I’m not trying to play Mr. Cool here or anything like that, but I’m just not sure how much of an announcement there is to coincide with Slomosa’s new video for “Battling Guns.” I was hoping the PR wire would have word of their new album to coincide with the single/clip’s release, but no such luck as yet. The band I think put it up at midnight last night CET, and it’s still early AM on the US East Coast, so maybe the press release will be along.

The Norwegian four-piece are due to confirm a release date for their second album, of which “Battling Guns” is a highlight, among other things around that. They’ve already lined up their first-ever US touring, in odd-fit-but-whatever support of Alkaline Trio this September, and after that they’re set to return to Europe on the quick to co-headline with Greenleaf as Psychlona open. A concurrent album release doesn’t seem unreasonable as expectations go, but until I see it, I’m not saying it. Record could show up in December for all I know.

Whenever it’s due, Slomosa‘s sophomore outing will have received significant lead-in. “Battling Guns” follows behind two other singles in “Rice” and “Cabin Fever” (video premiere here), and last I heard both of those were also on the record. That’s nearly half of the tracklisting by the time you get past the intro and interlude, so a not-insubstantial portion. But it’s the shows and the touring that are going to keep propelling this band, and the songs that are going to get heads out to the shows, so yes, the more the merrier, however grim and Europe-at-war the theme is around “Battling Guns.”

Crazy catchy, though, and a sweet encapsulation of how Slomosa have been able to put so much of the heavy underground in their corner since the release of their 2020 self-titled debut (review here). There ain’t no secret to it. It’s the songs themselves.

If an album or anything-else announcement does come through, I’ll add it in here and make a note. Until then, the video is worth enjoying on its own merits, so by all means, have at it.

Tour dates and such follow, as well as players for “Cabin Fever” and “Rice” [EDIT: Yeah, that press release came in. Album is called Tundra Rock, will be out through MNRK Heavy and Stickman Records on Sept. 13. More below.]:

Slomosa, “Battling Guns” official video

Slomosa Sign to MNRK Heavy; Band to Release New LP, ‘Tundra Rock’, September 13

Stream New Video “Battling Guns” Now; U.S. Tour Dates Announced

Norwegian riff-rock regalers, Slomosa, have signed with independent music group MNRK Heavy (High on Fire, Escuela Grind, Crowbar). The Bergen-based band will release its new LP, ‘Tundra Rock’, on September 13. Boasting a brazen backbone of groove-bitten punch and silken melodic hooks heavily inspired by the Palm Desert music scene, Slomosa showcases a hibernating sound that has been reawakened for a new generation. Pre-order/save ‘Tundra Rock’ at this location: https://slomosa.ffm.to/tundrarock

In celebration of its new label home, Slomosa today releases a video for the new track “Battling Guns”.

“Slomosa is an absolute riff powerhouse with an amazing live show,” comments MNRK Heavy SVP, Rock & Metal, Scott Givens. “They are an incredible band and all of us at MNRK are thrilled they have picked us to be their label partners.”

Expansive mountains constitute nearly two-thirds of Norway. This breathtaking grandeur gives the country a sense of natural splendor and mystique as if its topography has held secrets for millennia. ‘Tundra Rock’ is, quite simply, ‘Desert Rock’ on Slomosa’s terms.

“A desert doesn’t have to be warm”, observes vocalist/guitarist Ben Berdous. “If you think about it, the biggest desert in the world is Antarctica. In this respect, the tundra is our desert. We thought it would be cool to coin a genre, and it’s stuck. You could certainly say the grandiosity of nature is evident in the songs of Slomosa.”

‘Tundra Rock’ is also advanced by the superbly heavy track, ‘Rice’, a cavernous cut soaked in sunbaked groove.

Since the release of its self-titled debut album in 2020, SLOMOSA has performed upwards of 130 shows and high-profile festival appearances in over twenty countries alongside bands such as High on Fire, Graveyard, Elder, Ufomammut, and Witch; its explosive live performances have earned the band an enthusiastic global fanbase. SLOMOSA’s music has even captured the attention of rock greats like Tool guitarist Adam Jones, who shared his enthusiasm for the band on his social media, and Kyuss legends Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri, who expressed their love for SLOMOSA’s sound.

In the end, Slomosa welcome everyone into their world on ‘Tundra Rock’.

“If you listen to this album, I just hope you feel something,” Berdous adds. “This is my life project. It means a lot to me. It’s given me a chance I never thought I’d have. I’m fortunate to be here. I want you to take away that “Tundra Rock” is here to stay.”

US Merchandise Store: https://www.slomosamusic.com​
Follow Us! https://linktr.ee/slomosa​

‘Tundra Rock’ track listing:

1.) Afghansk
2.) Rice (stream VIDEO)
3.) Cabin Fever (stream VIDEO)
4.) Red Thundra
5.) Good Mourning
6.) Battling Guns (stream VIDEO)
7.) Monomann
8.) MJ
9.) Dune

‘Battling Guns’ Music Video:
Director: Yorick S. Gontarek
DP: Jon Hunnålvatn Tøn & Finn Burrows
Editor: Yorick S. Gontarek & Jon Hunnålvatn Tøn
Producer : Yorick S. Gontarek, Jon Hunnålvatn Tøn & Finn Burrows
Executive Producer: Slomosa / Benjamin Berdois
Production Company: Front Film
Photography : Sverre Hjørnevik
Drone: UAS VOSS
Lighting : SPRiLT
Backline : Backline Voss
Additional : HB Lyd og Lys

US tour w/ Alkaline Trio:

11.09 – San Antonio, TX
12.09 – New Orleans, LA
15.09 – Charleston, SC
17.09 – Wilmington, DE
19.09 – Wallingford, CT
20.09 – Wantagh, NY
21.09 – Sayreville, NJ
22.09 – Hampton Beach, NH
24.09 – Buffalo, NY
26.09 – Grand Rapids, MI
27.09 – Milwaukee, WI
28.09 – Columbus, OH
29.09 – Newport, KY

GREENLEAF & SLOMOSA w/ PSYCHLONA
30 SEP 2024 Leipzig (DE) Werk2
01 OCT 2024 Berlin (DE) Lido
02 OCT 2024 (DE) Hamburg (DE) Gruenspan
03 OCT 2024 Köln (DE) Club Volta
04 OCT 2024 Bielefeld (DE) Forum
05 OCT 2024 Leeuwarden (NL) Into the Void
06 OCT 2024 Pratteln (CH) Up in Smoke
07 OCT 2024 Innsbruck (AT) PMK
09 OCT 2024 Wien (AT) Arena
10 OCT 2024 Zagreb (HR) Vintage Industrial Bar
11 OCT 2024 Graz (AT) PPC
12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low

Slomosa are:
Benjamin Berdous – Vocals/guitar
Marie Moe – Vocals/bass
Tor Erik Bye – Guitar
Jard Hole – Drums

Slomosa, “Rice”

Slomosa, “Cabin Fever” official video

Slomosa on Facebook

Slomosa on Instagram

Slomosa on Bandcamp

Slomosa on Soundcloud

Slomosa on Spotify

Some October touring for Dutch-native cosmic explorers Temple Fang is welcome news, not the least because with eight shows they’ll probably manage to get a live release or two out of the run, whether that manifests now or at some point in the future. The four-piece will appear in Hamburg at the Sound of Liberation-backed Lazy Bones Festival and have organized the run to lead toward that, making stops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland on their way, and they’ll close out with a gig in Düsseldorf that’s sure to be a blowout as Temple Fang make ready to head home.

If you’ve never seen them, I’ll tell you from experience they make it an immersive pleasure. It might take you a minute or two to get to a place where you can kind of close your eyes and let go a little, but it’s more than worth doing so for the spiritual force of Jevin de Groot‘s guitar playing alone, never mind the slow-sweeping groove emitted by the band as a whole. Their last three releases have all been live albums — April’s Live at Krach am Bach (discussed here) followed behind Live at Freak Valley (review here) and Live at Schlacthuis, both issued in 2023 — which has made it easy to be spoiled by their textured delivery and trance-inducing, jam-based far-outitude. If you think you can hang, they make it a pleasure to do so.

Dates follow as per socials:

TEMPLE FANG TOUR OCT ’24

poster by Right On Mountain

18.10 Alte Hackerei Karlsruhe DE
19.10 Caves du Manior Martigny CH
21.10 Feierwerk München DE
23.10 Arena Vienna AT
24.10 Zauberberg Passau DE
25.10 Vortex Surfer Siegen DE
26.10 Lazy Bones Festival Hamburg DE
27.10 Pitcher Düsseldorf DE

Temple Fang:
Dennis Duijnhouwer – Bass, Vox
Jevin de Groot – Guitar, Vox
Ivy van der Veer – Guitar
Daan Wopereis – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/templefangband
https://www.instagram.com/templefang/
https://templefang.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940/
https://www.instagram.com/stickmanrecords/
https://www.stickman-records.com/

Temple Fang, Live at Krach am Bach (2024)

As regards the popular demand for ambitious Norwegian heavy rockers Slomosa — which is real, to be sure — I have to wonder how many of those sending messages and leaving comments in the band’s direction might ever have called it that their first US shows would take place in the company of veteran pop-punkers Alkaline Trio. Not me, obviously, but the odd pairing aside, Slomosa‘s ascent to the forefront of the heavy rock underground continues with this significant step, and as I was fortunate enough to see them for the first and hopefully not last time just a couple weeks ago in Germany at Freak Valley 2024 (review here), where they headlined the first night in everything but name, I’ll note that as significant a step as this tour is, the band are ready to take on bigger stages and broader geographies even ahead of releasing their second record.

As to that, no, I don’t have a release date. It was supposed to be this Fall (read: September), but whether or not that’s happening I don’t know since it’s not mentioned here and hasn’t really been confirmed elsewhere. Whatever the plan ends up being, early singles “Rice” and “Cabin Fever” (video premiered here) speak well of the follow-up to their 2020 self-titled debut (review here), and the mark on heavy rock and roll songwriting that Slomosa are just beginning to make. They’ll likely learn a few things on this tour, certainly about the differences between being on the road in Europe and in the States, among who knows what else, but emerging stronger is part of the point.

They’ve got dates listed for when Ripplefest Texas is happening, but I guess the potential for their squeezing in a stop at Desertfest New York is there, though that might be a logistical nightmare. The routing follows here, as posted on socials. See what you think:

Finally!!! A million begging messages and comments later, we can finally tell you that we are coming over the damn dam to tour the US for the first time ever!!

Catch Spanish Love Songs & us supporting Alkaline Trio on any (or several) of these 13 dates in September:

11.09 – San Antonio, TX
12.09 – New Orleans, LA
15.09 – Charleston, SC
17.09 – Wilmington, DE
19.09 – Wallingford, CT
20.09 – Wantagh, NY
21.09 – Sayreville, NJ
22.09 – Hampton Beach, NH
24.09 – Buffalo, NY
26.09 – Grand Rapids, MI
27.09 – Milwaukee, WI
28.09 – Columbus, OH
29.09 – Newport, KY

Another milestone for us, still sinking in. Thanks for bringing us along, Alkaline Trio. And who knows, there might even be some more gigs added to our schedule🤷‍♂️

This is going to be a blast, hoping to see y’all somewhere along the road🐫🐫

Tickets on sale this Thursday, 12pm NYC time, on our website and elsewhere!

SLOMOSA are:
Benjamin Berdous – Vocals/guitar
Marie Moe – Vocals/bass
Tor Erik Bye – Guitar
Jard Hole – Drums

Slomosa, “Cabin Fever” official video

I guess the goal is to have the second Delving album out well enough in advance of the band hitting the road with Iron Jinn to support it. The group featuring Nick DiSalvo and Michael Risberg of Elder (both also Weite) as well as bassist Ingwer Boysen (also Weite, High Fighter) and drummer Uno Bruniusson (also Maggot Heart, formerly Death Alley and In Solitude, etc.) will issue said sophomore full-length through Stickman Records in Europe, and they’ve been newly picked up by Blues Funeral Recordings for the US as well. September, maybe? That’s what ‘late summer/early fall’ says to me, anyhow.

Delving recorded the follow-up to 2021’s Hirschbrunnen (review here) in Berlin with Richard Behrens at Big Snuff Studio and in addition to the core lineup — which I think in the studio is mostly DiSalvo with Risberg — will feature Fabien de Menou (Perilymph) on keyboard. Nick said it was gonna get weird. I take him at his word.

But the pairing with Iron Jinn is noteworthy here as well, as that band continues their ascent toward the fore of the Euro psych-prog underground with a darker and very-much-their-own take. Dates follow here, courtesy of the PR wire:

delving (feat. Nicholas DiSalvo of ELDER) announces European Tour Dates with Special Guests IRON JINN!

delving, the instrumental psych-kraut-prog-rock project headed by Nicholas DiSalvo (best known as frontman of Elder) has announced a tour in November to support a brand new studio album!

While delving is in essence a solo studio project from multi-instrumentalist DiSalvo, his music takes flight in rare live performances thanks to a stellar live band consisting of guitarist Michael Risberg (Elder, Weite), bassist Ingwer Boysen (Weite, High Fighter) and Uno Bruniusson (Maggot Heart, ex-Death Alley).

Joining delving are the equally genre-bending psychedelic beast of Iron Jinn from Amsterdam.

Stay tuned for news regarding the upcoming new delving album, slated for release in late summer/early fall of 2024 on Stickman Records (EU) and Blues Funeral Recordings (US)!

Make sure to catch delving live at the following dates this year, tickets go on sale May 29th:

20.11. Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang
21.11. Leuven, BE – SoJo
23.11. London, UK – Oslo
24.11. Brighton, UK – Green Door Store
25.11. Paris, FR – La Boule Noire
26.11. Nijmegen, NL – Doornroosje
27.11. Bochum, DE – Die Trompete2
8.11. Siegen, DE – Vortex Surfer
29.11. Leipzig, DE – Noel’s Ballroom
30.11. Berlin, DE – Neue Zukunft
01.12. Warsaw, PL – Voodoo
03.12. Brno, CZ – Kabinet MUZ
04.12. Vienna, AT – Arena0
5.12. Innsbruck, AT – PMK
06.12. Munich, DE – Feierwerk

[artwork by the marvelous Benjamin Butter]

https://www.facebook.com/delvingmusic
https://www.instagram.com/delving_music/
https://delving-music.bandcamp.com

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940
https://www.instagram.com/stickmanrecords/
https://linktr.ee/stickmanrecords

Delving, Hirschbrunnen (2021)

Delving, the exploratory progressive side-project of Elder guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, has finished the recording process for a full-length follow-up to 2021’s Hirschbrunnen (review here), slated to release this summer, presumably through Stickman Records. Home base for the yet-untitled offering was Berlin’s widely-utilized-for-good-reason Big Snuff Studio, with Richard Behrens (he’s the reason) at the helm in a returning role as producer, and joining DiSalvo for the venture are multi-instrumentalist Fabien de Menou (who steers his own course into mellow fluidity as the ostensibly-one-man weirdo psych unit Perilymph), and Elder bandmate/low-key-secret-weapon Michael Risberg, who also contributed to the debut three years ago.

They’ll let it rest for a bit, mix, master, then do the whole thing. I read ‘penciled’ below as regards the release date to mean ‘here’s hoping,’ and fair enough. For what it’s worth, Delving are already confirmed to appear at Krach am Bach (also in Germany) the first weekend of August — most likely along with others by now — and if the tour noted in DiSalvo‘s done-tracking announcement below is around that, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that’s loosely around when the album would show up as well. But they gotta mix, master and press it first. So, you know, here’s hoping.

From social media:

Recording of album II is finished after 9 days of tracking with my stalwart partner in sound Richard Behrens at Big Snuff Studio! I can say with confidence that this is probably the most ‘out there’ record I’ve written: ambitious, perhaps confusingly fluent in genres, densely layered and quite loooong. I guess that’s what happens when you write music in the in-between times over a few years.

I had some great help from Fabien de Menou (from Perilymph) who handled basically all of the keyboard parts on this record as well as Michael Risberg who lent some awesome spacey touches. Thank you guys for your help in pulling this off! Special thanks of course to Richard as well for your patience and assistance in giving flight to ideas.

We’ll return in a few weeks to start picking through the weeds and mixing this thing; a release date is already penciled for late summer and we’ll have some tour dates to announce as well. Looking forward to sharing some new music with the world, as always!

Photo by Leon De Backer

https://www.facebook.com/delvingmusic
https://www.instagram.com/delving_music/
https://delving-music.bandcamp.com

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940
https://www.instagram.com/stickmanrecords/
https://linktr.ee/stickmanrecords

Delving, Hirschbrunnen (2021)

Norwegian progressive instrumentalists Full Earth will make their full-length debut with the 2LP Cloud Scuptors on March 15. The Oslo-based outfit release through respected purveyor Stickman Records, which makes them labelmates to Elder, Iron Jinn and King Buffalo — Stickman is also the ancestral home of Norwegian prog dispensers Motorpsycho, which will be relevant shortly — and like each of those outfits, Full Earth have their own take on a progressive heavy ideology. To call it expansive is to say the least of it.

There’s been a palpable buzz around Full Earth, and reasonably so. With the three members of Kanaan all involved — guitarist Ask Vatn Strøm, bassist Eskild Myrvoll, and drummer/project spearhead Ingvald André Vassbø — alongside bassist Simen Wie and organist/synthesist Øystein Aadland, the five-piece seemed to be immediately embraced as part of that band’s ongoing momentum. Before a song was released, let alone word of Cloud Sculptors or more details about the project’s prog-honoring, sometimes-longform, deeply methodical approach, the band were popping up on festival bills for Spring 2024, and indeed, they’ll be at Desertfest in Oslo and Berlin as well as Roadburn, with Freak Valley in Germany this June and Down the Hill in Belgium in August and probably tours hither and yon as well.

The actual arrival of the album, then, is anticipated. Full Earth meet that electric undercurrent with a massive glut of headspinning prog and other atmospheric and purposeful explorations. The bulk of Cloud Sculptors‘ feature-length 85 minute runtime resides in its most extended pieces: opener “Full Earth Pt. I – Emanation” and the title-track for a 40-minute one-two pairing at the start of the record. This initial impression, the runs of keyboard notes alongside sustained distortion and feedback around 14 minutes into the leadoff, or the bounce of organ that sweetly starts “Cloud Sculptors” hinting at some of the vintage-synthery both of the largely-melancholy-in-the-Lake-era-King-Crimson-tradition “The Collective Unconscious” (18:37) and the exploratory “Echo Tears,” which premieres below.

You would be hard-pressed to find someone less qualified than I to discuss the work of Daniel Lopatin or probably any number of the other krautrock and classic prog influences under which Full Earth are operating, but what you really need to know in listening to the album is everything’s under control. Yeah, Full Earth are kind of doing for krautrock and the headier end of kosmiche what Earthless did for classic heavy in cherrypicking stylistic aspects and blowing them out to epic proportion while staying conscious enough to actually guide the listener. But it’s that last part that’s the most important, because what most affects the listening experience is the skill with which Full Earth execute these pieces.

I won’t pretend that “Full Earth Pt. I – Emanation” or its closing counterpart “Full Earth PT. II – Disintegration,” “The Collective Unconscious” or “Cloud Sculptors” itself aren’t overwhelming. They absolutely are and I think that’s the point; operating under the “put it out now and let them spend the next six years picking it apart” ethic, and indeed Cloud Sculptors might be densely packed enough at its most intense to provide fodder for a long-term deep-dive (if they do more records, I expect the phrase “long term deep dive” to come up again as a summation of their career arc), while remaining dynamic in the starts-peaceful “Full Earth Pt. II – Disintegration” and “Weltgeist,” which makes me want to put on a lounge jacket and make a documentary about space with all the latest science 1976 has to offer, speaking in clear, Saganian tones about the mysteries of the universe while Full Earth remind that at its heart all of the cosmos is math.

It is rare that a debut album comes with such a sense of mastery, and Cloud Sculptors has purpose to match. Each song, each change, a little swap in the drums or on keys in that all-in immersive rollout at the start, is in its place and keyed to bring as much to the proceedings as possible. They’re willing to reside in parts, as a band with 20-minute songs had better be, but cognizant of the listener’s place in and interaction with the material. Songs unfold in movements, ideas fluidly melding with graceful performances, a marked heft in reserve for when it’s needed, and guide the listener through Cloud Sculptors‘ otherwise staggeringly complex path. They might be pairing the half-time drums and what sounds like double-time guitar on “The Collective Unconscious” or making aural references that at very least I’ll probably never get, but you can also put on the album and Full Earth, through the music itself, act as a guide to get you safely from one end to the other. So while it’s a lot to take on, you can also roll with it as Full Earth quickly earn a trust that can’t be faked.

In talking about “Echo Tears” under the player below, Vassbø talks about using instruments “to their full extent.” That’s a classic prog phrase and mentality. He’s pushing himself and the instrument(s) as part of the same drive, trying to “get as much out” of the drums, organ, whatever it might be. Keep that in mind as you listen to “Echo Tears,” which is drumless and comparatively minimal next to “The Collective Unconscious” before or “Full Earth Pt. II – Disintegration” after. Because it doesn’t just have to mean playing fast, or making a part as busy as it can be, but utilizing a given instrument as a tool of emotive expression or sonic exploration, as seems to be the case with this track. And no, “Echo Tears” doesn’t represent the whole crux of Cloud Sculptors‘ 85 minutes — how could it? — in terms of basic sound, but as you listen to the track, know that Full Earth‘s ability to carry the listener through its atmospheric contemplations absolutely does.

The potential here is vast, and it’s difficult not to think of what Full Earth might accomplish in the future based on their achievements here, but worth staying in the moment as you listen.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Full Earth, “Echo Tears’ track premiere

Echo Tears is the second single from the up and coming experimental rock band Full Earth’s debut album, Cloud Sculptors. Album preorders launch Feb. 9 via www.stickman-records.com.

The tune is one out of two shorter organ-compositions from the album that are more inspired by electronic and modernist classical music. The song is an echo-jam for Full Earth’s combo-organs in the style of Oneohtrix Point Never’s early releases, and an attempt to adapt this cosmic style for fluttery organs. The French band Heldon and Laurie Spiegels Expanding Universe are two other important references. The organ-arpeggios, recorded by Øystein Aadland and Ingvald Vassbø in their rehearsal space, feels like they are levitating and circling freely in the air. One goes into a trance and the insisting and repetitive music grows continuously. In a mechanical but analog way, always towards an ecstatic vision. Echo Tears is exploring another edge of the Full Earth-universe than the band’s first single Cloud Sculptors did, and shows how wide and multicoloured the bands’ pallet at times can be.

Says Ingvald Vassbø: «A few years ago, I was totally in love with the early and cosmic synth-works of Daniel Lopatin, and listened to it almost every night before going to sleep. It was a really fun process to let myself be inspired by that music, make some kind of echo-jam in that vein and record it together with Øystein in our rehearsal space. We got really inspired, and I really feel that we managed to utilize our instruments, my Terry Riley-organ, Øystein’s Farfisa and our tape-echo to their full extent.»

Cloud Sculptors tracklisting:
1. Full Earth Pt. I – Emanation (21:06)
2. Cloud Sculptors (20:05)
3. Weltgeist (6:08)
4. The Collective Unconscious (18:37)
5. Echo Tears (5:36)
6. Full Earth Pt. II – Disintegration (13:46)

The fantastic “Echo Tears” artwork is made by Sunniva Hårstad
Pre save: https://bfan.link/echo-tears

Full Earth live:
18.04 – @rare_guitar Münster 🇩🇪
19.04 – Magazine 4 Brüssel 🇧🇪
20.04 – @roadburnfest , Tilburg 🇳🇱
22.04 – @le3pieces , Rouen 🇫🇷
23.04 – @linternational_paris Paris 🇫🇷
24.04 – Venue tbc, Köln 🇩🇪
25.04 – @trauma_marburg Marburg 🇩🇪
26.04 – Freaques de la Musique, Bremen 🇩🇪
27.04 – @husetkbh , København 🇩🇰
10.05 – @sonic_whip , Nijmegen 🇳🇱
11.05 – @desertfest_oslo 🇳🇴
23.05 – @gjovikkinoogscene 🇳🇴
24.05 – @lokal.trhm , Trondheim 🇳🇴
26.05 – @desertfest_berlin 🇩🇪
29.05 – Blauer Salon/Hausbar, Tübingen 🇩🇪
30.05 – @freakvalleyfestival Netphen 🇩🇪
30.05 – Posten, Odense 🇩🇰
31.05 – @esbjerg_fuzztival l 🇩🇰
31.08 – @downthehillfestival Rilaar 🇧🇪

Full Earth are:
Øystein Aadland – farfisa organ, yamaha yc30 organ, mellotron, synthesizer
Ask Vatn Strøm – guitars
Simen Wie – electric bass, additional guitar
Eskild Myrvoll – additional guitar, korg MS-20 synthesizer, noise
Ingvald Vassbø – drums, yamaha yc30 organ

Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors (2024)

Full Earth on Facebook

Full Earth on Instagram

Full Earth on Bandcamp

Stickman Records website

Stickman Records on Facebook

Elder have played in front of big crowds. They’re inarguably one of their generation’s most influential bands and they arrive at their first arena tour in a manner almost absurdly organic, having spent years on the road in the US, Europe and elsewhere supporting legitimately groundbreaking records. The last decade-plus has seen Elder become what they are today — the celebrated vanguard of a kind of heavy progressivism that is their own even as more and more artists work under their influence in structure, atmosphere melody and groove, all of which Elder offer in signature fashion.

They’re going to make some new friends on this tour. The popular wisdom has it that Tool drummer Danny Carey is the one responsible for picking their openers. Elder follow in the footsteps of Meshuggah, YOB, Author and Punisherand a slew of other good bands who were ready as they are now, and while it’s the nature of fandom that not everyone here to see the headliner would even be in the building when Elder played, I was there and you’ll pardon if that’s my main priority at just this moment.

But it felt like a big deal that it was happening, and I don’t know, maybe it was. Maybe it was a big moment for heavy rock and roll to even be in front of that many people not already converted. Maybe when your band is about to do two nights at MSG you just look at it like another tour date. Or maybe you try to. I promise I wouldn’t know.

Did Elder nail it? Well of course they did.

The tour had started a couple evenings prior and would stay at MSG — dude, Elder just played where they had the first Wrestlemania — for two nights, of which this was the first, and to be honest, it wasn’t a question in my mind. Founding guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, guitarist Mike Risberg, founding bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Georg Edert have not only toured like the dickens, but as noted, they’ve spent a fair amount of time at this point on bigger stages. I saw them in August at SonicBlast Fest 2023 (review here), and they played to a crowd of thousands. I don’t know the respective headcounts, but my point is that even if you don’t count the 15-plus years that Elder have been building to where they are creatively and in terms of stage presence, they’re not a deer-in-headlights band when it comes to entertaining a mass audience. They’ve been there before.

Even if it was Madison Square Garden. Elder, playing Madison Square Garden.

They got to do three songs, which felt short and was short, but fair enough. And the three Elder songs — “Sanctuary” from 2017’s Reflections of a Floating World (review here), which has been a staple, as well as “Merged in Dreams/Ne Plus Ultra” from 2022’s Innate Passage (review here) and “Halcyon” from 2020’s Omens (review here), all over 10 minutes each — wanted nothing for substance in their intertwining twists of riff from Risberg and DiSalvo, set up on either side of the stage in that cavernous space with the luxury boxes up yonder and middle-class splurge for floor seats as they were with Donovan in between giving force to all that linear motion as Edert’s drums push and pull the material forward.

They are not a commercial band, and some headbanging and DiSalvo’s gotta-get-my-hair-out-of-my-face-anyway flip-back — also a staple — aside, they’ve never been about thrashing around on stage, so they weren’t here either. But it’s a different kind of engagement, a different connection being made between a band in a room that size and a band at even a club show like Elder sold out in Boston at Sonia the other night. Intimacy is part of it, but if you think of it as the difference between you and I having a conversation and you having to communicate an idea to a room of 20 people, you’re going to change the way you speak to a larger crowd. That extends to live performance as well. If Elder were nervous — I was nervous for them, so it was covered either way — it didn’t show, and the simple truth is they’re too good a band for it to have fallen flat. Right band, right time, right place. Just so happened those all aligned around Elder at Madison Square Garden. Life is weird sometimes.

No doubt the tour will raise Elder’s profile, though if that was ever really a priority for the band they’d probably have been chasing down major labels by now, but it seems like it might be more valuable as a life experience — on this run they’re playing at a level that most heavy rock bands will never achieve, but also just being in these places and seeing how arena tours work, etc. — than something that’s going to immediately make the band some antiquated version of rock stars. So much cocaine! Not likely. As an Elder fan, I appreciated the chance to share in some piece of that experience, to be in the room when Elder at MSG happened for the first and not the last time. A win for the heavy rock and roll home team, it seemed to be.

And when they were done, cheers. They hadn’t really stopped, except for pauses in the songs, since the set started, so the end was the first real opportunity to get a sense of the response, and it was positive. I had seen a few folks rocking out on the floor as others were still coming in, the vibe very clearly monumental to some while passing as these things pass to others. I was glad to be in the former camp, and felt fortunate to have seen Elder play on that stage as I imagine many of the crowd both felt after the show and will feel years later in hindsight, because whatever happens next for, to, or with the band, they’ll keep moving forward as they always have. This just happened to be a particularly big step.

More pics after the jump. Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for the lift into Manhattan, and to the band for the access.

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Generally I think of Thursday as the penultimate day of a given Quarterly Review. This one I was thinking of adding more days to get more stuff in ahead of year-end coverage coming up in December. I don’t know what that would do to my weekend — actually, yes I do — but sometimes it’s worth it. I’m yet undecided. Will let you know tomorrow, or perhaps not. Dork of mystery, I am.

Today is PACKED with cool sounds. If you haven’t found something yet that’s really hit you, it might be your day.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

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Tortuga, Iterations

From traditionalist proto-doom and keyboard-inflected prog to psychedelic jamming and the Mountain-style start-stop riff on “Lilith,” Poznań, Poland’s Tortuga follow 2020’s Deities (discussed here) with seven tracks and 45 minutes that come across as simple and barebones in the distortion of the guitar and the light reverb on the vocals, but the doom rock doesn’t carry from “Lilith” into “Laspes,” which has more of a ’60s psych crux, a mellow but not unjoyful meander in its first half turning to a massive lumber in the second, all the more elephantine with a solo overtop. They continue throughout to cross the lines between niches — “Quaus” has some dungeon growls, “Epitaph” slogs emotive like Pallbearer, etc. — and offer finely detailed performances in a sound malleable to suit the purposes of their songs. Polish heavy doesn’t screw around. Well, at least not any more than it wants to. Tortuga‘s creative reach becomes part of the character of the album.

Tortuga on Facebook

Napalm Records website

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Spidergawd, VII

I’m sorry, I gotta ask: What’s the point of anything when Spidergawd can put out a record like VII and it’s business as usual? Like, the world doesn’t stop for a collective “holy shit” moment. Even in the heavy underground, never mind general population. These are the kinds of songs that could save lives if properly employed to do so, and for the Norwegian outfit, it’s just what they do. The careening hooks of “Sands of Time” and “The Tower” at the start, the melodies across the span. The energy. I guess this is dad rock? Shit man, I’m a dad. I’m not this cool. Spidergawd have seven records out and I feel like Metallica should’ve been opening for them at stadiums this past summer, but they remain criminally underrated and perhaps use that as flexibility around their pop-heavy foundation to explore new ideas. The last three songs on VII — “Afterburner,” “Your Heritage” and “…And Nothing But the Truth” — are among the strongest and broadest Spidergawd have ever done, and “Dinosaur” and the classic-metal ripper “Bored to Death” give them due preface. One of the best active heavy rock bands, living up to and surpassing their own high standards.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

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Morag Tong, Grieve

Rumbling low end and spacious guitar, slow flowing drums and contemplative vocals, and some charred sludge for good measure, mark out the procession of “At First Light” on Morag Tong‘s third album and first for Majestic Mountain Records, the four-song Grieve. Moving from that initial encapsulation through the raw-throat sludge thud of most of “Passages,” they crash out and give over to quiet guitar at about four minutes in and set up the transition to the low-end groove-cool of “A Stem’s Embrace,” a sleepy fluidity hitting its full voluminous crux after three minutes in, crushing from there en route to its noisy finish at just over nine minutes long. That would be the epic finisher of most records, but Morag Tong‘s grievances extend to the 20-minute “No Sun, No Moon,” which at 20 minutes is a full-length’s progression on its own. At very least the entirety of side B, but more than the actual runtime is the theoretical amount of space covered as the four-piece shift from ambient drone through huge plod and resolve the skyless closer with a crushing delve into post-sludge atmospherics. That’s as fitting an end as one could ask for an offering that so brazenly refuses to follow impulses other than its own.

Morag Tong on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Conny Ochs, Wahn Und Sinn

The nine-song Wahn Und Sinn carries the distinction of being the first full-length from German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs — also known for his work in Ananda Mida and his collaboration with Wino — to be sung in his own language. As a non-German speaker, I won’t pretend that doesn’t change the listening experience, but that’s the idea. Words and melodies in different languages take on corresponding differences in character, and so in addition to appreciating the strings, pianos, acoustic and electric guitars, and, in the case of “Welle,” a bit of static noise in a relatively brief electronic soundscape, hearing Ochs‘ delivery no less emotive for switching languages on the cinematic “Grimassen,” or the lounge drama of “Ding” earlier on, it’s a new side from a veteran figure whose “experimentalism” — and no, I’m not talking about singing in your own language as experimental, I’m talking about Trialogos there — is backburnered in favor of more traditional, still rampantly melancholy pop arrangements. It sounds like someone who’s decided they can do whatever the hell they feel like their songs should making that a reality. Only an asshole would hold not speaking the language against that.

Conny Ochs on Facebook

Exile on Mainstream website/a>

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Ritual King, The Infinite Mirror

I’m going to write this review as though I’m speaking directly to Ritual King because, well, I am. Hey guys. Congrats on the record. I can hear a ton going on with it. Some of Elder‘s bright atmospherics and rhythmic twists, some more familiar stoner riffage repurposed to suit a song like “Worlds Divide” after “Flow State” calls Truckfighters to mind, the songs progressive and melodic. The way you keep that nod in reserve for “Landmass?” That’s what I’m talking about. Here’s some advice you didn’t ask for: Keep going. I’m sure you have big plans for next year, and that’s great, and one thing leads to the next. You’re gonna have people for the next however long telling you what you need to do. Do what feels right to you, and keep in mind the decisions that led you to where you are, because you’re right there, headed to the heart of this thing you’re discovering. Two records deep there’s still a lot of potential in your sound, but I think you know a track like “Tethered” is a victory on its own, and that as big as “The Infinite Mirror” gets at the end, the real chance it takes is in the earlier vocal melody. You’re a better band than people know. Just keep going. Thanks.

Ritual King on Facebook

Ripple Music website

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Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, A Ghost

Inhabiting the sort of alternately engulfing and minimal spaces generally occupied by the likes of Bell Witch, New Jersey’s Oldest Sea make their full-length debut with A Birdsong, A Ghost and realize a bleakness of mood that is affecting even in its tempo, seeming to slow the world around it to its own crawl. The duo of Samantha Marandola and Andrew Marandola, who brought forth their Strange and Eternal EP (review here) in 2022, find emotive resonance in a death-doom build through the later reaches of “Untracing,” but the subsequent three-minute-piece-for-chorus-and-distorted-drone “Astronomical Twilight” and the similarly barely-there-until-it-very-much-is closer “Metamorphose” mark out either end of the extremes while “The Machines That Made Us Old” echoes Godflesh in its later riffing as Samantha‘s voice works through screams en route to a daringly hopeful drone. Volatile but controlled, it is a debut of note for its patience and vulnerability as well as its deep-impact crash and consuming tone.

Oldest Sea on Facebook

Darkest Records on Bandcamp

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Dim Electrics, Dim Electrics

Each track on Dim Electrics‘ self-titled five-songer LP becomes a place to rest for a while. No individual piece is lacking activity, but each cut has room for the listener to get inside and either follow the interweaving aural patterns or zone out as they will. Founded by Mahk Rumbae, the Vienna-based project is meditative in the sense of basking in repetition, but flashes like the organ in the middle of “Saint” or the shimmy that takes hold in 18-minute closer “Dream Reaction” assure it doesn’t reside in one place for too much actual realtime, of which it’s easy to lose track when so much krautgazey flow is at hand. Beginning with ambience, “Ways of Seeing” leads the listener deeper into the aural chasm it seems to have opened, and the swirling echoes around take on a life of their own in the ecosystem of some vision of space rock that’s also happening under the ground — past and future merging as in the mellotron techno of “Memory Cage” — which any fool can tell you is where the good mushrooms grow. Dug-in, immersive, engaging if you let it be; Dim Electrics feels somewhat insular in its mind-expansion, but there’s plenty to go around if you can put yourself in the direction it’s headed.

Dim Electrics on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

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Mountain of Misery, In Roundness

A newcomer project from Kamil Ziółkowski, also known for his contributions as part of Polish heavy forerunners Spaceslug, the tone-forward approach of Mountain of Misery might be said to be informed by Ziółkowski‘s other project in opener “Not Away” or the penultimate “Climb by the Sundown,” with their languid vocals and slow-rolling tsunami fuzz in the spirit of heavy psych purveyors Colour Haze and even more to the point Sungrazer, but the howling guitar in the crescendo of closer “The Misery” and the all-out assault of “Hang So Low” distinguish the band all around. “The Rain is My Love” sways in the album’s middle, but it’s in “Circle in Roundness” that the 36-minute LP has its most subdued stretch, letting the spaces filled with fuzz elsewhere remain open as the verse builds atop the for-now-drumless expanse. Whatever familiar aspects persist, Mountain of Misery is its own band, and In Roundness is the exciting beginning of a new creative evolution.

Mountain of Misery on Facebook

Electric Witch Mountain Recordings on Facebook

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Aawks, Luna

The featured new single, “The Figure,” finds Barrie, Ontario’s Aawks somewhere between Canadian tonal lords Sons of Otis and the dense heavy psych riffing and melodic vocals of an act like Snail, and if you think I’m about to complain about that, you’ve very clearly never been to this site before. So hi, and welcome. The four-song Luna EP is Aawks‘ second short release of 2023 behind a split with Aiwass (review here), and the trio take on Flock of Seagulls and Pink Floyd for covers of the new wave radio hit “I Ran” and the psychedelic ur-classic “Julia Dream” before a live track, “All is Fine,” rounds out. As someone who’s never seen the band live, the additional crunch falls organic, and brings into relief the diversity Aawks show in and between these four songs, each of which inhabits a place in the emerging whole of the band’s persona. I don’t know if we’ll get there, but sign me up for the Canadian heavy revolution if this is the form it’s going to take.

Aawks on Facebook

Black Throne Productions website

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Kaliyuga Express, Warriors & Masters

The collaborative oeuvre of UK doomsperimental guitarist Mike Vest (Bong, Blown Out, Ozo, 11Paranoias, etc.) grows richer as he joins forces with Finnish trio Nolla to produce Kaliyuga Express‘ Warriors & Masters, which results in three tracks across two sides of far-out cosmic fuzz, shades of classic kraut and space rocks are wrought with jammy intention; the goal seeming to be the going more than the being gone as Vest and company burn through “Nightmare Dimensions” and the shoegazing “Behind the Veil” — the presence of vocals throughout is a distinguishing feature — hums in high and low frequencies in a repetitive inhale of stellar gases on side A while the 18:58 side B showdown “Endless Black Space” misdirects with a minute of cosmic background noise before unfurling itself across an exoplanet’s vision of cool and returning, wait for it, back to the drone from whence it came. Did you know stars are recycled all the time? Did you know that if you drop acid and peel your face off there’s another face underneath? Your third eye is googly. You can hear voices in the drones. Let me know what they tell you.

Kaliyuga Express on Facebook

Riot Season Records store

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