Posted in Reviews on September 22nd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Patiently executed across five songs and 38 minutes, the fourth full-length from Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, titled In Between Strides, might be drilling down into moment capture as even the cover art seems to hint toward with its motion lines and about-to-step leg frozen in time. That the Stuttgart, Germany, four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Simon Weinrich (also Rhodes), guitarist Lucas Dreher, bassist Christopher Popowitsch and drummer/vocalist Marc Dreher (also also Rhodes) establish an atmospheric sprawl and are working across the span to immerse the listener in the resonance thereof shouldn’t be a terrible surprise, but the effectiveness of the build across nine-minute opener “Departure,” and the drive of its later moments is an indication of the maturity taken shape in their sound. After their 2023 album, Aion (review here), accomplished so much in terms of atmosphere and storytelling, In Between Strides might not feel quite as lofty in terms of presentation when set next to its 2LP predecessor, but from “Departure” to closer “Return Precipice,” Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree bring an emotional presence amid dynamic, sometimes psychedelic heavy post-rock, and they’ve never sounded quite so poised in doing so.
“Departure” is one of three cuts at about nine and a half minutes long, alongside the closing pair of “Elisa” and “Return Precipice,” and it flows gracefully to bring the listener into the world the band are making. It might just be that one second, that frame captured above. Is it the band trying to remind the listener of the preciousness of the time we have? I honestly don’t know, but it wouldn’t be the first time Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree worked from a thematic premise. Whatever the case, Weinrich‘s vocals are gentle and echo out as part of the float alongside the guitar as the drums do casual jazz underneath, and things grow still as they move into the midsection but pick up again on the way out with the change to the instrumental build that makes up the song’s ending section. There is a genuine feeling of breadth in the recording, which was produced by Ralv Milberg (who also mixed and mastered) alongside Weinrich, but as second cut “Respite” shows with its four minutes of quiet acoustic procession, there’s intimacy to be found in this moment as well. Before it’s over, “Respite” transitions to what might be Rhodes backwards or some kind of droning guitar effect — hard to tell — but the acoustic guitar fades out in the last minute and the slowly undulating tones carry into the silence before centerpiece “Clutching at Straws” kicks in.
At a little over five minutes, the impression is kind of that “Clutching at Straws” and “Respite” could’ve been one song, but then the album would be four songs all over nine minutes long, which is perhaps monolithic in a way they didn’t want to be. In any case, “Clutching at Straws” bursts forward after some brief intro gathering, and, rolled by the drums, is as full-brunt as the band get on In Between Strides, creating a wash of loud, encompassing ambient tonality. Russian Circles are a touchstone, or Red Sparowes when they were a thing, but both of those bands are/were instrumental, and one can’t discount the fragility in the vocal delivery as an aspect of Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree‘s persona.
Even cutting through the wall of reverb in “Clutching at Straws,” the band maintain a human presence and introspective thoughtfulness by keeping the vocals calm, and as they’re subsumed late in the track, the effect is almost like going underwater as the song quickly fades out. This brings the arrival of “Elisa” and the second half of In Between Strides, which holds to and expands on the intention of the first. And while they probably could’ve snuck a verse in there, the fact that it doesn’t feature vocals and instead brings Luis Deffner in for a guest appearance on piano adds to the experimentalism of the sound, creepy but gradually growing more welcoming as it goes until, around seven minutes in, the piano takes on the role of conveying emotion that otherwise would belong to a human voice, be it Weinrich or Dreher.
This is a subtle but potent shift in “Elisa.” Not that you don’t notice the vocals missing but as Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree plunge deeper into this soundscape, they’re hypnotic in a way that In Between Strides hasn’t yet been, and the carry it through to the last drifts, leaving the song feeling complete as its own, distinct thing. It fits well alongside the other tracks, and pairs neatly on a side with “Return Precipice,” but stands by itself too. Doing so lets “Return Precipice” all the more convey a feeling of return, and in its initial build-up there’s a sense of arrival as by the time they’re 90 seconds in, the roll-credits intro has taken flight, and a short time later the daring-seeming fuzz twist behind the shoutier vocals (is that the change between Weinrich and Dreher?) isn’t threatening the listener with going back to reality so much as showing yet another side of whatever dimension it is in which the album is playing out. Another piece of that moment, if you want to keep it on-theme. Swirling wah persists into a guitar drop-out before the four-minute mark, but it’s a quick return (!) to the verse from there, and when they hit into the slowdown, the clear message is that no, they’re not coming back.
They once again let the drums take a break as the residual frequencies let out, and at about seven minutes in, they unleash a slow roll and harsher sludge screams over about a minute of march, harnessing chaos to their own expressive ends before letting go for the song’s final stretch of slow-fading effects and melodic noise. It’s telling that they finish with “Return Precipice” rather than simply “Return” as a complement to the opener, since it’s true they’re not quite putting the listener all the way back to the ‘real world,’ but the way “Return Precipice” dissipates, it’s clear they’re getting about as close as they can. Among the most resonant aspects of In Between Strides — which exudes resonance, mind you; resonance as a central feature — is intention on the part of the band, and the sense that the expanses they conjure in sound are part of an impressionistic picture they’re painting, in this case, of that fleeting expanse of time, however brief it may or may not be. Given their past work, it’s not shocking that Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree can be so evocative, or that their evocation is put to such distinct purpose, but it does make In Between Strides all the more of an accomplishment of their craft and ongoing growth.
Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, In Between Strides (2026)
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 1st, 2026 by JJ Koczan
I don’t imagine much of anybody who spent time with Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree‘s 2023 album, Aion (review here), will need much convincing to get on board with the follow-up — titled In Between Strides and set to release Sept. 18 on Magnetic Eye — but as immersive as that record was/remains, the Stuttgart-based worldmakers are moving forward just as they did to get to the point they were at three years ago. I’m curious to hear how their focus on melody and use of acoustics plays out in the post-heavy context of what they have wrought to-date, and if you’re like me, the first single and opening track “Departure,” is streaming now at the bottom of this post.
Note that on the tracklisting, “Departure” is bookended by “Return, Precipice” at the finish. One wonders if the title isn’t meant to be read literally, if the whole album — however long it is in actual human minutes — isn’t intended to convey the nuance of a few seconds; one step into the next, and so on. Though of course the title In Between Strides also evokes notions of forward movement, which has been a consistent factor for Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree since their outset.
I snagged the following from Bandcamp:
When German four-piece BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE began to find their bearings on where to go next from the success of their previous full-length, “Aion” (2023), the core idea for the fourth album, “In Between Strides”, was to take a more melodic approach. All else, they would leave to the creative process and somewhat to chance. BEES MADE HONEY recorded every other song on “In Between Strides” in various settings that were available to them at the time of creation: a cavernous cellar, a concert stage, an indoor balcony, a living room, their rehearsal space, even returning to the studio where their first album “Medicine” was tracked.
Through this spontaneous and shifting approach, BEES MADE HONEY began to move texturally and stylistically from ambient and drone toward shoegaze along with more acoustic elements. According to their original plan, “In Between Strides” stepped into more melodic territory, with each song representing a different aspect of the band’s musical vocabulary.
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE originate from the Swabian capital and German city of Stuttgart. All four members grew up together, eventually forming the band in 2014. Their musical template of ambient psychedelic doom was established with the debut album “Medicine” in 2017, and their sound has continued to evolve ever since. With “In Between Strides”, BEES MADE HONEY have turned rage into reflection by developing a more organic and spontaneous approach to their songs, opening up wide spaces and letting the melodies flow freely. This musical honey tastes simply delicious.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Stuttgart four-piece Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree released their new album, Aion (review here), last month as their first offering through Magnetic Eye Records, and the deeply atmospheric and mood-minded heavy psych/post-whathaveyou outfit will tour to support it starting early in October. Man, that is one packed month in Europe with all the festivals and tours around that weaving through various international borders east, west, north, south. But they’re going, as they should, and you can see the dates below running from Oct. 6-21, as well as the slot they’ve confirmed Dec. 1 at Dome of Rock in Salzburg, Austria.
I guess as a band these guys are bound to fly under some or most radars, but if you can imagine the expanse, they can fill it with volume. I haven’t seen a ton of hype about it — I’m honestly not sure I would at this point; I’m pretty out of the loop on what’s cool — but Aion is a world you can inhabit, and if hearing it doesn’t make you want to see the band live, well, it probably should.
They’ve got dates confirmed below, plus a bunch of TBAs and ‘BOOK US!’es that if you can help resolve, you should. Behold:
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE – WE ARE ON TOUR!
With our new album Aion we are finally back on the road in October. Check out if we are in a city close to you. We are looking forward to seeing some familiar and of course new faces.
Also we are still looking for a way to bring psychedelic doom to your city for the 12th, 15th and 16th. So write us if you want to book us for a concert!
06.Oct. – Esslingen at Komma Kultur Esslingen 07.Oct. – tba 08.Oct. – Luzern (CHE) at Sedel 12. Oct. – BOOK US! 13. Oct. – Passau at Tabakfabrik Passau 14. Oct. – Jena at KuBa / Cosmic Dawn 15. Oct. – BOOK US! 16. Oct. – BOOK US! 17. Oct. – Weimar at C.Keller & Galerie Markt 21 e. V. 18. Oct. – Kassel at Karnak 19. Oct. – Göttingen at Vinyl-Reservat 20. Oct. – Karlsruhe at P8 21. Oct. – tba 01.Dec. – Salzburg (AUT) at Dome of Rock Festival 2023
Line-up Simon Weinrich – guitar, synth, vocals Marc Dreher – drums, vocals Lucas Dreher – guitar Christopher Popowitsch – bass
[Click play above to stream Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree’s ‘Aion’ in its entirety. It’s out Friday through Magnetic Eye Records with preorders available here.]
From the outset of its 12-minute opening title-track, the intention of Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree‘s third album, Aion, is immersion. To build a world and place the listener in it. The Stuttgart, Germany, four-piece make their label-debut on Magnetic Eye Records with the sprawling, eight-song/79-minute 2LP, which is also their first studio outing in four years since 2019’s Grandmother (review here), though 2022 brought Harvestmen (Live) (review here), perhaps in part as a holdover while Aion was completed. And time would seem to matter here, at least if the band’s penchant for purposeful title choices — their first album was 2017’s duly healing Medicine (review here) — is anything to go by, as Aion feels in some ways as thought it’s working with a snapshot of life, a moment in time, as its central lyrical theme. “Aion” itself, amid the vast echoing reaches of guitar from Simon Weinrich (also vocals, synth) and Lucas Dreher, the depth of vibration from Christopher Popowitsch‘s bass, and the rolling drums of Marc Dreher (also vocals), begins with a quick intro of sampled street noise, fading-in soft guitar and synth drone. There’s a voice, a laugh maybe, and it seems to be a child playing. Footsteps. A car pulls in. The song starts.
In addition to being a preface to the four-minute ambient piece “Courtyard,” which seems positioned to be the introduction for the second of Aion‘s two LPs, the opening of “Aion” seems as well to set up a theme of trust betrayed, specifically a child’s trust and perhaps more specifically a story of a child abused by a priest working toward finding some measure of inner peace and understanding for the world around them. This isn’t made explicit, as such, but in the lyrics, the first word of the album is “tithe” — referencing of course the catholic practice of giving 10 percent of one’s income to the church — a soothing voice becoming subtly sinister as it grows greedy in the final verse, while “Divergence” speaks toward something being that shouldn’t be and side B’s “Threatening,” the lyrics of which are five lines total, working in impressionistic imagery:
Threatening a child in awe
Everyone has gone inside
Kneeling down toward
Stripping away the sheets
Every trace washed away
I’ll hedge bets and say this is my interpretation, rather than one that Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree have said is the basis for Aion in narrative terms, but even if that story was not the one they originally intended to tell, I’ll argue it’s valid just the same. Across the first half of the album, which wraps with the two-minute standalone guitar meditation “Consonance,” the band fill out an aural scope that feels exponentially grown out from their prior work, and not just in runtime. Aion realizes in its largesse and slow, gradual flows, builds, crashes and comedowns a complete vision of the band’s sound, captured at this moment, and can be blinding in its shimmer or crushing in its heft at a given moment without sounding out of place, or forced, or like whatever they’re doing doesn’t belong in the ether they’ve conjured.
Though “Divergence” (7:00) has some shouts and a riff that feels relatively grounded in comparison to the floating churn of “Aion” before it, vocals are exclusively clean on the first half of the album while the second looses some screams at points in “Excavation” (8:05), “Scouring the Earth” (11:59) and closer “Grey Wels,” though they don’t come up until nearly 20 minutes into the song’s total 21:26, after a stretch of ultra-swirling synth drones and cosmic doom guitar noise has pushed as deeply into sonic hypnotism as Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree here go. This split between LPs, further emphasized with “Consonance” leading into “Courtyard,” with its birdsong and initial serenity gradually shifting toward foreboding synth and — as there would almost have to be somewhere throughout — a tolling churchbell along with some rainfall as it fades to silence, the ideas of inner exploration applying through the subsequent “Excavation” and “Scouring the Earth” before “Grey Wels” offers some kind of resolution in nature, its lyrics referencing ringing broken bells, judges, and the wels, which is the largest freshwater fish in Southern Europe.
Nightfishing as catharsis? Maybe. I won’t claim to fully understand the storyline if there even is one, but there’s no question that the final three tracks (after “Courtyard”) grow darker than did the first three (before “Consonance”), with standout bass and keyboard wash in “Scouring the Land” leading to the arrival of a particularly agonized scream toward which the more straightforward noise-doom riffing in the latter half of “Excavation,” with its own screams there, seems to be building. Right down to the way it rises out of silence just past minute six of the 12-minute penultimate cut, that scream in “Scouring the Land” brims with intention. It stops the song, moving into cymbal wash and drone/bass that makes its way back to full-bore with flashes of progressive post-doom and the album’s greatest sense of urgency, coming apart near the end but not fading out as even “Divergence” did with its ending of troubled noise, but allowing for the silence of “Grey Wels” to begin the process of that song building its ambience essentially from nothing.
And while consistent in tone, dimensionality and dynamic, “Grey Wels” is inherently a focal point and feels like it’s intended to stand apart. Its gently-delivered maybe-summary lyrics and consuming, percussive, contemplative instrumental course remind of long-ago Dutch explorers Mühr — and I recognize that’s not the first time I’ve said that about Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree; I stand by it — but it should be noted that the mastery they show in guiding the complex course of their finale belongs to no one else. Each time they present themselves with an opportunity to lose control, they instead lock it down, and as “Grey Wels” moves like moon-reflecting water through its heavy post-rocking midpoint swell into the quiet before the last build across the record’s eight-or-so concluding minutes, they sound like they’ve become the band they set out to be, and even if my take on the theme is dead wrong, it speaks to the level of engagement wrought through Aion and the evocative character of their songwriting.
Aion is not an easy, universal listen. Yes, one can of course hear it without diving into a story or interpreting the lyrics some other way — I had a completely different narrative for it at first, sparked by the inviting nature of the way “Aion” seems to surround the listener on all sides — but on whatever level one might want to take it on, it’s ready. And for the band themselves, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree reach a new level of composition, patience and breadth. It is a stunning, sometimes sad, sometimes beautiful, sometimes both, sometimes harsh, sometimes barely there course, but through every turn and change in mood, tempo or volume, they execute with care and passion in kind, making the fact of pushing post-metallic cosmic doom forward as a style secondary to the statement of this album itself.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 23rd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
After announcing they’d signed to Magnetic Eye Records last week, Stuttgart atmospheric heavy rockers Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree have posted the song “Divergence” as the first single from their upcoming label-debut and third album overall, Aion. The track, which hints at bees in a drone of what’s either guitar effects or synth, runs seven minutes flat and is a spacious psychedelic delve, weighted as one would hope but maybe even more about reach than largesse. It follows their 2022 live album, Harvestmen (Live) (discussed here) and 2019’s Grandmother (review here), which makes the four years since its release feel long.
This year has had a glut of rad offerings from all over and in a wide range of styles, and with their cumbersome moniker and atmospheric approach, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree are more contemplative than immediate, as “Divergence” shows. It is my hope that they don’t fall under listeners’ radars with the upcoming LP when it’s so easy to be distracted by the next thing. Their music to-date, including the new single with its ambulances-going-by evocation — I live by a county road and recall vividly the regularity of passing sirens a couple Springs ago; doppler effect on your soul — has been a place to dwell. It’s worth taking the time to do that.
So slow down, and dig in. From Bandcamp:
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE – Aion
Although water seems permeable and supple, it can become vicious and brutal in an instant. As such, water is the perfect elemental theme for “Aion”, the third album of German psychedelic doom contenders BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE. Lyrically, water is present on “Aion” both for its life-giving quality but also its darker and more ominous side. Musically, BEES MADE HONEY deliver spacious, dynamic compositions that move from drifting tranquility to raging power. A constant tidal movement of ebb and flow translates into spaced-out guitars, pounding bass-lines, and dripping drum-fills, crowned by echoing clean vocals.
The album title derives from the Greek word ἀιών (aiṓn), which translates as ‘eternity’ and has come to denote ‘ages’ in the English word ‘aeon’. BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE were founded in the German city of Stuttgart in 2014. With all four members having grown up together since childhood and coming from an academic background, the band had a clearly defined goal right from the start: to contrast crushing doom metal riffs with the spheric sounds of post- and psychedelic rock.
BEES MADE HONEY laid down their musical template with the debut album “Medicine” in 2017, which provided the solid foundation of their ever-evolving sound. Their sophomore full-length “Grandmother” (2019) expanded the sonic horizon through lower tuning, densely layered effects, faster passages, and harder vocals. The Germans also started performing live at home and abroad to continuously growing audiences, which led to the recording and release of “Harvestmen (live)” in 2022. It is time to set sails and glide over the endless seas of time that BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE create on “Aion” for a glimpse of sparkling sonic stars and the beauty of eternity.
Tracklisting: 1. Aion 2. Divergence 3. Threatening 4. Consonance 5. Courtyard 6. Excavation 7. Scouring the Land 8. Grey Wels
Line-up Simon Weinrich – guitar, synth, vocals Marc Dreher – drums, vocals Lucas Dreher – guitar Christopher Popowitsch – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
So, you know who really likes Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree? Me. I do. The German heavy psych rockers have signed to Magnetic Eye Records to issue their third album sometime later this year and well, I think that’s great. The label shows an adventurous side while remaining consistent in picking up bands who take familiar genre characteristics and make them their own, and for the band, they join an international roster of talent that includes Domkraft, Brume, Caustic Casanova, Ruby the Hatchet, Witch Ripper, Oceanlord, High Priest and Besvärjelsen. Don’t look now — actually do — but Magnetic Eye are very clearly building a roster not only with today in mind, but the years to come as well. Having an act like Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, whose sound is based in jamming but broadens from that foundation, is not going to hurt that optimistic future.
And while I am a little sad to know that the next Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree album exists and I haven’t yet heard it, I’m stoked to know it’s on its way and look forward to diving in when the opportunity presents itself. One way or another, I’ll have more to come as we get closer to whenever the release date actually is. Mark your calendars for ‘not soon enough.’
From the PR wire:
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE sign with Magnetic Eye Records
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE have penned a deal with Magnetic Eye Records. The German psychedelic doom four-piece will release their third full-length via the label later this year.
BEES MADE HONEY comment: “We are proud to become a part of the Magnetic Eye family with so many impressive bands on their roster”, drummer Marc Dreher writes on behalf of the band. “This is the next step on our journey, and we are looking forward to all the great things to come!”
Jadd Shickler welcomes BEES MADE HONEY: “Some of the best music comes to us through friends, colleagues, and occasionally through other bands on our roster”, the Magnetic Eye director explains. “Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree got on our radar courtesy of Domkraft. Therefore it’s hardly a surprise that they share an affinity for spacious, post-apocalyptic heaviness that moves from delicate to brutal in the course of winding passages. This is the label’s first official signing of a German artist. As we are fans of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Year of No Light, and with Domkraft being one of our flagship artists, we couldn’t be more excited to welcome Bees Made Honey to the label. And I swear, their upcoming album is utterly transcendent!”
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE were founded in the German city of Stuttgart in 2014. With all four members having gown up since childhood and coming from an academic background, the band had a clearly defined goal right from the start: to contrast crushing doom metal riffs with the spheric sound of post- and psychedelic rock. This is emphasised by reverberating vocals that recite metaphorical lyrics and float through beautiful and heavy sonic spaces.
BEES MADE HONEY laid down their musical template with the debut album “Medicine” in 2017, which provided the solid foundation of their ever-evolving sound. Their sophomore full-length expanded the sonic horizon through lower tunings, densely layered effects, more faster passages, and harder vocals. The Germans also started performing live at home and abroad to continuously growing audiences.
Currently, BEES MADE HONEY are preparing for there release of their third album, which will be out via Magnetic Eye Records later this year.
Line-up Simon Weinrich – guitar, synth, vocals Marc Dreher – drums, vocals Lucas Dreher – guitar Christopher Popowitsch – bass
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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 5th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Here is a band I would relish an opportunity to see. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree have been tapped into the heart of heavy psychedelic exploration and rock for at least the last five years since their 2017 debut LP, Medicine (review here), offered healing expanse enough to earn its title. Their 2019 follow-up, Grandmother (review here), provided further glimpses into their trippy but still evocative, emotionally resonant approach, and as if to highlight the point, earlier this year, Harvestmen (Live) (discussed here), came out to not only make plain their intention to continue forward in the post-pandemic era, but to further argue in favor of showing up to tour dates like those listed below.
Next month in Europe is slammed with short runs like this, as well as the usual and then some slate of festivals, and I’ve got a separate post slated tomorrow for Canada’s Low Orbit, who’ll join Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree for some of these shows listed below. Nonetheless, having never seen these guys live, it’s not something I’d pass up especially as one’s thoughts invariably turn to the prospect of a third album from them and how their sound might have progressed in the last three mostly-showless years. Note the Pink Tank Festival happening across three nights across three German cities. I think you’re going to see a lot of that kind of traveling package tour/fest in the next couple years as live music continues to ‘come back,’ compete with at-home entertainment and cope with — let’s face it — an audience the majority of which are aging even faster than the grey in their beards would make you think.
There’s a TBA date here. Someone hit up ElbSludgeBooking in Dresden and tell ’em to make it happen.
Here’s info from socials:
BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE – TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT
We are happy to be on the road again and looking forward to our Harvestmen Live Tour in October! Check out the dates and see us in your town.
16.10 Karlsruhe DE P8 20.10 Esslingen DE Komma * 21.10 TBA 22.10 Wetzikon CH Kulturfabrik 23.10 Tübingen DE Epplehaus 24.10 Dortmund DE Black Plastic 25.10 Weimar DE C Kellar * 26.10 Bielefeld DE Potemkin * 27.10 Hamburg DE Fundbuero ** 28.10 Lübeck DE Treibsand ** 29.10 Kiel DE Die Pumpe ** 30.10 Nijmegen NL Onderbroek * 12.11 Leonberg DE Beatbaracke
* w Low Orbit ** Pink Tank Festival
(#128248#) by @dantrautwein Design: @christopher.popowitsch
