Posted in Whathaveyou on March 6th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Spirit Mother were in Europe last summer to tour, and that stint included shows with the likes of King Buffalo and Colour Haze. They released Songs From the Basin (review here) as a brief glimpse at their capacity for reinterpreting material as well as demonstrating the root from which at least some of their songs spring — acoustic strum and melodymaking. After putting out their second album, Trails (review here), through Heavy Psych Sounds in Fall 2024, the band announced this past December they’d signed to Sound of Liberation Records for their third LP, which is apparently called Thistle and will be released sometime later this year.
The band posted some shots from recording — you can see one below (credit to David Jacob) — and you’ll note Chase Howard joining the lineup. You might know Howard from playing with Kadabra in Washington, but that band just a couple weeks ago announced he was leaving. I’m not sure if he’s permanently in Spirit Mother or was doing it as a session thing, but he’s a killer drummer anyhow and isn’t somebody likely to make your band worse. They thank him for “stepping in,” which says not-permanent to me, but I don’t want to read too much into it and feel dumb later, so there you go.
I have no word on a release date or the tour plans and obviously those would be the two foremost questions in mind, apart from “can I hear it yet?,” which I guess is obvious. The rest, when I see, I’ll say.
Have at it:
Hello friends! Our 3rd album “Thistle” will be out this Fall with @soundofliberationrecords 🥀 recorded at SJ and Armand’s home in the High Desert of Eastern Oregon. The band came out for a week of tracking and it was one for the damn 📚 S/o to @drumsplaychase for stepping in for these sessions and CRUSHING the drums! Here’s a few shots from our week of recording, more soon.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 12th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
I saw a video the other day wherein Spirit Mother, or at least the portion of it comprised of guitarist/vocalist Armand Lance and violinist/vocalist SJ, talk about some of their plans for next year and note, as Lance holds their baby, that part of the reason they haven’t been on tour as much in 2025 (though they did do a sizable European stint this past summer) is because they made a human. Fair.
In that same clip, which I attempted to embed below, mostly just because it’s nice to see people happy with a baby, they talk about how it’s time to knuckle down and start writing an album. Also fair. Spirit Mother put out a Lance/SJ two-songer earlier this year called Songs From the Basin (review here), but their most recent album is 2024’s Trails (review here). That’s not that old but for an internationally touring unit looking to keep momentum on their side and grow their audience, yeah, 2026 will probably be time for a follow-up.
At least we know what label it’ll be on as they’ve aligned with the label wind of European heavy booking agency Sound of Liberation for their next release. I’ll call the moment they’re facing crucial, because I genuinely believe in this band’s songwriting and think it’s time for them to really make a record that’s front-to-back the best they can. Trails and the prior 2020 debut, Cadets (review here), showed a distinctive growth in craft and atmosphere, a range of moods and an ability to make a song memorable. If they can manage to step forward in this regard, I think it would be reasonable to say they’re living up to their potential, but it’s got to be a next-level kind of collection, which is exactly what I have faith they can put together.
Here’s looking forward:
⚡SPIRIT MOTHER ⚡
We’re thrilled to welcome Spirit Mother to Sound of Liberation Records!
Spirit Mother create heavy rock shaped through a folk-informed and classical lens. We’re incredibly happy to have them on board and can’t wait to share their new music with the world.
Welcome to the family, Spirit Mother!
Spirit Mother are: Armand Lance: Vocals, Bass, Baritone, Acoustic & Electric Guitars SJ: Violin & Vocals Sean McCormick: Electric Guitar Landon Cisneros: Drums & Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 9th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
You’ll pardon me if I spare myself looking back to see I’ve probably said the same thing every year for the last decade or so, but Keep it Low is always a very particular kind of daydream. First of all, it’s the kind that usually includes Colour Haze, and that’s an autowin as the Munich-based heavy psych progenitors have a tendency to do the hometown party. But second, among all the busy times happening around Europe each and every October, Keep it Low has always stood out to me in having vibe as part of the mission from the go. Like it’s not just about you and the bands in the room, but how that space is being shared.
I’ve never been, which is kind of a bummer, and I’m not expecting to go anytime soon, but it’s a pleasure to see who’s going to be there and wonder at the implications for who might be on the road next Fall between the likes of 1000mods and Spirit Mother, etc. I’m pretty sure this is the first October-weekend fest announcement I’ve seen — you have to admit, it’s early — but the low-key-killer first announcement below is part and parcel to why I’ve lost so many minutes over the years wondering what it would be like to actually be at this thing.
From social media:
KEEP IT LOW #12 – ⚡️FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT IS HERE⚡️
Keep It Low Festival returns to Munich in 2026 — heavier, louder and fuzzier than ever.
📍 Backstage München 🗓️ 09 – 10 October 2026
We’re kicking things off with a massive first wave of bands:
1000MODS THE DEVIL AND THE ALMIGHTY BLUES DEATHCHANT SPIRIT MOTHER FOMIES SUCK SKYJOGGERS KOMBYNAT ROBOTRON LEBER & MANY MORE TO COME!
Two full days of heavy rock, doom, sludge & psych. Two stages, an outdoor beergarden, and all the vibes you need to get lost in the low end.
Posted in Reviews on October 9th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Today is Thursday, but it’s day five of the Fall 2025 Quarterly Review because I snuck in that first day last Friday. I cannot convey to you how much that has screwed me up. Turns out when you do one thing precisely one way for like 13 years and then all of a sudden flip it around another way it can be confusing. Stay tuned for more deep-impact life hacks and insights like this.
Or maybe riffs instead. It’s okay. That’s most of what keeps me coming back too.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Paradise Lost, Ascension
More than 35 years on from their outset, Paradise Lost are an institution. I know they’ve had their stylistic divergences, but since recommitting themselves to their morose take on doom metal more than 15 years ago, they’ve hit a rare echelon of reliability one can only call Kreator-esque. That’s not a sonic comparison, but like the German thrash stalwarts, Paradise Lost have their sound — dark and more malleable in tempo than the thickened tones make it feel across these 10 songs — and within that sphere are able to do basically what they want musically and make it work. Side A’s “Salvation,” the longest inclusion at seven minutes, is a tour de force of the appeal of modern Paradise Lost, and a fitting summary of how encompassing they’ve become while still remaining recognizable as themselves. They even get hooky on “Deceivers,” so yes, still growing, still pushing, still Paradise Lost. A once-a-generation band, even as part of a cohort as they were, and not to be taken for granted.
The sixth full-length from still-younger-than-some-bands-who-haven’t-been-around-as-long Icelandic heavy rockers The Vintage Caravan plays out across 17 tracks and 59 minutes, with groups of songs presumably corresponding to double-vinyl side splits separated by interludes each of which is named “Portal.” So, Portals. The first of them follows “Philosopher,” the lead single which features Mikael Åkerfeldt, who turns out to be one of several guests across the record, but the real headliner is the songwriting. In the big choruses of “Here You Come Again,” “Give and Take,” and others, the band recall a heyday when rock could be heavy and accessible outside its own sphere, while “Electrified” later on builds into a tense boogie hook before “Portal V” transitions to the acoustic-based “My Aurora” and the closer “This Road,” one more uptempo, shred-inclusive, exceptionally well-crafted piece of The Vintage Caravan‘s classic-heavy-informed style, efficient in getting its point across despite allowing itself time to dwell as it does throughout.
It’s not really a huge surprise that Los Angeles dark heavy psych rockers Spirit Mother would ‘go acoustic’ at some point, given the dynamic they’ve showcased to-date on their definitely-plugged studio albums. The most recent of those, 2024’s righteous, Heavy Psych Sounds-issued Trails (review here), is the source for “Wolves” and “Below,” which feature on this short, stripped-down offering. “Wolves,” which capped the record in memorable fashion, leads off here with its foreboding feeling all the more realized given the state of the world, while “Below” finds violinist SJ pushing into a soft crescendo taking off from Armand Lance‘s guitar and vocals. Recorded live, Songs From the Basin sounds duly organic, and whenever Spirit Mother in any form — that is, the full band or just the duo as they are here — wants to drop a full acoustic set, I’m here for it. Once again, the lesson is once you have well-written songs, you can make them do and be just about whatever you want.
I’m pretty sure the now-Berlin-based experimentalist duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff are north of 30 full-lengths released since their first one in 2002, and that doesn’t count blurring the lines between one project and another with collaborations or Baker‘s solo work. Prolific as they are, they remain expressive in the hard-drum-machined “It’s Cold When You Cut Me” (15:09), one of the four extended inclusions of Cut, where the sinister undercurrent comes to fruition in the song’s second half of manipulated, noisy drone. “Dark, No Knowledge” (13:26) lays out a distorted landscape and rolls through it, Godflesh in a hand-cranked meat grinder, becoming a swell of apocalyptic noise, while “She Ate His Dreams From the Inside and Spat Out the Frozen Fucking Bones” (15:14) dares to be pretty as it leaves spaces open and fills out later with psychedelic processionmaking, leaving the immediate ritual of “Omenformation” to resonate high before piling on low end frequencies while also freakjazzing and riffing out. The noise swallows all but it turns out there’s salvation in that monster’s stomach, so I’ll take it. One Nadja album may be an inevitable precursor to the next one, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make it a world of its own.
Düsseldorf-bred psych rockers Vibravoid belong in a class of undervalued all their own. As they mark their 35th anniversary, they begin their new studio album Remove the Ties with a mischievous redirect of krautrock-style electronics before the garage-wavey “Neustart” and pop-shimmerier “Power of Dreams” dig further into the heart of the record, letting side A round out with the longer, deeper-reverbed “Follow Me Follow You” and its effects barrage play out atop the steady kick drum tasked with holding it together. But nobody who’s been in a band for 35 years is about to actually be sloppy, and there’s no actual danger of off-the-rails on Remove the TiesBaby Woodrose roamed the earth. Vibravoid were there then too. It’s easy to get around when you’re from a different dimension.
Do you have six minutes for a good pummeling? Of course you do. Brooklynite four-piece For Fuck’s Sake offer two tracks like a digital punker 7″ with 7-Minute Abs/Lobotomy, and they make no attempt to hide the fact of their sights being set on destruction. Their sound, rooted in hardcore and sludge in like measure, counting in with the snare on “7-Minute Abs” and daring to cross the three-minutes-long threshold with the fervent chug and bone-on-bone impact of “Lobotomy,” reminds of nothing so much as earlier 16, but with an unmistakable edge of Northeastern confrontationalism. That is, they’ll fuck you up and they know it, so that’s what they’re setting out to do. Barking, gnashing intensity set a harsh backdrop for what’s an engaging groove so long as you’re pissed off enough to process it (which you should be; look around), and the rawness of their delivery, the unabashed assault of it, comes through as genuine. Also punishing.
Classic heavy rock and roll forms the core of Paralyzed‘s approach, with guitarist Michael Binder‘s low, gravelly vocals reminiscent of Jim Morrison at his least hinged, suited to the blues behind second cut “Railroad” and the subsequent march of “Rosie’s Town” on the band’s third LP, Rumble & Roar. To say they — that is, Binder, organist/rhythm guitarist Caterina Böhner, bassist Philipp Engelbrecht and drummer Florian Thiele — make it a party across the nine-song/41-minute outing is perhaps understating the case, but if you’d accuse “Heavy Blues” of being too on the nose, you’re missing the fact that on the nose is the point. There’s no irony here, no sneer to the boogie of “White Paper” or the slow organ-laced fluidity of “The Witch,” just heavy vibes and reaffirmation of the band’s growth as songwriters. I’m not even sure where one would start complaining about such a thing.
Delivered as their label-debut for Magnetic Eye Records, the 10-song/40-minute Bear is the fourth full-length from Nashville two-piece Friendship Commanders, with guitarist/vocalist Buick Audra and drummer/bassist/synthesist Jerry Roe having recorded with Kurt Ballou in addition to doing some at home for an affect accordingly tight in craft and heavy in impact. “Melt” pushes toward a ’90s-style reimagining of heavy rock as both commercially viable and empowering, while “X” pairs its tonal crunch with the keyboardy reach of its midsection, poppish but still heavy even unto the snare hits. Pop becomes another tool in their arsenal, whether it’s the layered ascent and push of “New” or the weighted culmination presented with closer “Dead and Discarded Girls,” and the band don’t seem to shy away from being able to compose at the level they are. At the same time, “Dripping Silver” feels fully cognizant of the radness in the riff it’s riding, so there’s a balance to it as well. They sound like professionals.
Former Iron Man and, as of recently, former Spiral Grave vocalist “Screaming Mad” Dee Calhoun is pissed. The Maryland-based acoustic metal troubadour sounds resolute on Angry Old Man, and while his past solo work could hardly be said to pull punches, he hits a different level of laying it all out there on “Kill a Motherfucker” late in the procession here. As ever, hollow-bodied-resonance is the foundation throughout, but other elements like the harmonica in “Voodoo Queen” and the tolling bell at the outset of “VVitch (A Chant)” (not really a chant) fill out the reaches when Calhoun‘s powerhouse voice — still his primary instrument, though the guitar work has gotten more complex with time as well — recedes to a softer delivery. But when he belts it out — looking at you, “Rise Up to March” — he can shake the ground, and if you have any prior familiarity with his work, you already know he’s unmistakable in that regard. That remains the case here, even as he positions himself the titular Angry Old Man. Ain’t none of us getting any younger, dude.
The narrative of the band getting together after a few years, enjoying each other’s company as they wrote and recorded Sörmland — named for where in Sweden they were — becomes real with the mellowprog delve of “Honey Trap” more than the shorter leadoff “Video,” as pastoralia takes centerstage with organic melodies and a casual groove. Unsurprisingly if you know Twin Peaks, “Laura Palmer’s Theme” is darker, but the real reference it’s making seems to be to “Moonlight Sonata” as regards the keys, but “Neon Lights” answers back by being in no hurry whatsoever with sweet intertwining guitar lines and a subtle build to later movement. At 11 minutes, the title-track that caps is the longest inclusion, but fair enough since they have to make room for that tenor sax and all. I wouldn’t know from experience, but Sörmland is what I imagine it would sound like to be emotionally regulated, ever, and anytime Automatism want to get together out in the woods or by some fields or a lake or whathaveyou, I hope someone has the presence of mind to hit record.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 21st, 2025 by JJ Koczan
If you push play on the video below — can’t miss it down there; it’s quite large and from Instagram — you’ll hear guitarist/vocalist Armand Lance and violinist/vocalist SJ from Portland, Oregon’s Spirit Mother doing an unplugged take on “Below” from their 2024 sophomore LP, Trails (review here), just the two of them. I know the band has done shows in this configuration as well, and they’re assembling acoustic recordings — there are two so far, “Below” and “Wolves,” also from Trails — onto a release they’re calling Songs From the Basin. The impression I get is there are more coming, but I have no details on the whens or hows or what will ultimately result, whether it’s an album, EP or what.
What I do know is we won’t find out this week, because Spirit Mother — the full band — are busy. They’ll head back to Europe to start a tour through Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, as they continue to support the record following the massive cross-US stint they did last Fall. You can see the list of festivals they’ll be at along with club shows below. Note they’ll be part of the killer Hoflärm lineup Aug. 14.
The following came from socials:
Lil film of SJ and I recording our acoustic version of “Below” as we prepare for tour. Once again live, and once again on one intentionally placed microphone 🎙️. We enjoy sharing these stripped down versions because it shines a light on how our music is written. We’re putting these live recordings into a collection called “Songs From The Basin” Check it out on bandcamp at the link in our bio 🖤 SEE YA SOON (w/ full band), EUROPE!!
23.07 Freakout Club – Bologna IT 24.07 Zoona – Bolzano IT 25.07 Rock Im Wald Festival – Neuensee DE 26.07 Blue Moon Festival – Cottbus DE 27.07 Burg Herzberg Festival – Breitenbach DE 28.07 Live Club – Bamburg DE 29.07 Cafe Glocksee – Hannover DE 30.07 Pitcher – Düsseldorf DE 01.08 Festivalkult – Porta Westfalica DE 02.08 Supersonic Club – Paris FR 03.08 De VerbroederIJ – Amsterdam NL 04.08 Backyard Club – Recklinghausen NL 05.08 P8 – Karlsruhe DE + 06.08 Musiktheater Piano – Dortmund DE + 07.08 Tivoli – Utrecht NL + 08.08 Kantine Open Air – Köln DE * 11.08 Theatron Musiksommer – Munich DE 13.08 Roxy Sound Garten Open Air – Ulm DE 14.08 Hoflärm Festival – Marienthal DE 16.08 The Black Lab – Wasquehal FR +
+ w/ King Buffalo *w/ Colour Haze
Spirit Mother are: Armand Lance: Vocals, Bass, Baritone, Acoustic & Electric Guitars SJ: Violin & Vocals Sean McCormick: Electric Guitar Landon Cisneros: Drums & Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 5th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’m with Hoflärm on this one. After 24 years of writing out the full year all the time — it was worst in the aughts, admittedly, but I’m still more inclined to type 2024 instead of just ’24 — it’s time to admit that we’re probably talking about this century rather than the previous one when it comes to a festival announcing a lineup for, say, months in the future. So, as you can see on the poster below, Hoflärm ’25 is not only doing this, but doing it with a banger of a lineup to support its argument. Plus, my understanding is the fest has a pretty casual vibe anyhow — I’ve never heard a bad word about it from either anyone who has attended or played — so the ’25 fits. Wait until the ’40s.
Graveyard and Monolord at the top of the bill is a winning opening salvo from the German three-dayer, but that’s really just the tip of the riffberg, with Rezn and Elephant Tree, MaidaVale, The Warlocks and Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi taking part, Khan coming from Australia, Annie Taylor and her band from Switzerland, Spirit Mother making a return to Europe, Coltaine supporting their new album, plus Vug, Piece and Lurch and more to come. Nothing to complain about as they put tickets on sale for those who might be fortunate enough to make the trip from wherever. I expect a few of these will have tours around them — Khan, Spirit Mother, Rezn, Vinnum Sabbathi — so that will be worth keeping an eye on, but whatever shakes out in that regard, Hoflärm looks sweet as hell.
From social media, which was a thing back in the ’20s:
⚡️ Hoflärm 2025 – Satan‘s Finest ⚡️
The goat cult continues – First Bands + Presale Start 🪦
We thrilled to announce that we are back – 14. – 16.08.2025 – Tickets are now an sale. Link in Bio 🐐
Please welcome the first bands for 2025:
@graveyardmusic and @monolordofficial will headline Friday and Saturday of @hoflaerm 2025!
We are more than happy to welcome Monolord again after their cancellation in 2022!
We are proud to announce Graveyard as festival headliner! This band has been an elementary companion since the first idea for this festival.
@rezzzn , @elephant_tree_band and @pieceismetal are going to open the fields of doom!
@thewarlocks , @maidavaleband @khanbandofficial and @lurch.band are here to trip with you through the cosmic clouds above!
Shake your knees to @annietaylorband , @vug.band and @spiritmotherband while you walk through the dark woods around Hoflärm with @vinnumsabbathiband and @coltaine !
Posted in Reviews on September 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Before Show
Doors aren’t for a while yet, and I’m sitting out the back of the Knockdown Center as far out of the way as I can put myself and still be here. It’s good to be here. I crashed hard after the pre-show last night, and it wasn’t painful when the alarm went off at 8AM, unless of course you count the various old-rocker ailments that hit me alongside consciousness. There’s a reason I bring ibuprofen to these things.
I’m staying with Tim Bugbee — a photographer and one of those people who proves you can be both insanely talented and kind — in an AirBNB down the way, and it was about five minutes by car from a to b. Coming into town, I did not travel light. Big suitcase, laptop bag, camera bag; I felt as though all my belongings were compressed to a maximum extent coming back from Budapest last month. This is hardly the same kind of trip, but I wanted to spread out a little. I brought a pack of seltzer, some leftover chicken. I can be comfortable while doing a thing. It’s allowed. I stopped short of bringing a coffee pot, but should have. I’m not usually much for Keurigs, but it was functional. My grinds can come home with me.
This was basically the mellow morning before two days of go. Fine. I sat in my car for an hour and a half from 11:30AM-1:00PM so it didn’t get ticketed or towed because alternate side parking — it didn’t — and hung around in air conditioning because it’s hot in the sun. The whole weekend is supposed to be gorgeous weather, warm and sunny, but the light is Fall. Can’t climate change the Earth’s orbit, I guess. Angles of the light and all that.
Seemingly random, but sitting off to the side in the main venue space, I just saw Amy Tung Barrysmith from Year of the Cobra checking bass and vocals with Amenra. It was a surprise; wouldn’t have been if I kept up with the band’s social media. No drama. Their bassist couldn’t make the trip, so she’s filling in. They announced it a few days ago. I wonder what the connection is there, but I’ll take it either way. I’ve never been huge on Amenra on a personal-listening level, but I’ve yet to hear Amy Tung Barrysmith play on a thing and not like it more for her involvement. Should be an interesting set. Cool. It will be the eighth one of the total 10 sets played today. I hope to see at least part of everybody. Will keep you posted how it goes.
To that end:
Guhts
My first time seeing Guhts, which is a thing worth remembering. Their first album, Regeneration (review here), is my one to beat for best debut of 2024, if that matters. More to the point, they were fucking great. Obviously I dig the record too, but at full volume and assault, it was just the right combination of expansive and oppressive. They had the laptop going the whole time with keyboard parts and various electronic atmospherics, and with the four of them up there, it was pretty clear ever were giving 100 percent of everything to the performance. The passion came through raw, and actually, having the backdrop and transitional drones happening apart from the band, emphasizing the ferocity of the delivery when they let loose. As they did. Righteously. If that had been the end of the night, the day would be a win.
Blackwater Holylight
It had been a couple years and, admittedly, there was the contextual weirdness of it being Psycho Las Vegas — that’s not a dig; their whole thing was absurdity — last time I saw Blackwater Holylight, but the sinister sound of 2021’s Silence/Motion (review here) came to life as part of an ambient pastiche. It was more immersive than a lot of heavy bands are willing to be, and I guess you could call that ‘gaze of some variety or other, but that almost implied a kind of laziness and Blackwater Holylight were as much fuzzy progressive grunge metal as they were languid nod, with keyboards adding to the texture of the melodies, some toward psychedelic but clearly mindful of place and time. And maybe they riff out for a while too. How is that anything but awesome?
Abrams
Among the bands I haven’t seen before, I was most curious and what Abrams would bring. The Denver heavy rockers are ultra-reliable somgwriters, and they’ve always had a clarity of purpose in their arrangements and structures that is underrated by exponents, but in the Texas room it was more about hitting hard and representing the scope of their craft. Some emo in there, or at least the punk of the aughts. In any case, they were dynamic and leaned into the impact of their heavier stretches. At the same time, they weren’t void of mood at all, and guitarist/vocalist Zach Amster is the charismatic frontman he has always seemed to be. Dude can sing. I stood in the back for most of the set, and I could feel my earplugs shaking in my ears. People had their fists up. I’m not shitting you. And seeing them live, maybe part of why they’re undervalued is they’re a bit between styles. They’re a heavy rock band, but that’s not it. They’re metal, prog, punk and a few besides. Practiced but not at all dry in their delivery, I have to wonder if Abrams ever plays a show without making a new fan.
Primitive Man
Brutal turn of vibe. You know on paper what you’re getting with also-Danver’s Primitive Man — punishment; sounds no less likely to consume you having just bludgeoned you into oblivion — but the reality of the thing is even more destructive. Caustic doom as a genre? Crushing doom? Those sound like words that could be things. Doesn’t matter. Also from Denver, the trio were a vision of aural misanthropy, extremist in purpose and volume. There have only been like three bands today, so it doesn’t mean a ton to call them the heaviest as even their quiet parts had a rumble beneath that you could feel in your chest, but they were the heaviest of the fest so far and it would take a lot of noise to beat. Frequencies as weapons. Malevolence and probably a truckload of dry ice. I wouldn’t call myself well adjusted by any measure — if I was, I’d have stopped doing this years ago — but even on a level of catharsis, Primitive Man are a lot to take. Which, wait for it, is the point of the thing. If dystopia’s coming, they’re ready. And brutally sad. I didn’t know any of the songs. Mostly they were terrifying. And it was astonishing that it could still be daylight while they played. If Khanate are hacking you to pieces, Primitive Man are pulling concrete blocks on your chest until you can’t breathe anymore.
Spirit Mother
About as fresh in my mind as they possibly could be since the album they put out today was streamed here yesterday. They played a good deal of Trails, and brought a heap of noise to the prior single “Locust,” and were thick in vibe while still keeping the songs moving. A fill-in violinist/vocalist held down that role without question, and Armand Lance pushed his vocals into screams and was still able to carry the melody alongside said violinist when the guitar and bass dropped out and it was vocals and ride cymbal only for a few measures in “Wolves.” Some aspects of Young Hunter, All Them Witches, but Spirit Mother are very much their own thing on the balance, and their songs are getting darker, more expansive, and better. My second time seeing them, and I’m extra glad to have seen them play the Trails material. I’ll look forward to the next one.
Belzebong
Riff-forward instrumental stoner sludge metallers Belzebong came all the way from Poland to elicit crusty vibes in fog that I couldn’t tell if it was theirs or leftover from Primitive Man. Surely they’re used to haze, one way or the other. Big nod, ‘Bong Fire Death’ — because Bathory, god damnit! — in the backs of the bass and guitars, amd an absolute lock on tone, there was precious little to not like. You would not call them subtle and neither are they trying to be. Doom. Fucking. Riffs. Black. Fucking. Sabbath. You get the idea. Like their countrymen worshipers in Dopelord, they wear their love of weed on their collective sleeve, and I get it. And “it” in this circumstance means stoned. But the reason it works is because the music and their performance of it is as much a celebration as anything else, and they’re not trying to convince anyone they invented Sleep riffs. They’re the kind of band that, if you’re in this thing, make complete sense, and would confuse the shit out of normal people. It’s a very specific idea of fun. Always a pleasure to see them.
Deathchant
I crossed paths with Deathchant in June at Freak Valley (review here), so not quite topping Spirit Mother for being in my head, but not terribly far off either. They were going to be a ripper on stage and they were. Thin Lizzy and Motörhead and Sabbath and DRI or whoever; they own records. But volume and energy and shove were the order of things, however much the two guitars might veer into NWOBHM-type harmony on the way. I was late getting in to take pictures, but that’s okay. I don’t really like taking pictures most of the time, and I do like talking to friends, so if I’m not in front of the stage for everything, fine. I was on the side. Still enough perspective to know Deathchant were the start of the party for a lot of the heads in the room, which was later-in-evening crowded, and fair enough. The West Coast skate thing doesn’t always translate in New York, but some things hit just right. I’d never seen them before last August at SonicBlast (review here) — to which they returned this year — now it’s three times in 13 months. Maybe I’m a fan.
Amenra
Sure enough, Amy Tung Barrysmith on bass. They’re not a casual band, Amenra. They’re not the kind of thing one might put on in the background of an otherwise quiet afternoon. And it’s all so very important-feeling, very solemn, whether a given part is loud and screamy or subdued and melodic. It’s a genre trope — partly in Amenra’s wake, I think — for pprt-metal to take itself seriously. So they do the thing where Colin H. Van Eeckhout bangs the sticks together while kneeling at the start, and there’s the strobe matching the heft of tone and emotional immediacy with its own kind of sensory overload. They have a lurch and an undulating waves of distortion that’s their own, and it’s not a hot take they’re incredible at what they do, but I’ve never managed to get fully on board. My loss. It was a blast to watch Amy from Year of the Cobra playing with them, though, and just because they may not be a band I put on all the time doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what they do and the influence they’ve had. It just means I’m probably going to be early for Domkraft.
Domkraft
And so I was. A band worth being early for. I spent most of the set right in the front, obnoxiously so, I’m sure, and kind of let go and nodded out for a bit. I didn’t fall asleep while Domkraft were playing or anything close to it. But it’s not a conscious thing when that riff hits you just right anyhow. I have to think the moshers know what I’m talking about. Starting out on a nine-day US run, the Swedish three-piece indeed were a culminating force from the Texas Stage, riffs bouncing off concrete walls and back again, creating that much more presence in the sound. There was a technical issue with the guitar, but it wasn’t actually that long in fixing, and they were right to restart “Whispers.” They’re are a lesson in the difference a great drummer can make, but they’re also a lesson in the difference a great everything can make. The lesson I learned was that I don’t appreciate their guitar solos enough, and the way I learned it was by being fortunate enough to be on the planet at the same time as the band.
High on Fire
The band who taught the world to shred riffs. Last met at the beginning of July in Croatia for Bear Stone (review here), though certainly they’ve been elsewhere since then, and they continue to hold their own standard. There was some not-fun-kind feedback intermittent early on, but it was a High on Fire set, like they wouldn’t deliver? They’re returning headliners at Desertfest New York, having played in 2022 (review here), and I don’t have a ton to say about them that didn’t apply two months ago, but to sum up they’re one of the best heavy-anything bands of their generation. I continue to dig the way they’re able to vary tempo in the live show while keeping the balance toward intensity on an LP. Of course they’re headlining. Hopefully it won’t be the last time they do. This forever will be the time that somebody was blowing bubbles during “Rumors of War,” however.
Unless they want to make it tradition or something. Which would be okay too, for sure. Hashtag Bubbles of War.
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On that happy note, good night. I’ve been writing all day at the fest, and I’m ready to call it an evening. Tomorrow brings Dozer, Spaceslug and sundry other delights. There are more pics after the jump, and as always, thank you for reading.
Dark desert psych rockers Spirit Mother are playing three shows on the Eastern Seaboard this week, including Desertfest New York, coinciding with the anticipated release tomorrow, Sept. 13, of their second album and first studio outing through Heavy Psych Sounds, Trails. If you recall, the now-mostly-West-Coast-I-think outfit made their debut with 2020’s Cadets (review here) and took part the next year in the ‘Live in the Mojave Desert’ pandemic-era streaming series.
The resultant live album, Live in the Mojave Desert (review here), was issued via Heavy Psych Sounds, and gave the then-Cali-based outfit a showcase next to the likes of Earthless, Nebula and Stöner, as well as Mountain Tamer. Spirit Mother met that moment with a richly textured sound based in scrub-bush sprawl but nascent in the pursuit of ideas beyond the bounds of microgenre. The Eddie Brnabic-produced Trails, as one would have hoped, sees the potential Spirit Mother demonstrated on that evening at Giant Rock beginning to come to fruition in their sound. Across 10 tracks and 38 minutes, the band explore aural nightcraft, setting a creepy atmosphere in the quick intro “Passage” before the title-track takes hold with stark standalone guitar.
It’s not about violence, or at least not specifically — maybe Uncle Acid are a subtle influence, but so far as I can tell nobody’s sexualizing murder — but between the various guitars woven through “Trails” and the subsequent pieces from Armand Lance (electric, acoustic, baritone, bass) and Sean McCormick, the violin and backing vocal contributions of SJ and the fluidity Landon Cisneros brings to the drums holding the arrangements together, the band are able to bring a cinematic atmosphere to songs that are pointedly concise; the longest of the bunch is forebodingly catchy closer “Wolves” at 5:29 and nothing else touches the five-minute mark. Depth and brevity, impact and sprawl.
There are shades of Americana in the warnings being issued amid the sinewy grooves of “Veins” or even the string-anchored drone and crashes of “Tonic,” and volatility to match the attitudinal sneer as Lance‘s vocals don’t shy away from screaming when the song calls for it. If we’re out in the desert, we’re out there alone, at night, huddled in the surprising cold and vastness, waiting to be eaten. There’s some respite to be had as “Below” weaves acoustic guitar strum into the suitably expansive mix and paces itself to highlight flow leading into Trails‘ second half, and “Vessel” has a sense of breakout as it shoves uptempo to its finish, one of the more propulsive stretches on a record that’s plenty brash and accordingly brooding.
But, in part because Spirit Mother never dwell too long in one song or arrangement, Trails puts momentum on its side early and holds it there for the duration. The swing in “Emerald,” or the dug-in cycles of “Vessel,” or even the penultimate “Given,” where the drums sit out and acoustic guitar, ambient drone and atmospheric vocals set up the arrival of “Wolves” with the last and maybe most memorable of Trails‘ hooks, taking the warning of the title-track — “You should’ve stayed/Back where you came/This city is a grave” — to a place of more direct threat with the lines, “You have no idea/Who is wolf and who is deer/All around you.”
If you’ve been following the band’s course across the record in all its dynamic shifts and immersive, consuming arrangements, that’s a hell of a place to end up, but it’s not a record about safety, and at least in terms of style, Spirit Mother aren’t playing it safe either. Cadets had no shortage of mood, but these songs portray a different side of the heavy Americana proffered by the likes of Lord Buffalo or All Them Witches, and they distinguish Spirit Mother as a band more about their own creative impulses than one playing to style. I don’t think it’s a coincidence they called it Trails. As a group, they’re out there too, walking a path into the unknown, and as much as Trails builds up the world in which that path resides, the essence of the thing is the movement through it and the way the band carry the listener from front-to-back.
As the cover art attests, there is more happening dimensionally in the material that comprises Trails than it might first appear, and to be sure, it’s a record that reveals more of its methods and ideologies on repeat listens, but without exception, even in “Given” where the balance is most tipped toward impressionism over impact, the song is paramount. That’s evident from the way “Passage” leaves off and “Trails” picks up from the silence — not what one would expect in terms of transition, but it works — through the nonetheless hypnotic push of “Wolves,” and even more than the heft or severity of a given moment, it’s how it all feeds into the overarching reach of Trails as a whole where Spirit Mother seem to find themselves.
And by that I don’t just mean where they end up, but where they discover who they are as a band. I won’t hazard to predict how their development will play out from here — a third full-length always tells you a lot about who a band are, and Spirit Mother will get there — but if there’s a plot, it’s only made thicker by the progression evident in their approach to this point and the individualism stemming from it. Approach it with an open mind and it’s a record that might just speak to you in unanticipated ways.
Trails streams in its entirety below, followed by the preorder links and Spirit Mother‘s upcoming tour dates, the bulk of which are supporting the freak-legendary Acid Mothers Temple.
The undeniable next chapter in the band’s creative process, “Trails” brings the energy of the US foursome’s visceral, all-in live performances while expanding on the sensibilities of their debut album “Cadets”. The darker tonality, heavier, fuzz-fueled riffs, and relentless rhythm section accompany prolific structures and arrangement. The violin summons a brooding, atmospheric pedestal for the remaining power trio to wield with fervor. Lance’s haunting vocals and stark lyricism intersperse the instrumentals with a melody as dynamic as it is accessible.
Spirit Mother with Acid Mothers Temple (except *): 9/12 @bugjar Rochester NY* 9/13 @desertfest_nyc * 9/14 @33golden New London CT* 9/27 @casbahsandiego San Diego CA 9/28 @lodgeroom LA CA 9/29 @moesalley Santa Cruz CA 9/30 @theestorkcluboakland Oakland CA 10/1 @harlowsnightclub Sacramento CA 10/2 @johnhenryseugene Eugene OR 10/3 @tractortavern Seattle WA 10/4 @aladdintheater Portland OR 10/5 @silvermoonbrewing Bend OR 10/6 @realms.7 Boise ID 10/7 @urbanloungeslc Salt Lake City UT 10/8 @bluebirdtheater Denver CO 10/9 @recordbar Kansas City MO 10/10 @turfclubmn St. Paul MN 10/11 @cactusclubmke Milwaukee WI 10/12 @sl33pingvillag3 Chicago IL 10/13 @highnoonmadison Madison WI 10/14 @portal_louisville Louisville KY 10/15 @sghrevival Newport KY 10/16 @thegrogshop Cleveland Heights OH 10/17 @buffaloironworks Buffalo NY 10/18 @alchemy_providence Providence RI 10/19 @tveyenyc Queens NY 10/20 @milkboyphilly Philadelphia PA 10/21 @metro_baltimore Baltimore MD 10/22 @thepourhouse Raleigh NC 10/23 @masquerade_atl Atlanta GA 10/25 @the_merrywidow Mobile AL 10/26 @siberianeworleans New Orleans LA 10/27 @freetown_boomboomroom Lafayette LA 10/29 @thehitonecafe Memphis TN 10/30 @mercuryloungetulsa Tulsa OK 10/31 @levitation Austin TX 11/1 @resonant_head Oklahoma City OK 11/2 @sisterbar Albuquerque NM 11/3 @therebelphx Phoenix AZ 11/4 @wayfarercm Costa Mesa CA
Spirit Mother are: Armand Lance: Vocals, Bass, Baritone, Acoustic & Electric Guitars SJ: Violin & Vocals Sean McCormick: Electric Guitar Landon Cisneros: Drums & Percussion
