Posted in Whathaveyou on October 2nd, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Damn, yo. Admittedly, not everything that Toronto-based festival Prepare the Ground puts on is my cup of whathaveyou, but for Dark Castle alone, I felt compelled to post their first lineup announcement for 2027, never mind SubRosa. Those two, plus the likes of Agalloch, KENmode, Primitive Man and so on will make for a pretty wild weekend at the start of June, and if you’re up for tickets, the link below is long enough that I think you probably won’t miss it; they’re available now. I’m so glad SubRosa are doing more than just Fire in the Mountains, and I don’t know that they’ll tour at all around this — mind you, I don’t know that they won’t — but it’s something I’ll keep an eye on. Ditto that for Dark Castle, the Floridian two-piece whose last album, Surrender to All Life Beyond Form (review here), came out 15 years ago.
Oof I’m old. Not because it’s been that long, but because 15 years doesn’t feel like that much.
Anywho, I’ll be keeping an eye on who else gets added here, as certainly they’re off to a killer start. The following is from social media:
Prepare the Ground IV, June 4 – 6 2027 in Toronto, Ontario
Our three day passes are now available to you. Our fourth iteration is shaping up to be our most cathartic yet, with challenging and beautiful art presented in so many varied ways.
Our first allotment of acts includes along awaited underground favourite reunion, the Canadian return of two heavy hitters & a few Canadian debuts, and special sets from heavy music stalwarts, and there is so much more to share with you in the coming months. Join us.
The lineup so far: Agalloch Bosse-de-Nage Dark Castle Franklin Junius KEN mode performing “ ” Lamp of Murmuur Malfet Primitive Man performing “Observance” Subrosa Thrä
As always, our amazing art was done by the incomparable Stephen Wilson
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 21st, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Before we get to this reissue, there are two other things you need to know about. SubRosa mark their reunion (which may or may not be ongoing) at Fire in the Mountains this coming weekend. Second, the band’s last three albums — 2016’s For This We Fought the Battle of Ages (review here), 2013’s More Constant Than the Gods (discussed here) and 2011’s No Help for the Mighty Ones (review here) — are being reissued on vinyl through Profound Lore. They have an awful lot going on for a band who aren’t really a band anymore.
Now then, that out of the way, we can focus on this I Hate Records re-release for their 2008 debut album, Strega. The band have said they’ll about some copies at the festival this weekend, and while it was originally on CD — the promo was in a sleeve; I remember when it came into Metal Maniacs, where I worked at the time, and I didn’t get to take it home — this will be the first time it’s pressed to vinyl as well. Why post this announcement instead of the others? Part of it is I want to save the below Q&A with Rebecca Vernon for off-social-media posterity, for sure. The band have said more announcements are coming. Curious to learn what that means, but I assume if there are more live appearances in the works they’ll be revealed after Fire in the Mountains. Contracts and all that.
Here’s this though. Stream of the album is at the bottom:
Here’s a nice surprise for most of you, I HATE & SUBROSA have decided to work together on the first ever vinyl version of the group’s debut album, “Strega”, originally an I HATE CD-only release (2008). Finally it is time for a run of 312 red vinyl to be unleashed upon mankind!
Mastered for vinyl by Magnus “Devo” Andersson, Endarker Studio, in 2026.
What follows is an interveiw with Subrosa vocalist/guitarist Rebecca Vernon —————————
-Tell us what is going on in the Subrosa camp at present.
We are preparing to play Fire in the Mountains in 12 days, and even though we have had quite a few practices, and practiced a lot individually, there was a lot of dust to shake off. The sound finally started to sound like it was really coming together at our last practice this past Sunday, after so much work. I think we are all feeling a little more confident about playing this show. We are profoundly excited to play it. We are also hand-painting a bunch of parasols and getting other merch to sell at the festival. It is exciting to make our first merch in eight years!
-How do you feel when listening to you 2008 debut album 18 years later?
Honestly, I had not listened to it all the way through since it came out in 2008! It brought back a rush of memories listening to the mastered version for vinyl. I have tended to always view Strega as simply a prototype or precursor to the three that came after it (No Help, More Constant, and Battle of Ages), but listening to it again made me feel new appreciation for it, for its own sake. I felt a certain sense of pride and also some surprise, that I felt the songs have held up well over time. Each song has its own personality and there is a lot of variety between them. Listening to Strega again felt like seeing flesh and bone materialize on a phantom that has existed only in my head for so long, that had become indistinct and blurred by the passage of time.
-How do you look back at the persons you were when recording Strega?
We had a strong vision for what we wanted to accomplish, but no real clue as to how to make it happen. We were full of hope, optimism, blind faith and passion, and hadn’t been affected by some of the darker times that were ahead for us, as a band and individually. Sometimes I yearn for that old Rebecca, but at the same time, I’m glad to be where I am right now.
-Who were your main influences back then?
Our main influence was a band from Utah called the Red Bennies, who were in turn influenced in turn by Sleep, Jimi Hendrix and a band from the 60s called Black Pearl. I first saw them in 1996. It was my first time encountering sludge metal, and it was like an atom bomb going off in my soul. I still have never heard another band like the Red Bennies, nor have I heard one as angry, even after all the hundreds of heavy bands I’ve seen. Another major influence on SubRosa was PJ Harvey. Again, there is no one else like her, and her heavy, simple approach to blues riffs and matter-of-fact, seductive caterwauling knows no equal. Her approach to riff-writing was especially influential on me.
-How do you think the album will be received by fans of your later recordings that has not heard Strega previously?
I think a lot of fans who have not heard Strega before might see it much as I did, as a valiant but ultimately basic precursor to more powerful, more realized albums to come. That is not entirely wrong. But I invite fans to listen to Strega and appreciate it for its own sake, as I did when listening to the vinyl masters a few months ago. I felt a sense of joy remembering the songs, and even surprise. There were so many songs I had all but forgotten. I even got up and danced to “Black Joan,” to my 13-year-old niece’s horror.
-Do you have any favorite tracks from the album?
I think “Black Joan” is my favorite track. I like the lyrics on the choruses, “I see my train a-comin, black wheels like thunder rolling/won’t you help me pack my bags?/I’m leaving, and I’m not coming back.” A triumphant goodbye to a bad era, which I think nearly every human can relate to.
-To finally have the debut available on vinyl must feel great?
Yes, it feels incredible. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into making this happen! It feels like a nod to our roots and an honoring of those first steps into the unknown.
-You released 4 studio albums in your active period, 2005-2019. What lead up to the band split, and why did you decide to reform in 2025?
Honestly, playing SubRosa Subdued for Roadburn had a big influence on the band split. I had been wanting to explore softer, more minimal songwriting and delivery, focusing on the folk roots of the band, for a few years, and that set was so enjoyable and satisfying that it confirmed to me that that was the right direction for me to go in creatively. I tried to simply put SubRosa on a break, but it was really hard for us to go on a break. So I ended up feeling that I had no choice but to end SubRosa, even temporarily, so I could focus on my solo project The Keening.
-Are songs from “Strega” still part of the live-set?
We don’t have any songs from Strega for our Fire in the Mountains setlist, unfortunately. But when we played our Subdued set at Roadburn in 2016, we played “Sugar Creek”! We even played “Mirror” from the pre-Strega demo The Worm has Turned. I think the songs from Strega translated well to our Subdued set, because of their stronger folk roots. It was after Strega that more doom metal started creeping into our sound. I believe Beneath the Frozen Soil, who we toured with in Europe in 2009, had a big part in that influence. RIP our beloved Linus Pilebrand.
—————— Thanks to Ola Blomkvist for parts of the questions/interview!
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I said when the Bell WitchEuropean dates went up yesterday that I’d be posting about the tour again, and The Keening are why. The Portland-based dark atmospheric troupe led by Rebecca Vernon, formerly of SubRosa, will support the Seattle death-doom two-piece for three-plus weeks of road time, and as it’s their first trip overseas, it seemed prudent to mark the occasion.
The Keening‘s debut album, Little Bird (review here), came out last Fall through Relapse, and while it’s of course not Vernon‘s first time traveling internationally for shows, it is that for the group she’s assembled around her to bring this material to life on stage, and given the breadth and heart poured into that record, it’s a set I’d like to see. Having Bell Witch on after to turn your melancholy into an abyssal misery is just a bonus.
Oh, and The Keening were also confirmed for Roadburn today playing Little Bird in full. So there’s that, too.
From social media:
We are beyond thrilled to join Bell Witch on three and a half weeks of their seven-week European tour this April and May.
I’m a longtime fan of Bell Witch, ever since my previous roommate Christian Creek shared their 2011 demo and first album “Longing” with me in 2012 or so. I thought they were one of the most authentic bands I’d ever heard, and seeing them live in Seattle soon after cemented that impression. I was intimidated by the sheer dark power they wielded on stage. Their pain seemed too immense for the room. They were making music to survive. It’s been amazing to see Bell Witch grow and expand over the years into one of the most influential doom bands to grace the metal scene.
From Bell Witch: “In March we embark on an 8 week odyssey across Europe. From the frostbitten North to the Hellenic land of myths in the South, the Emerald Isle to the Balkan states we’re playing many cities for the first time ever…
Along the way we’ll be joined for stretches by friends old & new in FVNERALS, Knoll, Esoteric, Thantifaxath & The Keening. We’re excited to share the stage with bands who bring something truly unique & powerful to their music. Tickets are on sale now at the link in our bio. We can’t wait to see new & familiar faces alike.”
Posted in Reviews on November 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s been nearly half a decade, but I’m not sure I’m completely over SubRosa breaking up yet. That pioneering post-metallic Salt Lake City outfit, fronted by Rebecca Vernon who founded The Keening after as a solo-project, released their final LP in 2016’s For This We Fought the Battle of Ages (review here), which was encompassing with a clarity of vision and purpose that pushed even further into the atmospheric textures wrought across 2013’s More Constant Than the Gods (review here), defining a sound that could be dead-minimal or unspeakably heavy, was undeniably Americana, and carried emotional presence and outward purpose in its lyrics and delivery across the board. They announced they were done in 2019. I may never get over it. But I kind of understand a bit more. The Keening‘s debut album, the six-song/51-minute Little Bird — on Relapse — puts some distance between Vernon and a doom underground it’s easy to imagine one might’ve been burnt out on if these were the songs looking to be expressed and one felt obligated to a specific tonal assault.
The other four former members of SubRosa have continued on with The Otolith — their debut album, Folium Limina (review here), surfaced last year via Blues Funeral — and begun a new progression off of some of their former outfit’s heavier aspects. If one wants to relate The Keening to SubRosa — as apparently (this) one does — then Vernon is drawing more from the melancholia and the curtain of ambient sadness of that band’s style, and with a modus that’s still very much hers, offering them recontextualized through varying arrangements of acoustic guitar as on the opener “Autumn,” goth church organ on “Eden,” strings and piano throughout, wisps of violin coming and going, and layers of voices alongside Vernon, who worked with producer Billy Anderson (Sleep, Neurosis, Acid King, etc.) and Nathan Carson (drummer for Witch Mountain and now the live incarnation of The Keening; also founder of Nanotear Booking) on the recording in Dec. 2020, following the project’s instrumental piano debut earlier that year on Blues Funeral‘s Women of Doom (review here).
So The Keening isn’t interested in being SubRosa, clearly. What takes shape gradually over the course of Little Bird has more in common with SubRosa‘s Subdued: Live at Roadburn 2016 (review here) semi-acoustic reworkings of their material, but is unmistakably heavier in stretches of “Autumn,” “Eden,” the penultimate “The Hunter II” and in the culmination of extended closer “The Truth” — it’s 17:30, but the almost operatic crescendo is voice as much as instrument (also voice-as-instrument) as part of a wash with guitar, bass, drums, strings, maybe some horns, I don’t even know, circa 13 minutes, and it makes its way out gradually there with room for birdsong and a kinda-sorta-secret track of what might be a harp but was definitely made with elven magic in any case — while remaining true to the structural patterns of Vernon‘s craft, poetic in the lyrics and in the instrumental progressions alike, and evocative of doom in some of its tempos certainly, but so much more intent on texture than impact.
The space in the mix, where it isn’t purposefully left open, is filled with mournful melodies and Vernon‘s voice aligning itself with Appalachian folk as well as modern post-heavy with just that ever-present undercurrent of spit-punk, dynamic arrangements and a style that has all the more forward potential for its malleability, but that doesn’t pull pieces of itself in and out for no reason. That church organ on “Eden” and the heavier roll that ensues as Vernon leads the chorus with the repeated line “Eden is receding” before it drops to keys ahead of the three-minute mark, specifically goth as the strings return and the song realigns for its big push — it would be as weighted as The Keening get but for “The Hunter II” mirroring on side B — but the harmonies after four minutes are even more affecting, and they carry to the end of that movement before a meditation of piano and quietest voice cap the song.
But just as one example drawn from the six inclusions, “Eden” is woven. It’s not haphazard or forced in its changes, and even its last shift to the soft ending is made gently, with silence as a place gone to and returned from. With the flowing violins and echoing layers of vocals, to call Little Bird graceful feels superfluous, but it is anyhow, and no less so as the title-track sweeps through a miniature version of its longer build before resetting in a wistful piano piece for which I’d love to see a lyric sheet, and making its way into a wash that’s preface to “The Truth” (which I guess is side C of the vinyl, or left off it), a kind of centerpiece at nine minutes, but more intimate than sprawling, despite that blossom at the finish.
This hint-at-what’s-coming modus applies to “The Hunter I” and “The Hunter II” as well, with the former flashing an edge of distortion in its early choruses while holding back its own payoff to a kind of droning nod before transitioning into “The Hunter II” with a tension of electric guitar that gives over to soothing folkish Mellotron (or -ish sounds) for an initially drumless two minutes, reimagining ’60s crossover folk until about three and a half minutes into the total of just less than five, Little Bird gets its “Stones From the Sky” moment of dense riffing, complemented by violin, layered in vocals, Vernon returning with the line, “I can’t wait until I die so I won’t see you again,” repeated. Richly progressive folk-informed heavy post-rock and a sick burn to boot. That ending is a surprise, and not the first, but its push leaves little room for argument, and by the time you’re there in listening, you’re long since either on board for the go or not. At that point, Vernon can do basically whatever she wants.
Enter “The Truth.” Beginning with standalone piano, “The Truth” unfurls its troubled landscape in its own time, and keeps a chorus based around, “So I ask you baby/Did the truth set you free?” (with changes in who’s being freed), at its core for this first movement before growing quiet at about five minutes and setting forth on its outbound path through the apex and into a staring-at-the-mountains silence. Perhaps a great asset for The Keening and Vernon as she moves forward with the band will be how pointedly heavy metal Little Bird isn’t, how genuinely moving it is, and how the album might appeal to listeners beyond the heavy underground’s subculture. But that’s a concern beyond the album itself, which repositions Vernon on new ground to explore while retaining the strength of songwriting and performance that made this project so anticipated in the first place.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
An anticipated return for Rebecca Vernon, formerly of SubRosa. Her solo-project, The Keening, has been in the conversation for four years, but aside from one compilation track, there hasn’t been much output until now. Little Bird will be Vernon‘s debut album as The Keening. It’s set to release Oct. 6 through Relapse, and the first single is the title-track; a nine-plus minute excursion with a richly melancholic melody and an arrangement that’s chamber-heavy in a way that’s not entirely dissimilar from some of Crippled Black Phoenix‘s litany of sorrows, but informed of course by Vernon‘s Americana and folk songwriting style.
I went and saw the Indigo Girls a couple months back, after years of my wife telling me how great they are live. They were brilliant, of course. That’s who The Keening should tour with. They’d blow minds. Yeah, I’m sure it’ll go over well at Decibel Metal & Beer Fest, but the folk in “Little Bird” could have a broader reach too. It’s not pop, necessarily, but there’s an accessibility to the sway of “Little Bird,” I think mostly because it’s beautiful, and that goes a long way.
The PR wire had this on the subject:
The Keening (ex-Subrosa) Announce Debut Album, Little Bird
Watch the music video for the album’s title track now.
Little Bird will be released October 6th via Relapse and the band will play inaugural live performances this fall/winter.
The Keening— the solo music project of Rebecca Vernon (ex-SubRosa)—announce debut album, Little Bird, out October 6, 2023 on Relapse Records. An ultra-melodic foray into haunted bogs, endless wells, secret crimes, jeweled cages and the unenviable curse of being a murder witness abound, Little Bird carries Vernon’s signature sounds throughout— deeply moving passages give away to cinematic, sprawling moments of chambered doom. As dark as this sounds, Little Bird also fills the air with a sense of magic and wonder – there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
The Keening weaves a web of lush orchestration, American Gothic sensibilities and wintry murder ballads set against a backdrop of dark, shimmering folk. Vernon’s previous band SubRosa echoes in The Keening’s chamber doom, flowing with flute, strings, harp, French horn, piano, organ and hammered dulcimer.
The Keening’s Rebecca Vernon comments: “I’m really excited to finally start releasing this music into the ether, along with the album art, and the music video for single ‘Little Bird.’ I think the film company 10 Seconds to Comply (Ken Whiting, Andrew Bonazelli and Manny OA) and their hired crew did a phenomenal job pulling together this music video and bringing their beautiful vision to light. Thanks to my friend Lucy Sharapata for playing the lead so well, Andrea Morgan and Teresa Byrne for making time to be part of it, and Andrew and his wife Mikki for hosting us at their house! I’m also excited to share the album art – two oil paintings by Lis Pardoe of Portland. Thanks to Relapse Records for making this happen!”
Little Bird, track listing: Autumn Eden Little Bird The Hunter I The Hunter II The Truth
Largely composed at a retreat in Joshua Tree and a friend’s family homestead in Kamas, Utah, Little Bird was recorded in December 2020 at Hallowed Halls in Portland, Oregon with “Engine-ear” Billy Anderson. Anderson’s long resume includes such luminaries as Melvins, Neurosis, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, High on Fire, Bell Witch, Amenra, Agalloch, Cathedral, Cattle Decapitation, Red House Painters, Sick of it All, Sleep, and Swans.
Anderson collaborated with Vernon and Witch Mountain drummer Nathan Carson as co-producers of the recording of the album. A host of Portland’s finest session musicians lent their talents to Little Bird, including Andrea Morgan (Exulansis) on violin. Little Bird was completed in July 2021, mixed by Billy Anderson and mastered by Justin Weis at Trakworx in San Francisco.
See The Keening’s live debut performances this September including headline shows & opening for Agalloch. The Keening will also perform at Decibel Metal & Beer Fest: Denver in December. A full list of announced tour dates is available below.
The Keening, on tour: September 15 Bellingham, WA @ Shakedown September 16 Seattle, WA @ Clock-Out Lounge September 22 Eugene, OR @ John Henry’s September 23 Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom w/ Agalloch, Thief December 2 Denver, CO @ Decibel Metal & Beer Fest
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Keening is Rebecca Vernon from SubRosa, and that’s all you really need to know, though I guess the fact that there’s an album, Relapse is releasing it, and a live band will take shape as well featuring, among others, Nathan Carson of Witch Mountain, is useful knowledge as well. You might also note the part below that says the record was produced by Billy Anderson and Carson and that those sessions happened two and a half years ago, im Dec. 2020.
Aside from meaning The Keening‘s debut will be nearly three years old by the time it arrives — which is by no means a detriment; not like it’s going to sound dated — that follows Vernon‘s appearance on the compilation Women of Doom (review here), which came out earlier in that plague year and was a decisively solo outing, a track called “A Shadow Covers Your Face” that you can stream at the bottom of this post.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that the one song thus far released by the project is representative of everything Vernon has going on with it, and indeed the PR wire info below describes some not-just-guitar-bass-drums arrangements that would seem to confirm that. I look forward to hearing it myself and seeing where the album goes. The feeling I get is the answer to that is it goes pretty deep.
Here’s info:
THE KEENING (ex-SUBROSA) SIGNS TO RELAPSE RECORDS
ANNOUNCE SEPTEMBER HEADLINE LIVE PERFORMANCES & SUPPORTING AGALLOCH
THE KEENING —the solo musical project of Rebecca Vernon (SubRosa)—signs to Relapse Records & announces live performances in September!
Rebecca Vernon Comments:
“I’m very excited and honored to join the Relapse family and look forward to the journey ahead with them. This music has been a long time in the making, and a lot of blood, sweat and travail went into it. I hope those who connect with it find it worth the wait. A lot of thanks goes to the many who have helped me along the way, but especially to my family, and Billy Anderson, Andrea Morgan and Nate Carson, who were the most heavily involved in the making of the album.”
THE KEENING weaves a web of lush orchestration, American Gothic sensibilities and wintry murder ballads set against a backdrop of dark, shimmering folk. Vernon’s previous band SubRosa echoes in THE KEENING’s chamber doom, flowing with flute, strings, harp, French horn, piano, organ and hammered dulcimer. Ultra-melodic forays into haunted bogs, endless wells, secret crimes, jeweled cages and the unenviable curse of being a murder witness abound. Dark as this sounds, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
Rebecca Vernon was the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter of Salt Lake City’s acclaimed SubRosa. She ended that 13-year project in 2018 to focus on THE KEENING.
Largely composed at a retreat in Joshua Tree and a friend’s family homestead in Kamas, Utah, THE KEENING’s upcoming album was recorded in December 2020 at Hallowed Halls in Portland, Oregon with “Engine-ear” Billy Anderson. Anderson’s long resume includes such luminaries as Melvins, Neurosis, Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, High on Fire, Bell Witch, Amenra, Agalloch, Cathedral, Cattle Decapitation, Red House Painters, Sick of it All, Sleep, and more.
Anderson collaborated with Vernon and Witch Mountain drummer Nathan Carson as co-producers of the recording of the album. A host of Portland’s finest session musicians lent their talents to the album, including Andrea Morgan of Exulansis on violin.
THE KEENING is primed to release this brand new album via Relapse Records in 2023. More information about the album will be made available in the weeks and months to come.
THE KEENING TOUR DATES: Fri 9/15 – Bellingham, WA – Shakedown Sat 9/16 – Seattle, WA – Clock-Out Lounge Fri 9/22 – Eugene, OR – John Henry’s Sat 9/23 – Portland OR – Crystal Ballroom w/ Agalloch, Thief
SubRosa aren’t two and a half minutes into the 14-minute “The Usher” on More Constant Than the Gods before they’ve set an atmosphere of intricacy, tension, beauty and sadness. That opener and longest track (immediate points) consumes, explodes, recedes, surges, rolls, runs and flies. It begins with Rebecca Vernon (also guitar) having a duet with Death as played by Jason McFarland and is likewise gorgeous and raw, and then it’s gone, though the poetry of the lyrics continues even after the wash of echoing guitar and strings, the long stretch of stomping hits in the middle and the melancholy melodicism that follows at around seven and a half-minutes in; the payoff in the quiet verse beginning “You’re more constant than the stars…” as the vocals build, adding harmonies in the third of four lines, the last of which is the title-line of the album: “You’re more constant than the gods/Because sometimes when we call they don’t answer at all.” Then, explosion again. Melodic wash, Death returns (I hear that’ll happen), and they ride the descent into a last few minutes of oblivion, getting noisier as they go with violin scathe before the immediate nodding lumber of “Ghosts of a Dead Empire” (11:05) answers back how much the universe mourns our various passings.
Released in 2013 as the band’s second outing through Profound Lore and their third album overall, More Constant Than the Gods was a moment of arrival for the Salt Lake City band. Andy Patterson, who had engineered (and played harmonica on) 2011’s No Help for the Mighty Ones (review here), joined the band as drummer in 2012, and alongside Vernon, bassist Christian Creek (bassists; they had a few), violinist/vocalist Sarah Pendleton and violinist/backing vocalist Kim Pack — also cello on “Ghosts of a Dead Empire” and closer “No Safe Harbor” — proved to be an essential component to the lineup.
The cymbal taps behind that “More constant…” verse in “The Usher” is all you need for an example there, let alone the scope of the recording itself (Magnus “Devo” Andersson mixed and mastered) or the smooth punctuation given the elephantine start of “Ghosts of a Dead Empire,” which has room in its breadth for that as well as the plucked strings behind the chorus that feels so particularly American in its context for the word “slavery,” as well as deep-mixed growls behind the forward melody, guest guitar spot by Bill Frost, and an abiding nod as the cello sounds like a war horn, strings growing airier in the subsequent verse to herald a break to come. Distortion and rising violin notes stretch into the second half until it breaks out at 8:09 and unfolds its crashing realization, resonant in multiple regards.
Comparatively, “Cosey Mo” (7:31) is straightforward and hooky with its promises to dig up every unmarked grave searching for the title character, but the atmosphere so central to the first two more extended pieces remains and the arrangements are consistent, emphasizing the malleability of SubRosa‘s approach. That underlying Americana in “Ghosts of a Dead Empire” is there in “Cosey Mo” as well; it has a folkish underpinning in its lyrical use of second-person address, but at the same time, it echoes the punk defiance in the verses of “The Usher,” where “Fat of the Ram” (12:18) takes hold, opening with distorted strum and dual vocals specifically placing the proceedings in Salt Lake City (“city by a dead lake”), with some creepy whispers worked into the background before it takes off at around three minutes in with more of a rhythmic push, unfolding.
Shouts, crashes, more whispers, ripping, tearing, existentially brutal, the standout line “There’s no shelter for me in the halls of the righteous” pure in its declaration. It’s not quite a chorus like in “Cosey Mo,” but it comes around again and is welcome next time too amid so much tumult — the song seems twice to fall down a flight of stairs, as regards transitions — and when that stops shortly before the seven-minute mark and they go to ground on standalone guitar and vocals, building gradually, patiently back to a launch point, the over the next two-plus minutes, the harmony is no less spine-shiver than the eventual sway of the heavy return and crescendo that caps.
Transitional noise, a drone and some static, leads out of “Fat of the Ram” and into “Affliction” (9:49), with a siren of guitar at its start and subsequent slog, almost otherworldly in its initial doomed march. The pace picks up after the first verse — the lyrics again tapped into folk balladry; a mournful mother speaking of a cruel husband in the first three verses before the song switches to a more analytical perspective with “There is a darkness born out of time…” in the second half — but the cymbal wash feels especially prevalent.
The song almost breaks in two pieces with feedback bridging the divide, and the post-midpoint adrenaline rush is willfully contrasted with calming strings like someone telling you it’s okay when you know it isn’t and your blood won’t stop boiling and your brain feels like it’s on fire with your own misery and there’s nowhere else to put it but into the air in hopes of getting it out of you. Before hitting eight minutes, it evens out back to the verse plod with the siren guitar behind, the last lines a prayer for death that alludes back to “The Usher” with enough subtlety to call it “mercy” instead of “death” that’s being wished for. If you don’t believe art can be moving, or you don’t know what emotional labor is, here you go.
Piano begins “No Safe Harbor,” with complement from flute by April Clayton and clarinet by David Payne, and the drumless finale of More Constant Than the Gods ends the record by using those keys for rhythm as well as melody behind a vocal highlight, not so much leaving open space where heft and stomp might otherwise be but changing how that space is used while holding to the atmosphere that’s been cast over the album as a whole. Vernon, Pendleton and Pack are together singing by the time the first half is done, and though the threat of heaviness is paid off at 6:41 with the arrival of dense, open-strummed guitar — again declarative, but differently so — and flute setting up a finish relatively subdued (ha) considering some of the surroundings but no less encompassing for that, coming apart around violin and some tapped something-or-other that’s the final element to go, contemplative even as it bounces into nothingness.
I missed More Constant Than the Gods when it was released. I have reasons — excuses, really — for that (I moved, the transition at the time between physical and digital promos, the hype around it, etc.), but the bottom line is the same. The album turns 10 years old in September and was a breakthrough moment for SubRosa that would lead to 2016’s swansong For This We Fought the Battle of Ages (review here), which I’ll still put against anything you want to sit next to it as one of the best records of its decade. In light of the band’s dissolution in 2019, the victorious return of Pendleton, Pack, Patterson and later-bassist Levi Hanna in The Otolith for 2022’s best debut album, Folium Limina (review here), the launch of a new exploration that would represent, and the prospect of Vernon‘s The Keening still to manifest, I’m almost glad I hadn’t really dug into this to write about it until now.
It seems like cheating to know how the story ends, maybe, but, well, I feel like hearing these songs with the ears I have today lets me appreciate them more than I might have 10 years ago — I’d probably have said the same thing 10 years ago about listening in the dawn of my 20s, mind you, and been right about that too — which one might read as testament to the power of the release itself to flourish with age. I read it that way, at least.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thank you for reading.
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It’s 5:40AM now. I’ve woken up early enough all week that the thought of sleeping until the alarm goes off at 4AM feels “late,” and I feel like the tradeoff, generally speaking, is in not feeling rushed while I’m writing. That doesn’t account for The Pecan coming downstairs at 5:15 this morning as though shot out of a cannon — the ADHD diagnosis standard is “driven, as if by a motor,” which has become a running gag around the house; emphasis there on ‘running’ — but as expected he’s willing to sit still long enough to eat his regular morning yogurt when Sesame Street is on.
He goes through phases with tv, wants to watch one show or two — right now it’s this and Bluey, which is obnoxious and encourages imitation of its obnoxiousness, but well written and, in the third season, feels as much for parents as kids — but I’m going to be sad when he’s eventually done with Elmo and Cookie Monster and company. I feel like there isn’t enough open advocacy for kindness in children’s media. Everything is the casual violence and franchise indoctrination of Spider-Man or the copaganda of Paw Patrol, both produced to sell toys like so many of the shows I grew up watching. I still miss Peep & The Big Wide World as well. PBS is a fucking treasure and if it had half the funding of the US military there’s no question the world would be a better, kinder place. Alas.
In any case, I finished the above while he plotzed around the living room, making probably enough noise to wake The Patient Mrs. in bed if she wasn’t already up, and that’s how it goes. Yesterday he almost made it to 6AM, and that felt pretty glorious.
He continues to enjoy Tae Kwon Do, this week got a ‘star card’ for being the best in class and he was so excited he ran and jumped in my arms while Master Acevedo, who runs the place and is great with kids, was still talking about what great concentration and attention he had showed. I could live 400 years if I could remember the look on his face of delight, pride, expressive happiness where he’s so often reserved in the sprit of his mother, me, his cousins, etc. I guess we’re not the best at feeling feelings, any of us. I’m pretty good at being miserable, if that counts?
Today is Bandcamp Friday, and there’s a ton of stuff out as a result. If you’re looking for things to spend money on, the playlist for today’s The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal might be a good way to go. That airs at 5PM at http://gimmemetal.com.
I expect to be in the chat, hopefully stoned as the day rolls into the evening after The Pecan has had dinner and we move toward winding down, so if you’re there, please say hi and I’ll awkwardly say hi back and thanks for listening, etc. It goes like that these days.
Dude is draped across my lap now, smoothed out some after going to the bathroom and having his yogurt, and that’s fine. This is all pretty standard. He’s growing. Yesterday was his last day at speech therapy, which was also emotional, and he did pretty well not beating me up as a result of said emotions, which he generally processes through physicality. Excitement is literally running in circles, and so on.
This week had a couple genuinely awesome records. Sandrider and Stoned Jesus will be in my top 30. Next week has more. Monday is a Child review, and I’m streaming the REZN album in full on Tuesday. Santo Rostro after that and a combined premiere for the Duel and The Atomic Bitchwax live records Heavy Psych Sounds is putting out on Thursday, a cool video from High Noon Kahuna on Friday, and a couple fun announcements along the way. I feel like the site is in a decent place right now, rolling along. I’m overwhelmed, but glad to be writing about what I’m writing about most of the time, and that’s pretty much the standard I go by. If you’re going to be busy, being busy with good music is the way to go. Wednesday this week was frustrating since I kind of meandered away from getting the things done that I needed to, but yesterday I got back on track. The challenge is part of the appeal. Also we’re hanging cabinets in the kitchen. I’ve been enjoying going swimming in the mornings and trying to be mindful of not being psychotic or self-punishing about it as I always am about exercise. Life proceeds.
On that note, and as Mr. Noodle learns what a conga drum is and the episode from season 40 draws close to its finish, I’ll leave it there. I hope you have a great and safe weekend and I hope to see you back on Monday if not before in the Gimme chat. Either way, have fun, be safe, and thanks as always for reading. All the best, and no, I don’t mean that passive-aggressively.
Posted in Radio on February 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I was sitting on the couch earlier this week, in the usual spot, putting this playlist together and, knowing that I wanted to start with the title-track of the new Mansion album — something about Alma crooning that second death is upon you felt just right — I was immediately stuck. How on earth do you follow that? I was glad that I remembered Samán and could use them to transition to a kind of riffier take, but yeah, in terms of vibe, the severity of that Mansion record is a tough one to answer immediately with something else. Where do you go from there beyond an actual dungeon?
This show kind of divides in half. The first hour is new music. The second hour is a look at some Polish heavy, which if you’ve been paying attention to the last few Friday Full-Lengths (including today’s, which isn’t posted yet), you know has been on my mind. Dopelord, Major Kong, Belzebong, Sunnata and Weedpecker represent Poland well, I thought — Spaceslug are the obvious name left out, but I’m keeping them in reserve for later — and after that I wanted to close with SubRosa just because “Black Majesty” is long, brilliant, not a jam, and something that was in my head. It’s been an up and down couple of weeks, I guess, as regards general well-being.
If you’re unfamiliar, keep an ear out for Moodoom early, plus the tracks from The Machine, Swan Valley Heights, Stoned Jesus and Troll Teeth. The 1782 track isn’t my favorite off their new record — anything about lady-demons is kind of a turnoff for me at this point — but the band is cool and that’s the single from the album, so I wasn’t about to be a jerk and pick something else. And if you didn’t hear the L’Ira del Baccano earlier this week when it premiered, that’s time well spent in instrumental immersion, and makes a great leadoff for that extended block of tunes, I think.
As always, I hope you enjoy the show if you listen. Thanks for reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 02.17.23 (VT = voice track)
Mansion
Second Death
Second Death
Samán
A las puertas
II. Montaña Roja
1782
Succubus
Clamor Luciferi
Moodoom
Las maravillas de estar loco
Desde el Bosque
VT
L’Ira del Baccano
The Strange Dream of My Old Sun
Cosmic Evoked Potentials
The Machine
Reversion
Wave Cannon
Swan Valley Heights
The Hunger
Terminal Forest
Stoned Jesus
Get What You Deserve
Father Light
Troll Teeth
Garden of Pillars
Underground Vol. 1
Dopelord
Doom Bastards
Sign of the Devil (2020)
Major Kong
Fading Memory of the Planet Earth
Off the Scale (2020)
Belzebong
Roached Earth
Light the Dankness (2018)
Sunnata
A Million Lives
Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021)
Weedpecker
Big Brain Monsters
IV: The Stream of Forgotten Thoughts (2021)
VT
SubRosa
Black Majesty
For This We Fought the Battle of Ages (2016)
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is March 3 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
