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TarLung and Mares of Thrace Announce European Tour

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 17th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Mares Of Thrace_promo pic

TARLUNG_promo

I didn’t really know Calgary’s Mares of Thrace before this tour announcement, and I’m sure you did because you’re way more on the ball than I am — always — but in case you didn’t hear their 2022 record, The Exile, it’s below with twisting, modern post-Baroness riffing and a nastiness that is both a surprise and a welcome turn from expectation. That kick drum in “In All Her Glory” and the riff it punctuates are both encouraging further dig-ins to the album, so hey, I learned something today. Lifelong process and all that. I say again: nasty. Fucking a.

Vienna-based harsh-vocal nod rockers TarLung, who offered their latest album, Architect (review here), in 2021, are more of a known quantity in their big-toned groove and commanding, death-metal-style vocal. The fact that both bands share a penchant for blending elements from more extreme styles with heavy riffing makes for an enticing combination, leaving one to wonder where, on a given night, the line between metal and rock might exist if it does at all. I already said “fucking a,” so I’ll go with “right on” instead. Right on.

Shows start Oct. 20, as the PR wire tells it:

Mares of Thrace TarLung Tour Poster

CANADIAN NOISE-DOOM DUO MARES OF THRACE AND AUSTRIAN SLUDGE-DOOM TRIO TARLUNG ANNOUNCE EUROPEAN 2023 TOUR BEGINNING OCTOBER 20TH

Mares of Thrace will be embarking on their first-ever European tour, joined by TarLung from Austria. Dates are listed below.

On the tour, the band comments:

“We’re delighted to be finally playing Europe; it’s been a major goal since this project’s inception. We’re also super stoked to be joined by TarLung, who are musical (and otherwise) like minds of the highest order.”

Mares of Thrace released their critically-acclaimed third record, The Exile, on Sonic Unyon Records in 2022, and have followed it up with North American tours with the likes of KEN mode, Vile Creature, and Tribunal.

TarLung are widely considered one of the mainstays of Austrian doom, and have shared stages with such genre luminaries as Eyehategod, Crowbar, and Conan; their 2021 record Architect was hailed.

Fri 20.10. Graz (AT) – Club Wakuum
Sat 21.10. Alseno (IT) – Tingel Tangel
Sun 22.10. (IT) – TBD
Mon 23.10. Maribor (SLO) – Dvorana Gustaf
Tue 24.10. Budapest (HUN) – Robot
Wed 25.10. Krakow (PL) – Pub Pod Ziemia
Thu 26.10. Katowice (PL) – Music Hub
Fri 27.10. Warsaw (PL) – Chmury
Sat 28.10. Berlin (DE) – Köpi
Sun 29.10. Praha (CZ) – Modrá Vopice
Mon 30.10. Brno (CZ) – Kabinet Muz
Tue 31.10. Vienna (AT) – Venster99

https://www.instagram.com/mares_of_thrace/
https://www.facebook.com/maresofthraceca
https://maresofthrace.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/tarlung_band/
https://www.facebook.com/tarlungband
https://tarlung.bandcamp.com/

Mares of Thrace, The Exile (2022)

TarLung, Architect (2021)

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Marian Waibl of Torpedo Torpedo & TarLung

Posted in Questionnaire on June 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Marian-Waibl-of-Torpedo-Torpedo-&-TarLung

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: Marian Waibl of Torpedo Torpedo & TarLung

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

I’m a drummer in the Sludge band TARLUNG, and now in the Heavy Psych band TORPEDO TORPEDO as well. Plus, there’s a third project in the pipeline, named BLACK AIR, a more mellow instrumental Doom / Darkjazz / Post-Metal thing. So, I’m well occupied – but three bands is enough! But I’m fortunate to have found people I enjoy spending time with, and who inspire me with their ideas and their playing – everybody has their very own specific way of playing and feeling, and you feel that when playing with them.

Me, I’m just the drummer, and I like it that way: I see this as my role, to listen to and understand a riff, and support it in the best possible way with a drum pattern – which doesn’t necessarily mean to repeat every guitar or bass note on a drum, as the notes you don’t play are just as important as the ones you play. It’s about getting the intention, and bringing the idea to life. I like doing that, and while I might not be the best technician, I think I am a good listener and understander.

Describe your first musical memory.

I guess that would be banging on a little tambourine I had as a kid, and destroying it, the poor thing. And making makeshift string instruments with rubber bands… Apart from that, my parents’ house was always full of music, with my father playing the Spanish guitar and the accordion, later on the sax as well. Not much rock n’ roll, but the radio was always on with classical music, and here I am listening to the classical public radio quite a lot again, which is quite good in Austria.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

Certainly the euphoria I experienced at some nice gigs with the crowd going wild… But also in the rehearsal room when it just clicks, and you get the feeling that this right here is something special. But also enjoying great concerts and just melting into the experience.

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

Oh, more than just one time… I might have been a rather edgy twen, I admit, with some rather stubborn and obviously false beliefs, like „music has to be fast and technical, otherwise it sucks!“ – But then, I enjoyed stuff like Electric Wizard, EyeHateGod and Crowbar already in my teens, so the tendency to value feeling over technicality was always there.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Referring to the last question: To value feeling over technicality. Of course, you need to know how to do things, but the technique is just a means, the idea / feeling is the goal. And also an important lesson, I guess: Limitation is good for creativity. Creativity means working with what you got, and making something out of it – instead of going „If I could, then I would…“ – Well, you are here now, and you have what you have. Now go and „work with the acre you are given“, to quote the fantastic song by Steve von Till.

How do you define success?

Being able to do what you love, basically. Having a job that allows you to pursue your musical interests, and as I’m self employed now I found a very nice balance in my life, and I enjoy this a lot.
Apart from that, it’s positive feedback – the quality, not the quantity. Who care’s about „making it big“, a few heartfelt nice reviews, and a few dozen people at a small gig really getting into it – that’s worth more than a big hall of rather indifferent people.

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

Lots of things I guess, didn’t need to witness a mayor pandemic and a new war in Europe, for example… but what can you do? One can’t change the winds, but only the sails on one’s boat, to quote Aristotle.

Also, in severe personal crises it certainly wasn’t nice looking at myself in the mirror, but everything leads to something else, and if you are ready to grow, admit mistakes, and leave bad patterns behind you, this can lead to something new and better. And it certainly has – the journey is only over when it’s over, but sometimes I stop and wonder and think: „This has gone waaay better than I ever hoped!“.

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

Uh, been thinking of writing some prose for some time now, but I have to admit that I’m still blocked in that respect, having build up expectations that seem to be counterproductive. I guess I’ll have to let that go completely, and then it might become possible… or not. And if I never do it, I’ll be happy with that too. See what I did there? Trying to demonstrate how much I’m letting it go . Showoff :)

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

Two thoughts on that:

„Nulla ars sine purgamine“ – no art without cleansing. A roman inscription I have as a postcard on my wall. Art always comes from some sort of cleansing process, so to put it in a more „metal“ way: from processing negativity. But here’s the rub: There is this huge misunderstanding of the suffering artist, this cliché that suffering is good for creativity. It. Is. Not! As everybody has enough negativity anyways, you don’t need to chase that. I love how David Lynch put this, in his squeaky voice: „There’s this misconception that artists should feel bad. No! You should feel very, very good!“ Paraphrasing here, but he’s so right… listen to the man!

And here’s the second one: Art as secular religion. If you are not into the organized religion thing, you still have the desire for transcendence, the other side, the world beyond, the portal into the parallel sphere… at least I am sure I have this desire. So, going to a concert, a museum, what are those? Houses where no one lives, free of everyday purpose. Temples, in a way. Art frees us from the command of everyday necessity. It is completely useless, in a very positive sense.

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

It’s summer again, and I enjoy spending a lot of time on the shores of the old Danube, going for long swims, and laying in the sun, reading and listening to music. This is a very calm, pure state of being, and my personal paradise, so to speak. Eternity is in the moment. It’s all here, right now.

https://www.facebook.com/TorpedoTorpedoBand
https://torpedotorpedo.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tarlungband
https://tarlung.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/electricfirerecords/
https://www.electricfirerecords.com/
https://electricfirerecords.bandcamp.com/

Torpedo Torpedo, The Kuiper Belt Mantras (2022)

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TarLung Premiere “Horses of Plague” Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 10th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

tarlung horses of plague

Vienna, Austria, sludge metallers TarLung released their third album, Architect (review here), this past June, and to save you the trouble of clicking that review link, I’ll say instead that, oh, it was ghastly affair. Punishing! Brutal! Heavy like the way you think of cinderblocks holding things in place underground. The riffs were baked until burnt, the tones extreme, the vocals that accompanied all set to harsh your mellow with only a minimum of courtesy’s advance notice. It was not an act of kindness. It was not out to do favors for your eardrums. It was sludge. And it was metal.

I’m kidding, of course, but the fact of the matter is that TarLung — the trio of Philipp “Five” Seiler on guitar/vocals, Rotten on guitar, and Marian Waibl on drums — don’t even need bass to get the crucial heft of their sound across. You can watch their video for “Horses of Plague” premiering below and in addition to finding the song prescient as only a track written about a plague in 2019 could be, and appreciating their use of silhouettes and lighting and video effects, no doubt you’ll find that if you had a box on your day’s to-do list that said, “get pummeled by killer riffs,” that box will emerge on the other side of the just-under-six-minute clip duly ticked. As regards mood, you might find yourself ticked as well. Something about the tension after the solo in this one just feels seething in its execution.

The full stream of Architect is down near the bottom of the post, and I thank TarLung sincerely for the depth of thought they put into their quote. I mean that. Sometimes you ask a band for a quote and you get back either “can’t wait to share the song!” or “it’s a song I dunno.” TarLung not only explain their reasoning for picking the single — it’s heavy! — but they talk about how the clip was made, when, when the song was made, and note the fact that the record will be distributed in the US through Ripple Music. Actual information! Maybe their more courteous than I initially gave them credit for being.

Enjoy the clip (and quote), both of which follow here:

TarLung, “Horses of Plague” official video premiere

TarLung on “Horses of Plague”:

We wanted to do something special for our first video. The intention was to create something that has not been overdone within music videos yet. We came up with the idea of some sort of a “shadow theater” style video, mixed with different stock clips and a doomish vibe all around.

A distinctive inspiration was the fight scene from Kill Bill Vol. I where the lights go out and you can only see the shadows and silhouettes of the action. Mix in a video like Wilma’s Rainbow by Helmet and you get the rough idea what we were going for.

We chose to work with Schrankenstein Media, as he created a great video for the song “Past Recovery” by fellow Austrian heavyweights UGF. We heard he is very chill and easy to work with, and we can definitely confirm that. Working with Schrankenstein was great and we recommend to hit him up if you need a music video made in Austria or Germany.

The video was shot on location at Ann & Pat’s (a small but very nice venue in Linz, Upper Austria) using a big white screen and some background lighting. You can find some behind the scenes pictures and videos on our Instagram page if you are interested in the making of the video.

The song ‘Horses Of Plague’ was chosen because it’s one of the more powerful and hard-hitting songs on our new record. The lyrics are also quite fitting to the whole pandemic situation we are currently living in, as they were inspired by Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece 12 Monkeys. Strangely the song and lyrics were finished in Oktober 2019, just a few months before the world got turned upside down by the virus.

The latest TarLung album ‘Architect’ has been released in June, to great critical and public acclaim. “Horses of Plague” is the penultimate track on this record. Check it out and get a copy pressed on transparent vinyl, featuring the great artwork of Alex Eckman-Lawn, via our bandcamp page: https://tarlung.bandcamp.com

We are also working on a distribution with Ripple Music for our fans based in the USA . So if you want to save some shipping costs, our vinyl will be available via Ripple Music very soon.

Horses Of Plague is written and performed by TARLUNG. https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/tarlung/architect

TARLUNG is:
Philipp “Five” Seiler – Guitars and Vocals
Marian Waibl – Drums
Rotten – Guitars

recorded, mixed and mastered by Lukas Haidinger at DeepDeepPressure Studio

Music video shot and edited by Schrankenstein, shot on location at Ann & Pat (Linz) June 2021.

TarLung, Architect (2021)

TarLung on Facebook

TarLung on Instagram

TarLung on Bandcamp

TarLung website

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Quarterly Review: Spelljammer, The Black Heart Death Cult, Shogun, Nadja, Shroud of Vulture, Towards Atlantis Lights, ASTRAL CONstruct, TarLung, Wizzerd & Merlin, Seum

Posted in Reviews on July 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

We proceed onward, into this ever-growing swath of typos, lineup corrections made after posting, and riffs — more riffs! — that is the Quarterly Review. Today is Day Four and I’m feeling good. Not to say there isn’t some manner of exhaustion, but the music has been killer — today is particularly awesome — and that makes life much, much, much better as I’ve already said. I hope you’ve found one or two or 10 records so far that you’ve really dug. I know I’ve added a few to my best of 2021 list, including stuff right here. So yeah, we roll on.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Spelljammer, Abyssal Trip

spelljammer abyssal trip

To envision an expanse, and to crush it. Stockholm three-piece Spelljammer return five years after Ancient of Days (review here), with an all-the-more-massive second long-player through RidingEasy, turning their front-cover astronaut around to face the audience head on and offering 43 minutes/six tracks of encompassing largesse, topping 10 minutes in the title-track and “Silent Rift,” both on side B with the interlude “Peregrine” between them, after the three side A rollers, “Bellwether,” “Lake” and “Among the Holy” have tripped out outward and downward into an atmospheric plunge that is a joy to take feeling specifically geared as an invite to the converted. We are here, come worship with us. Also get crushed. Spelljammer records may not happen all the time, but you won’t be through “Bellwether” before you’re saying it was worth the wait.

Spelljammer on Facebook

RidingEasy Records website

 

The Black Heart Death Cult, Sonic Mantras

The Black Heart Death Cult Sonic Mantras

A deceptively graceful second LP from Melbourne’s The Black Heart Death Cult, Sonic Mantras pulls together an eight-song/45-minute run that unfolds bookended by “Goodbye Gatwick Blues” (8:59) and “Sonic Dhoom” (9:47) and in between ebbs and flows across shorter pieces that maximize their flow in whether shoegazing, heavygazing, blissing out, or whatever we’re calling it this week on “The Sun Inside” and “One Way Through,” or finding their way to a particularly deadened meadow on “Trees,” or tripping the light hypnotic on “Dark Waves” just ahead of the closer. “Cold Fields” churns urgently in its 2:28 but remains spacious, and everywhere The Black Heart Death Cult go, they remain liquefied in their sound, like a seemingly amorphous thing that nonetheless manages to hold its shape despite outside conditions. Whatever form they take, then, they are themselves, and Sonic Mantras emphasizes how yet-underappreciated they are in emerging from the ever-busy Aussie underground.

The Black Heart Death Cult on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

 

Shogun, Tetra

Shogun Tetra

Tetra is the third long-player from Milwaukee’s Shogun, and in addition to the 10-minute “Delta,” which marries blues gargle with YOB slow-gallop before jamming out across its 10-minute span, it brings straight-shooter fuzz rockers like “Gravitas,” the someone-in-this-band-listened-to-Megadeth-in-the-’90s-and-that’s-okay beginnings of “Buddha’s Palm/Aviary” and likewise crunch of “Axiom” later, but also the quiet classic progressive rock of “Gone Forever,” and the more patient coming together of psychedelia and harder-hitting movement on closer “Maximum Ray.” Somewhat undercut by a not-raw-but-not-bursting-with-life production, pieces like “Buddha’s Palm/Aviary,” which gives over to a sweeter stretch of guitar in its second movement, and “Vertex/Universal Pain Center,” which in its back end brings around that YOB influence again and puts it to good use, are outwardly complex enough to put the lie to the evenhandedness of the recording. There’s more going on in Tetra than it first seems, and the more you listen, the more you find.

Shogun on Facebook

Shogun on Bandcamp

 

Nadja, Luminous Rot

Nadja Luminous Rot

Keeping up with Nadja has proven nigh on impossible over the better part of the last two decades, as the Berlin-by-way-of-Toronto duo have issued over 25 albums in 19 years, plus splits and live offerings and digital singles and oh my goodness I do believe I have the vapors that’s a lot of Nadja. For those of us who flit in and out like the dilletantes we ultimately are, Luminous Rot‘s aligning Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff with Southern Lord makes it an easy landmark, but really most of what the six-cut/48-minute long-player does is offer a reminder of the vital experimentalism the lazy are missing in the first place. The consuming, swelling drone of “Cuts on Your Hands,” blown-out sub-industrialism of “Starres,” hook of the title-track and careful-what-you-wish-for anchor riff of “Fruiting Bodies” — these and the noisily churning closer “Dark Inclusions” are a fervent argument in Nadja‘s favor as being more than a sometimes-check-in kind of band, and for immediately digging into the 43-minute single-song album Seemannsgarn, which they released earlier this year. So much space and nothing to lose.

Nadja on Facebook

Southern Lord Recordings website

 

Shroud of Vulture, Upon a Throne of Jackals

shroud of vulture upon a throne of jackals

Welcome to punishment as a primary consideration. Indianapolis death-doom four-piece hold back the truly crawling fare until “Perverted Reflection,” which is track three of the total seven on their debut full-length, Upon a Throne of Jackals, but by then the extremity has already shown its unrepentant face across the buried-alive “Final Spasms of the Drowned” and the oldschool death metal of “The Altar.” Centerpiece “Invert Every Throne” calls to mind Conan in its nod, but Shroud of Vulture are more about rawness than sheer largesse in tone, and their prone-to-blasting style gives them an edge there and in “Halo of Tarnished Light,” which follows. The closing pair of “Concealing Rabid Laughter” and “Stone Coffin of Existence” both top seven minutes and offset grueling tension with grueling release, but it’s the stench of decay that so much defines Upon a Throne of Jackals, as though somebody rebuilt Sunlight Studio brick for brick in Hoosier Country. Compelling and filthy in kind.

Shroud of Vulture on Facebook

Wise Blood Records website

Transylvanian Tapes on Bandcamp

 

Towards Atlantis Lights, When the Ashes Devoured the Sun

Towards Atlantis Lights When the Ashes Devoured the Sun

Ultra-grueling, dramatic death-doom tragedies permeate the second full-length, When the Ashes Devoured the Sun, from UK-based four-piece Towards Atlantis Lights, with vocalist/keyboardist Kostas Panagiotou and guitarist Ivan Zara at the heart of the compositions while bassist Riccardo Veronese and drummer Ivano Olivieri assure the impact that coincides with the cavernous procession matches in scope. The follow-up to 2018’s Dust of Aeons (review here), this six-track collection fosters classicism and modern apocalyptic vibes alike, and whether raging or morose, its dirge atmosphere remains firm and uncompromised. Heavy lumber for heavy hearts. The kind of doom that doesn’t look up. That doesn’t mean it’s not massive in scope — it is, even more than the first record — just that nearly everything it sees is downward. If there’s hope, it is a vague thing, lost to periphery. So be it.

Towards Atlantis Lights on Facebook

Kostas Panagiotou on Bandcamp

 

ASTRAL CONstruct, Tales of Cosmic Journeys

ASTRAL CONstruct Tales of Cosmic Journeys

It has been said on multiple occasions that “space is the place.” The curiously-capitalized Colorado outfit ASTRAL CONstruct would seem to live by this ethic on their debut album, Tales of Cosmic Journeys, unfurling as they do eight flowing progressions of instrumental slow-CGI-of-the-planets pieces that are more plotted in their course than jams, but feel built from jams just the same. Raw in its production and mix, and mastered by Kent Stump of Wo Fat, there’s enough atmosphere to let the lead guitar breathe, certainly, and to sustain life in general even on “Jettisoned Adrift in the Space Debris,” and the image evoked by “Hand Against the Solar Winds” feels particularly inspired given that song’s languid roll. The record starts and ends in cryogenic sleep, and if upon waking we’re transported to another place and another time, who knows what wonders we might see along the way. ASTRAL CONstruct‘s exploration would seem to be just beginning here, but their “Cosmos Perspective” is engaging just the same.

ASTRAL CONstruct on Instagram

ASTRAL CONstruct on Bandcamp

 

TarLung, Architect

TarLung Architect

Vienna-based sludgedrivers TarLung were last heard from with 2017’s Beyond the Black Pyramid (discussed here), and Architect continues the progression laid out there in melding vocal extremity and heavy-but-not-too-heavy-to-move riffing. It might seem like a fine line to draw, and it is, and that only makes songs like “Widow’s Bane” and “Horses of Plague” all the more nuanced as their deathly growls and severe atmospheres mesh with what in another context might just be stoner rock groove. Carcass circa the criminally undervalued Swansong, Six Feet Under. TarLung manage to find a place in stoner sludge that isn’t just Bongzilla worship, or Bongripper worship, or Bong worship. I’m not sure it’s worship at all, frankly, and I like that about it as the closing title-track slow-moshes my brain into goo.

TarLung on Facebook

TarLung on Bandcamp

 

Wizzerd & Merlin, Turned to Stone Chapter III

ripple music turned to stone chapter iii wizzerd vs merlin

Somewhere in the great mystical expanse between Kalispell, Montana, and Kansas City, Missouri, two practicioners of the riffly dark arts meet on a field of battle. Wizzerd come packing the 19-minute acoustic-into-heavy-prog-into-sitar-laced-jam-out “We Are,” as if to encompass that declaration in all its scope, while Merlin answer back with the organ-led “Merlin’s Bizarre Adventure” (21:51), all chug and lumber until it’s time for weirdo progressive fusion reggae and an ensuing Purple-tinged psych expansion. Who wins? I don’t know. Ripple Music in releasing it in the first place, I guess. Continuing the label’s influential split series(es), Turned to Stone Chapter III pushes well over the top in the purposes of both acts involved, and in that, it’s maybe less of a battle than two purveyors joining forces to weave some kind of Meteo down on the heads of all who might take them on. If you’ve think you’ve got the gift, they seem only too ready to test that out.

Wizzerd on Facebook

Merlin on Facebook

Ripple Music website

 

Seum, Winterized

Seum Winterized

“Life Grinder” begins with a sample: “I don’t know if you need all that bass,” and the answer, “Oh, you need all that bass.” That’s already after “Sea Sick Six” has revealed the Montreal-based trio’s sans-guitar extremist sludge roll, and the three-piece seem only too happy to keep up the theme. Vocals are harsh, biting, grating, purposeful in their fuckall, and the whole 28-minute affair of Winterized is cathartic aural violence, except perhaps the interlude “666,” which is a quiet moment between “Broken Bones” and “Black Snail Volcano,” which finally seems to just explode in its outright aggression, nod notwithstanding. A slowed down Ramones cover — reinventing “Pet Sematary” as “Red Sematary” — has a layer of spoken chanting vocals layered in and closes out, but the skin has been peeled so far back by then and Seum have doused so much salt onto the wounds that even Bongzilla might cringe. The low-end-only approach only makes it more punishing and more punk rock at the same time. Fucking mean.

Seum on Facebook

Seum on Bandcamp

 

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TarLung Release New Album Beyond the Black Pyramid

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 15th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

tarlung

There are some for whom the deathly growls that permeate TarLung‘s second full-length, Beyond the Black Pyramid, will simply be too much. That’s fine. I don’t think a band takes on a sound like theirs anyway if mass-accessibility is a huge concern. The record, which is the follow-up to the Vienna, Austria, trio’s 2014 self-titled debut (review here) and the 2016 self-produced Void EP, is out now via Black Bow Records and can be streamed in its entirety through the band’s page on Bandcamp, where the CD version is also available.

If you heard the first record, the new one is a noteworthy progression in sound from the Southern-style sludge previously on offer, more atmospheric and richer on the whole in terms of tone. As someone who digs the occasional blend of fuzz and gurgle, it’s kind of hard not to be charmed by what TarLung are doing. Again, I know it’s not for everyone, but it’s a good time from where I sit.

The PR wire has more info:

tarlung-beyond-the-black-pyramid

TARLUNG (Austria) – ‘Beyond The Black Pyramid’

Dense and suffocating, TARLUNG’s music crawls along ponderously, squeezing the life out of its listeners. This kind of expression in sludge is rarely done but ends up being most satisfying. The riffs command the direction, as within the mire of the deafening sludge you have catchy hooks and memorable tunes. Influences from closely related genres such as death metal and even stoner doom coalesce to form their monolithic sound. This is the band’s latest full length album and it lays waste to everything else they’ve done before. Listen to one of the heaviest albums in this style and quiver under its might.

Track list:
1. It Waits In The Dark 01:50
2. Dying Of The Light 08:16
3. Mud Town 06:27
4. Kings And Graves 09:47
5. The Prime Of Your Existence 10:56
6. Resignation 04:02
7. Born Dead 09:13
8. Beyond The Black Pyramid 07:29
9. Karma 08:21

Line up:
Rotten – Guitars
Marian Waibl – Drums
Phillip “Five” Seiler – Guitars and Vocals

Artwork – Alex Eckman Lawn (DEFEATED SANITY, MARUTA, KREIG, ZEALOTRY)

https://www.facebook.com/tarlungband
https://tarlung.bandcamp.com/
http://www.blackbowrecords.com/

TarLung, Beyond the Black Pyramid (2017)

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The Obelisk Radio Adds: Mugstar & The Cosmic Dead, Goya, Gangrened, Attalla and TarLung

Posted in Radio on December 19th, 2014 by JJ Koczan

the obelisk radio

I’ve been listening to The Obelisk Radio a lot this week, particularly while starting to put together my top albums of 2014 list, so it seemed only appropriate to get a new round of adds up to the server. As we come to the end of the year, there’s always a slowdown in terms of releases, but if I had to put a number to it, I’d call it a 10, maybe 20 percent drop at most. If it was running water and you were looking at it, you’d notice no difference. A flood is still a flood.

As such, 14 records joined the server today. Some are recently reviewed, some aren’t out yet, some have been out for a little bit. It’s a solid batch of stuff, and if you haven’t yet had enough of lists — more to come, believe me — it’s worth a look at the Playlist and Updates Page. The amount of stuff on there is staggering. It’s a wonder the radio stream manages to fit in so much Clutch at all.

Let’s get to it.

The Obelisk Radio Adds for Dec. 19, 2014:

Mugstar & The Cosmic Dead, Split LP

Mugstar & Cosmic Dead Split LP

Two sides, one song from each band, each a massive slab of a jam. Glasgow’s The Cosmic Dead and Liverpool’s Mugstar make a solid pairing, and by solid I definitely mean liquid, and by liquid I mean that’s what your brains will be by the time Mugstar‘s “Breathing Mirror” (18:42) and The Cosmic Dead‘s “Fukahyoocastulah” (25:51) are done. Instrumental in their entirety and jammed out on a subspace frequency that I only imagine they can already hear in the Delta Quadrant — and no doubt they’re wondering what the title of The Cosmic Dead‘s contribution means exactly — both cuts share an affinity for progressive heavy psych exploration, kosmiche and krautrock alike, but with a fresh take on the classic idea of we’re-gonna-get-in-a-room-and-this-is-what-happens that runs through, whether it’s in the drone midsection of “Breathing Mirror” after the jam has died down and before its resurgence, or the later reaches of “Fukayoocastulah,” which rest on the nigh-eternal bassline that’s steady enough to hold the course despite the various effects freakouts, slow swirls and experiments happening around it. About 45 minutes solid of primo heavy jamming? Sign me up. Mugstar’s website, on Bandcamp, The Cosmic Dead on Thee Faceboks, on Bandcamp.

Goya, Satan’s Fire

Goya Satan's Fire

Eleven-minute opener “Malediction and Death” makes its primary impression in its consuming tonality — a harsh but encompassing low end that emerges out of the initial cavalcade of feedback starting the song. The first three minutes of “Malediction and Death” are noise before Phoenix’s Goya kick in their riff, drums and vocals, sounding as huge on the Satan’s Fire EP as on their preceding split with Wounded Giant (review here) but perhaps even more malevolent as they continue to find their place within wizard doom, marked out by the two-at-once solo shredding of guitarist/vocalist Jeff Owens, the lurching rhythm behind him and the swing of drummer Nick Lose, whose snare punctuates “Malediction and Death” like a life-preserver tossed into the abyss. Unsurprisingly, they end noisy. “Symbols” picks up with two minutes of sparse, atmospheric drumming, and the title-track (5:58) finishes with a tale of antichristianity, dropping out of life, and watching the world fall apart. Doom? Yes. Perhaps not as patient as “Malediction and Death,” “Satan’s Fire” itself offers suitable heat, and delivered through amps that likewise sound about ready to melt, provides a memorable impression even beyond its Oborn-style hook. Goya on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

Attalla, Attalla

Attalla Attalla

Somewhere between classic doom and more aggressive, hardcore punk-derived noise, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, four-piece Attalla are the kind of band who could probably release nothing but 7″ singles for the next five years and still make a go of it. As it stands, their self-titled debut offers a stirring rawness in the dual guitars that reminds there’s more ways to make an impact tonally than just with volume or fuzz. Their roots are in punk, and that’s plain enough to hear in lead guitarist Cody Stieg‘s vocals on songs like “Light” and “Lust,” but “Haze” nestles into a stoner groove late that suits Attalla well, and the later “Veil” offers charged propulsion in the drums of Aaron Kunde, whose snare sound is tinny but fitting with the sans-frills stylings of Stieg, rhythm guitarist Brian Hinckley and bassist Bryan Kunde. Some variation in tempo throughout changes things up, but a particularly triumphant moment comes with the raw Slayer-esque foreboding (think slow Slayer) that begins “Doom,” a fitting closer to Attalla‘s Attalla with its subtly complex stylistic blend and relatively barebones presentation. I’m not sure where Attalla go from here in terms of developing their sound, but the debut offers reason enough to want to find out. Attalla on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

TarLung, TarLung

TarLung TarLung

If you played me TarLung‘s TarLung debut full-length and told me the trio were from North Carolina, I’d undoubtedly believe you. In fact, they hail from Vienna, Austria, but just so happen to have the Southern sludge ideology nailed down on their first offering. Roots in Crowbar and Eyehategod and Sourvein can be heard throughout, big nod, harsh vocals, weighted plod. The guitars of Rotten and Phillipp “Five“ Seiler (the latter also vocals) brings in some of that Pepper Keenan-style Southern riffing, on “Last Breath” particularly, but the bulk of what they and drummer Marian Waibl get up to on these seven tracks is rawer and nastier, the album’s last three cuts — “Apeplanet,” “Black Forest” and “Space Caravan” — providing the best glimpse at TarLung‘s effective aesthetic interpretation. Tonally and methodologically sound, what remains for them to do is hone a more individualized approach, but particularly for a self-released first album, the crisp harshness they convey on the centerpiece “C2” — a kind of maddening high pitch running throughout — satisfies when taken on its own level, and among the three-piece’s assets, their lack of pretense will no doubt serve them well moving forward. TarLung on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

Gangrened, We are Nothing

Gangrened We are Nothing

Proffering lurching, aggressive sludge over three tracks arranged longest to shortest, Finnish trio Gangrened conjure sweeping chaos on We are Nothing, blatantly contradicting the title of the release despite whatever riff-laden nihilism might be at work philosophically. Among the most telling moments on the release — which follows a split tape from the four piece of  vocalist Ollijuhani Kujansivu, guitarist/bassist Andreas Österlund, guitarist Jon Imbernon and drummer Owe Inborr, who’ve since traded out their rhythm section — is the opening sample of “Them” in which a man in a Southern US accent rants in paranoid rage about helicopters flying over his property, indicative of some conspiracy or other. In both their influence and their execution, that fits Gangrened‘s overall portrayal well, but both the 12-minute opener “Lung Remover” and closing semi-Black Flag cover “Kontti” (translated “24 Pack” and a feedback-soaked, sludged-up play on “Six Pack”) are pissed off enough to warrant the attention they seem to be demanding in their noisy charge, snail-paced and malevolent as it is. Gangrened on Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.

As always, this is just a fraction of what was added to The Obelisk Radio today. If you get the chance to check any of this stuff out, I hope you dig it, and if you decide to launch the player, I hope whatever’s playing is awesome.

Thanks for reading and listening.

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