Roman heavy psych instrumentalists L’Ira del Baccano issue their fifth full-length, The Praise of Folly, tomorrow, Feb. 20, through Subsound Records. It follows behind 2025’s split with Yama, Tempus Deorum (review here) and the increasingly progressive four-piece’s 2023 outing, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), comprising four tracks splitting with longest-then-shortest symmetry across two sides for a total 42-minute run keyed on immersion and dynamic.

The latter is showcased quickly amid the resonant tonality of “The Praise of Folly (Pt. 1),” which in its first half enacts a fully realized linear build brought from silence to a howling clarion set to the slow march of Gianluca Giannasso‘s drumming before, shortly past the six-minute mark, the lead cut breaks to mostly-standalone guitar exploration from Alessandro Santori and Roberto Maldera, with newcomer bassist Gabriele Montemara renewing the heft gradually as they go. They finish big, as one frankly would hope, but “The Praise of Folly (Pt. 1)” is more about getting there than resting upon arrival, and the transition to “The Praise of Folly (Pt. 2)” introduces more synth to the proceedings, ending up somewhere along the lines of a sharper-cornered, earlier My Sleeping Karma, deceptively heavy and delivered with remarkable poise.

You can see in the tracklisting below that each half of The Praise of Folly breaks down to a song around 13 minutes long and one in the eight-minute range. I don’t know how the writing process goes for L’Ira del Baccano, but 12 years on from their debut, Terra 42 (review here), the band have never lost their sense of purpose or forward progression. The patience across side A here speaks to that, with side B for reinforcement as “Stigma” grows from its initial guitar line to answer the synthery of “The Praise of Folly (Pt. 2)” while also getting very, very heavy in a way that satisfies for both immersion and impact even before you get to the first solo — nearly but not quite three minutes into the song. It doesn’t meander from there, but neither does it take such a clear structural approach, feeling fluid as it lumbers, twists for a time and then floats on the other side of its midpoint, gradually shaping itself around the guitar line, which hits into a more solidified payoff riff after 10 minutes in and rides that to an engaging finish just in time for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” — sharing its title with the Tom Stoppard play turned into a 1990 film based around the Hamlet characters — to slam in with immediate, purposeful heft.

That transition isn’t to be understated, as it speaks to the ways in which the material is in conversation with itself throughout The Praise of Folly, one part complementing the next, referencing what’s come before without repeating, and so on. They don’t exactly finish “Stigma” light, but even a momentary drop of the roll is enough for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” to feel monolithic. They soon enough shift to dreamier fare, and that raw heft doesn’t show up again, but a rumbling threat persists as they delve toward proggier atmospheres topped with liberally-strewn shred, resolving clearheaded as they nod into the last fadeout, encompassing and expansive in kind. Like the record as a whole, those last moments are rife with energy despite a moderated tempo, and they feel likewise thoughtful and explorational. This is where L’Ira del Baccano have come to reside in terms of style, and the level of craft on The Praise of Folly is one at which the band have likewise arrived organically over time.

Live shows to support the record start this weekend, appropriately enough, and will continue through next month with more reportedly to come. On the player below, The Praise of Folly premieres in full. Subsequent info came down the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Doomdelic Instrumental Space Prog Rockers L’IRA DEL BACCANO are back with their official 5th full length album on Subsound Records “The Praise of Folly”. Out on February 20th 2026.

Preorders: https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/product/lira-del-baccano-the-praise-of-folly-lp-limited-cd

Rome based L’IRA DEL BACCANO melt doom & stoner rock influences such as Black Sabbath, Kyuss, Monster Magnet ; the psychedelia of Pink Floyd & Hawkwind; the heavy-prog vibes of early Rush; modern bands like Motorpsycho, Elder, Monolord and the italian progressive heritage. Since 2014, the collaboration with the Italian label Subsound Records has led to the release of four full-lengths and one split album : ‘Terra 42’ (2014), ‘Paradox Hourglass’ (2017), ‘Si non Sedes is Live’ (2018), ‘Cosmic Evoked Potentials’ (2023) & ‘Tempus Deorum” (2025).

In february 2026, the fifth album, “The Praise of Folly”, will be released. L’IRA DEL BACCANO has toured intensely in Europe and participated in festivals as Dome Of Rock , Psychedelic Network Festival, Pietrasonica Fest… Thanks to the broad and heterogeneous kind of listeners, who goes from metalheads to progressive rock fanatics and Stoner-Doom fan the band played in different kinds of venues and shared the stage also with different types of bands. (Church of Misery, Ozric Tentacles, Ufomammut, Zu, Nebula, Orange Goblin, Samsara Blues Experiment and more).

Power, dynamics, psychedelic sounds layers and a love for improvisation are the defining features of the Italian combo’s live shows. The long tracks that have always characterized L’Ira Del Baccano are in constant evolution and motion during every concert.

Tracklisting:
1. The Praise of Folly (Pt.1) (12:55)
2. The Praise of Folly (Pt. 2) (8:08)
3. Stigma (13:04)
4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (8:45)

The band will begin the live promotion of the album immediately after its release with an initial series of concerts across Germany and Austria :

The road to Folly 2026 part 1
22/02 Bologna – Freakout Club
25/02 Salzburg – Rockhouse
26/02 Wien – Venster 99
27/02 Bayreuth – Glashaus
28/02 Berlin – Neue Zukunft – Blues Bumps Fest
01/03 Dresden – Chemiefabrik
03/03 Weimar – C. keller
04/03 Nuremberg – Kunstverein
05/03 Recklinghausen – Backyard Club
06/03 Würzburg – Immerhin
07/03 Erlangen – Transfer
27/03 Rome – Defrag
More TBA

Production & Mix: Alessandro Santori
Main Instruments recorded LIVE in one take
Music by: A. Santori & R. Malerba
Arrangements: Santori with Malerba, Giannasso & Montemara’
Mastering by Claudio Gruer at Pisistudio
Artwork by Michele Carnielli

L’IRA DEL BACCANO is:
Alessandro Santori- Guitars, Loops, Synths
Roberto Maldera- Guitars, Fx, Slide Guit, Synths
Gabriele Montemara’- Bass
Gianluca Giannasso – Drums

L’Ira del Baccano website

L’Ira del Baccano on Bandcamp

L’Ira del Baccano on Instagram

L’Ira del Baccano on Facebook

Subsound Records webstore

Subsound Records on Facebook

Moonstone is the second full-length from Italian outfit Kæry Ann, and first for Subsound Records. It is the decidedly-heavy follow-up to 2023’s Songs of Grace and Ruin, and by that I mean both it’s rather heavy and feels like said weight of tone, emotion and atmosphere has been born out of a conscious push on the part of the band or their apparent core songwriter, guitarist/vocalist Erika Azzini. Three years ago, Kæry Ann would seem to have been a solo moniker for Azzini, collaborating with bassist Francesca Papi (also backing vocals on “Todeslied” and “Mariner’s Song” here), but with the seven songs and 38 minutes of Moonstone, as well as the inclusion of guitarist Davide Rosa and Fabio Orticoni, the project has evolved in terms of construction and style alike.

That’s a vague plot thread, and maybe wrong, but that kind of suits the material on the record itself, which takes the dark psych-folk jangle that permeated Songs of Grace and Ruin and solidifies it around a fuller and more encompassing roll; longer songs — lead single and album-centerpiece “Hero and Leander” is the shortest inclusion at 4:10, most cuts are in the five-to-six-minute range — taking their time to unfold and doing so with mindful impact and, in some cases, bombast. Without sacrificing fluidity, opener “Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva” casts an immediately voluminous impression, not subtle in the statement it’s making instrumentally and engaging doom from a post-metallic perspective and the kind of textured melodies that might have you hearing synth where there isn’t any. They drop the distortion for a clearer, quieter guitar line ahead of Azzini‘s self-harmonized verse, maintaining a bit of the ethereal in the folkish, in-Latin lyrics, and as one might expect, bring the heavier crash back around after building up behind the verse. The songs title translates as ‘Keep Your Inner Purity,’ and I haven’t seen a lyric sheet, but the mood is duly foreboding and indicative of what follows, leading into the shorter, punchier “Todeslied,” though that ‘punch’ should be read as mostly related to tempo.

The noise quotient in “Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva,” palpable by the time the band are paying off the build but more prevalent in the ending section, is likewise strongly representative of where Moonstone treads in terms of sound. Some of the brashest moments on the record, whether it’s the someone-in-this-band-likes-post-hardcore guitar figures peppered into “Hero and Leander” or the outright crush unfurled across the penultimate “Shores in Flames,” etc., serve to emphasize dynamic. But the fact that Kæry Ann are operating — presumably — in the studio with a full lineup, and the fact that the quieter stretches are highlighted by the contrast of the surrounding plod make the record resonate a diversity of approach that should not be lost in the conversation, however much the focus on ‘they got heavier’ might be justified.

An example of this working in Moonstone‘s favor is the apparently-depicted-on-the-cover (among other visual metaphors) closer “White Dress,” which conveys a more open space where some of the preceding tracks feel willfully bent toward the claustrophobic, before absolutely pummeling itself into a rich-but-still-oblivion oblivion. It’s not the first time Kæry Ann toy with the density of their own making, as “The Road” earlier bookends a more open middle with hard-landing intro and outro nod, and as emphasized from the transitions between pieces, “The Road” holding out into a fade and “Hero and Leander” picking up with full-volume, or “Mariner’s Song” finishing mostly cold with silence to give the more subdued intro of “Shores in Flames” its due space, the procession flows front to back even as Moonstone varies in terms of a given song’s destination.

Listeners with experience in doomgaze will find Moonstone of the emergent genre, but the exploratory aspect of the tracks that comprise it shouldn’t be discounted as a distinguishing factor, and neither should the alt-folky roots from whence the material has sprouted. However decisive the songs feel in the listening — there is no mistaking the sound of a band who know what they want to get out of their recording process, and Kæry Ann brim with this kind of self-awareness, at least outwardly — this is still just their second album, maybe the first with a full lineup (maybe not; I’m light on info/context if you can’t tell), and if the shift coming off of Songs of Grace and Ruin is indicative of anything, it’s that Azzini as a songwriter feels an artist’s need to grow and evolve. Kæry Ann, as a vehicle for conveying the realizations resultant from that in-progress evoution, may just be a step in a broader narrative of continued development. The sense I get in listening isn’t that Moonstone represents the end of Kæry Ann‘s scope so much as the initial embrace and recognition of it.

In part because of this, the album is engaging on multiple levels. It soothes melodically while moving earth with its tone, and gives a feeling of worldbuilding while holding firm to an emotive humanity. It is both place and substance, and whether it’s a herald of future direction for Kæry Ann or not — that is, wherever they go next or however they respond to the work they’ve done here — it is a crucial step along the band’s path, leaving none of its presented concepts unproven and, without sounding like it’s playing to aesthetic, cherrypicking which genre tenets it wants to adopt for its own. No question some of the appeal is cerebral, especially when one looks at the dark shimmer of Moonstone in relation to its predecessor, but if you look back at that the way “Puritatem Tuam Interiorem Serva,” “The Road” and “Hero and Leander” start all-in, right on the beat, you can see too how immediacy almost sneakily becomes part of making the band so effective in their delivery. They play back and forth in volume without making it too obvious or overly stark, honing noisy churn, outreach and flatten-you heft at the same time. Whatever the next step might be, it will be one to look out for.

Kæry Ann, Moonstone (2026)

Kæry Ann Linktr.ee

Kæry Ann on Bandcamp

Kæry Ann on Instagram

Kæry Ann on Facebook

Subsound Records store

Subsound Records on Bandcamp

Subsound Records on Instagram

Subsound Records on Facebook

Thus ends my favorite Quarterly Review since the last one. Yeah, some of my motivation was in bookkeeping, in wanting to cover this stuff before the year’s done, but trying to keep up is always part of the thing, so that’s nothing new. I am grateful to have spent so much time this listening to music. I get asked a lot to listen to stuff and I’m not sure I’ve ever had less time for hearing new music than I presently have. So take a week and do nothing but that has been fulfilling.

As always, I hope you’ve found something cool to check out, and I hope you tune in for the next one, maybe in December, maybe in January, maybe this is low-key evolving into a monthly thing and eventually I’m going to have to rename the feature — and so on.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Brant Bjork and the Bros., Live in the High Desert

The difference between Brant Bjork and the Bros. and prior Brant Bjork solo incarnations was that it was the first time the desert rock figurehead had stepped into the role of being a genuine live bandleader. He’d of course toured with solo bands, as he’s continued to, but The Bros. as a backing band gave him the space to shine in a different way onstage, and that comes through in classics like “Too Many Chiefs” and the medleys near the finish of the 78-minute set from 2009 captured on Live in the High Desert, recorded at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown, CA. I saw this band, and they were hot shit. If you don’t believe me, “Low Desert Punk” here makes the point better than I could, while a piece from the era like “Freaks of Nature” emphasizes the chemistry Bjork and his Bros. fostered during their time. As a follow-up to recent studio LP reissues, as an archival fan-piece, and as nearly 80-minutes of blowout heavy dezzy grooves, this should be an absolute no-brainer for Bjork followers or aficionados.

Brant Bjork website

Duna Records website

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Dresden Wolves, Vol. IV

Mexico City heavy rocking two-piece Dresden Wolves named their six-song EP Vol. IV presumably because by some count it’s their fourth release, but that’s not the same as being their fourth full-length album, if that’s what you were thinking. Here they offer 25 minutes of brash, cymbal-and-low-end-heavy crunch. “Tiempo” has some debut to psychedelia, but mostly in the echo, and the density of the prior “ECO” feels more representative, though with the movement of bassfuzz in “Wherter” I’m not sure one is more weighted than the other. They’re in the element stoner punking in “Robin,” and “Pesadilla” rounds out answering the Sabbathism of “Ketamina” with raw shouts and a swirling current of noise laced around a central shove. They’re not reinventing riffery, but they execute with both personality and a sense of craft while simultaneously bashing away in a manner that my silly lizard brain finds utterly delightful. They’ve been around a decade now. Album?

Dresden Wolves on Bandcamp

Dresden Wolves on Instagram

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Sherpa, Alignment

The obscuring-all-else drones of the nine-minute title-, opening and longest track (immediate points) are the major draw to Alignment, as “Alignment” is the only one of the seven inclusions not previously released in some form. Thus can it be said that Italian experimental psych post-rockers Sherpa remained experimental right up to the very end, as Alignment sees issue as a farewell release, comprised most of demos from Matteo Dossena of what would become Sherpa songs featured on their albums, which is fair enough. There’s sun reflecting on “River Nora” and “The Mother of Language,” from 2018’s second LP Tigris and Euphrates (review here), remains hypnotic even in this raw take, samples and/or field recordings seemingly a part of its skeleton. If you didn’t know Sherpa during their time, Alignment probably isn’t the place to start, since the material isn’t finished, but whatever if it gets you to hear the band.

Sherpa on Bandcamp

Subsound Records website

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Barren Heir, Far From

Crushing. Far From is the third full-length from Chicagoan post-sludge tonebearers Barren Heir, and when “Patient” ends and you feel like you can finally breathe after that four-minute assault, know you’re not alone. Uniformly harsh in vocals, intense in impact and aggression alike, and weighed down by copious amounts of distorted concrete, one piece bleeds into the next as Far From builds momentum through the megariffed “Medicine” and the subsequent, slightly more angular “No Roses,” which seems to get eaten by its own chug before it’s done. The remnants fade into the more peaceful beginning of “Abcesstral,” which serves as a quiet interlude creating tension ahead of the start of “Way In,” which scorches. I guess, if you don’t know the band, what you need to take away is they’re very, very heavy, and they know just where on the upside of your head to hit you with it. There’s a thread of noise rock, but I think maybe it’s just the trio being pissed off, and the blasting away, successive slowdowns and residual noise in closer “Inside a Burning Vehicle” are as punishing an end as Far From justifies. You know I never mention Swarm of the Lotus lightly. Well, here we are.

Barren Heir Linktr.ee

Barren Heir on Bandcamp

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Some Pills for Ayala, Dystopia

There’s a moment about five minutes in, before the solo starts, where opening cut “Little Fingers” sort of settles into its groove, and the effect is an immediate chill on the listener. Néstor Ayala Cortés, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and the sole denizen of the project, has long specialized in the heavy and languid, and without lacking either activity or swing — lookin’ at you, “Black Rains” — as the melodies touch on a heavy psychedelia only bolstered by the abiding tonal warmth. Three tracks top eight minutes — “Little Fingers,” “Above and Below” and “Falling Down” — and while these are obvious focal points, both for how they dwell in parts and how they differentiate from the shorter pieces that space them out, a song like “Rise to the Surface” or experiments like “Regrets” and “Flying to Nowhere” use their relative brevity as a strength, and while one might as well hang a big old ‘you are here’ sign on Dystopia, the closing title-track, a subdued instrumental flesh-out into a quick fade and the only song under three minutes long, is arguably the most hopeful sounding of the bunch. Go figure. Cortés, like South American heavy as a whole, remains underappreciated, but his songwriting remains vibrant and forward-looking.

Some Pills for Ayala on Bandcamp

Some Pills for Ayala on Instagram

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Stonebirds, Perpetual Wasteland

Cerebral French post-metallers Stonebirds offer their first new music in five years with Perpetual Wasteland, their fifth full-length. The album is comprised of six tracks that range from minimalist guitar standing alone to an explosive, big-the-way-modern-pop-is-big chorus like that of “Sea of Sorrow” (not a cover). Stonebirds might be aggressive, as on “Circles” at the outset, or they might even delve into a bit of post-black metal in “Croak,” but there’s never a point at which Perpetual Wasteland lacks purpose. Each side is three songs, two between five and six minutes and a closer circa eight; I’m telling you the symmetry is multi-tiered. And as destructive as “So Far Away” feels at its start, “The Last Time” mirrors with a more open-sounding approach, lush in melody in a way they’ve been before by then, and still tense in chug, but pulled back in the delivery. They’re dynamic, they have range, and they craft their material with clear consideration of how every second is going to unfold.

Stonebirds on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

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Yurt, VI – Rippling Mirrors of the Other

VI – Rippling Mirrors of the Other is indeed the sixth LP from Irish space rockers Yurt, as I remind myself that just because I’d never heard the band before doesn’t mean they haven’t been around over 16 years. So it goes. The keyboard-prone three-piece — Andrew Bushe and drums and then some, Steven Anderson on guitar/vocals and sax, and Boz Mugabe on bass, vocals, keys (plus visuals) — find a way to make a classic-style motorik push feel mellow on “From the Maggot’s Perspective,” where “Shop of the Most Auspicious Frog” is more of a freakout and “Seventh is the Skut” is more about the jazzprog instrumental chase. Those three songs are shorter, but the album has three more extended pieces as well in opener “The Cormorant Tree” (15:33), “Pagpag Variations” (16:28) and “Sun Roasted Rodent” (13:30), which unfurl across multiple movements, bringing heavy doomjazz skronk and more experimentalist space rock together in a way that makes me bummed to be late to the party, but also kind of feel like I’m right on time.

Yurt website

Yurt on Bandcamp

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Evoken, Mendacium

As the band are now past the 30-year mark, it is an honor to once again be drenched in Evoken‘s pouring, grey, cold, wretched visions. Mendacium brings eight songs themed, because obviously, around the slow decline and death of a 14th century Benedictine monk, running 62 dug-in minutes of beauty-in-darkness extremity. It is not universally crawling, as “Lauds” and “Sext” move with a poise that feels kin to modern Paradise Lost, but for sure is defined by and uses that sense of slow, grueling churn to bolster its atmosphere, which is duly wood-churchy for its subject matter. They’re not all-pummel, of course, and never were. The penultimate “Vesper” is a brief organ interlude before closer “Compline” lowers you down into the pit to face whatever it is that takes place in the song after the seven-and-a-half-minute mark, and there is a morose peace to be found in the quiet moments throughout, as with what might be their only album this decade, Evoken land that much harder for the emotional weight the songs carry, whatever metaphor might be applied to them.

Evoken website

Profound Lore Records website

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Mourners & Yanomamo, Mourners & Yanomamo Split EP

Oh that’s nasty. You might think you’re ready for what Mourners and Yanomamo are bringing in gutter-dwelling death-doom and gnashing, crush-prone sludge roll, but that isn’t likely to save you as the two Sydney-based acts align for a three-song/20-minute split EP that wastes not a second in terms of efficiency of infliction. Mourners present “It Only Gets Worse,” with a raw punch in its bass chug, low-deathly growls and a sound that’s so down and dense across 11 minutes that it sounds slower than it actually is. It dies loud in a wash of noise to let Yanomamo‘s feedback-and-sample start “Lifefucker,” pointedly miserable in its unfolding. It and the growl-into-a-void-but-the-void-is-you diagnosing of mankind’s miseries in “Self-Inflicted” are shorter together than “It Only Gets Worse,” but more outwardly aggressive, as if to make sure you got spit out after being so thoroughly chewed up. I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s pretty heavy in that the-world-is-dying-and-nobody’s-coming-to-stop-it kind of way.

Yanomamo on Bandcamp

Mourners on Bandcamp

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Muttering Bog, Sword Axe Wizard Cult

The craggy dark-wizard-giving-soon-to-be-unheeded-warnings vocals of Muttering Bog‘s first release, the sludgy Sword Axe Wizard Cult, become a defining aspect. The Winchester, Virginia, band’s lone member, credited only as Ben, hones a raw-throated rasp that, where parts of the album might otherwise be stoner metal, keep a tether to extremity that feels as much born of black metal as Bongzilla. It is a challenging but not unrewarding listen; a just-out-of-the-dirt basement doom that isn’t afraid of being caustic or harsh in its riffy, weedian homage. And yeah, it comes across as pretty rough. Some of the changes are choppy on the drums and such, but hell’s bells, it’s a fully DIY make-and-release-a-thing from one person that pushes limits, is certain to evoke an emotional response, and is absolutely uncompromising in the identity being carved. None of that makes it listenable, if you’re looking for listenability, but it does make it art.

Muttering Bog on Bandcamp

Muttering Bog on Instagram

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Alright, day two. Here we go. I never really know how a given day of the Quarterly Review is going to flow until I get there. The hope is that in slating releases for a given day — which I mostly do randomly over time, though I generally like to lead with something ‘bigger’ — I’ve considered things like not putting too much that sounds the same together, geographic variability, and so on. Sometimes that plan works, and I get a day like yesterday, which was pretty close to ideal. If that was the pattern for this entire QR, I’d be just fine with that, but I know better. One day at a time, as all the inspirational tchotchkes say.

Feeling good though headed into day two, so I’ll take it.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Blackwater Holylight, If You Only Knew

The narrative around L.A.-by-way-of-Portland’s Blackwater Holylight at this point is one of growth, and well it should be. At seven years’ remove from their self-titled debut (review here), the four-piece offer the four-song If You Only Knew — three originals and a take on Radiohead‘s “All I Need” — as something of a stopgap four years after their third LP, Silence/Motion (review here). And like that 2021 album, “Wandering Lost,” “Torn Reckless” and “Fate is Forward” see the band working to expand their sound. They’re not upstarts anymore, and the marriage of dream-pop and crush on “Wandering Lost” alone is worth the price of admission, never mind the downward swirl of “Torn Reckless” the melodic burst-through and quiet space of “Fate is Forward” or the explosion in the back half of the Radiohead tune. Pro shop, all the way.

Blackwater Holylight website

Suicide Squeeze Records website

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Spider Kitten, The Truth is Caustic to Love

There’s a deep current of Melvinsian quirk in Spider Kitten‘s thickly-riffed slog, and it’s in the creeper-into-noiseburst of “Revelation #1” with its later rawest-Alice in Chains harmonies as much as the false start on “Febrile and Taciturn” and a chugblaster like “Wretched Evergreen” which is just one of the six songs in the 14-song tracklisting under two minutes long. Throughout the 37 minutes, shit gets weird. Then it gets weirder. Then they do folk balladeering in “Sueño” for a minimal-Western divergence prefacing the later soundtrackery of “Woe Betide Me.” Then they’re back to bashing away — but at what? Themselves? Their instruments certainly. Maybe a bit of shaking genre convention if not outright, all-the-time defiance. The key blend is ultimately of the crunch in their guitar and bass tones and the melodies that come to top it — not that all the vocals are melodic, mind you — with a kind of creative restlessness that makes each cut find its own way through, some at a decent clip, to leave a dent right in the middle of your forehead.

Spider Kitten links

APF Records website

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Mooch, Kin

Montreal three-piece Mooch align with Black Throne Productions for their fourth album release. The band, comprised of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Ben Cornel, guitarist/vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Julian Iac and drummer/vocalist Alex Segreti, have run a thread of quick, purposeful growth through the last several years, with 2024’s Visions (review here)  following 2023’s Wherever it Goes following their 2020 debut, Hounds, and other singles and such besides. At their hookiest, in a piece like “Hang Me Out (False Sun),” they remind some of At Devil Dirt‘s heavy-fuzz poppy plays, but one knows better than to expect Mooch to be singleminded on an LP, and Kin plays out with according complexity, finding a particularly satisfying resolution in “Prominence” before hitting successive, different crescendos in “Lightning Rod,” “Gemini” and the eight-minute “Zenith” to end the record. A band who genuinely seem to follow where the material takes them while refusing to get lost on the way.

Mooch links

Black Throne Productions website

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Snakes & Pyramids, Disappearer

I’m not a punker. I was never cool enough to listen to punk rock. Generally when I hear something that’s rooted in punk and it lands with me, I assume that means the band are doing punk wrong. If so, I like the way Snakes & Pyramids do punk wrong on Disappearer. The tonal presence, their willingness to make not-everything be exactly on-the-beat, the liberal doses of wah treatment on the lead guitar to give a psychedelic edge, the effects on the vocals helping that as well, plus the flexibility to roll out a heavy riff. There’s not a whole lot to not like as they push genre limits across 38 minutes and eight songs, finding space for post-punk in “Disappearer” or “All the Same” before they really dig in on the near-eight-minute closer “Seven Gods.” For future reference, the band is the doubly-Brian’ed three-piece of Brian Hammond (ex-The Curses), Brian Connor (ex-Motherboar) and Cavan Bligh. Psychedelic punk, even more than punk-metal or any other way you might want to try to blend it, is incredibly difficult to pull off well. That seems much less the case here.

Snakes & Pyramids on Bandcamp

Snakes & Pyramids on Instagram

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Unbelievable Lake, I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream

There is only one song on I Have No Mouth and Yet I Must Scream, and it’s the title-track. At 41 minutes long, that’s all you need, and Northern Irish psych-drone experimentalists Unbelievable Lake — think Queen Elephantine, but longer-form, more effects on the guitar, and dramatic in the ebbs and flows — the first 10 minutes are a movement unto themselves, with a linear build into a consuming payoff; due comedown provided. Those comparatively still stretches can be some of the most difficult for a band who’ve just blown it out to dwell in, but Unbelievable Lake use negative-space as much as crush to make their way toward the next culmination, which sort of gradually devolves instrumentally but makes its way along the path of residual noise toward one last round of pummel. You bet your ass they make it count. This is a significant accomplishment, and enough on its own wavelength that most ears will glaze over to hear it. But there’s just the right kind of brain out there for it, as well. Maybe that’s you.

Unbelievable Lake on Bandcamp

Cursed Monk Records website

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Krautfuzz, Live at the Church

Krautfuzz scorch the ground on the 23-minute “Live at the Church A” to such a degree that I’m surprised there was anything left to plug in for when they bring out J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and Witch to take part in “Live at the Church B,” let alone a full album-unto-itself 39 minutes’ worth of go. Rest assured, there’s plenty of noiseshove in “Live at the Church B” as well, and it arrives quicker than in the preceding slab, guitar running forward and back in loops even before the swirl cuts through the fuller distortion surrounding at about seven minutes in, howls and wails and wormholes and spacetime bend inward, flex outward, breathe like the cosmic microwave background, and the exploration continues after the rumble (mostly) subsides, getting ready to sneak in one more mini-freakout before they’re done. Damn, Krautfuzz. Save some lysergic push for the rest of the class. Or better, don’t. Clearly they were rolling out the ‘red carpet’ for Mr. Mascis. It just happened to be red from all the plasma churning thereupon.

Krautfuzz on Instagram

Sulatron Records website

Mirror World Music website

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Sleeping Mountain, Sleeping Mountain

Even before they get to the six-and-a-half-minute “The Door” or the dreamy midsection of closer “Medusa,” London’s Sleeping Mountain demonstrate patience in their delivery early on with the instrumental-save-for-the-sample leadoff “Humans” and “Walls of Shadows,” which leads with guest vocals before the full tonal crux of the riff is unveiled, and continues in methodical, doom-leaning fashion. That’s a vibe that doesn’t necessarily persist as the later “Akelarre” puts the cymbals out front and pushes a more uptempo finish ahead of the closer “Medusa,” but the dude-twang “Alibi” and the all-in nod of “Tennessee Walking Horse” underscore the message of dynamic, and while this self-titled may be the first album from Sleeping Mountain, it portrays the three-piece as confident in their approach and sure of their direction, even if they’re not 100 percent on where that direction is going. Nor should they be. They should be writing the songs and letting the rest work itself out over time, which is what you get here. They sound like a band I’ll still be writing about in a decade, so I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Sleeping Mountain website

Sleeping Mountain on Bandcamp

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Goblinsmoker, The King’s Eternal Throne

Behold the awaited first album from Durham, UK, sludge-doom, put-a-pillow-over-your-face-and-it’s-made-of-riffs betrayers Goblinsmoker. Dubbed The King’s Eternal Throne and indeed capping with the three-minute minimalist homage “Toad King (Forest Synth Offering),” the preceding title-track works its way from its more poised opening into an engrossing meganod of hairy-ass distortion, with the later-arriving throatripper screams ready for whatever Dopethrone comparison you want to make, and no less sharp in the biting. Of course, by the time they get to that third-of-four inclusions, this has already been well proven on side A’s “Shamanic Rites” and “Burn Him,” the leadoff holding to a steady and malevolent lumber while the follow-up takes a faster swing to upending witchy convention as the vocals offer the most vicious devourment I’ve heard from an English band since Dopefight roamed the earth. Down with humans. Up with toads. Familiar enough in its sludgy roots, The King’s Eternal Throne makes its own trouble like dog food makes gravy (with added liquid, in other words), and basks in heaps of shenanigans besides. The songs are like slow-motion razor juggling.

Goblinsmoker on Bandcamp

APF Records website

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Onioroshi, Shrine

The three-song sophomore full-length, Shrine, from Italian heavy progressives Onioroshi is the band’s first outing since 2019’s debut, Beyond These Mountains (review here), and is duly adventurous for that. Set up across “Pyramid” (18:18), “Laborintus” (15:35) and “Egg” (20:31), the album feels cohesive in refusing to be anything other than one it is. Its psychedelia is met with fervent terrestrial groove, and “Laborintus” spends most of its 15 minutes sounding like it’s about to fall apart, but never does. Duh, should I call it expansive? The truth is at 54 minutes, it’s a significant undertaking, but “Laborintus” ends up thrilling for the element of danger, and though raw in the production, “Egg” builds its own world in atmospherics, pushing further in the ebbs and flows of “Pyramid,” which itself takes loud/quiet trades to a less-predictable place. Some of Shrine feels insular, but that seems to be the point. A creative call to worship, and maybe worshiping the creativity itself.

Onioroshi on Bandcamp

Bitume Productions website

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L’Ira del Baccano & Yama, Tempus Deorum

Whoa. First of all, with Tempus Deorum, you’ve got L’Ira del Baccano. The Roman psychedelic explorers follow 2023’s Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here) with the 19-minute piece “Tempus 25,” an ether-bound reach that hypnotizes well ahead of unveiling its full tonal breadth and even crushes a bit before receding ahead of the next go. With synth cascading through the midsection and a duly expansive build that hits two more climaxes before it’s through, “Tempus 25” sets itself up in contrast to Tilburg, the Netherlands’ Yama, whose 2014 debut, Ananta (review here), is well remembered as they offer three songs “Wish to Go Under,” “The Absolute” and “Naraka,” that feel more solidified in their structure but that offer complement to “Tempus 25” for that. Not short on scope themselves, Yama let the chug patterning and vocal soar of “The Absolute” stand in evidence of their progressivism, and after 11 years, they sound like they have more to say. One only hopes that’s the case all around on this somehow-tidy, 35-minute split LP.

L’Ira del Baccano website

Yama on Bandcamp

Subsound Records store

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Tomorrow, June 27, marks the release of Da Captain Trips‘ fifth album, In Between, through Subsound Records. With it. the long-ish running North Italian instrumental prog-psych four-piece offer six new tracks of lush immersion and fluidity — a safe space to dwell for a time — and foster a bit of heft besides. Looking at you, “Spiralis.”

Beginning with the keyboard blips and bloops fading it at the start of opener and longest cut (immediate points) “Die,” with guitar gradually entering the procession with such finesse that it’s there before you know it. This movement, happening patiently over the first several minutes of the 38-minute six-song LP, is telling of the band’s methodology more broadly across the record. Not all of the songs end up in the same place — “Die” is longer than everything else by three minutes or so and plays across its own linear build to an encompassing and bright-hued wash, guitars and keys surging together at the finish. But it’s indicative of the dream tones and the care the four-piece of guitarist Riccardo Cavicchia, bassist Federico Chiappa, drummer Tommaso Villa and keyboardist Paolo “Apollo” Negri have clearly put into presenting the material. One who has spent time in the evocations of My Sleeping Karma wouldn’t feel out of place in “Whispers,” or really any of the songs here.

But at the same time, there’s a story to tell (through the music), and death, as you may have heard somewhere, is only the beginning. “Whispers” begins the onward journey, and it is not without footfalls, whether that’s a flourish of denser tone or the proggy solo exploring across much of the second half before the keyboards move forward to mark the finish. The chemistry there, guitar and keys weaving melodies over a solid underlying groove, is a big part of what makes In Between feel cohesive as it moves through the early emotional pastoralism of “Spiralis,” seeming to declare something in the midsection but I’m not sure what. If this it’s the procession of an afterlife, then maybe we’re in memory, but there’s more than nostalgia happening too, which is fair when one considers the complexity of a life.

“Back to Sargassian” continues the thread and tops its steady low-end movement with keyboard and effects swirls before a more jagged guitar strum cuts through, but the threat it momentary, and it’s the synth that gives the presumed side B leadoff its crescendo. That “Land of Shades” takes its time unfurling isn’t a shock by the time the listener arrives at the penultimate track’s doorstep, but there’s jazzy flourish in the guitar and a more insistent punchthrough from the snare drum that soon enough diverge via organ into a section of more classic ranging psychedelia, complete with effects-manipulated spoken voice, picking up from a Morricone-style whistle to Hypnos 69-level progressive classicism before departing again into the finish. It’s not revolutionary, but it certainly is gorgeous. The same is true of the album as a whole.

As it invariably would be on either a craft or thematic level, the closer “Lotus” is a landing point. It marks itself out as such quickly with a full-tone procession, keys, guitar, bass and drums aligned around a more dramatic, almost doomly, nod. The keyboard departs to trickle down notes in between — hey that’s the name of the record — the crashes, but the kick drum gives a transition under the keyboard and soon enough the darker hue is a memory replaced by Mediterranean-sounding keys over motion-minded drums; we’re dancing. It gets weirder, and should. The guitar gradually comes back in, works its way toward a final solo, but there isn’t a blowout coming. It wouldn’t work for the theme. Ultimately, this is the story of a shutting down.

A gong strikes and they’re done, Da Captain Trips having succeeded in conveying a kind of transcendence through music that resonates whether one is following a plot thread or not. At the very least, it’s nothing to be afraid of, and there’s a kind of comfort in that.

Some PR wire-type background follows the player below. Immerse and enjoy:

“In Between” is the fifth full length album of the band and comes after 3 years from “Maths of the Elements” with the same line up.

This time the mission of the four musicians is to explore the sound and the landscape of the place “in between” where our consciousness moves when the physical form ends its time .

Death is part of life and it could be the last definitive psychedelic trip.

A great inspiration was reading “The Tibetan Book of the Dead”, where you can find a detailed explanation of what to do in life to recognize the way after you have passed away. They tried to give their own Interpretation going deep in their consciousness to explore the sound of that moment, passing through the colors, whispers, shades, symbols and thinking about the emptiness of our being.

The result can be perceived in their compositions from a dark and a light side of the music that fight.

Compared to the previous album, there is an improvement in dialogue between guitar and keyboards and structures are like a flow because most of the ideas come from improvisations and some songs were born and developed starting from the rhythm.

Visual artist and friend “Dem” created this beautiful artwork as his own interpretation of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Inspired by the shape of a double Vajra (a ritual tool symbolizing absolute stability in Tibetan Buddhism) he merged it with magical symbols from various European traditions that bridge the material and spiritual worlds.

Da Captain Trips are :
Riccardo Cavicchia : Guitars
Federico Chiappa : Bass
Tommaso Villa : Drums & Percussions
Paolo “Apollo” Negri : Keyboards

Da Captain Trips on Bandcamp

Da Captain Trips on Instagram

Da Captain Trips on Facebook

Subsound Records store

Subsound Records on Facebook

Formed just last year, Litania were already booked to appear as part of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in Switzerland next month alongside Brant Bjork, Twenty Two Toads, Duel, Dead Meadow and a slew of others, but I guess the label(s) couldn’t wait to make the announcement. Litania‘s signing is the probably not the first label-collab for Heavy Psych Sounds, who are working with Subsound Records on the release, but I can’t think of another off the top of my head, so I’ll call it ‘rare’ rather than ‘unheard of,’ to be safe.

There is no music yet. Not from the impending debut album the details from which will be revealed in two weeks, not a demo, not a live track — nuffin on the Bandcamp but the follow button and a logo. That’s where the part about getting together in 2024 comes into play. Still, I guess the record’s done because HPS is starting the promo cycle. August release? We’ll find out on June 12.

From social media:

!! NEW BAND SIGNING !! *** LITANIA ***

– The Italian psych doom band signed to HPS and Subsound Records for the debut album –

We’re really stoked to announce that the Italian psych doom band LITANIA is now part of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Family !!

This time we joined forces with our brothers in arms at Subsound Records.

Litania has signed for the debut album.

PRESALE + FIRST TRACK PREMIERE: June 12th

SAYS THE BAND:

“We’re beyond excited to finally share this record with you. Joining the Heavy Psych Sounds and Subsound Records family is a milestone that makes us proud — it marks the beginning of a new chapter, louder than ever.”

BIOGRAPHY

Litania is a doom/hindustan psych band from Italy and Serbia. The sound is based on drones, heavy riffing and inspired by ancient hindustan singing and playing (with instruments such as Sitar, Dilruba and Harmonium). Litania is also the title of our first album.

LITANIA is:
Elisa De Munari (Elli De Mon) – Vocals, Harmonium, Sitar, Dilruba
Marco Degli Esposti (The Great Northern X) – Electric guitar and drones
Enrico Baraldi (Collars, Ornaments) – Bass guitar
Vladimir Marikoski (The Black Heart Procession, NBG) – Drums and percussions

https://linktr.ee/litaniaband
http://litania.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/litania_band
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61575201397600

http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/

http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/

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Certainly L’Ira del Baccano have been kicking around this whole time — their maybe-fourth full-length, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (review here), came out in 2023 — but it’s something of a surprise to see Tilburg, the Netherlands, classic desert rockers Yama. The Dutch outfit released their debut album, Ananta (review here), in 2014, and one assumes after doing a show together or some such, the two bands became friends.

A decade later, here comes Tempus Deorum, a new split with L’Ira del Baccano‘s first new material since the last record (not that long) and Yama‘s first new material in 11 years. Curious to hear what both bands have come up with for it, but definitely some added intrigue in the assertion of psychedelic experimentation in doom and so on. There’s no audio from the LP posted yet that I’ve found, but keep an eye out.

I don’t remember if this was from socials or the PR wire, but I’m not sure it matters. Info and preorder links follow, from the internet:

L’IRA DEL BACCANO and Yama team up for a special split album entitled “Tempus Deorum”, to be released on March 28th !

We are super stoked to start the presale of this this incredible split !

Formats : LP/CD/DDL
Artwork : Michele Carnielli
Mastering : Claudio Pisi Gruer Claudio Mastering Pisi

PREORDERS:
https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/l-ira-del-baccano
https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/yama

In the summer of 2015, in the Italian Dolomites, a friendship between two European heavy underground bands was struck. About a decade later, Roman psych-doom quartet L’Ira Del Baccano and Tilburgian doom rock outfit Yama join forces in a musical collaboration: their split album ‘Tempus Deorum’, to be released on March 28th through Subsound Records (Italy).

L’Ira Del Baccano’s contribution comprises a drawn-out 19-minute instrumental psych doom jam, in which they fully expand the concept of an ever-evolving song, taking a theme and leading it on a dynamic roller-coaster journey, reshaping it through the heaviness of doom, the psychedelia of improvisation and the precision of progressive rock.

Yama bring some of their doomiest tracks to the table and experiment with psychedelic drone elements, in collaboration with producer David Luiten (Autarkh).

‘Tempus Deorum’ (‘Time Of The Gods’) is not only an allegorical congregation of deities, it is also the blossoming of psychedelic heaviness.

https://www.instagram.com/liradelbaccano/
https://www.facebook.com/LiraDelBaccano42/
https://liradelbaccanoofficial.bandcamp.com/
http://www.iradelbaccano.it/

https://www.instagram.com/yama_doom/
http://www.facebook.com/yamadoom
https://yama.bandcamp.com/

http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/

L’Ira del Baccano, Cosmic Evoked Potentials (2023)

Yama, Ananta (2014)

At least the third Sherpa album, 2023’s Land of Corals (review here), won’t be their last. Not that such an expansive take on soothing and adventurous psych would be a bad way to go out, they just seemed like a band on a longer-term journey. And so the duo are, but not together.

Alignment is a compilation of demos and alternate versions — if I read right — and to herald its arrival later this week, in addition to announcing their breakup, they’ve posted the nine-minute title-track, which, when the whispers and light flourish of guitar arrive over the central drone, will feel like a godsend. That high-pitched hum is there the whole time, so get used to it. It’s a good long away from the sweetness of 2017’s Tanzlinde (review here), and I think that’s the point.

Best of luck to Franz and Matteo, the latter of whom seems to be taking the reins here. Hope we get to hear something new from them soon, and in the meantime, there’s still the maybe-last Sherpa out Friday. As per Bandcamp:

Dear friends and fans,

I don’t know if SHERPA has a future or will ever return, but for now, the project is on an extended break.

Franz and I (Matteo) are fully immersed in new projects and exploring sounds that drift away from what we’ve created so far. We feel the need to leave this experience behind and venture into new sonic visions, pushing ourselves further along our musical paths.

When the time comes, I’ll be thrilled to share what’s next with you, hoping you’ll enjoy it and come along for the ride.

This release includes an unreleased track, Alignment, along with a selection of early versions of songs from our albums.

I wanted to share these moments of compositional intimacy with you—the very first sparks of an idea, the rush of excitement, that unique energy when something new begins to take shape.

And honestly, that’s the kind of energy I’m always searching for in every musical journey I embark on.

To mark the occasion, we’ve put together a special bundle featuring all our LPs at a discounted price. But what truly matters to me is that you listen and connect with the intimacy of these sounds.

There’s still a long road ahead. I don’t yet know all the sounds that will shape my future, but we’re moving forward.

Oh yes, we’re already deep into a new journey.

Tracklisting:
1. Alignment
2. Dusk Age
3. The Mother of Language
4. Eleven
5. Ariadne, sister of Inanna
6. River Nora
7. Lovely Little Cod

Matteo Dossena: vocals / guitars / synth / drums / electronic drums / bass / keyboards
Ayu Shi: additional vocals on #3

https://www.facebook.com/sherpa.ita/
https://www.instagram.com/sherpa.music/
https://sherpaita.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/subsoundrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/subsound_records/
http://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://www.subsoundrecords.it/

Sherpa, Alignment (2025)

Sherpa, Land of Corals (2023)