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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Some of it vibes more experimental, and some leans into ur-cool Velvet Undergroundy gravelly poetry over a mellowpsych backdrop, but Gothenburg’s Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds lives up to its name one way or the other. The upcoming Berlin Nights is the second album from Svensson this year behind a release with his Cosmic Garden Project (also on Sound Effect Records), but as I missed that and am getting caught up (my email and the label’s email haven’t been able to talk in months; I feel lucky to have gotten the PR), a moody but not necessarily brooding or downer execution gives pieces like the desert-fuzzy “Opening the Door to the Cosmos” and the sitar-laced “Philosopher’s Stone” charm beyond the plays to genre.
If you’re not familiar — and I’ll say it’s cool because I wasn’t either — Svensson is a sound artist of the wins-grants variety known for various installations and pieces around Sweden. Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds and Cosmic Garden Project are ongoing current projects, and he was also in Swedish rockers Gold (not the Dutch band) in the however-long ago. There isn’t audio up from Berlin Nights as yet, but “Night Shift” below comes from the project’s last outing and is a burner just the same. I’m doing my best here, alright?
From the PR wire:
Sound Effect Records PRESENTS: Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds – Berlin Nights: OUT Oct-10th, 2025
Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds returns with the new album “Berlin Nights” released on Sound Effect Records. The Gothenburg-based multi-instrumentalist and “Contemporary Swedish psych overlord Per Svensson” (Shindig), on the new album, makes his psychedelic music created in the city of Berlin, in the Swedish countryside and in the endless Swedish forest. Songs like Endless Forest, Philosopher’s Stone, Berlin Nights and Opening the door to Cosmos.
Widening the psychedelic spectrum through poetic Sound Journeys into the unconscious. Per Svensson Psychedelic Sounds’ music is often described as a combination of kraut rock and psychedelia with poetic layers and field recordings. The band played at the first Psykstämman festival on Brännö in Gothenburg in 2023 and at Skeppet, Fyrens Ölkafé, Garaget in Hammenhög, Klubb Död in Stockholm etc. venues in connection with the release of previous albums “Magic Trip” in 2023, “Gothenburg Sounds” in 2022, “Psychedelic Sounds” in 2019. Per Svensson b. 1965 in Gothenburg Sweden, Artist, Musician, made 2 albums with The Kingdom of Evol together with Freddie Wadling etc., and 3 albums with The New Alchemy. Now working in parallel with Cosmic Garden Project, GOLD and Autosound. Per Svensson’s music is often connected to alchemy and nature.
The new album “Berlin Nights” was recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany and in the Swedish countryside in Uppåkra, Sweden, at House on the Hill Studio. On the new album, the poetry describes the mystery of life and death, but also rebirth, the new beginning or reincarnation: The spiral rotation of time, space and matter. The music on the new album focuses on the return of life through death and opens the door to a Psychedelic cosmos.
Dancing Through the Earthis the second full-length from Munich, Germany, four-piece Miss Mellow, delivered through Sound Effect Records. It comes behind an impressively funky 2023 self-titled debut, and gives an immediate impression of growth around the band’s core approach, which accounts not only for that funk, but the heavy, classic-prog backdrop against which it rests, and a scope that includes a couple takes on world music for what seems to be an expanding palette. The album runs nine songs and 46 minutes and is likewise manageable and satisfying to immerse, as the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Joshua Lilienthal, bassist/vocalist David Stockinger, guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Michele Loria and drummer Niccolò Schmitter proffer their own creative reach in confident style, able to carry the listener through the initial quirk of “Dancing Through the Earth I,” which leads off as the first of four-parts of the title-track, alternating between about two and a half and four and a half minutes each; one two one two.
A somewhat curious decision to split up “Dancing Through the Earth” when Miss Mellow here and in the past have demonstrated no aversion to long songs — closer “Stop the Strive” tops 12 minutes, and on the debut, “Who Abides?” was just over 10 — but each shift between the parts indeed brings a change in the movement in question. It’s weird, but actually, it’s really effective through that in telling the listener a few things they need to know going into the rest of Dancing Through the Earth, which holds to the method of changing up mood/vibe, whether that’s “Kanonen” making a fuzzy thrust over neo-psych shuffle, pairing drift and nod later on, keys and guitar intertwining for a subtly rich effect on a tune that’s still so much about movement, or the also-busted-up “Blackout I” and “Blackout II,” which also get their own “Prelude” of manipulated piano before making a run through the party en route to a kind of clearheaded yacht psych, still drawing from funk and soul, and stately and bluesy in the delivery. It’s not about heft, then, or really anywhere, but about the twists and the variety of textures and the grooving use to which they might be put.
One should not neglect to mention Alex Hartl at OGM Studios, who recorded, mixed (with David Stockinger) and mastered the album. Miss Mellow are that much more able to cast an organic persona in this material for the naturalism in the recording and the breadth being put to use in the mix. That’s not to say “Stop the Strive,” with a guest appearance from Junsuke Kondo on guitar and vocals and a tense strum in its second half that feels like it comes from Mediterranean folk, having taken off from the soothing stretch of harmonized voices — anyone who remembers Scott Reeder‘s solo album might have a context for appreciation there — followed by a bit of Eastern-tinged guitar meander. Wherever it might be coming from, it feels about half a world away from the subdued drift of the smooth-prog in “Dancing Through the Earth II,” which shifts from its highlight solo to a keyboard-led boogie before a sudden turn to blowout riffing brings the arrival of “Dancing Through the Earth III,” the various movements united as much through differentiation as by consistency. That is to say, Miss Mellow are in the process of showing their listeners who they are as a band at this point and perhaps who they’re going to be as their reach outside the heavy-psych norms continues to grow.
Though short at 2:22, “Dancing Through the Earth III” is more foreboding, with drama in the keys and guitar and a doomlier lurch met by shoutier (but still not really shouted) vocals. It isn’t chaos, but it hints toward it, so fitting of course that Miss Mellow completely pull the rug out from under it with “Dancing Through the Earth IV,” with a lighthearted instrumental stretch shifting into a quirky verse and an affect that’s either funk-prog or prog-funk; I’m not entirely sure where the line is and I like it that way. Jojo Winter guesting on percussion would seem to be a factor in that movement (for sure in the closer), but maybe there’s just a lot going on otherwise, but the point is that even as the last part of the four-parter hits a quick melodic finish, “Kanonen” is ready on a direct bleed, so part of what Miss Mellow are so successful in doing here is not only creating a space for the listener in their music, but bringing the audience with them on these changes. If you’re willing to follow where Miss Mellow lead, and they largely make doing so a pleasure, then it’s possible to find ethereal resonance even in the most earthbound of their flowing, interwoven parts. To wit, the urgency with which “Kanonen” gets underway is met later on with a slowdown bridge (they bring it back to end, no worries; a fuzzy thrust Truckfighters might smile to hear), and finishes with what seems almost like a goof of harmonized guitar, but that nonetheless confirms attention to detail through every step of the song. Nothing here is happening by accident.
Piano and voice in “Prelude” — prefacing the vocal harmonies in “Stop the Strive,” and why not — finish in a wash of synth that transitions into the initial swirl and arrival of the clear-toned strum in “Blackout I.” Again, this is the party, and if “Blackout II” is the comedown, it must’ve been a cool time. That leaves “Stop the Strive” somewhat on its own — or would, if it weren’t for another immediate change from one track to the next — but the single-part closer sums up the direction of the material preceding capably, while likewise finding somewhere of its own to go. Still purposeful, Miss Mellow do dirty-up the guitar tone for their last stretch of riffing, but it’s the fleetness of the leads around that denser fuzz that stand even more for who the band are and the manner in which they’ve honed these songs, as they not only return to the verse from what might be the blowout finish that would end so many other records, but they then turn around and find another level of distortion to unveil the real blowout in the last measures of “Stop the Strive,” making the most of one more opportunity to bask in the character so vividly portrayed in their craft.
Athens-based heavy progressives The Lotus Matter will release their debut album, In Limbo Pt. 1, through Sound Effect Records on June 13. As one can see in the extensive list of guest performers below — they hit 10, which will happen when you bring in a string quartet on your opening track — the record is neither without ambition nor scope. Katerina Charalampopoulou sets the tone vocally with the quiet croon on “In Limbo” before giving over to the nine-minute sprawl of “Into the Bone,” the first of several hypnotic transitions made throughout the five-song/45-minute long-player while keeping a focus on melody and expressive intention.
There are progressive metal aspects, born reportedly out of more extreme influences from their earlier days (this is their first record; how early are we talking?), but while I wouldn’t call In Limbo Pt. 1 patient in the sense of being content to dwell in parts — it is that when it wants to be, but mostly The Lotus Matter are on their way somewhere — it is brimming with intention.
The Opethian shift to acoustic and piano in “Into the Bone,” for example, and the emergence from it, the airy-then-bopping start to side B and the post-grunge melody that plays out over successive dramatic finishes there, with “Run. Rest. Return.” being a particular highlight with a dark existential lounge-y kind of sound, not quite yacht metal, but classy in performance and arrangement, however brooding the album’s second half might get. Or the first, for that matter, which wants nothing for intricacy either.
Ultimately, there isn’t a single part or impression that typifies In Limbo Pt. 1, but it’s vibrant front-to-back, even as it explores spaces more or less liminal-sounding from the grit of their weightiest chug to the bagpipes in the side-A-capping centerpiece “Erased?” Here, as across the album, the arrangement and the craft are thoughtful and tasteful, metal-rooted in a way that will feel familiar to those who’ve gotten into the ritualism of Poland’s Sunnata, but the range here is The Lotus Matter‘s own.
And the album is surprisingly encompassing for a debut. I don’t know that The Lotus Matter — guitarists Constantinos Nyktas (also vocals) and Giorgos Petsangourakis, keyboardist/vocalist Aggelos Bracholli, bassist/vocalist Panagiotis Vekiloglou and featuring the drumming of Lazaros Papageorgiou — have an In Limbo Pt. 2 waiting in the can or they don’t, but the linearity across what’s billed as Pt. 1 of an implied series, however limited, offers a complete-album flow and cohesion.
Whether you’re listening on a two-sided vinyl or straight through digitally or on CD — make no mistake, 1993’s favorite format is coming back around — digging into the tension in the drums early on “Run. Rest. Return.” or the last harmonies of “The Shepherd,” they never hold it so tight as to be insular or inaccessible, but to give a sense of grace to correspond to the heavier or brasher moments of those culminations.
That is to say, they go way, way down, and they go way, way up and whatever you want that to mean, you’re probably right. But the point is the dynamics, the unwillingness to rest, and the corresponding unwillingness to put anything in the songs that doesn’t want to be there. There’s no shortage of flourish in In Limbo Pt. 1, but it’s purposeful, and the songs are accordingly complex without sounding bloated because, in the end, the songs are what’s being served by the arrangements.
Below you’ll find the premiere of the video for “Erased?,” followed by more from the PR wire, including all those credits for who does what.
As always, I hope you enjoy:
The Lotus Matter, “Erased?” video premiere
“In Limbo Pt. 1” is the debut album from the Greek Progressive/Post Metal band The Lotus Matter. Originally formed in 2017 under a different name and lineup, the 5-piece went through several changes over the following years. As the band transitioned from their early progressive death metal sound, their music evolved into a more experimental and atmospheric style, blending a diverse array of influences and genres.
Informed by ‘90s post-metal/indie, they couple art-rock density with classic ‘70s “grandeur”! “In Limbo Pt. 1” is complex yet crispy, with distinct, interlocking melodies over a cinematic ambience.
The album was recorded at both Backstage and Brain Drain Studios, mixed by John Vulgaris at Electric Highway Studios and mastered by Theodoros Bournas at Arkadikon Studio. In addition to the core members of the band, The Lotus Matter employ guest vocalists, strings and bagpipes, elevating “In Limbo Pt. 1” to a non-stop artistic feat!
“In Limbo Pt. 1” is due out on June 13, on limited edition vinyl (classic black and bone color vinyl), and digipack CD, via Sound Effect Records.
Tracklisting: 1. In Limbo 2. Into The Bone 3. Erased? 4. Run, Rest, Return 5. The Shepherd
Credits: Recorded at Brain Drain studios Drums recorded at Backstage studios Mixed by John Voulgaris at Electric Highway Studio Additional Mixing by Panagiotis Vekiloglou and Constantinos Nyktas at Backstage Studios Mastering by Theodoros Bournas at Arkadikon Studio Photos by Christianna Gerou, Collage by Anna Spyraki, Layout by George Fotopoulos Very special thanks to Nikos Michalas
Additional Performers: Lazaros Papageorgiou – Drums Katerina Charalampopoulou – Lead Vocals on “In Limbo”, Backing Vocals on “Into The Bone” and “Run. Rest. Return.” Stavrialena Gontzou – Backing Vocals on “Into The Bone” and “Run. Rest. Return.” Kostas Trakadas – Trumpet on “Run. Rest. Return.” Konstantinos Lazos – Bagpipes on “Erased?” Aggeliki Ikonomou – Violin on “In Limbo” Nikos Firgiolas – Viola on “In Limbo” Rafail Kontogouris – Viola on “In Limbo” Marianna Maraletou – Cello on “In Limbo”
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 7th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Look, it’s been a rough couple days where I’m at. I know that doesn’t have jack shit to do with Iron Blanket, who are from Australia and who put out their Astral Wanderer LP earlier this year on Copper Feast and Sound Effect Records, and who are from Australia. I know. Unrelated. But man, everything just feels like a drag. Existing got heavier, and not in a good way.
So I’m not saying don’t watch Iron Blanket‘s ‘Live at Red Belly Records’ live session. At all. I’m saying stop whatever else you’re doing and immerse in it. Don’t just watch it. Maybe put some headphones on, turn the volume up and really let go for a while. I don’t know where you are or your situation, but if you actually make it through all 25 minutes with some kind of mental escape, isn’t that automatically a win? Just a couple minutes of being someplace else in your head?
The video has four songs, three of which were on Astral Wanderer and the concluding “Jam Sandwich,” which, yes, has plenty of jam. Maybe it’s what you need today and maybe it isn’t. I don’t know. But sitting here doing this feels stupid and listening to music doesn’t, so I’m gonna put on some tunes and try to check out for a while.
Peace:
Sydney powerhouse IRON BLANKET slithered their way up into the into Redbelly studios after their Album release after ‘That’ night at the Northern in Byron Bay.
Here’s: Mystic Goddess 00:45 Visions of the End 05:20 Kookaburra Nightmare 11:11 Jam sandwich 20:25
Filmed: 47 Studio Edited: 47 Studio / Red Belly Records Recorded: Red Belly Records Mixed + Mastered: Iron Blanket
Iron Blanket is: Mark Lonsdale – Guitar Nick Matthews – Drums Tom Withford – Guitar Charles Eggleston – Bass Johann Ingemar – Vocals
Posted in Reviews on October 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Second week of the Fall 2024 Quarterly Review begins now. You stoked? Nah, probably not, but at least at the end of this week there will be another 50 records for you to check out, added to the 50 from last week to make 100 total releases covered. So, I mean, it’s not nothing. But I understand if it isn’t the make-or-break of your afternoon.
Last week was killer, and today gets us off to another good start. Crazy, it’s almost like I’m enjoying this. Who the hell ever heard of such a thing?
Quarterly Review #51-60:
—
White Hills, Beyond This Fiction
New York’s own psychedelic heads on fire White Hills return with Beyond This Fiction, a collection of sounds so otherworldly and lysergic they can’t help but be real. Seven tracks range from the fluid “Throw it Up in the Air” to the bassy experimental new wave of “Clear as Day,” veering into gentle noise rock as it does before “Killing Crimson” issues its own marching orders, coming across like if you beamed Fu Manchu through the accretion disk of a black hole and the audio experienced gravitational lensing. “Fiend” brings the two sides together and dares to get a little dreamy while doing it, the interlude “Closer” is a wash of drone, and “The Awakening” is a good deal of drone itself, but topped with spoken word, and the closing title-track takes place light-years from here in a kind of time humans haven’t yet learned to measure. It’s okay. White Hills records will still be around decades from now, when humans finally catch up to them. I’m not holding my breath, though.
Five records deep into a tenure now more than a decade long, I feel like Demon Head are a band that are the answer to a lot of questions being asked. Oh, where’s the classic-style band doing something new? Who’s a band who can sound like The Cure playing black metal and be neither of those things? Where’s a band doing forward-thinking proto-doom, not at all hindered by the apparent temporal impossibility of looking ahead and back at the same time? Here they are. They’re called Demon Head. Their fifth album is called Through holes Shine the Stars, and its it’s-night-time-and-so-we-chug-different sax-afflicted ride in “Draw Down the Stars” is consuming as the band take the ’70s doomery of their beginnings to genuinely new and progressive places. The depth of vocal layering throughout — “The Chalice,” the atmo-doom sprawl of “Every Flatworm,” the rousing, swinging hook and ensuing gallop of “Frost,” and so on — adds drama and persona to the songs, and the songs aren’t wanting otherwise, with a dug-in intricacy of construction and malleable underlying groove. Seriously. Maybe Demon Head are the band you’re looking for.
You can call Earth Ship sludge metal, and you’re not really wrong, but you’re not the most right either. The Berlin-based trio founded by guitarist/vocalist Jan Oberg and bassist Sabine Oberg, plus André Klein on drums, offer enough crush to hit that mark for sure, but the tight, almost Ministry-esque vocals on the title-track, the way “Radiant” dips subtly toward psychedelia as a side-A-capping preface to the languid clean-sung nod of “Daze and Delights,” giving symmetry to what can feel chaotic as “Ethereal Limbo” builds into its crescendo, fuzzed but threatening aggression soon to manifest in “Acrid Haze,” give even the nastiest moments throughout a sense of creative reach. That is to say, Soar — which Jan Oberg also recorded, mixed and mastered at Hidden Planet Studio and which sees release through the band’s The Lasting Dose Records — resides in more than one style, with opener “Shallow” dropping some hints of what’s to come and a special lumber seeming to be dedicated to the penultimate “Bereft,” which proves to be a peak in its own right. The Obergs seem to split their time these days between Earth Ship and the somewhat more ferocious Grin. In neither outfit do they misspend it.
Bassist/vocalist Tommy Stewart (ex-Hallows Eve, owner of Black Doomba Records) once more sits in the driver’s seat of the project that shares his name, and with four new tracks Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf on Fyrewulf One — which I swear sounds like the name of a military helicopter or somesuch — offer what will reportedly be half of their third long-player with an intention toward delivering Fyrewulf Two next year. Fair enough. “Kept Pain Busy” is the longest and grooviest fare on offer, bolstered by the quirk of shorter opener “Me ‘n’ My Meds” and the somewhat more madcap “Zoomagazoo,” which touches on heavy rockabilly in its swing, with a duly feedback-inclusive cover of Bloodrock‘s “Melvin Laid an Egg” for good measure. The feeling of saunter is palpable there for the organ, but prevalent throughout the original songs as well, as Stewart and drummer Dennis Reid (Patrick Salerno guests on the cover) know what they’re about, whether it’s garage-punk-psych trip of “Me ‘n’ My Meds” the swing that ensues.
The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — presents A Grand Stream as the result of Smote guitarist Daniel Foggin and drummer Rob Law absconding to a cabin in the woods by a stream to write and record. There’s certainly escapism in it, and one might argue Smote‘s folk-tinged drone and atmospheric heavy meditations have always had an aspect of leaving the ol’ consciousness at the flung-open doors of perception, etc., but the 10-minute undulating-but-mostly-stationary noise in “Chantry” is still a lot to take. That it follows the 16-miinute “Coming Out of a Hedge Backwards,” laced with sitar and synth and other backing currents filling out the ambience, should be indicative of the sprawl of the over-70-minute LP to begin with. Smote aren’t strangers at this point to the expanse or to longform expression, but there still seems to be a sense of plunging into the unknown throughout A Grand Stream as they make their way deeper into the 18-minute “The Opinion of the Lamb Pt. 2,” and the rolling realization of “Sitting Stone Pt. 1” at the beginning resounds over all of it.
Hard to argue with Mammoth Caravan‘s bruising metallism, not the least because by the time you’d open your mouth to do so the Little Rock, Arkansas, trio have already run you under their aural steamroller and you’re too flat to get the words out. The six-song/36-minute Frostbitten Galaxy is the second record from the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Robert Warner, bassist/vocalist Brandon Ringo and drummer Khetner Howton, and in the willful meander of “Cosmic Clairvoyance,” in many of their intros, in the tradeoffs of the penultimate “Prehistoric Spacefarer” and in the clean-sung finale “Sky Burial,” they not only back the outright crush of “Tusks of Orion” and “Siege in the Stars,” as well as opener/longest track (immediate points) “Absolute Zero,” with atmospheric intention, but with a bit of dared melody that feels like a foretell of things to come from the band. On Frostbitten Galaxy and its correspondingly chilly 2023 predecessor Ice Cold Oblivion (review here), Mammoth Caravan have proven they can pummel. Here they begin the process of expanding their sound around that.
If you caught Harvestman‘s psychedelic dub and guitar experimentalism on Triptych Part One (review here) earlier this year, perhaps it won’t come as a shock to find former Neurosis guitarist/vocalist Steve Von Till, aka Harvestman, working in a similar vein on Triptych Part Two. There’s more to it than just heady chill, but to be sure that’s part of what’s on offer too in the immersive drone of “The Falconer” or the 10-minute “The Hag of Beara vs. the Poet (Forest Dub),” which reinterprets and plays with the makeup of opener “The Hag of Beara vs. the Poet.” “Damascus” has a more outward-facing take and active percussive base, while “Vapour Phase” answers “The Falconer” with some later foreboding synthesis — closer “The Unjust Incarceration” adds guitar that I’ve been saying for years sounds like bagpipes and still does to this mix — while the penultimate “Galvanized and Torn Open,” despite the visceral title, brings smoother textures and a steady, calm rhythm. The story’s not finished yet, but Von Till has already covered a significant swath of ground.
Following up on 2022’s successful debut full-length, Born of Obsidian, the 11-song/37-minute Of Amber and Sand highlights the UK outfit’s flexibility of approach as regards metal, sludge, post-heavy impulses, intricate arrangements and fullness of sound as conveyed through the production. So yes, it’s quite a thing. They quietly and perhaps wisely moved on from the bit of amateur anthropology that defined the MesoAmerican thematic of the first record, and as Of Amber and Sand complements the thrown elbows in the midsection of “Death No More” and the proggy rhythmmaking of “Fenjaan” with shorter interludes of various stripes, eventually and satisfyingly getting to a point in “Bell Tower,” “Neheh” and “Timekeeper” where the ambience and the heft become one thing for a few minutes — and that’s kind of a separate journey from the rest of the record, which turns back to its purposes with “Crux Ansata,” but it works — but the surrounding interludes give each song a chance to make its own impact, and Kurokuma take advantage every time.
SlugWeed, The Mind’s Ability to Think Abstract Thoughts
Do you think a band called SlugWeed would be heavy and slow? If so, you’d be right. Would it help if I told you the last single was called “Bongcloud?” The instrumental New England solo-project — which, like anything else these days, might be AI — has an ecosystem’s worth of releases up on Bandcamp dating back to an apparent birth as a pandemic project with the long-player The Power of the Leaf, and the 11-minute single “The Mind’s Ability to Think Abstract Thoughts” follows the pattern in holding to the central ethic of lumbering instrumental riffage, all dank and probably knowing about trichomes and such. The song itself is a massive chug-and-groover, and gradually opens to a more atmospheric texture as it goes, but the central idea is in the going itself, which is slow, plodding, and returns from its drift around a fervent chug that reminds of a (slower) take on some of what Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol had on offer earlier in the year. It probably won’t be long before SlugWeed return with anther single or EP, so “The Mind’s Ability to Think Abstract Thoughts” may just be a step on the way. Fine for the size of the footprint in question.
Dug-in solo krautistry from Tempe, Arizona’s Jeff Hopp, Man and Robot Society‘s Asteroid Lost comes steeped in science-fiction lore and mellow space-prog vibes. It’s immersive, and not a story without struggle or conflict as represented in the music — which is instrumental and doesn’t really want, need or have a ton of room for vocals, though there are spots where shoehorning could be done if Hopp was desperate — but if you take the trip just as it is, either put your own story to it or just go with the music, the music is enough to go on itself, and there’s more than one applicable thread of plot to be woven in “Nomads of the Sand” or the later “Man of Chrome,” which resonates a classic feel in the guitar ahead of the more vibrant space funk of “The Nekropol,” which stages a righteous keyboard takeover as it comes out of its midsection and into the theremin-sounding second half. You never quite know what’s coming next, but since it all flows as a single work, that becomes part of the experience Man and Robot Society offer, and is a strength as the closing title-track loses the asteroid but finds a bit of fuzzy twist to finish.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 16th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Interesting that the first track streaming from Orkestr‘s debut album, I, should be “We’ll Start Anew,” which is an idea that to my mind leans into some of the science-fiction elements noted in the PR wire info for the record below. In all likelihood “Time at the Speed of Light” would qualify in theme as well, but there’s an optimism in the idea of starting over, a hopefulness, that my Star Trek-loving self can very much appreciate even as I sit stupefied and watch the real world burn around me. Escapism? Maybe. Or maybe retrofuturist yacht prog-psych is the wave of things to come. I won’t profess to know.
The e’er-reliable Sound Effect Records has this one slated for Sept. 6, which is like forever from now and also something like a month and a half. If that’s when the better-future is coming, I’ll do my best to be ready, but that’s a lot to ask of a band’s first LP, so perhaps it’s better to just vibe on the three and a half minutes presently on offer and worry about the rest when the time comes, which surely it will, burning world or not.
Here’s the cover and that info I mentioned:
Sound Effect presents: ORKESTR – “I” – OUT Sep-6th 2024
ORKESTR is a space rock band from Horst aan de Maas, The Netherlands, that combines textured synths, melodic bass guitar and laid-back drums to create timeless soundscapes for your sci-fi dreams.
ORKESTR was formed in late 2019 by four seasoned musicians who earned their stripes in the local scene with bands such as No Man’s Valley and The Mothmen. The COVID-19 pandemic presented an unexpected challenge, forcing them to pivot and focus on their studio craft. This unscheduled detour ultimately led to the creation of their debut album.
After years of hard work, second-guessing, and lessons learned, ORKESTR is proud to announce the release of their self-titled debut, distributed by Sound Effect Records. The album will be accompanied by an animated film by the artist Jenzen. The future looks bright for ORKESTR – or should we say, the retrofuture?
“Orkestr” is due out September 6, 2024, on limited private-press vinyl and digisleeve CD, on Sound Effect Records. Now available for pre-order.
Tracklisting: 1. Kovcheg XIV 2. We’ll Start Anew 3. The Checklist 4. Time at the Speed of Light 5. Engines Humming 6. Touching from a Distance 7. Daytime 8. Dark Between the Stars 9. A Shadow 10. Daytime (Reprise) 11. Arrival 12. Promises 13. Alien Wilderness
