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Quarterly Review: Sons of Alpha Centauri, Doctors of Space, River Flows Reverse, Kite, Starless, Wolves in the Throne Room, Oak, Deep Tomb, Grieving, Djiin

Posted in Reviews on September 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

Today we pass the halfway point of the Fall 2021 Quarterly Review. It’s mostly been a pleasure cruise, to be honest, and there’s plenty more good stuff today to come. That always makes it easier. Still worth marking the halfway point though as we move inexorably toward 70 releases by next Tuesday. Right now, I just wish my kid would take a nap. He won’t.

That’s my afternoon, I guess. Here we go.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Sons of Alpha Centauri, Push

sons of alpha centauri push

Never ones to tread identical ground, UK outfit Sons of Alpha Centauri collaborate with Far/Onelinedrawing vocalist Jonah Matranga and Will Haven drummer Mitch Wheeler on Push, their material given relatively straight-ahead structural purpose to suit. I’m a fan of Sons of Alpha Centauri and their willingness to toss out various rulebooks on their way to individualized expression. Will Push be the record of theirs I reach for in the years to come? Nope. I’ve tried and tried and tried to get on board, but post-hardcore/emo has never been my thing and I respect Sons of Alpha Centauri too much to pretend otherwise. I admire the ethic that created the album. Deeply. But of the various Sons of Alpha Centauri collaborations — with the likes JK Broadrick of Godflesh or Gary Arce of Yawning Man — I feel a little left out in the cold by these tracks. No worries though. It’s Sons of Alpha Centauri. I’ll catch the next one. In the meantime, it’s comforting knowing they’re doing their own thing as always, regardless of how it manifests.

Sons of Alpha Centauri on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream Records website

 

Doctors of Space, Studio Session July 2021

Doctors of Space Studio Session July 2021

The programmed drums do an amazing amount to bring a sense of form to Doctors of Space‘s ultra-exploratory jamming. The Portugal-based duo combining the efforts of guitarist/programmer Martin Weaver (best known for his work in Wicked Lady) and synthesist/keyboardist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller of Øresund Space Collective (and many others) have been issuing jams by the month during a time largely void of live performances, and their get-together on July 30 resulted in seven pieces, four of which make up the 62 minutes of Studio Session July 2021. It’s hard to pick a highlight between the mellower, almost jazzy flow and cosmic wash of the 19-minute “Nighthawk,” and the more urgent setting out that “They Are Listening” provides, the more definitively space-rocking “Spirit Catcher” closing and “Bombsheller” with what feels like layers upon layers of swirl with keyboard lines cutting through, capping with a mellotron chorus, but any one of them is a worthy pick, and that’s a good problem to have.

Doctors of Space on Bandcamp

Space Rock Productions website

 

River Flows Reverse, When River Flows Reverse

River Flows Reverse When River Flows Reverse

In its readiness to go wherever the spirit of its eight included pieces lead, as well as in its openness of arrangement and folkish foundation, River Flows Reverse‘s first offering, the semi-eponymous When River Flows Reverse, reminds of Montibus Communitas. That is a compliment I don’t give lightly or often. The hour-long 2LP sees issue as part of the Psychedelic Source Records collective — Bence Ambrus and company — and with members of Indeed, Lemurian Folk Songs, Hold Station, on vocals and trumpet and banjo, etc., and a variety of instruments handled by Ambrus himself, the record is serene and hypnotic in kind, finding an outbound pastoralism that is physical as much as it’s swirling in mid-air. “Oriental Western” taps 16 Horsepower on the shoulder, but it’s in a meditation like “At the Gates of the Perennial” or the decidedly unraging “Rain it Rages” that the Hungarian outfit most seem to find themselves even as they get willfully lost in what they’re doing. Beautiful.

Psychedelic Source Records on Facebook

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

 

Kite, Currents

kite currents

Even amid the lumbering noise rock extremity of the penultimate “Heroin,” Kite manage to work in a willfully lunkheaded Melvins riff. Cheers to the Oslo bashers-of-face on that. The second long-player from the Oslo-based trio featuring members of Sâver, Dunderbeist, Stonegard and others sets out in moody form with “Idle Lights” building to a maddening tension that “Turbulence” hits with a brick. Though not void of atmosphere or complexity in its construction, the bulk of Currents is harsh, a punishment derived from sludge-thickened post-hardcore evidenced by “Ravines” stomping into the has-clean-vocals centerpiece title-track, but it’s also clear the band are having fun. Closer “Unveering Static” brings back the non-screaming shouts, but it’s the earlier longest track “Infernal Trails” that perhaps most readily encapsulates their work, variable in tempo, building and crashing, chaotic and raging and lowbrow enough to be artsy, but still given an underpinning of heft to match any and all aggression.

KITE on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

 

Starless, Hope is Leaving You

Starless Hope is Leaving You

A sophomore full-length from the Chicago-based four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Jessie Ambriz and Jon Slusher, bassist/vocalist Alan Strathmann and drummer/vocalist Quinn Curren, StarlessHope is Leaving You runs a melancholy gambit from the prog-metal aggression of “Pendulum” to “Forest” reimagining Alice in Chains as a post-rock band, to soaring escapist pastoralia in “Devils,” to the patient psychedelic unfurling of “Citizen,” all the while remaining heavy of one sort or another; sonic, emotional, whatever it might be. Both. Cellist Alison Chesley (Helen Money) guests on “Forest” and the devolves-into-chaotic-noise closer “Hunting With Fire,” and Sanford Parker produced, but the band’s greatest strengths are the band itself. Hope is Leaving You isn’t going to be the feel-good hit of anyone’s summer in terms of general mood or atmosphere, but it’s the kind of release that’s going to hit a particular nerve with some who take it on, and I think I might be one of them.

Starless on Facebook

Starless on Bandcamp

 

Wolves in the Throne Room, Primordial Arcana

wolves in the throne room primordial arcana

Some 15 years on from their landmark first album, Olympia, Washington’s Wolves in the Throne Room make their debut on Relapse Records with duly organic stateliness on Primordial Arcana, bringing their particular and massively influential vision of American black metal to bear across tracks mostly shorter than those of 2017’s Thrice Woven (review here) — exceptions to every rule: the triumphant 10-minute “Masters of Rain and Storm” — as drummer/keyboardist/vocalist Aaron Weaver, guitarist/vocalist Nathan Weaver, guitarist/vocalist Kody Keyworth and guest bassist/vocalist Galen Baudhuin readily draw together ripping blasts with cavernous synth, acoustic guitar, percussion and whatever the hell else they want across eight songs and 49 minutes (that includes the ambient bonus track “Skyclad Passage,” which follows the also-ambient closer “Eostre”) for an immersive aesthetic victory lap that’s all the more resonant for being the first time they’ve entirely produced themselves. One hopes and suspects it won’t be the last. Their sixth or seventh LP depending on what one counts, Primordial Arcana sounds like the beginning of a new era for them.

Wolves in the Throne Room on Facebook

Relapse Records website

 

Oak, Fin

oak fin

London heavy rockers Oak perhaps ultimately did themselves a disservice by not putting out a full-length during their time together. Fin, like the end screen of a fancy movie, arrives as their swansong EP, their fourth overall in the last six years, and is made up mostly of two five-plus-minute tracks in “Beyond…” and “Broken King,” with the minute-long intro “Bells” at the start. With the soaring chorus of “Beyond…” led by vocalist Andy Valiant with the backing of bassist/mellotronist Richard Morgan and guitarist/synthesist Kevin Germain and the shove of Alex De La Cour‘s drums at their foundation, the clarity of production by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse (Green Lung, Terminal Cheesecake, etc.) and the gang shouts that rouse the finish of “Broken King,” Oak end their run sounding very much like a band who had more to say. If their breakup really is permanent, they leave a lot of potential on the proverbial table.

Oak on Facebook

Oak on Bandcamp

 

Deep Tomb, Deep Tomb

Deep Tomb Deep Tomb

By the time Los Angeles’ Deep Tomb get into the stomp of the 12-minute finishing track on their four-song/29-minute self-titled, they’ve already well demonstrated their propensity for scathing, harsh sludge. Opener “Colossus” has some percussion later in its seven minutes that sounds like something falling down stairs — maybe those are just the toms? — but it and the subsequent “Ascension From the Devoured Realm” aren’t exactly shy about where they’re coming from in their pummel and fuckall, and even though “Endless Power Through Breathless Sleep” starts out mellow and ends minimalist, in between it sounds like a they’re trying to use amps to remove limbs. And how much of “Lord of Misery” is song and how much is noisy chaos anyway? I don’t know. Where’s the line from one to the other? When does the madness end? And what’s left when it does? The broken glass from tube amps and soured everything.

Deep Tomb on Facebook

King of the Monsters Records webstore

 

Grieving, Songs for the Weary

Grieving Songs for the Weary

A band that, sooner or later, somebody’s going to refer to as “heavyweights.” Perhaps it’s happened already. Justifiably, in any case, given the significant heft Poland’s Grieving bring to their riff-led fare on their first LP, built on a foundation of traditionalist doom but not necessarily eschewing modern methods in favor thereof throughout its six component tracks — the three-piece of vocalist Wojciech Kaluza, guitarist/bassist/synthesist Artur Ruminski and drummer Bartosz Licholap are willfully Sabbathian even in the shuffle of “This Godless Chapel” but neither are they shy about engaging more psychedelic spaces on “Foreboding of a Great Ruin,” however grounding the clear-headed melodies of the vocals might be, and the riff at the core of the hard-hitting “A Crow Funeral” would in another context be no less at home on a desert rock record. Especially as their debut, Songs for the Weary sounds anything but.

Grieving on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records webstore

Godz ov War Productions webstore

 

Djinn, Meandering Soul

Djiin Meandering Soul

Heavy blues is at the core of Djiin‘s second album, Meandering Soul, but the Rennes, France, four-piece meet it head-on with both deeper weight and broader atmospherics, and lead vocalist Chloé Panhaleux owes as much to grunge as to post-The Doors brooding, her voice admirably organic even unto cracking in “Red Desert.” With the backing of guitarist Tom Penaguin, bassist Charlélie Pailhes and drummer Allan Guyomard, Djiin are no less at home in the creeping lounge guitar stretches of “Warmth of Death” than in the bursts of volume in opener “Black Circus” or the what-the-hell-just-happened-to-this-song prog jam out that caps the erstwhile punk of finale “Waxdoll.” Clearly, Djiin go where they want, when they want, from the folkish harmonies of “The Void” to the far-less-hinged crushing aggro “White Valley,” each piece offering something of its own on the way while feeding into the immersion of the whole.

Djiin on Facebook

Klonosphere Records website

 

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Wojciech Kaluza of Grieving

Posted in Questionnaire on September 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

grieving

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Wojciech Kaluza of Grieving

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I like to think of myself as an amateur singer in a number of bands but then again I’m not entirtely sure that defines me as a person. There’s a lot more than just one quality to all of us, don’t you think? But when it comes to singing, it all started with watching music videos as a kid and thinking “Yeah, I could do that!” And over 25 years later, it’s going surprisingly well.

Describe your first musical memory.

It definitely isn’t the first but I do recall my dad buying me Guns ‘n’ Roses tapes when I was a kid, not knowing that in fact he’s creating a monster. :) Back in the ’90’s most of the music we got in Poland was on tapes and these were usually not licensed, meaning that we got all sorts of wacky “albums” such as “Guns N’ Roses: The Best Ballads” and whatnot. Still have some copies back at home. Good times.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I guess I’ve had a few of those but as always, it’s hard to pick just one. Supporting Philip Anselmo on a show in Warsaw and having the man himself watch us from the side of the stage and nod with appreciation would definitely be one of the highlights. Hell, every time I put any of the albums I’ve recorded on my shelf, that’s a rad memory right there.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

I guess in my college years when I was still sort of Catholic and actually believed in God. That changed in the course of maybe two years and I’ve never looked back since. Happy that burden’s off my chest, life without faith and religion is so much more rewarding and fulfilling.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Better art? Or perhaps a better understanding of your abilities? Either way, always bet on progress, you can’t go wrong.

How do you define success?

Being happy with your life. Simple as that.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Pretty much every Dream Theater video or concert. But to take matters more seriously — I think that the worst thing to see and then wish you didn’t, is your friends or loved ones acting like assholes. That includes myself of course.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I guess writing a book was always up there somewhere. Definitely a horror novel but I have this unsettling feeling that all the best ideas have already been discovered. Wouldn’t mind recording a proper hardcore album at some point too.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Give joy. Make us think. Make us feel.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

https://www.facebook.com/Grieving666
https://www.instagram.com/grieving.666/
https://grieving666.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/godzovwar/
https://www.instagram.com/godz_ov_war_productions/
https://godzovwar.com/

Grieving, Songs for the Weary (2021)

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Grieving to Release Debut Album Songs for the Weary in July

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Catchy song, definitely in a heavy rock vein, but with an undercurrent of more extreme fare in its tones, and yeah, dig a little bit and you’ll find that Polish trio Grieving, who are set to make their debut through Interstellar Smoke Records and Godz ov War Productions in July with Songs for the Weary — have played together in various combinations and in various other outfits like Mentor or Thaw or others in a more charred aesthetic, black metal, thrash, and so on. Vocalist Wojciech Kaluza, in addition to doubling as King of Nothing in Mentor is also known as Susel in long-running Polish Southern metal outfit J.D. Overdrive, and you can hear some of that too. But Grieving have their own approach, as “A Crow Funeral” demonstrates, and it reminds how fluid the line between what’s “metal” and what’s not can be when put on a foundation of solid songwriting.

The clip for “A Crow Funeral” is by Chariot of Black Moth — watch out if flashing lights are a thing for you — and can be seen at the bottom of the post, and Songs for the Weary is out July 26, no doubt with preorders coming sometime earlier.

Interstellar Smoke sent the following along the PR wire:

grieving (Photo by Marcin Pawlowski)

Grieving – Songs for the Weary – July 26

GRIEVING are following the footsteps of their forefathers, with sounds of doom accompanying them as they weave stories of devils, witches, ghouls and the endless capacity for evil in the heart of every human being. Singing songs for the weary, they grieve over this dying world.

“Songs for the Weary” tracklisting:
1. Crippled by the Weight of Powerlessness
2. This Godless Chapel
3. A Crow Funeral
4. Foreboding of a Great Ruin
5. Witch Hunt Eternal
6. Lucifer Wept

The album, recorded and mixed at Satanic Audio, will be released on July 26th, 2021 by:

Interstellar Smoke Records (vinyl)
Godz ov War Productions (CD/digital/t-shirt)

Human cruelty, unnecessary death, grieving witches, bloody revenge. Welcome to a crow funeral, courtesy of Chariot Of Black Moth.

Line-up:
Artur Ruminski – guitars/bass/synth
Bartosz Licholap – drums
Wojciech Kaluza – vocals

https://www.facebook.com/Grieving666
https://grieving666.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Interstellar-Smoke-Records-101687381255396/
https://interstellarsmokerecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.facebook.com/godzovwar/
https://www.instagram.com/godz_ov_war_productions/
https://godzovwar.com/

Grieving, “A Crow Funeral” official video

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