The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Davide Tiso of Red Rot

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

I play guitar in the progressive Death Metal band Red Rot, a band I formed in 2020 together with singer Luciano Lorusso George, with whom I played in Ephel Duath for quite a few years.

Ephel Duath was a shape shifting experimental metal band that released albums influenced by jazz metal, math rock, prog and electronic music. When we started Red Rot, Lucio and I aimed to create something much more visceral and anchored to extreme metal, blending together the death metal of Morbid Angel with the angular progressiveness of Voivod and some sporadic heavy doom of early Paradise Lost and Katatonia.

Joining us are extreme metal drummer Ron Bertrand and bass virtuoso Ian Baker. In terms of how we got here, I’d say two are the main reasons: returning to make music with Lucio after ten years, and being generally dissatisfied with what is happening in the most mainstream side of extreme music.

Most metal productions seems quite safe, clean and overly quantized to us, pushing high and mid frequencies with almost a non existing bass: we wanted Red Rot to sound different. We were looking for something defined but with the right amount of filth and abrasiveness. Jamie King’s mix definitely brought us where we wanted to be sonically. There is a live component in our sound, a certain kind of urgency. If a mix can possibly sound honest, well, I think ours can be in that list.

Describe your first musical memory.

I guess my first real connection with music was when, in retrospect, I grasped my love for minor scale notes. I remember that Giorgio Moroder’s soundtrack for Midnight Express (1978) by Alan Parker melted my young head and probably put a seed in my brain about making music: I didn’t truly understand it at the time, music was still an abstract and unreachable concept for me at that age, but I distinctly remember that I was compulsively rewinding my Midnight Express VHS tape every time the most heartbreaking theme of the movie was up. It was making me sad and excited at the same time: for the first time I was excited to be sad. I thought it was a truly unique feeling, a new territory in my sensitivity.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Getting back making music with Lucio in Red Rot marked one my happiest and most prolific musical phase. The entire process has been such a cathartic and effortless experience. We are working hard at this, every day, since we started. I think aging did us some good: we are down to earth and expect pretty much nothing. Every accomplishment is a small victory and keep us going. Egos are in check and it’s so much fun to being back at this together.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

For most of my life I fundamentally believed in a general sense of camaraderie among liberal thinking people. I thought that the underlying truth that “we are all on the same boat” made the majority of leftist somehow supportive with each other, or at least aiming to some kind of common ground. Cancel Culture changed that thought for me. This sort of self inflicted censorship that points the finger towards anything that is against the accepted stream of thoughts is truly a cancer to freedom of expression to me.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Artistic progression leads to more doors to open: that is why I play progressive/experimental music and that is why I’m addicted to it. There is a certain amount of creative restlessness in me since I started writing music and I embrace that feeling, it keeps me hungry for something new, no matter how small of a nuance it might this be. A new guitar pick can make a world of difference for example. Forcing myself to reinvent my playing has been such a humbling experience. For example, I have never done much chugging riffs. Never really cared for down picking because I was more into phrasing. Red Rot has elements I have never played before and because of that, I feel the same excitement today that I felt when I started playing guitar.

How do you define success?

My goal is to make sure that a musical intuition, an idea, a sound, gets perfectly translated and captured by my band and offered to the public in its most primal purity, without any sort of compromises, second thoughts or self doubt. Success is probably realizing that a vast majority of listeners and music media gets our point across and are able to pinpoint what my band, and what we are after, is about.

In more practical senses, success to me is regularly releasing albums that are a genuine representation of where the band is at, and having the chance to headline shows anywhere I like to stretch my band towards, for a decent number of people per night. A band like The Melvins to me represents the best example of a successful band.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Ephel Duath was playing at The Forum in London supporting Dillinger Escape Plan and Poison the Well on the same night that Dimebag Darrell got killed on stage. I remember the face of our manager when he shared the news. I think heavy music lost one of its brightest talent that night. Chuck Schuldiner and Dimebag Darrel are the two metal guitarists that had more impact on me. I look up to them, their drive, talent and ambition are still unmatched.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I never had the chance to create a double album. Having the necessary budget, I’m positive we could make the project shine. I fantasize having complete freedom in terms of formats and running time with a paired introspective noir video/movie that could accompany the release.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

I believe that the most essential function of art is to elevate one’s spirit from the mundanity of life, giving the sparkle to travel with the mind to places where we are not used to push ourselves to. Art is a sanctuary where we can hide in and recharge our senses and dig deep in whatever emotion is generated by the piece we are dealing with.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Video editing. I think I might try to juggle in that field. Watching Leonardo Candidi working on Red Rot’s upcoming second video for “Dysmorphia” solidify this wish of mine.

https://facebook.com/red.rot.metal
https://www.instagram.com/red_rot_metal
https://redrotmetal.bandcamp.com/
http://www.redrotmetal.com/

https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
https://twitter.com/svartrecords
https://svartrecords.com/

Red Rot, “Dysmorphia” official video

Red Rot, Mal de Vivre (2022)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Phil Swanson of Solemn Lament

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Surreal is the first word that comes to mind. A massive underground music nerd who was just wanting to be part of something in any way possible. Started writing reviews for a friend’s fanzine in the ’80s that led to interviews. Tape trading and vinyl collecting that led to a small retail and wholesale distro working with bands to get their music heard and released before deciding to sneak my own music into the mix. Eventually I got better at it apparently to the point even more talented people than myself wanted to be a part of it with me.

Describe your first musical memory.

Staying home sick from school in the ’70s bored and exploring my parents’ hi-fi and record collection. Nothing good, but at the time I really didn’t know what listening to music was all about until I pulled the record out of the sleeve and put it on while watching the cover come to life. It literally blew my mind.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I have been lucky enough to experience everything I could ever want to in music. Met my heroes, played with my friends I idolized and earned their respect. Developed relationships with musicians who are now the closest people to my heart as I will allow whether they know it or not. The journey has been the best memory. To be a part of something I only dreamed of and never thought possible.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

As a child of 13 when I was brutally beaten by a group of kickers in Texas and the people I thought were there to keep me safe looked the other way. My belief in trust was tested and lost forever in that moment and so many moments after.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Catharsis.

How do you define success?

Achieving personal goals however large or small. It’s a very relative thing and can happen in many different ways.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Violence on more occasions than I would like to admit at this stage of my life. Things that haunt me and make me feel my struggles in present life are justified by things that surrounded me in my past.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

A finished graphic novel or film. I have written several scripts, one came very close to publication but timing was lost. I was writing scripts at the same time as my music progressed and then music took precedent. If I wasn’t so complicated and difficult that I could play along I probably could have had the opportunity, but I tend to pull back every time I have the chance to move forward.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Escape.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Taking my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the highest level I am capable of while I still can. To be a legitimate player and threat in any room I enter. To have the respect of anyone I tap hands with.

https://www.facebook.com/solemnlament
https://www.instagram.com/solemnlamentmusic/
https://solemnlament.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrWvrLIkGZEmsJwRx2_Plmw

https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
https://twitter.com/svartrecords
https://svartrecords.com/

Solemn Lament, Solemn Lament (2021)

God damn this EP is good. It’s basically three songs plus an intro, probably would fit on a single 12″ vinyl side — Svart is pre-selling it in an edition of 500 ‘mini-LPs,’ which I took to mean a 10″ but don’t quote me on that — but in the melodic doom drawl of its riffing, in Phil Swanson‘s vocals and in the procession of hurt that unfolds rhythmically, the doom-schooled-in-doom, by-doom-for-doom sensibility pervades, giving vibes reminiscent of Apostle of Solitude‘s earlier work with a sharper edge of its own, Solemn Lament‘s self-titled EP (review here) earns its place on one of the underground’s most respected imprints.

The actual signing to Svart happened last October, and it’s easy enough to chalk the delay from that to releasing the EP on CD and vinyl on Aug. 19 up to pandemic-born pressing delays, supply chain this and that, and so on. Even better news arrives with the band’s plan to unveil a proper first album in 2023, which is enough for me to start my list of next year’s most anticipated albums in the Docs sheet of notes by which I essentially run my life. Here’s looking forward, in other words.

Of course, you can stream Solemn Lament‘s Solemn Lament on the player at the bottom of this post. It might not perk up your day, but you’d still be doing yourself a favor.

From Bandcamp updates and various social sources:

Solemn Lament present a limited edition of their debut recording. 4 tracks of somber yet heavy, crushing and melodic doom metal.

Blending early UK doom influences with a nod to stateside doom, Solemn Lament is a bicoastal collaboration of vocalist Phil Swanson (Hour of 13, Sumerlands, Vestal Claret, Briton Rites, Smith & Swanson, Seamount), drummer, Justin DeTore (Dream Unending, Innumerable Forms, Magic Circle, Sumerlands, Mind Eraser, & more), bassist, Drew Wardlaw (Blind Dead, Dry-Rot, Uranium Orchard), lead guitarist, Adam Jacino (Blind Dead) and rhythm guitarist, Eric Wenstrom.

Physical copies (Vinyl & CD) of the debut EP will be released on August 19th via Svart Records.

Pre-Order (North America) http://svart.ochre.store/release/309453-solemn-lament-solemn-lament
Pre-Order (Europe) http://svartrecords.com/product/solemn-lament-solemn-lament-ep/
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3F2BP3J?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_XVF1AYXA9KJZTGCQKAC0

Shirts are also available here: http://solemnlament.bandcamp.com/merch
(Apologies for the absurd shipping costs outside of the US)

New material is in the works with a full length expected in 2023 via Svart Records. Thanks again for the continued support!

In the meantime, several of Justin’s other projects have releases and tours scheduled in the coming months:

Sumerlands is releasing “Dreamkiller” on September 16th
http://store.relapse.com/b/sumerlands

Innumerable Forms is releasing “Philosophical Collapse” also on September 16th
http://linktr.ee/innumerableformsdeath

Innumerable Forms will also be making their live debut in Europe as they embark on an EU tour with Faceless Burial.

https://www.facebook.com/solemnlament
https://www.instagram.com/solemnlamentmusic/
https://solemnlament.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrWvrLIkGZEmsJwRx2_Plmw

https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
https://twitter.com/svartrecords
https://svartrecords.com/

Solemn Lament, Solemn Lament (2021)

We could probably sit and debate whether or not it makes sense for Patrick Walker — who recently released the LP Perfect Light (review here) with his main-these-days outfit 40 Watt Sun through Cappio Records and Svart Records — to embark on a solo tour, his first to my always fallible knowledge. Ultimately it’s moot, since the tour is happening this October, but it might be fun? For what it’s worth, I’m in Camp Yes on the question — which, again, doesn’t really exist — given the subdued intimacy of Perfect Light as a whole and Walker‘s performances as the album’s focal points anyway and the clear foundations in the songs of this-was-written-by-one-person-on-a-guitar that comes through despite the fleshed out arrangements in the ‘final’ versions.

It’s not intuitive — one’s brain automatically goes ‘band releases album, tours’ — but Walker has a long history of working against expectations in 40 Watt Sun and Warning, and his audience both knows that and respects him for it, so if this is what he feels is the right call, then it is. Like I said, it’s not really a question. Among his followers, Walker has long since earned that trust, and if a few other curious parties come aboard as well, so much the better.

Curious though how much of the discography might be in play here. Will Walker be reinterpreting Warning songs or stuff from the first two 40 Watt Sun releases? Is this/could it be if it goes well a beginning for a longer-term solo arc? Is there material he thinks of as specifically solo work, separate from either band?

These, I admit, sound like interview questions, and I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to Walker — maybe for the first 40 Watt Sun? that mid-‘aughts era is a blur for me thanks largely to my own solo work, with wine — so that might be fun, but in the meantime, here are the dates, should you happen to be in the neighborhood when he comes through:

Patrick Walker (40 Watt Sun) European solo tour dates, October 2022.

Thursday 06/10/2022 UK, Totnes – Totnes Cinema
Sunday 09/10/2022 PT, Porto – Amplifest
Sunday 16/10/2022 BE, Brussels – Witloof Bar | Botanique
Tuesday 18/10/2022 NL, Utrecht – Tivoli
Thursday 20/10/2022 DK, Copenhagen – Stengade
Friday 21/10/2022 DE, Berlin – Theater Expedition Metropolis
Saturday 22/10/2022 DE, Jena – KuBa
Sunday 23/10/2022 PL, Krakow – Alchemia
Monday 24/10/2022 PL, Warsaw – Hydrozagadka
Thursday 27/10/2022 DE, Dresden – Theaterruine St. Pauli
Friday 28/10/2022 DE, Hamburg – Nochtwache

https://www.facebook.com/40wattsun
https://www.instagram.com/40wattsunmusic/
https://40wattsunmusic.bandcamp.com/
https://40wattsunshop.bigcartel.com/

http://www.facebook.com/cappiorecords
http://www.twitter.com/cappiorecords
https://cappiorecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.cappiorecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
https://twitter.com/svartrecords
https://svartrecords.com/

40 Watt Sun, Perfect Light (2022)

Oh we’re in the thick of it now, make no mistake. Day one? A novelty. Day two? I don’t know, slightly less of a novelty? But by the time you get to day three in a Quarterly Review, you know how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go. In this particular case, building toward 100 records total covered, today passes the line of the first quarter done, and that’s not nothing, even if there’s a hell of a lot more on the way.

That said, let’s not waste time we don’t have. I hope you find something killer in here, because I already have.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

My Diligence, The Matter, Form and Power

The Matter, Form and Power is the third long-player from Brussels’ My Diligence, whose expansive take on melodic noise rock has never sounded grander. The largesse of songs like the Floor-esque “Multiversal Tree” or the choruses in “On the Wire” and the layered post-hardcore screams in “Sail to the Red Light” — to say nothing of the massive nod with which the title-track opens, or the progressively-minded lumbering with which the 10-minute “Elasmotherium” closes — brims with purpose in laying the atmospheric foundation from which the material soars outward. With “Celestial Kingdom” as its centerpiece, the heavy starting far, far away and shifting into an earliest-Mastodon chug as drift and heft collide, there are hints of Cave In in form if not all through the execution — that is, My Diligence cross similar boundaries but don’t necessarily sound the same — such that the growling that populates that song’s second half isn’t so much a surprise as it is a slamming, consuming, welcome advent. Music as a force. As much volume as you can give it, give it.

My Diligence on Facebook

Mottow Soundz website

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BBF, I Will Be Found

Their moniker derived from the initials of the three members — bassist/vocalist/synthesist Pietro Brunetti, guitarist/vocalist Claudio Banelli and drummer Carlo Forgiarini — Italian troupe BBF aren’t through I Will Be Found‘s five minute opener “Freedom” before they’ve transposed grunge vibes onto a go-where-it-wants psychedelia from out of an acoustic, bluesy beginning. Garage rock in “Cosmic Surgery,” meditative jamming in “Rise,” and a vast expanse in “T-Rex” that delivers the album’s title line while furthering with even-the-drums-have-echo breadth the psych vibe such that the synthy take of the penultimate “Wake Up” becomes just another part of the procession, its floating guitar met with percussion real and imagined ahead of the bookending acoustic-based closer “Supernova,” which dedicates its last 90 seconds or so to a hidden track comprised entirely of sweet acoustic notes that might’ve otherwise ended up as an interlude but work just as well tucked away as they are. Here’s a band who know the rules and seem to take a special joy in bending if not outright breaking them, drawing from various styles in order to make their songs their own. To say they acquit themselves well in doing so is an understatement.

BBF on Facebook

Argonauta Records website

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Druids, Shadow Work

Progressive and melodic, the fourth album from Iowan trio Druids is nonetheless at times crushingly heavy, and in a longer piece like “Ide’s Koan,” the band demonstrate how to execute a patient, dynamic build, beginning slow and spaced out and gradually growing in intensity until they reach a multi-layered shouting apex. Drew Rauch (bass), Luke Rauch (guitar) and Keith Rich (drums) all contribute vocals at one point or another, and whether it’s in the plodding rock of “Dance of Skulls” or the not-the-longest-track-but-the-farthest-reaching closer “Cloak/Nior Bloom,” their modern prog metal works off influences like Baroness, Mastodon, Gojira, etc., while retaining character of its own through both rhythmic intricacy and its abiding use of melody, both well on display in “Othenian Blood” and the subsequent, drum-intensive “Traveller” alike. “Path to R” starts Shadow Work mellow after the ceremonial build-up of “Aether,” but the tension is almost immediate and Druids‘ telegraphing that the heavy is coming makes it no less satisfying when it lands.

Druids on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Kandodo4, Burning the (Kandl)

Though it’s spread across two LPs, don’t think of Kandodo4‘s Burning the (Kandl) as an album. Or even a live album, though technically it’s that. You might not know, you might not care, but it’s a historical preservation. ‘The time that thing happened,’ where the thing is Simon Price of The Heads leading a jam under the banner of his Kandodo side-project featuring Robert Hampson of Loop, and bassist Hugo Morgan and drummer Wayne Maskell — who play in both The Heads and Loop — as part of The Heads‘ residency at Roadburn Festival 2015 (review here). I tell you, I was there, and I’ve seen few psychedelic rituals that could compare in flow or letting the music find its own shape(lessness) as it will. Burning the (Kandl) not only has the live set, but the lone rehearsal that the one-off-four-piece did prior to taking stage at Het Patronaat in Tilburg, the Netherlands, that evening. Thus, history. Certainly for the fest, for the players and those who were there, but I like to think in listening to these side-long stretches of expanse upon expanse that all of our great-grandchildren will worship at the altar of this stuff in a better world. Maybe, maybe not, but better to have Burning the (Kandl) ready to go just in case.

Kandodo on Facebook

Kandodo on Bandcamp

Cardinal Fuzz webstore

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Into the Valley of Death, Ruthless

The second EP in about nine months from Los Angeles’ Spencer Robinson — operating under the moniker of Into the Valley of Death — the seven-song Ruthless feels very much like a debut album despite a runtime circa 25 minutes. The songs are cohesive in bringing together doom and grunge as they do, and as with the prior Space Age, the lo-fi aspects of the recording become part of the overarching character of the material. Guitars are up, bass is up, drums are likely programmed, vocals are throaty and obscure at least until they declare you dead on “Ghost,” and the pieces running in the three-to-four-minute range have a kind of languid drawl about them that sound purely stoned even as they seem to reach out into the desert after which the project is seemingly named. Robinson, who also played bass in The Lords of Altamont and has another outfit wherein he fronts a full backing band, is up to some curious shit here, and whether or not it was, it definitely sounds like it was recorded at night. I’m not sure where it’s going, and I’m not sure where it’s been, but I know I’ll look forward to finding out.

Into the Valley of Death on Bandcamp

Doomsayer Records on Facebook

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Stuck in Motion, Still Stuck

Enköping, Sweden’s Stuck in Motion issued their 2018 self-titled debut (review here) to due fanfare, and Still Stuck (changed from the working title ‘Ut på Tur,’ which translates, “on tour”) arrives with a brisk reminder why. Jammy in spirit, early singles “Höjdpunkternas Land,” “Lucy” and “På Väg” brim with vitality and a refreshing take on classic heavy rock, not strictly retro, not strictly not, and all the more able to jam and offer breadth around traditional structures as in “I de Blå” for that, weaving their way into and out of instrumental sections with a jazzy conversation between guitars and keys, bass and drums, percussion, and so on. Combined with the melodies of “Tupida,” the heavier tone underlying “Fisken” and the organ-and-synth-laced shuffle of the penultimate “Tung Sol,” there’s a balance between psych and prog — and, on the closing title-track, horns — which are emblematic of an organic style that couldn’t be faked even if the band wanted to try. I don’t know the exact release date for Still Stuck — I thought it was already out when I slated this review — but its eight songs and 40 minutes are like the kind of afternoon you don’t want to end. Sunshine and impossible blue sky.

Stuck in Motion on Facebook

Stuck in Motion on Bandcamp

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Sageness, Tr3s

A blurb posted by Spanish instrumentalists Sageness — also written SageNESS — with the release of Tr3s reads as follows: “The future seen from the past, where another current reality is possible, follow us and we will transfer to a new dimension. (Tr3s),” and fair enough. One could hardly begrudge the trio a bit of escapism in their work, and listening to the 36 minutes across four songs that comprises Tr3s, they do seem to be finding their way into the ‘way out.’ Though if where they’re ending up is 12-minute finale “Event Horizon,” in which the very jam itself seems to be taffy-pulled on a molecular level until the solid bassline and drums dissipate and what takes hold is a freakout of propulsive, drift-toned guitar, I’m not sure if they do or don’t ultimately make it to another dimension. Maybe that’s on the other side? Either way, after the scope of “Greenhouse” and the more plotted-seeming stops of “Spirit Machine,” that end is somewhat inevitable, and we may be stuck in reality for real life, but Sageness‘ fuzzy and warm-toned heavy psychedelic rock makes a reasoned argument for daydreaming the opposite.

Sageness on Facebook

Interstellar Smoke Records store

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Kaleidobolt, This One Simple Trick

You think you’re up for Kaleidobolt, and that’s adorable, but let’s be honest. The Finnish trio — whose head-spinning, too-odd-not-to-be-prog heavy rock makes This One Simple Trick laughable as a title — are on another level. You and me? They’re running circles around us in “Fantastic Corps” and letting the truth about humans be known amid the fuzz of “Ultraviolent Chimpanzee” after the alternately frenetic and spaced “Borded Control,” momentarily stopping their helicopter twirl to “Walk on Grapes” at the album’s finish, but even then they’re walking on grapes on another planet yet to be catalogued by known science. 2019’s Bitter (review here) boasted likewise self-awareness, but This One Simple Trick is a bolder step into their individuality of purpose, and rest assured, they found it. I don’t know if they’re a “best kept secret” or just underrated. However you say it, more people should be aware. Onto the list of 2022’s best albums it goes, and if there are any simple tricks involved here, I’d love to know what they are.

Kaleidobolt on Facebook

Svart Records website

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The Tazers, Outer Space

It probably wouldn’t fit on a 7″, but The Tazers‘ Outer Space EP isn’t much over that limit at four songs and 13 minutes. The Johannesburg trio’s melodicism is striking nearly at the outset of the opening title-track, and the fuzz guitar that coincides is no less right on as they touch on psychedelia without ever ranging so much as to lose sight of the structures at work. “Glass Ceiling” boasts a garage-rocking urgency but is nonetheless not an all-out sprint in its delivery, and “Ready to Die” hits into Queens of the Stone Age-esque rush after an acoustic opening and before its fuzzy rampage of a chorus, while “Up in the Air” is a little more psych-funk until solidifying around the repeated lines, “Give me a reason/Show me a sign,” which culminate as the EP’s final plea, like Witch played at 45RPM or your favorite stoner band’s cooler cousin. Four songs, it probably took more effort to put together than they’d like you to think, but the casual cool they ooze is as infectious as the songs themselves.

The Tazers on Facebook

The Tazers on Instagram

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Obelos, Green Giant

Bong-worship sludge from London. It’s hard to know the extent to which Obelos — which for some reason my fingers have trouble typing correctly — are just fucking around, but their dank, lurching riffs, throaty screams and slow-motion crashes certainly paint a picture anyhow. Paint it green, with maybe some little orange or purple flecks in there. Interludes “Paranoise” and “Holy Smokes” bring harsh noise and a kind of improvised-feeling, also-quite-noisy chicanery, but the primary impression in Green Giant‘s six tracks/27 time-bending minutes is of nodding, couchlocked stoner crush, and I wouldn’t dare ask anything more of it than that. Neither should you. I’d argue this is an album rather than the EP it’s categorized as being, since it flows and definitely gets its point across in a full-length manner, but I’m not even gonna fight the band on that because they might break out a 50-minute record or some shit and, well, I’m just not sure I’m ready to get that high this early in the morning. Might have to reserve an entire day for that. Which might be fun, too.

Obelos linktr.ee

Obelos on Instagram

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Here begins day two of 10. I don’t know at what point it occurred to me to load up the Quarterly Review with killer stuff to make it, you know, more pleasant than having it only be records I feel like I should be writing about, but I’m intensely glad I did.

Seems like a no brainer, right? But the internet is dumb, and it’s so easy to get caught up in what you see on social media, who’s hyping what, and the whole thing is driven by this sad, cloying FOMO that I despise even as I participate. If you’re ever in a situation to let go of something so toxic, even just a little bit and even just in your own head — which is where it all exists anyhow — do it. And if you take nothing else from this 100-album Quarterly Review besides that advice, it won’t be a loss.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Magnatar, Crushed

Can’t say they don’t deliver. The eight-song/38-minute Crushed is the debut long-player from Manchester, New Hampshire’s Magnatar, and it plays to the more directly aggressive side of post-metallic riffing. There are telltale quiet stretches, to be sure, but the extremity of shouts and screams in opener “Dead Swan” and in the second half of “Crown of Thorns” — the way that intensity becomes part of the build of the song as a whole — is well beyond the usual throaty fare. There’s atmosphere to balance, but even the 1:26 “Old” bends into harsh static, and the subsequent “Personal Contamination Through Mutual Unconsciousness” bounces djent and post-hardcore impulses off each other before ending up in a mega-doom slog, the lyric “Eat shit and die” a particular standout. So it goes into “Dragged Across the Surface of the Sun,” which is more even, but on the side of being pissed off, and “Loving You Was Killing Me” with its vastly more open spaces, clean vocals and stretch of near-silence before a more intense solo-topped finish. That leaves “Crushed” and “Event Horizon” to round out, and the latter is so heavy it’s barely music and that’s obviously the idea.

Magnatar on Facebook

Seeing Red Records on Bandcamp

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Wild Rocket, Formless Abyss

Three longform cosmic rock excursions comprise Wild Rocket‘s Formless Abyss — “Formless Abyss” (10:40), “Interplanetary Vibrations” (11:36) and “Future Echoes” (19:41) — so lock in your harness and be ready for when the g-forces hit. If the Dubliners have tarried in following-up 2017’s Disassociation Mechanics (review here), one can only cite the temporal screwing around taking place in “Interplanetary Vibrations” as a cause — it would be easy to lose a year or two in its depths — never mind “Future Echoes,” which meets the background-radiation drone of the two inclusions prior with a ritualized heft and slow-unfurling wash of distortion that is like a clarion to Sagan-headed weirdos. A dark-matter nebula. You think you’re freaked out now? Wild Rocket speak their own language of sound, in their own time, and Formless Abyss — while not entirely without structure — has breadth enough to make even the sunshine a distant memory.

Wild Rocket on Facebook

Riot Season Records website

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Trace Amount, Anti Body Language

An awaited debut full-length from Brooklyn multimedia artist/producer Brandon Gallagher, Trace Amount‘s Anti Body Language sees release through Greg Puciato‘s Federal Prisoner imprint and collects a solid 35 minutes of noise-laced harsh industrial worldbreaking. Decay anthems. A methodical assault begins with “Anxious Awakenings” and moving through “Anti Body Language” and “Eventually it Will Kill Us All,” the feeling of Gallagher acknowledging the era in which the record arrives is palpable, but more palpable are the weighted beats, the guttural shouts and layers of disaffected moans. “Digitized Exile” plays out like the ugliest outtake from Pretty Hate Machine — a compliment — and after the suitably tense “No Reality,” the six-minute “Tone and Tenor” — with a guest appearance from Kanga — offers a fuller take on drone and industrial metal, filling some of the spaces purposefully left open elsewhere. That leaves the penultimate “Pixelated Premonitions” as the ultimate blowout and “Suspect” (with a guest spot from Statiqbloom; a longtime fixture of NY industrialism) to noise-wash it all away, like city acid rain melting the pavement. New York always smells like piss in summer.

Trace Amount on Instagram

Federal Prisoner store

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Lammping, Desert on the Keel

This band just keeps getting better, and yes, I mean that. Toronto’s Lammping begin an informal, casual-style series of singles with “Desert on the Keel,” the sub-four-minutes of which are dedicated to a surprisingly peaceful kind of heavy psychedelia. Multiple songwriters at work? Yes. Rhythm guitarist Matt Aldred comes to the fore here with vocals mellow to suit the languid style of the guitar, which with Jay Anderson‘s drums still giving a push beneath reminds of Quest for Fire‘s more active moments, but would still fit alongside the tidy hooks with which Lammping populate their records. Mikhail Galkin, principal songwriter for the band, donates a delightfully gonna-make-some-noise-here organ solo in the post-midsection jam before “Desert on the Keel” turns righteously back to the verse, Colm Hinds‘ bass McCartneying the bop for good measure, and in a package so welcome it can only be called a gift, Lammping demonstrate multiple new avenues of growth for their craft and project. I told you. They keep getting better. For more, dig into 2022’s Stars We Lost EP (review here). You won’t regret it.

Lammping on Instagram

Lammping on Bandcamp

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Limousine Beach, Limousine Beach

Immediate three-part harmonies in the chorus of opener “Stealin’ Wine” set the tone for Limousine Beach‘s self-titled debut, as the new band fronted by guitarist/vocalist David Wheeler (OutsideInside, Carousel) and bringing together a five-piece with members of Fist Fight in the Parking Lot, Cruces and others melds ’70s-derived sounds with a modern production sheen, so that the Thin Lizzy-style twin leads of “Airboat” hit with suitable brightness and the arena-ready vibe in “Willodene” sets up the proto-metal of “Black Market Buss Pass” and the should-be-a-single-if-it-wasn’t “Hear You Calling.” Swagger is a staple of Wheeler‘s work, and though the longest song on Limousine Beach is still under four minutes, there’s plenty of room in tracks like “What if I’m Lying,” the AC/DC-esque “Evan Got a Job” and the sprint “Movin’ On” (premiered here) for such things, and the self-awareness in “We’re All Gonna Get Signed” adds to the charm. Closing out the 13 songs and 31 minutes, “Night is Falling” is dizzying, and leads to “Doo Doo,” the tight-twisting “Tiny Hunter” and the feedback and quick finish of “Outro,” which is nonetheless longer than the song before it. Go figure. Go rock. One of 2022’s best debut albums. Good luck keeping up.

Limousine Beach on Facebook

Tee Pee Records website

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40 Watt Sun, Perfect Light

Perfect Light is the closest Patrick Walker (also Warning) has yet come to a solo album with 40 Watt Sun, and any way one approaches it, is a marked departure from 2016’s Wider Than the Sky (review here, sharing a continued penchant for extended tracks but transposing the emotional weight that typifies Walker‘s songwriting and vocals onto pieces led by acoustic guitar and piano. Emma Ruth Rundle sits in on opener “Reveal,” which is one of the few drumless inclusions on the 67-minute outing, but primarily the record is a showcase for Walker‘s voice and fluid, ultra-subdued and mostly-unplugged guitar notes, which float across “Behind My Eyes” and the dare-some-distortion “Raise Me Up” later on, shades of the doom that was residing in the resolution that is, the latter unflinching in its longing purpose. Not a minor undertaking either on paper or in the listening experience, it is the boldest declaration of intent and progression in Walker’s storied career to-date, leaving heavy genre tropes behind in favor of something that seems even more individual.

40 Watt Sun on Facebook

Cappio Records website

Svart Records website

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Decasia, An Endless Feast for Hyenas

Snagged by Heavy Psych Sounds in the early going of 2022, French rockers Decasia debut on the label with An Endless Feast for Hyenas, a 10-track follow-up to 2017’s The Lord is Gone EP (review here), making the most of the occasion of their first full-length to portray inventive vocal arrangements coinciding with classic-sounding fuzz in “Hrosshvelli’s Ode” and the spacier “Cloud Sultan” — think vocalized Earthless — the easy-rolling viber “Skeleton Void” and “Laniakea Falls.” “Ilion” holds up some scorch at the beginning, “Hyenas at the Gates” goes ambient at the end, and interludes “Altostratus” and “Soft Was the Night” assure a moment to breathe without loss of momentum, holding up proof of a thoughtful construction even as Decasia demonstrate a growth underway and a sonic persona long in development that holds no shortage of potential for continued progress. By no means is An Endless Feast for Hyenas the highest-profile release from this label this year, but think of it as an investment in things to come as well as delivery for right now.

Decasia on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

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Giant Mammoth, Holy Sounds

The abiding shove of “Circle” and the more swinging “Abracadabra” begin Giant Mammoth‘s second full-length, Holy Sounds, with a style that wonders what if Lowrider and Valley of the Sun got together in a spirit of mutual celebration and densely-packed fuzz. Longer pieces “The Colour is Blue” and “Burning Man” and the lightly-proggier finale “Teisko” space out more, and the two-minute “Dust” is abidingly mellow, but wherever the Tampere, Finland, three-piece go, they remain in part defined by the heft of “Abracadabra” and the opener before it, with “Unholy” serving as an anchor for side A after “Burning Man” and “Wasteland” bringing a careening return to earth between “The Colour is Blue” and the close-out in “Teisko.” Like the prior-noted influences, Giant Mammoth are a stronger act for the dynamics of their material and the manner in which the songs interact with each other as the eight-track/38-minute LP plays out across its two sides, the second able to be more expansive for the groundwork laid in the first. They’re young-ish and they sound it (that’s not a slag), and the transition from duo to three-piece made between their first record and this one suits them and bodes well in its fuller tonality.

Giant Mammoth on Facebook

Giant Mammoth on Bandcamp

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Pyre Fyre, Rinky Dink City / Slow Cookin’

New Jersey trio Pyre Fyre may or may not be paying homage to their hometown of Bayonne with “Rinky Dink City,” but their punk-born fuzzy sludge rock reminds of none so much as New Orleans’ Suplecs circa 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Ladyfriend, both the title-tracks dug into raw lower- and high-end buzztone shenanigans, big on groove and completely void of pretense. Able to have fun and still offer some substance behind the chicanery. I don’t know if you’d call it party rock — does anyone party on the East Coast or are we too sad because the weather sucks? probably, I’m just not invited — but if you were having a hangout and Pyre Fyre showed up with “Slow Cookin’,” for sure you’d let them have the two and a half minutes it takes them (less actually) to get their point across. In terms of style and songwriting, production and performance, this is a band that ask next to nothing of the listener in terms of investment are able to effect a mood in the positive without being either cloyingly poppish or leaving a saccharine aftertaste. I guess this is how the Garden State gets high. Fucking a.

Pyre Fyre on Instagram

Pyre Fyre on Bandcamp

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Kamru, Kosmic Attunement to the Malevolent Rites of the Universe

Issued on April 20, the cumbersomely-titled Kosmic Attunement to the Malevolent Rites of the Universe is the debut outing from Denver-based two-piece Kamru, comprised of Jason Kleim and Ashwin Prasad. With six songs each hovering on either side of seven minutes long, the duo tap into a classic stoner-doom feel, and one could point to this or that riff and say The Sword or liken their tone worship and makeup to Telekinetic Yeti, but that’s missing the point. The point is in the atmosphere that is conjured by “Penumbral Litany” and the familiar proto-metallurgy of the subsequent “Hexxer,” prominent vocals echoing with a sense of command rare for a first offering of any kind, let alone a full-length. In the more willfully grueling “Cenotaph” there’s doomly reach, and as “Winter Rites” marches the album to its inevitable end — one imagines blood splattered on a fresh Rocky Mountain snowfall — the band’s take on established parameters of aesthetic sounds like it’s trying to do precisely what it wants. I’m saying watch out for it to get picked up for a vinyl release by some label or other if that hasn’t happened yet.

Kamru on Facebook

Kamru on Bandcamp

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This August, when Portland, Oregon’s Witch Mountain take the stage at Psycho Las Vegas 2022, they’ll be rounding out a series of three shows with the special 25th anniversary lineup of vocalist Uta Plotkin and bassist Billy Anderson (yes, that one; he’s recorded Witch Mountain all along) alongside founding guitarist and drummer, respectively, Rob Wrong and Nathan Carson.

Not gonna discount having Anderson on bass — and neither should you, lest you get yourself back to that second Blessing the Hogs record —  but these will be the first shows Witch Mountain have done with Plotkin up front since she announced in 2014 she was leaving the band. Revamping their lineup at the time led Carson and Wrong to bring in vocalist Kayla Dixon and bassist Justin Brown, and they’ve gone steady as such ever since. The band likewise makes sure to mention that the Dixon/Brown lineup is permanent, and this isn’t so much a grand shift in plan so much as a step aside.

Witch Mountain‘s self-titled LP (review here) was released in 2018, and Mobile of Angels (review here) — the band’s final Plotkin-vocalized release — preceded in 2014.

Photo below is by the esteemed James Rexroad, who makes even your local public library look badass. Dates and info follow:

Witch Mountain – 25th Anniversary Shows

The musical partnership of Rob Wrong (guitars) and Nate Carson (drums) began in 1997 with the founding of Portland, Oregon’s first doom metal band. While the permanent lineup still includes vocalist Kayla Dixon and bassist Justin Brown—both had other commitments in the summer of 2022—with Brown fighting forest fires, and Dixon touring overseas with her other band.

In celebration of WM’s 25th anniversary, vocalist Uta Plotkin returns to perform three special reunion sets, singing songs she wrote with the band from 2008-2014. The band’s long time “engine-ear” Billy Anderson will play bass on these exclusive dates in Corvallis (Carson and Plotkin’s hometown), Portland (the band’s forever home base), and the Psycho Las Vegas music festival.

These three shows are the only chance to see this reunion. Stay doomed! PS – Ticket links in the comments \wm/

https://event.etix.com/ticket/online/performanceSale.do?performance_id=6546371&method=restoreToken

Witch Mountain 25th Anniversary Tour:
08.05 Corvallis OR Whiteside Theater
08.12 Portland OR Mississippi Studios
08.21 Las Vegas NV Psycho Las Vegas

Witch Mountain Summer 2020 shows:
Uta Plotkin: vocals
Rob Wrong: guitar
Billy Anderson: bass
Nathan Carson: drums

Witch Mountain is:
Kayla Dixon: vocals
Rob Wrong: guitar
Justin Brown: bass
Nathan Carson: drums

www.facebook.com/witchmountain
http://witchmountain.bandcamp.com

www.svartrecords.com
www.facebook.com/svartrecords

Witch Mountain, “Priceless Pain” lyric video

Witch Mountain, Mobile of Angels (2014)

The fifth full-length from Finnish doomers Spiritus Mortis — who through guitarist Jussi Maijala and bassist Teemu Maijala trace their roots back to 1987 and claim for themselves the title of being Finland’s first doom band — will see release this September in a continued collab with respected purveyor Svart Records. It will be the first offering for the Alavus-based outfit since 2009 not to feature vocalist Sami Hynninen (also known as Albert Witchfinder of Reverend Bizarre and so many others), which sounds like a long time, but the truth is it was really just two records. Kimmo Perämäki came on board in 2018 and on the new single “Death’s Charioteer,” the band’s intent in bringing out a classic metal vibe as hinted below by the PR wire can be heard in the track ahead of the rest of the record’s arrival.

Certainly there’s plenty of doom to be had, and no doubt “Death’s Charioteer” was chosen as the first single in part for that, but the chug and release methodology employed between the verses and chorus drop clues as to what sort of NWOBHM-ery might follow. One way to find out, I guess. Sit on hands for about three months. Ha.

From the PR wire:

SPIRITUS MORTIS Release New Music Video for “Death’s Charioteer”

New Album ‘The Great Seal’ Coming This September

Finnish Heavy Metal legends Spiritus Mortis unveil a grand-scale epic of antique Doom on their new single “Death’s Charioteer”. Erecting a new monolith in the halls of Doom Metal history with their fifth album, The Great Seal, Spiritus Mortis certify true classic status as one of the scene’s modern greats.

There are few modern-day bands that can be uttered under the same breath as the giants of Traditional Doom and Heavy Metal like Spiritus Mortis. Formed in 1987 as Rigor Mortis, they can firmly attest to having been “the first Finnish Doom Metal band”, uncovering hallowed ground before the later imitators. Carrying the banner of powerful true Metal, the likes of which stands proudly next to the masters such as Dio era Sabbath, Solitude Aeturnus and Trouble, Spiritus Mortis have established a tradition of catchy song-writing and consummate knowledge of sacred riff-craft. The Great Seal is a colossal album, which Spiritus Mortis describes as “a rite of collective suicide and an orgy of self-immolation”, and plumbs the depths of epic sorrow with gargantuan slabs of igneous riffs and emotional vocals.

Synonymous with classic Finnish Doom bands like Reverend Bizarre, whose singer Albert Witchfinder intoned previous albums’ vocals, Spiritus Mortis continues to define and cement their formidable legacy. Albert’s replacement, Kimmo Perämäki, is more than worthy of the consecrated robes he inherits, delivering a performance that is flawlessly dominating and instantly gratifying. Tracks like “Martyrdom Operation” and “Visions Of Immortality” see Perämäki boldly carving his own name in the stone tablets of future history, marrying the riffs of the Maijala brothers and guitarist Kari Lavila with the splendor of magnificent melancholy that Spiritus Mortis is so known and admired for.

Not only will true devotees of the Spiritus Mortis Doom church be raising their fists with full hearts, but those who seek knowledge of the faithful spirit of real Metal can surely look no further than within The Great Seal.

www.spiritusmortis.com
https://www.facebook.com/spiritusmortis.official
https://www.svartrecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords

Spiritus Mortis, “Death’s Charioteer” official video