Posted in Whathaveyou on July 17th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Bittersweet for me to be posting about Høstsabbat 2024 this Fall in Oslo, as I know for a fact I won’t be there — friggin’ again — to see it. The weekend of Oct. 25-26 falls on what will be my daughter’s seventh birthday, and, well, she’s old enough now that if I go jetting off to Norway to have my skull caved in by The Body & Dis Fig or to revel in trad-doomly weirdness with Strange Horizon, find new and exciting blisters after experiencing Ni up close, or even just getting to witness Inter Arma in a suitably churchy setting, she’d probably remember it. So it goes. So it went last year, too.
Høstsabbat‘s second lineup announcement for this year emphasizes the creative growth that’s led to a blossoming stylistic reach for the festival over the last several years, mirrored by their expansion into other venues around the central Kulturkirken Jacob — you’ll note Verkstedet Bar mentioned below. I doubt the two-dayer has completely emptied its sleeve of tricks lined up for this October, either, so keep an eye out. I’ll do the same, though I’ve heard a couple other names bandied about — not gonna give anything away, no — and it will be an emotional labor on my part. Life, huh?
From social media. I love the line about Disney princesses in Crocs:
Sabbathians!
The Norwegian summer gives us no choice but to look ahead to the dark and gloomy Octobers, filled with crushing sludge, aggressive noise, groovy jams and fuzzthrone-galore.
To shed some light through the heavy and gloomy weather, and as a mid-summer gift to you, we’re psyched to present the next batch of bands to join this years lineup.
The genres vary a lot, but all bands fit the Høstsabbat staple perfectly, like crocs on a disney-princess’ feet.
Hardcore? Sure. Aggressive experimental noise? Absolutely. Norwegian black metal? Hell yes. 80’s witchery doom? Count us in!
Bubblewrap your head to survive the crushing, nightmarish wall of sound that is The Body & Dis Fig (US). Danish hardcore with masterfull penmanship, extreme energy and aggressive style from EYES (DK). Absolute systematic chaos from the french ear-abusive butchers of sound Ni (FR). Dense, desolate and sorrowful black metal from one of the most promising acts from the ever growing Norwegian forest of black metal, SYN (NO).
And lastly, from beyond the mountains, comes the conjurers of 80s doom magic, ghost stories and riff-wizards: Strange Horizon (NO).
This wicked, twisted and occult bouquet of bands join our already phenomenal lineup.
This year’s Høstsabbat is gonna be loud, grim and diabolical.
We can’t wait for us all to regroup and meet in the Church of Riffs, the Crypt and Verkstedet Bar late October.
Today is the last Quarterly Review day until July. I don’t know yet what shape that QR will take, whether 50 records, 100 records, 700 records or somewhere between. Depends on how the ongoing deluge of releases ebbs and flows as we head into summer. But if you count this and the other part of this Spring’s Quarterly Review, you get a total as of today of 120 releases covered, and considering the prior QR was just in January, and that one was another 100 records that’s a pretty insane amount of stuff for it being May 12.
And that’s basically the moral of the story, again. It’s a ton of stuff to encounter, hear, maybe live with if you’re lucky. I won’t make it a grand thing (I still have too much writing to do), but I hope you’ve found something cool in all this, and if not yet among the 210 albums thus far QR’ed in 2023, then maybe today’s your day as we hit the end of this round.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
Spotlights, Alchemy for the Dead
There are not many boxes that Spotlights‘ fourth album and third for Ipecac, Alchemy for the Dead, leaves unticked. Thematic, musically expansive, finely crafted in its melody and with particular attention to mood as when the bassline joins then leaves behind the acoustic guitar as a preface to the big finish in the closing title-track, it is a consuming, ultra-modern take on heavy rock from the trio of bassist/guitarist/vocalist Sarah Quintero, guitarist/synthesist/vocalist Mario Quintero and drummer Chris Enriquez, substantial even before you get to the fact that its 47 minutes push LP format limits, it speaks emotionally in rhythm as much as the thoughtful vocal interplay on “Sunset Burial,” growing intense around a central chug of guitar for one of the album’s more brazenly metal stretches. Elsewhere, standout moments abound, whether it’s the channel-panned snare buried in the second verse of “Algorithmic,” the proggy moodshifting in “Repeat the Silence,” Spotlights becoming what Deftones wanted to be in the heavygaze of “The Alchemist,” drift meeting head-on crash in “Ballad in the Mirror,” which also rolls out a fuzz-tone riff of statistically significant proportion then finds room for a swell of airy guitar before dissipating into the next mellow verse circa 2:30, more crashes to come. With the synth/sax/big-riff-and-shout interplay at the center in “False Gods,” Alchemy for the Dead would seem to mark the arrival at where Spotlights have been heading all along: their own version of a heavy of everything.
The mellotron in the title-track, surrounded by dense bass, fleet runs of scorch-prone guitar and resoundingly jazzy drumming, emphasizes the point: Kanaan are a band elevating heavy rock to their level. The Norwegian trio aren’t shy when it comes to riffing out, as they demonstrate in the Hedwig Mollestad collaboration on “Amazon” and intermittently throughout Downpour‘s closing pair of “Solaris Pt. 1” and “Solaris Pt. 2,” each topping seven minutes. But neither are they limited to a singular nodding expression. While still sounding young and energetic in a way that just can’t be imitated, Downpour boogies almost immediately on opener “Black Time Fuzz,” and is often heavy and grooving like a straightforward heavy rock record, but as that tambourine in “Orbit” shows, Kanaan are ready at a moment’s notice with a flourish of guitar, some key or synth element, or something else to distinguish their pieces and in the soundscaping of “Psunspot” (sic) and the scope they claim throughout side B, they remain one of Europe’s brightest hopes for a future in progressive heavy, sounding freer in their atmospheres and in the build of “Solaris Pt. 1” than they did even on 2021’s Earthbound (review here). There’s a reason just about every festival in Europe wants them to play. The proverbial band-on-fire.
Zen and the Art of Tone, perhaps unsurprisingly, sets itself to the task in its title as Anchorage, Alaska-based Doom Lab mastermind Leo Scheben guides the listener through mostly short-ish instrumental pieces based around guitar, sometimes ultra-fuzzed with a programmed beat behind as on “Whole-Tones on Tail” or the extra-raw 1:24 of “Motörvamp” or the subsequent “Sabotaging the Sabocracy,” a bit clearer at the outset with “X’d Out,” but the drive toward meditation is clear and allows for both the slower, more doomed reaches of closer “Traveling Through the Cosmos at Beyond the Speed of Light” and the playful elder-funk of “The Plot-Twist” or the bounce of “Lydia Ann.” All told, the 12 songs and 36 minutes of experimentation on offer will resonate with some more than others, but Scheben sounds like he’s starting a conversation here with “Mondays Suck it Big-Time” and “Psychic Vampires” and the real question is whether anyone will answer. Sometimes a project comes along that’s just on its own wavelength, finding its own place in the pastiche, and that’s where Doom Lab have been at since the outset, prolific as well as dedicated to exploration. I don’t know toward what it’s all leading, but not knowing is part of enjoying hearing it, and maybe that’s the zen of the whole thing to start with.
Barely a year after making their full-length debut on Apollon with Beyond the Strange Horizon (review here), Bergen, Norway, traditionalists dig deeper into the proto-style roots of doom on their four-song second LP, Skur 14. Named after a rehearsal space complex (presumably where they rehearse) in their hometown, the album runs shortest-to-longest in bringing together Scandi-folk-rooted classic prog and heavy styles, but by the time they get to “Tusser Og Troll,” the 14:47 finale, one is less thinking about the past than the future in terms of sound. Acoustic guitar begins “The Road” ahead of the straight-ahead riff and post-punk vocals, while “Cursed and Cast Out” is both speedier in the verse and more open in the hook before shifting into rolls on the snare and more theatrical shove that, much to the band’s credit, they handle fluidly without sounding either ironically over the top or like goobers in any way other than how they want. With the seven-minute “Candles,” the procession is slower and more vintage in form, reminding a bit of Demon Head but following its own anthemic chorus into an extended solo section before side B is dedicated solely to the spread of “Tusser Og Troll,” which ends with an organic-feeling jam laced with effects. A strong second outing on a quick turnaround that shows clear progression — there’s nothing more to be asked of Skur 14.
Sure, the third album from Stuttgart drone-psych-jammers Shem — titled III, lest there be any doubt — starts off with its 16-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Paragate,” but given the context, it’s the second cut on side A, “Lamentum” (2:50), that most piqued my interest. It’s a fading in snippet of a progression, the drums steady, volume swells behind a strumming guitar, some vocal chanting as it moves through. Given the entrancing spaciousness of “Restlicht” (7:34) and “Refugium (Beyond the Gravitational Field of Time and Space)” (11:55), I didn’t expect much more than an interlude, and maybe it’s not intended to be, but that shorter piece does a lot in separating the long cut on III‘s first half from the two on the second, so serves a vital purpose. And in that, it represents III well, since even in “Restlicht,” there seems to be a plan unfolding, even if improvisation is a part of that. Bookending, “Paragate” is mellow when it isn’t congealing nebular gasses to make new stars, and “Refugium (Beyond the Gravitational Field of Time and Space)” finds itself in a wormhole wash of guitar while the ride cymbal tries to hold structural integrity together, the whole engine ending up kissing itself goodbye as it shifts from this dimension to one that, let’s be honest, is probably more exciting.
You ever hear a band’s album and think maybe it worked out better than the band thought it would when they started making it? Like maybe they surprised even themselves? That was Melt Motif‘s 2022 debut, A White Horse Will Take You Home (review here). The heavy industrial outfit founded by Kenneth Rasmus Greve and legit-doesn’t-need-a-last-name vocalist Rakel are joined by Brazilian producer Joe Irente for the curiously punctuated 10-track follow-up, Particles. Death Objective, and though they don’t have the element of surprise on their side this time out (for themselves or listeners), Melt Motif as a trio do expand on what the first album accomplished, bringing ideas from electronic dance music, sultry post-rock and hard-landing beats — plus some particularly striking moments of weighted guitar — to bear such that “Warrior” and “I’m Gone” are assured in not needing to explode with aggression and even with all its ticks and pops, the penultimate “Abyss” is more about atmosphere than impact. “Fever” creates a wash and lurches slow and heavy following on from “Broken Floor” at the beginning, but in “Full Moon” it’s a techno party and “Never_Again” feels like experimentalist hip-hop, so if you thought the book was closed aesthetically on the project, the sophomore outing assures it very much is not. So much the better.
As it begins with the telltale strut and maddening catchiness of “Diabolical Influence,” one might be tempted to think Birmingham’s Margarita Witch Cult are playing in Uncle Acid‘s sinister sandbox, but the two-minute fuzz-chug-punker burst of “Death Lurks at Every Turn” corrects this notion, and the rest of the UK trio’s nine-song/31-minute self-titled Heavy Psych Sounds affirms there’s more going on. “The Witchfinder Comes” is a classic Sabbath-worship roller with multi-tracked vocals — guitarist Scott Vincent is the only one listed on vocals, so might just be layering; Jim Thing is on bass and George Casual on drums — and “Be My Witch” is a lesson in how to make thickened fuzz move, but it’s the pointedly Motörheaded “Annihilation” (1:42) that most stands out, even with the likewise speedy shuffle of “Theme From Cyclops” (1:34) right behind it, the faster takeoff welcome to offset the midtempo home-base of the trio’s grooves. As to that, “Lord of the Flies” nestles itself into a comfortable tempo and resolves in a nod that it seems to have spent much of its five minutes building toward, a last run through the main riff more celebration than repetition ahead of the instrumental “Aradia,” which like “The Witchfinder Comes” featured on the band’s 2022 Witchfinder EP (review here), and the previously-issued single “Sacrifice,” which closes. Bottom line is they’ve got a righteous sound and their first album shows they know how to wield it. The smoke-filled sky is the limit from here. Hail next-gen stoner rock.
Trading between charred rasps and cleaner declarative singing, Indianapolis-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Chris Latta (The Skyspeakers, Lavaborne, ex-Spirit Division) guides the mostly-solo-project — Tucker Thomasson drums and plays lead guitar; not minimizing anyone’s contributions — Cloud of Souls through a tumultuous journey along the line between ancient-of-days doom and black metal, strident at times like Bathory, sometimes all-out ripping as on the earlier-Enslaved-style “Hiding from Human Eyes,” and growing deathlier on “Where Failure Dies” ahead of the closing title-track, which threatens to break out the razors at any moment but stays civilized in its doomly roll for the duration. Whatever else Latta accomplishes in this or any of his other outfits from here on out, he’ll always be able to say he put out a record with a centerpiece called “Time for Slaughter,” which isn’t nothing as regards artist achievements — the song taps pre-NWOBHM doom until it turns infernal in the middle — and while there’s clearly an aspect of self-awareness in what he’s doing, the exploration and the songwriting are put first such that A Fate Decided resounds with a love for the metal that birthed it while finding its own path to hopefully keep walking across future releases.
When I tell you Hibernaut has three former members of Salt Lake City psych-blues rockers Dwellers in the lineup, just go ahead and put that expectation to the side for a minute. With guitarist Dave Jones stepping to the front as vocalist, Joey Toscano (also ex-Iota) moving from guitar/vocals to lead guitar, Zach Hatsis (also ex-SubRosa) on drums and Josh Dupree on bass, their full-length debut/first release of any sort, Ingress — recorded of course by Andy Patterson — has more in common with High on Fire and dirt-coated raw thrash than anything so lush, and at 11 songs and 74 minutes long, that will toward the unrestrained is multifaceted as well. There’s rock swagger to be had in “Magog” or the spinning riff of “Summoner,” but “Mines” has more Celtic Frost than Kyuss to it, and that isn’t a complaint. The material varies — at over an hour long, it fucking better — but whether it’s the double-kick rampage of “Kaleidoscope” or the furious takedown of “Lantern Eyed,” Hibernaut revel in an overarching nastiness of riff such that you might just end up scrunching your face without thinking about it. There’s room for a couple nods, in “Projection,” or “Aeons Entombed,” but the prevailing impression is meaner while remaining atmospheric. I like that I have no guess what they’ll do after this. I don’t like having to check autocorrect every time it replaces their name with ‘Hibernate.’ If only I had some gnasher heavy metal to help me vent that frustration. Oh wait.
For their Black Nothingness EP, Berlin-based DIY aficionados Grin — bassist Sabine Oberg and drummer/vocalist Jan Oberg — stripped their sound back to its most essential parts. Unlike 2022’s Phantom Knocks (review here) long-player, there’s no soundscaping, no guitar, no Hammond. There is low end. There are drums. There are growls and shouts and there are six tracks and none of them reaches three minutes in length. This ferocious display of efficiency counterintuitively underscores the breadth of Grin‘s approach, since as one band they feel unrestricted in terms of arrangements, and Black Nothingness — on their own The Lasting Dose Records imprint and recorded by Jan — benefits from the barebones construction in terms of sheer impact as heard on the rolling “Gatekeeper” before each ending measure of “Midnight Blue Sorrow” seems to leave a bruise, or even the opening semi-title-track “Nothingness” staking a claim on hardcore gangshout backing vocals for use pretty much anytime. “Talons” is less in-your-face with its violence, but the threat remains fervent and subsequent closer “Deathbringer” perfectly conveys that sense of exhaustion you have from when you’ve been so angry for so long that actually you’re just kind of sad about it. All this and more in about 12 minutes out of your busy and intensely frustrating life makes Black Nothingness one of 2023’s best short releases. Now rage, damnit.
Norwegian classic prog/doom rockers Strange Horizon will release their debut album, Beyond the Strange Horizon, through Apollon Records on May 6. From the opening “Tower of Stone” through the finale “Death in Ice Valley,” the record follows a course born of traditionalism in and outside of Northern Europe. One can hear shades of various landmark acts throughout the album’s eight-track course — they’re not wrong when they call out Black Sabbath and Saint Vitus specifically below; to that list I’d add Reverend Bizarre and Pagan Altar — but even in the layered vocals from guitarist Stig V. “Qvillio” Kviljo on “Tower of Stone,” one can hear shades of modern methodologies breaking through, to say nothing of the bass tone of Christer S. Lindesteg or Kviljo‘s own guitar, or the drums of Camilla Wergeland Anfinsen, which push the opener’s swinging progression right into the Dave Chandler-esque sway of “Fake Templar” like they were shoving riffs off a cliffside into murky waters below. Extra distortion, you say? Don’t mind if I do.
Beyond the Strange Horizon plays out in such fashion, the trio well aware of where they’re coming from and who they want to be for this, essentially the first collection of their career; the three-song Demo MMXVIII from 2018 appearing here reworked in the tracks “Fake Templar,” “The Final Vision” and “Chains of Society.” They’re reorganized and spread throughout the album — it’s not that they’re tacked on for filler, in other words — and as the nodding fuzz of “The Final Vision” picks up from “Fake Templar” before it, the hook of that second track almost daring to soar, Strange Horizon offer a take less definitively retro than that of Trondheim’s Dunbarrow, for example, but still showcase their roots well, ending side A with the longer and more progressive “Divine Fear” in classic LP fashion, giving an almost hypnotic and mournful conclusion to the engaging first-half salvo while expanding on the ideas presented, working in some more melodic flourish and entrancing the audience enough so that the snare that starts “They Never Knew” arrives as an extra snap-to-attention on linear (CD/DL) formats.
The rest of “They Never Knew” is duly brash, rawer than “Fake Templar” in its intention but still holding a swinging groove and a lyric that seems to be rife with doomly condemnation. It and “Chains of Society” together — the latter the last of the three demo pieces to appear on the record — establish a solid momentum for the second half of Beyond the Strange Horizon, longer and plenty dug in as “Tower of Stone” foretold, but moving fluidly all the while. Thus it is that the penultimate “Turning the Corner” is perfectly placed; a sub-four-minute quiet stretch born of “Planet Caravan” impulses but presented earthier, more personal, almost folkish in another context — a song that could just as easily have had a heavy incarnation but unfolds to add texture and atmosphere to the release as a whole. It is ever more righteous backed by the nine-minute “Death in Ice Valley” — which may or may not have guest vocals alongside those of Kviljo — which seeks to summarize what the band have accomplished throughout while still adding to it in terms of the near-psychedelic soloing and outward-seeming, keys-included jam at the finish, Strange Horizon having established the rules of structure and then chosen to break them with suitable aplomb.
In terms of appeal, there’s more than just classic doom happening in Beyond the Strange Horizon stylistically, but that is the ground from which the band are reaching up. This first full-length may prove formative in the light of subsequent releases to come — they certainly sound interested in building on what they do here — but the potential for what may be shouldn’t detract from the accomplishments they’ve already made in songwriting and performance, meeting trad doom head-on with individual drive. I feel like there’s more to say here about the richness of their tones and the subtle divergences there, but with “Divine Fear” premiering below, there’s no shortage of opportunity for you to hear that for yourself.
Order link and whatnot follow. If you’re wondering, “lead-heavy Scandinavian heavy metal” is the translation of what they call themselves. One is not inclined to argue.
Please enjoy:
Strange Horizon, “Divine Fear” track premiere
Preorder: https://orcd.co/strangefinal
Traditional doom metal, or as we often call it, blytung skandinavisk heavy metal! Influenced by Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Count Raven, the Finnish scene, the Maryland scene, 60s/70s proto-hardrock, blues and NWOBHM.
Strange Horizon: Stig V. “Qvillio” Kviljo – Guitar, vocals Christer S. Lindesteg – Electric bass guitar Camilla Wergeland Anfinsen – drums on demo and album
