Posted in Questionnaire on August 5th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
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: Ivan Skvortsov of Sacred Buzz
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I’m the voice and guitar of Sacred Buzz. It’s a four-piece band based in Berlin and psychedelic rock would be the closest genre you could hang on it. We use drone, reverb, fuzz, surreal lyrics, kraut-rock beat, and many other colors in our sound palette.
How did I come to do it? It all started with realising how magical the music is and wanting to make some of it myself.
Describe your first musical memory.
My parents and I used to go to distant areas of Russia with kayaks and tents. My father had a battery-powered cassette player with cassettes of underground post-soviet folk and rock music. I still remember one of the nights vividly: the soft crackle of the fire among age-old pine trees, beautiful stars above, and the gentle humming of folky music with cello, guitar and flute from the cassette player.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
It might not have been the best but very magical and memorable.
2018, sunny day. Me and my good friends being late to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard show in Moscow. Arriving when they started playing The Lord of Lightning. In the same moment huge clouds form and a thunderstorm starts. Thick riffs and the smell of ozone in the wet air.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
The first experience with mind-altering substances definitely shook my world.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
For me it leads to the most accurate realization of one’s ideas and more colors to imagine and draw them.
How do you define success?
Success can be bitter when reached. Those who have no definition of it cannot experience failure. The key is to enjoy the ride and not set goalposts – only direction.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
Life shows you what you need to see. It’s part of what makes us ourselves.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
There’s a lot more music waiting to be created.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Art is the way of the Universe to learn itself. We are the tools.
Say something positive about yourself.
I’m very patient but also impulsive. I don’t really like to talk about myself. I’d leave it to others to say something about me.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I’m longing for lasting world peace… On another scale, I’m looking forward to spending the winter somewhere with a warm climate.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 14th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
No, this single isn’t out yet, but I’m putting it here kind of as a note to myself ahead of the Aug. 5 release of “Lost Highway” and the subsequent Oct. 9 slating of Sacred Buzz‘s self-titled debut album on Sound Effect Records. The Berlin-based psych rockers made an impression with their 2024 Radio Radiation EP (review here), and there’s some continued garage-chic to their sound in the new song, which isn’t nearly as creepy as the David Lynch film for which it’s named, but I guess you’ll be able to hear that in a couple weeks, at which point presumably more info about the album will also be revealed.
So yeah, sorry for the “hey more to come” hype-type posting, but this is a cool band and I haven’t seen a ton about them around at this point, which if we’re being honest is part of the appeal, at least for me. And since I have nothing more to say at the moment without ripping on the very-online heavy underground hivemind, and that’s poor diplomacy even though I’ve already just done it, I’ll turn you over to the PR wire:
Sacred Buzz – “Lost Highway” – new single out August 5th
About the single:
“Lost Highway” captures the feeling of being on the run, hunted by something you can’t name, whether it lurks in the world around you or deep within your own mind. A driving krautrock rhythm is spiced with raw guitar and embellished by a brooding synthesizer. A fuzzy, phased-out riff between verses evokes a sense of being chased with nowhere to run, before it all culminates in a climax that sounds like a speeding car, screeching brakes, and the sudden end of the road. Inspired by dark ambience of Joy Division and fueled with mind-bending imagery of David Lynch, “Lost Highway“ channels the paranoia simmering beneath the daily grind of modern city life.
About the upcoming LP:
The album spans 8 tracks across 42 minutes – moving through post-punk, kraut-rock, and psychedelic rock. It was recorded at Monoton Studio (Berlin), mixed by Pablo Thiermann (Chicos de Nazca), and mastered by Pete Maher (Fuzz Club, Bella Union, EMI). The artwork is created by Ardneks, a prolific Indonesian artist known for working with Barcelona Psych Fest 2026, Kikagaku Moyo, Night Beats and Khruangbin. The vinyl pressing of 400 copies (black, colored, and special editions) will be released 9th October 2026 and distributed across EU, UK, and US through Sound Effect Records’ partners. A support tour follows in October–December 2026.
Posted in Reviews on March 24th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Well, we made it to the final day of the Spring 2026 Quarterly Review, and as ever, I hope somewhere in the mass of 70 releases written up that you were able to find something you hadn’t heard before that spoke to you. If not, first, are you okay? I mean, if you’ve been through all now-70 offerings discussed over the last week-plus and found absolutely nothing, that seems pretty bleak. Granted that’s the state of the world, but I know that when things seem at their lowest, it’s music and art that gives me any hope for humanity whatsoever. If I didn’t have it, I’d be in trouble. Anyway, hope there was something cool for you, and as always, thanks for reading.
Let’s wrap this up. Back maybe mid-June with the next QR.
Quarterly Review #61-70:
Black Lung, Forever Beyond
Bringing together ethereal sounds and feet-on-the-ground, real-world themes can be tough. Are Baltimorean heavy psych-blues veterans Black Lung providing escape or confronting the times we live in head-on? A bit of both on the seven-song/35-minute Forever Beyond, which brings melodic textural flourish to “Savior” as the lyrics remain unconvinced. The later “Border Horder” and closer “Scum” say it more clearly, and that’s an asset in the album’s favor, not that one would call the progressive and expansive, Mellotron-and-cello-laced centerpiece “Follow” subtle, exactly. I can’t tell if I’m just hearing an acoustic layer in the second half of “Forever Beyond Me” or if it’s really there, but I like that about it, and it’s worth noting that along with the pointed direction Forever Beyondtakes — which is to be commended in a heavy rock underground where far too many have buried their heads — the band continue to refine their songwriting. I do wish the ending of “Border Hoarder” went on for another three minutes riding that riff, but maybe live.
Pardon me for playing catchup to Austin fury-punk heavy shovers Die Spitz, whose Third Man-delivered debut LP, Something to Consume, was released in Sept. 2025. The 11-song grunge-informed album is a ripper, giving a much-needed generational refresh to punkish heavy noise, like Chat Pile but not for podcast bros. The heft of “Sound to No One” reveals a depth of mix that despondent/sludgy-but-moving opener “Pop Punk Anthem (Sorry for the Delay)” hinted toward in its later solo, and cuts like “Red40” and “Riding With My Girls” gallop with a fresh-feeling glee, while the lumber of “Punishers,” the big-riff slam of “Throw Yourself to the Sword” and the almost unfortunately catchy “American Porn” seethe with intensity aggressive purpose. The recording sounds close enough to live to convey the genuine energy of the execution, and the blend of immediacy and atmospherics speaks to a nascent creative growth to take shape in the years to come. One of last year’s best debuts, easily. The kids are pissed off, and rightly and righteously so.
Borracho‘s cover of Spirit Caravan‘s “Fang” might be the heaviest thing the Washington D.C. trio have ever done. It’s one of five cover songs on Eternos, a sweet-but-somewhat-bittersweet homage to lost friends from among the heavy underground. “Fang” pays homage to Dave Sherman (also Earthride), who always said “Fang” was special to him because he wrote it. Foghound‘s “Keep on Shoveling” follows, for Rev. Jim Forrester, with Karma to Burn‘s “Twenty-Nine” after for Will Mecum, The Hidden Hand‘s “Damyata” for Bruce Falkinburg and “A Heart Without a Home,” by The Hellacopters, for Robert “Strings” Dahlqvist. Can’t argue with the concept, the choices of songs or the resulting EP. I swear to you I almost didn’t review it because all there is to say is, “well yeah, it’s kind of sad, but duh it rules anyway.” But they do really dig in while handling the material with care, and you can feel the intent of the release accordingly.
If you’re new to them, the key to understanding Avon is knowing that guitarist/vocalist James Childs — joined in the band by bassist June Kato and drummer Alfredo Hernández (Across the River, Yawning Man, Kyuss, etc.) — has his roots in the history of English rock and roll, so while tonally Avon draw a lot from desert-heavy, they’re also pulling from decades of UK rock, from garage rock to early progressive blues rock to early punk to artsy ’90s whathaveyou, and those influences come out in their material as well. Songs are short and the benefit of this stylistic blend is that it’s the songwriting that draws the album together, as well as the band-in-a-room sensibility of the recording, however it was actually made. “Bandits” and “Nineteen Bruises” make a particularly effective back and forth before the piano/stomp of “Super Furry Antidotes,” and the hook of the leadoff title-track assures you never forget which record you’re hearing, not that you would.
A brash and gritty sound permeates the geometric charm of Tetrahedric Hellscape Cannon, and even with bassist Justin Potter‘s rough vocal delivery, the verse of the title-track reveals earlier Clutch as a source of some of the patterning, which the penultimate “Ohio” affirms. Potter and drummer Dolphin Riot comprise the entirety of Dallas’ Sons of Gulliver, and nobody who’s heard “Vagabonds” or the ’90s-bouncing “Headcleaner” is going to say they’re lacking anything as regards heft for not having guitar. But for being a duo, the songs have variety baked into their purpose, as the acoustic/hand-percussion centerpiece “Earthbound” — think instrumental “Planet Caravan” — demonstrates, if not the shift from the punk/metal of “Death or Distortion” and the strutting, self-aware desert riffery of “Dunes,” and at nine-songs/31-minutes, Tetrahedric Hellscape Cannon can count efficiency among its strengths. It’s definitely a first record, but there’s character here.
Instrumentalist save for side B’s “Rusalka,” wherein Paulinia Przychodzień-Witek Damroca adds voice and lyrics to their post-metallic push, Trees Are Silent finds Wrocław’s Gozd mindful of the atmosphere being created by each of the album’s eight inclusions, and yes, trees are a theme for some of it. The keys and lead guitar of “Birch” place them somewhere in the Russian Circles/Pelican school, but whether it’s the trumpet in the quiet moments and subsequent payoff of “Linden” or the outright gorgeousness and serenity on offer in “Axis Mundi,” or the crush wrought in “Om,” they bring an individual edge to their creative pursuit, the post-rock drifter finale “Ekoton” as fitting a conclusion as one could find to a release of intentional sprawl. The going isn’t quite meditative, but they obviously set these songs up for a whole album fluidity, and in that they are successful.
From Yuggoth, And Ever Since My Paths Were Crooked and Forsaken
Somewhere between stoner metal riff idolatry, post-metallic shout-into-the-void atmospherics, and Conan-esque tonal wallbuilding, Dresden’s From Yuggoth loose the expanses of their four-song second EP, And Ever Since My Paths Were Crooked and Forsaken, staving off hypercerebrality on “A Crimson Dawn” with an emotive crescendo marked by vast lead guitar and ace basslines. This blend of the raw and progressive one might trace to Neurosis (especially this week), but there’s pure doom in the band’s veins as well, as the semi-title-track shows in its early lumbering. You should note that “My Paths Were Crooked and Forsaken” gets very, very heavy™, but neither are From Yuggoth entirely reliant on tone to make their impact, as the snare-led slog of “Thy Serpent Eyes” makes plain, despite the assault, crush and burn of “Deathlike Living (We Are Alpha),” which closes. There’s enough Electric Wizard in the structure of the riffs to keep the songs doomed, and that serves them well and makes From Yuggoth‘s approach more their own. And, again, the bass.
Netherlands four-piece Desert Colossus present their fourth album in the nine-song/46-minute Apparatus, rife with moody melody and riffed with its whole heart. Desert rock at its foundation, their sound is able to expand around that to various degrees when called to do so, as in the closer “Come Forth” with its Middle Eastern guitar inflection and ensuing multi-stage nod. Largesse is a tool at their disposal — hello “Vanity” — but they know a classic push and swing too, diving in with a hungry Sabbathism on “Sweet Cherries Hang Low” and opener “Hermit,” and while “Prixie House on the Wax” and the partially-acoustic “Black Out” are more complex, they still groove. It all comes together in “Three Eyed Fox,” which makes that a highlight, but it’s not alone as Desert Colossus find new paths through familiar ground, distinctive in melody and consistent though dynamic changes in tempo, volume and purpose. This was my first exposure to them, and no regrets in starting from Apparatus whatsoever.
It’s heavy metal or no metal at all on Axe Dragger‘s Ripple-released self-titled debut full-length. The multinational project brings together guitarist Bob Balch (Fu Manchu, Big Scenic Nowhere, Slower, etc.), drummer “Minnesota Pete” Campbell (ex-Pentagram, The Mighty Nimbus, etc.), vocalist Terry Glaze (ex-Pantera) and bassist Fredrik Isaksson (Dark Funeral, ex-Grave), and together they run through 10 songs of mostly-classic-styled metal, with some thrash and groove elements finding balance in songs like “Fight Another Day,” “Death is Calling My Name,” and “Fire in the Madhouse,” while all-out rippers like “Axe Dragger,” “Give You Rope’ and “El Toro” revel in speedy twists and shove. Their apparent aim is to be the kind of metal band you’d draw the logo of on your math notebook instead of doing your homework, and as aspirations go, I can think of few so admirable. Everybody here is definitely an adult, but it’s fun pretend.
Consuming waves of drone intertwine, change and move around a dynamic mix to create the sense of dread and, sometimes, oppression in Den Der Hale‘s Larking About, as the Swedish troupe bring heavy ambience to fruition across four tracks and 42 minutes of swelling, ethereal tones, sporadic vocals for a likewise sporadic human presence, and a level of worldbuilding that veers into the cinematic as regards evocation. The piano lines in “Where My Flesh Cannot Be Torn” and distinguishable vocal lines make it more grounded perhaps than “Silphium” just before it, which somehow ends up in black metal in its second half though don’t ask me how they got there, and each post-everything unfurling adds another aspect to the entirety, right through to “Under Jord” fostering a single swell of drone and letting it hold sway for most of its 11 minutes, building on the foundation laid out in the opening title-track. As an album it is vivid and affecting, and though it’s something of a shift in direction for Den Der Hale, perhaps it’s more of an extrapolation from their past work, taking the weight conjured through past outings and finding this amorphous, occasionally terrifying thing in it. You won’t hear something else like it today.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 3rd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
The soundscapes are getting darker and weirder for Den Der Hale, whose upcoming four-song LP, Larking About — the dirgey title-track opens — is out March 27 on vinyl through Sound Effect Records. There’s nothing streaming from it yet, but I’ve got the record on as I’m writing and you can hear both the organic root instruments they’re using — it gives the procession its folkish sound — and the overarching ethereal drone that emerges from the congregation of the whole. “Larking About” gets pretty and waveformy in its second half to set up the dark-jazz-fog-into-blinding-sci-fi-clarion-but-also-how-is-this-not-horrifying-black-metal “Silphium,” which is vicious and feels challenging in its abrasion.
Subsequent to these, side B enacts something of a march in “Where My Flesh Cannot Be Torn,” getting there on a bed of cinematic horn-ish sounds and intertwining maybe-voices. It’s obscure in everything but the rhythm, which is willfully primitive, giving the half-whispers an urgency in spite of their seeming soothingness. The closing “Under Jord” doesn’t feel so movement-based, but its drone is hypnotic and becomes a build unto itself behind and then in front of the vague, echoing vocals. When they talk about tension or anticipation, they’re right. It turns out that’s what makes it heavy.
The PR wire has album info and live dates, which I cut and pasted from Bandcamp:
DEN DER HALE – Larking About: OUT Mar-27th, 2026, via Sound Effect Records
(Self Released/ Black Vinyl & Limited Oxblood Red Vinyl)
Our third album, Larking About, is an exploration of more eclectic soundscapes than has been presented before. As we have went through line-up changes, we have eschewed the traditional sound of drums, guitars, and bass. Instead, we have built these songs from tape loops, resampling, and acoustic instruments, resulting in a greater focus on recording technique and panning. The majority of the songs on the album have been processed during the past year and a half, serving as an experimental and ambient counterpart to the songs we usually perform live. The result, we feel, is an album that thrives on anticipation and tension.
The entirety of the album was recorded and mixed in our studio in Malmö. In contrast to our previous releases, this album was stem-mastered and transferred to 24-track tape reel by the very adept mastering engineer Joakim Lindberg of Studio Sickan. This process was extremely helpful in providing us an extra set of ears and attention to the soundscape of the individual tracks as well as the overall sound of the album.
The album will be pressed to vinyl and released on Sound Effect Records.
Tracklisting: 1. Larking About 2. Silphium 3. Where My Flesh Cannot Be Torn 4. Under Jord
This spring, we will be touring Europe with some of the songs from this album while also finishing the writing process for another album we aim to finish later this year.
Live: Apr 15 VERA Groningen, Netherlands Apr 18 Weltkunstzimmer Düsseldorf, Germany Apr 19 KuBa Jena Jena, Germany
Posted in Reviews on February 24th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
There are few psychedelic escapes as distinctive as that of Craig Williamson‘s Lamp of the Universe. The Hamilton, New Zealand, solo artist is now 27 years deep into the exploration with the project — this year makes it 25 since the first album, The Cosmic Union, which has already been reissued — and Existence of the Self reconciles with some of that personal history in a piece like second cut “Ship of Eternity,” based around acoustic guitar and sitar drone with tabla percussion and Williamson‘s at-times-fragile vocals, the human presence conveying a searching that’s been evident in creative growth now across (I think?) 15 full-lengths, but also accounts for later movements in its mellotron-centered second half.
Layering has always been a part of Lamp of the Universe‘s approach, both by necessity — it would be difficult for Williamson to handle the sitar, the guitar, the percussion, the various synths and the singing all at once — and by aesthetic, which is to say, the balance and depth of the mix is also an instrument being utilized in the recording. Existence of the Self is characteristic in this at its outset as “Sceptre of Healing” unfolds with lush and ethereal melody that will be familiar to those who have followed Williamson on this journey likewise outward and inward, and the opening track signals some measure of departure from late 2023’s Kaleidoscopic Mind (review here), which had been following a trajectory toward a more full-band-style sound, principally expressed in the use of a full drum kit.
Williamson, of course, is no stranger to bands. His roots in the heavy rockers Datura, or his stint with the trio Arc of Ascent in the first half of the 2010s, or his current, ongoing solo band Dead Shrine, whose second album, Cydonia Mensa (review here), came out in April 2025, all provide relevant examples, but while Lamp of the Universe has a history of collaborations and in the last couple years has produced releases working with Dr. Space of Øresund Space Collective (review here) and Trappist Afterland (discussed here), it alsoretains an identity that’s readily apparent throughout the six-song arc of Existence of the Self.
Some of what that means is you’ll know it’s Lamp of the Universe when you hear it, if you know the project or Williamson‘s work with and around it. That’s a strength in terms of aural persona and the material in question, even if the tradeoff is there’s probably little in Existence of the Self that will be a blindside, even with the drums in “Mantric Waves” and the eight-minute penultimate title-track and the cinematic blend of mellotron and other keyboards in subsequent closer “Arkkadian Ritual,” but this too is part of the appeal.
Especially given the longterm nature of the project and its expressive, Eastern-stylized core, a strong thread of continuity exists from album to album while a fittingly organic progression in songwriting, arrangement, delivery and production. Thus, while most of the ‘shock factor’ for longtime fans will be in how folkish “Ship of Eternity” is in relation to Williamson‘s recent output, or in the way “Mantric Waves” (the longest inclusion here at 8:49) uses repetition to create a sense of drone that’s just as likely as not what the title is speaking to without giving up actual forward movement, the album is part of a throughline of crafted manifestation.
All of this is to say that whatever elements across Existence of the Self might feel familiar to longtime listeners, that’s an asset, not a hindrance to the listening experience. And every record is somebody’s introduction. I’ve been listening to Williamson‘s records for over 20 years, and writing about them nearly that long as well (predating this site), but in the warm fluidity of strum in “Sceptre of Healing,” the swirl and shaker-based movement of “Into the Light” and the outbound direction of “Existence of the Self” and “Arkkadian Ritual” at the record’s finish, I have to think that this LP, more than some of the other recent offerings under the Lamp of the Universe banner, would make a suitable place for a new listener to get on board. I know that sometimes when a band, artist, etc., has a significant back catalog, that in itself can be a barrier since as a newcomer it seems like there’s a whole world (spoiler in this case: there is a world) to take on and who the hell knows where to begin that process, but much of the scope of Lamp of the Universe is accounted for here, in some measure or another.
For that reason, if Existence of the Self — and surely there’s no lack of self-awareness at this point in Williamson‘s songwriting — is or would be your first experience with Lamp of the Universe, it’s a good place to start, because while it speaks somewhat to the molten psych-folk serenity of early days, it does so as part of a framework that’s grown broader-reaching over the last two and a half decades while maintaining its central crux. The acoustic guitar, the sitar, and Williamson‘s voice are, in some ways, part of that crux, and the expanded arrangements around them feel built up through exploration. In some ways, one might approach Existence of the Self in pairs.
“Sceptre of Healing” and “Ship of Eternity” set forth on the journey. “Mantric Waves” and “Into the Light” carry a sense of motion and push deeper through the psychedelic far-out, while “Existence of the Self,” with its soulful strum and down-to-get-down sleek underlying groove mark the arrival point and “Arkkadian Ritual” backs that with a particular feeling of space. I don’t know if Williamson intended the flow of Existence of the Self to be that kind of pilgrimage narrative or not, but it’s a structure that has let me engage the album as a whole work while accounting for the shifts in mood and tone throughout, and to which the overarching procession holds up. It’s a fitting moment for Lamp of the Universe to look back and see the path laid out behind, but Williamson has always kept a (third?) eye directed on the future, and that very much remains the case. In concept and realization, singular.
Lamp of the Universe, Existence of the Self (2026)
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 16th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
It’s technically true that the last Lamp of the Universe LP was 2023’s Kaleidoscope Mind (review here), it’s also true that’s not as long ago as it seems. Three years? Well that record came out in November and it’s January, so really more like two-plus. And in the interim, Craig Williamson — auteur of the project for over 25 years — has released a 2024 collaborative LP with Dr. Space (review here), and a limited 7″ collab with Trappist Afterland (discussed here), while also putting out the second full-length from his other solo-outfit, the heavier-rocking Dead Shrine (review here), so there hasn’t been any real dearth of activity. Suits me just fine.
That said, a new Lamp of the Universe album is only going to be welcome in my mind, and Existence of the Self bears out the assertions below of things like “looking backwards and forwards” and harkening back to the early days of Williamson‘s acid folk exploration, laced with sitar and meditative vibing. Comprised of six songs, it’s a divergence from, well, some of Williamson‘s divergences, relying less on drums, synth and other elements that have surfaced in his work in recent years, and instead digging into the foundations of the project.
I’ll have more to say about it closer to the release, but here’s the news for now, hoisted from socials and Bandcamp:
LAMP OF THE UNIVERSE – New Album “Existence of the Self”. Out on Sound Effect Records February 26th 2026.
“Emerging from the New Zealand wilderness and first new album in almost 3 years, Craig Williamson has returned. With a very transcendental, meditative, tranced album, somehow looking backwards and forwards at the same time.
All the familiar aspects are present from that early Acoustic, Sitar, Folk/Psych Lamp of the Universe sound, but there is a more enlightened spiritual vibe that exists here.”
February 26th “Existence of the Self” Lamp of the Universe Sound Effect Records SER151
Tracklisting: 1. Sceptre of Healing 2. Ship of Eternity 3. Mantric Waves 4. Into the Light 5. Existence of the Self 6. Arkkadian Ritual
Though if you’re up for streaming it in full, you can do so now on the player near the bottom of this post, this Friday marks the official/physical release date for The Weight of Forever, the first new LP from Athens heavy rockers Headquake in 11 years. Issuing through Sound Effect Records, the album launches with the declarative “Higher Than You” (video premiering below) and comes across like they’ve been holding onto secret bangers for the last decade-plus.
I’m sure there’s a story there, but if you’ve ever wondered what might give a band impetus to put out a release 11 years subsequent to the one before it, usually that’s a case of expressive urgency, and the songs on The Weight of Forever would seem to bear that out. “Higher Than You” breaks at the halfway point to set up the riff it’ll ride to its finish, like something from classic C.O.C., but miraculously not chestbeating, establishing the opening track as the first of three hooky ear-grabbers, with “Belong to the Past” and “Hey My Man” following, the first slower, the latter rocking and cynical.
This leads to the YOBby guitar intro of centerpiece/longest track “World as a Whole,” with the bass coming forward in the initial verses and an awaited breakout before the three-minute mark that even just that far into the 7:49 runtime makes it feel like you’ve been there a long time. “World as a Whole” makes a hook of its title line and has a doomier figure on guitar for complement, but changes the focus to atmosphere with its psychedelic intro and outro sections, which lets “Release Me” hit all the more as a blend of classic doom and heavy rock, part-Pentagram and part-Sasquatch, marked out by the solos punching through rhythm layers and a return to the more grounded structures made over a still-longer span.
If that feels like it would be a transition back to where they were circa “Belong to the Past,” I don’t think you’re wrong, but Headquake have collected some bruises between there and here and the mood of “My Soul” is somewhat darker. Still, a reorientation continuing off of “Release Me” and moving toward “Lives Collide,” which in the flow of The Weight of Forever as a whole has the role of paying off not only its own progression but that of the entire record around it. You can tell this because it sounds like a crescendo from the start. They push through another righteously catchy chorus and set their trajectory outward, then it’s all go, but there’s never a loss of control or purpose in how “Lives Collide” plays out.
Instead, like the entire LP before it, the finale demonstrates a control over and flexibility of songcraft that becomes a central appeal, letting the band span decades in intangible genre-on-genre influences and still come out sounding like themselves. If you haven’t heard it, it’s streaming on the player near the bottom of this post. If you’d like to get introduced, the video for “Higher Than You” premieres below.
Please enjoy:
Headquake, “Higher Than You” video premiere
After a decade-long silence, Athens’ own Headquake returns with a thunderous statement. On November 7th, 2025, the band will unleash their long-awaited record “The Weight of Forever” — available on vinyl and across all digital platforms. For fans of heavy rock, stoner, grunge, punk and doom, this release marks a bold re-entry. The new songs fuse crushing riffs, soulful grooves, and raw intensity, delivering a sonic experience that both honors Headquake’s roots and pushes them into a thrilling new terrain.
This comeback comes after the critical acclaim of 2014’s “Into the Spiral”, which solidified Headquake’s position in the Greek heavy rock underground. “The Weight of Forever” is not just a sequel, it is a rebirth. After years of writing, evolving and honing their sound, Headquake now steps back into the spotlight, ready to re-ignite the fires under longtime fans and win over a new generation of listeners.
Heavy as the weight of forever.
Tracklisting: 1. Higher Than You 03:36 2. Belong To The Past 05:15 3. Hey My Man 04:15 4. World As A Whole 07:49 5. Release Me 06:59 6. My Soul 05:29 7. Lives Collide 06:07
“The Weight of Forever” is due out on digital and gatefold vinyl, classic black and very limited bone/baby blue vinyl, with a stunning artwork! On Sound Effect Records! It is now on pre-sale here:https://www.soundeffect-records.gr/the-weight-of-forever
Athens heavy rockers Widow Pit make their self-titled debut this week through Sound Effect Records. And I don’t know what might lead a band who’ve been around for 14 years to not only suddenly decide to release a first album, but then to go and record the entire thing live (save for backing vocals, which were added later in the day as noted below) in a single session just eight hours long, but it certainly explains the sense of momentum the four-piece build throughout the seven-song/37-minute offering. The steady groove of “Backstreet” sets them forth, and some garage rock balances out with classic metal in “Eyes on Fire” and the speedier “Night is My Girl” — as opposed to the later “Madonna,” in which vocalist Nikolas Kalogirou repeats the line, “She’s my woman” — to set a tone of movement to which the centerpiece “Burn” (lyric video premiering below) answers with a density of groove and barrage of effects for an even-more-off-the-cuff feel.
Kalogirou is joined in the band by guitarist Petros Michopoulos, bassist Alessandro Catagneri (also backing vocals) and drummer Thanos Tampakopoulos, and by no means are they the first group in history to make an album the way they did. Time was, showing up to a studio and playing your songs was how records were made; The Beatles famously tracked Please Please Me in 12 hours. Widow Pit‘s Widow Pit benefits from the edge the performance gives it. The feedback surrounding “Burn” on either side of the song itself, as well as the urgency of its chorus and classic-style guitar solo, give hints of what flourishes throughout the LP in terms of the character of the material, and the overarching impression is loose thanks to the regardless-of-tempo fluidity in the rhythm section, but I don’t think an album made in this way comes out as coherent as this is without the songs having already been around.
That is, having been a band for 14 years prior to making their debut, Widow Pit have very clearly spent some portion of that time developing their onstage presentation. In addition to being an aesthetic choice, then, recording live might just be playing to their strengths as a group. In that light, it makes more sense than piecing stems together until a song is built. This is who they are. The honesty of it is admirable, in addition to all the rocking that happens front-to-back.
In that regard, side B brings the last three cuts, all of them longer than any of the first four, as “Dust and Decay” picks up with a rush from the swaying finish of “Burn” and digs in with due snare punctuation and punkish fervor until they depart the hook and trip out in the second half with a bit of strut for good measure, lightly psychedelic but never really unstructured. The aforementioned “Madonna” follows, wets down the fuzz and offers another memorable chorus ahead of an instrumental departure in its midsection — not quite a jam, not quite not — before turning back around to renew the procession. With its modernized classic swing, closer “Where Silence Reigns” calls to mind earlier Greenleaf (a compliment) and again tinges on psychedelia with a final wash that leaves little to wonder how it wound up as the closer.
The noise ultimately wins the day, but they’re rocking all the while until the drums stop and the looped vocal winds down and the feedback gives over to waves with marked smoothness — this was apparently done live too; they nailed it which is in keeping with the rest of the results here — allowing a moment to process the raw take on traditional metal and heavy rock riffing, the nuance of groove and tone, and the unabashed fun they so clearly had that day back in April. That all of this manages to come through on Widow Pit — that the energy comes through, vibrant and declarative — is indicative of the band’s experience, sure, but still makes for a pretty special debut full-length. In naming it after themselves, they make it absolutely believable that this is who they are and have been all the while on stage.
As noted, the lyric video for “Burn” premieres below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
Widow Pit, “Burn” lyric video
Widow Pit – Widow Pit (SER149LP)
Widow Pit is probably the best hidden (so far) secret of the Athenian Heavy/Psych/Doom rock scene. The band actually began its activity in the distant 2011. Various problems and personnel changes slowed down the band’s pace and, apart from some sporadic live performances, they, so far, did not manage to record the album that would put them on the map for good.
The band’s name is inspired by the historical toponym of Chirolakas in the maritime city of Galaxidi, Greece. The port of the same name was traditionally the place where widows mourned the lost fighters and sailors in the pre-revolutionary period and later in the years of the ship era. It literally means “the widow pit”!
The few who have listened to the band so far, have realized and loved their special Heavy/Psych/Doom rock, which is produced with a genuine rock ‘n’ roll attitude by the experienced members of the band (already active in bands like Devil Flower Mantis, Selefice, Lokruz, Wheelers and Weevil).
After the pandemic, the band reactivated with some live shows and finally on April 5, 2025 they hit Downstroke studio with producer Thanos Amorginos (The Last Drive, The Earthbound) and recorded their first album, exactly as they envisioned, live in just eight hours!
The self-titled debut album will be released on digital and limited edition vinyl (classic black and super-limited transparent clear) on October 31st, 2025 by Sound Effect Records.
This album was recording on April 5, 2025, in a single eight hour session!
The full performance, instruments and lead vocals, was tracked live. Only backing vocals were added at the end of the session.
