maor Appelbaum.

In 2016 BROND started work on “Graveyard Campfire” partly inspired by the political self-immolation cases that took place in 2013 and 2014 in Bulgaria. The album was recorded in Sofia Session Studios by Plamen Penchev. The record was produced by Justin Pizzoferrato who has worked with Elder, Dinosaur Jr. & Thurston Moore. The master was done by James Plotkin.

Brond is:
Maksim Stoimenov – Drums/Vocals
Oleg Shulev- Bass/Vocals
Vili Popov – Guitars/Vocals
Petar Peikov – Guitars/Vocals

Brond on Thee Facebooks

Brond on Instagram

Brond webstore

Brond on Bandcamp

Obsidian Sea, Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions (2015)

Believe it or not, Obsidian Sea are the first Bulgarian band I’ve ever covered on this site. And hey, I’m only about three years late on the record, so, you know, bonus.

Last month, I had the thoroughly appreciated pleasure of being a guest on the Evropa Rawks radio program with hosts Maksim Stoimenov and Martin Petrov. If you’re interested in hearing me embarrass myself by ranting clumsily through such pseudo-insights as “social media changed things,” you can listen right here, but the point is I asked the duo for recommendations from their home country’s underground, and among the literal list of names and links I was sent (also thoroughly appreciated), were Sofia-based doom traditionalists Obsidian Sea.

Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions, which is the second full-length from Obsidian Sea behind 2012’s Between Two Deserts, actually had a US release as a 12″ in 2015 through Nuclear War Now!, but the CD version was independently issued by the band. At a vinyl-ready 40:26, it’s 15 minutes shorter than its predecessor, and its six component tracks — which break neatly into three per side — present a united front in that none of them is under six minutes long. That gives a somewhat monolithic first impression, which, frankly suits the three-piece’s grim aesthetic, but while the songs themselves intentionally follow the well-established tenets of classic, traditionalist doom, there’s a reasonable amount of variety contained within, whether that arrives in the form of the headbang fodder in opener “The Trial of Herostratus” or the more swinging groove of the later-arriving “The Fatalist.”

Echoing vocals and tonal resonance from guitarist Anton Avramov on “The Trial of Herostratus” help to bring an immediate sense of space to Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions, and in the solo section of the second half, as bassist Ivaylo Dobrev holds down the thickened rhythm, drummer Bozhidar Parvanov manages to sneak in a measure or two on his cowbell, but from the very beginning there is very little mistaking Obsidian Sea‘s overarching purpose. This is doom metal. Doom. Metal. And righteously schooled doom metal at that. At times less directly indebted to Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Saint Vitus or even the likes of Reverend Bizarre than one might expect — though, of course, by simply being doom a line can be drawn to any of them if one draws it in a roundabout-enough fashion — cuts like “Confession” instead recall the glory days of Hellhound Records and its fascinations with groups like Iron Man, Wretched, Unorthodox and Revelation. Again, Obsidian Sea don’t necessarily stay unipolar in their approach, and closer “Somnambulism” certainly embraces its inner Iommi with its creeping verse line and grandiose bridge and chorus riffing, but whether it’s the severity of crash in the central rhythm of “Child in the Tower” or the organ-laced theatricality of “Mulkurul,” which follows, there’s a thread of ’90s-style doom woven into the songcraft that ultimately serves to tie the album together in its overall flow.

And if one gets the sense throughout that Obsidian Sea are preaching to the converted, well yeah, that’s the whole idea. Listening to Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions as an American, there’s a tendency to think of it as coming from some far-off place, unimaginable as a document with commonalities of aesthetic. Such regionalist notions were never accurate to the workings of the world and are perhaps less so now than they ever were. Doom is universal. You would be hard-pressed to find a corner of the earth in which a riff does not somewhere reside, and why Bulgaria should be any different than Indianapolis, I have no idea. The truth of the matter is that while the style Obsidian Sea play and the fact that Avramov sings in English are no doubt influenced by American cultural imperialism, as a genre, doom knows no boundaries or borders and there’s no single nation, state or group who could claim ownership of it — Black Sabbath included — and not make themselves an immediate laughing stock in so doing.

Obsidian Sea will reach a decade of activity next year. Next month, they share the stage with Dopelord in their hometown — info is at their Thee Facebooks — but I haven’t seen word of a follow-up in progress to Dreams, Illusions, Obsessions one way or another. Doesn’t mean it’s not happening or that it won’t happen, just that they haven’t made it public. Sometimes a band doesn’t necessarily want to advertise every move they make. Nonetheless, I’ll be keeping an eye and ear out, and once again, I thank Maksim Stoimenov and Martin Petrov for helping educate me on the Bulgarian underground. If you need me, I’ve got more bands I’ll be digging into from that list.

In the meantime, and as always, I hope you enjoy.

—

Been up since 4AM. Happened twice this week that I went to bed around 9PM, woke up between 11PM and 12AM and never got back to sleep. Out of my mind. Nutritionist told me on Monday that if I kept doing things the way I’ve been doing them I would die. For most of the last several days as I’ve basically forced myself to eat things like fruit and bread for the first time in more than two years, I have considered death a preferred alternative. Delicious though fruit and bread are.

I’ve pretty much lost it. I could go on. Did. Deleted the paragraph. So miserable. So miserable. So miserable.

Here’s what’s in the notes for next week instead:

Mon.: Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard track premiere.
Tue.: Garden of Worm/The Wandering Midget split stream and review.
Wed.: King Witch track premiere; Black Space Riders vinyl giveaway.
Thu.: Most Anticipated of 2018 list (maybe).
Fri.: Nebula album stream/interview.

That Nebula stream is the first of three I’ll be doing. I’ve got interview questions in to Ruben Romano to talk about the reissues they’re putting out on Heavy Psych Sounds and I’ll be hosting the new versions of the records with the bonus material and whatnot. Stoked on it. The others will follow in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out.

Great and safe weekend. Forum and radio stream. Apples and bananas and blueberries and oranges and grapefruit and peanut butter and toast and soy milk and hopefully enough xanax to kill an elephant.

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