Posted in Whathaveyou on September 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
For the first time since its inception five years ago, the Heavy Mash Festival held each Fall in Arlington, Texas, will take place over two days. Mountain of Smoke headline Oct. 8 and fest-vets Doomstress headline Oct. 9, and joining them for Heavy Mash 2022 is a righteous cast from in and out of the Lone Star State, including first-timers The Angelus from Dallas, Dee Calhoun from Maryland, Fort Worth’s Novakain, Stone Machine Electric, whose Mark Kitchens organizes the event, Red Beard Wall, Monte Luna, The Infamists and more. Vorvon have played before, ditto for Orthodox Fuzz, but it’s been a few years, and with newcomers like Big Brown Bear and a first appearance from Phoenix’s Hudu Akil, there’s plenty to see.
In years past this site has been involved in presenting the fest and happy to do so. Not so much this year, it seems, but as Heavy Mash looks to expand in terms of reach and lineup, it makes sense to try to reach as many eyes and ears as possible, and well, it’s not like I’m not out here posting about it anyway. All the best to Kitchens and fellow organizer Anton Olson for another successful year and a rager Heavy Mash 2022. Looks like it’s gonna be a party.
So party:
HEAVY MASH 2022 – Oct 8 & 9
Heavy Mash 2022 is set for October 8th and 9th At Division Brewing in Arlington, Texas
Though we’re running a bit late on getting this out, Heavy Mash is back this year and ready to spend a couple of days doing what we love – listening to heavy music and watching these bands do what they do best! This will be the first year we’re letting loose for a 2-day event. Division Brewing and Growl Records will once again host us and the bands, and we hope you’re able to make it out and enjoy!
October 8th Lineup: Mountain of Smoke The Angelus Monte Luna Orthodox Fuzz Red Beard Wall Vorvon Hudu Akil Stone Machine Electric
October 9th Lineup: Doomstress The Infamists Novakain Dee Calhoun Big Brown Bear
I knew I wanted to start the show with Fuzzy Lights and I knew I wanted to end with Iceburn. Putting together the in-between was where the adventure happened here. I included some stuff still rippling out from the Quarterly Review last month — that’s you, Expo Seventy, The Black Heart Death Cult, LáGoon (also Iceburn) — as well as some more that’s been kicking me around and covered here in the few weeks since one way or the other, like Healthyliving, Horte, The Angelus, Guhts, Hippie Death Cult, Ouzo Bazooka, Kadabra, Ealdor Bealu and Acid Magus. Top that off with The Otolith covering “Would?” and it’s a pretty cool progression of sound and style. There’s a lot to dig here. If you listen, I hope you dig it.
And if you don’t listen — and I don’t have numbers to back this up but in my head no one ever gives a crap about anything I do except me; there are pros and cons to this position — and you’ve made your way to this post anyhow, I hope you take the here’s-a-list-of-bands-you-might-want-to-check-out-cue and hear something you might not have otherwise heard. That’s pretty much what I’m here for.
Either way, thanks for listening and/or reading. I hope you enjoy.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 08.06.21
Fuzzy Lights
Songbird
Burials
Expo Seventy
Echoes of Ether
Evolution
Healthyliving
Below
Until / Below
Horte
Pelko karistaa järjen
Maa antaa yön vaientaa
VT
LáGoon
Skullactic Visions
Skullactic Visions
The Black Heart Death Cult
Trees
Sonic Mantras
Ouzo Bazooka
Monsters
Dalya
Kadabra
Settle Me
Ultra
Acid Magus
Conscientious Pugilist
Wyrd Syster
VT
Hippie Death Cult
Circle of Days
Circle of Days
The Angelus
Hex Born
Why We Never Die
Ealdor Bealu
Isolation
Spirit of the Lonely Places
Guhts
Handless Maiden
Blood Feather
The Otolith
Would?
Alice in Chains Dirt: Redux
VT
Iceburn
Dahlia Rides the Firebird
Asclepius
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Aug. 20 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in audiObelisk on July 20th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Angelus make their label debut for Desert Records on Aug. 20 with their third album, Why We Never Die. It is perhaps an unfortunate outing, monetarily, since for anyone not previously familiar with the band’s work, it just might make one inclined to buy everything they’ve done to-date. Heavy Western vibes pervade the Dollars-trilogy-esque bells of the introductory “Honor to Feasts,” and that two-minute preliminary is followed immediately by the bluesier fuzz of “Hex Born,” of a spiritual kinship somehow to the likes of All Them Witches, latter-day Greenleaf, harmony-laced Wovenhand‘s tense rhythm changes, Lord Buffalo and others while working with their own carefully carved identity. They make fitting labelmates to Cortége in mood (also those bells), and though their arrangements have been stripped down somewhat since their string-laced 2011 debut, On a Dark and Barren Land, and the choruses in “Hex Born” and the subsequent “Ode to None” are hooks enough to set a tone of songcraft-focus for everything that follows, the Dallas trio led by guitarist/vocalist Emil Rapstine with Justin Evans on drums/backing vocals and Justin Ward on bass, are not at all without subtlety either in presentation or aesthetic. Earthy psychedelia pervades as Why We Never Die moves deeper into its ultra-manageable 34-minute procession, but The Angelus never grow so ethereal as to forget to bring their audience along.
“Ode to None” in particular has the feeling of a landmark in its position backing “Honor to Feasts” and “Hex Born” with a longer runtime and a more patient feel. The following “Of Ashen Air” is suitably floating in its midsection vocals and brings fluid forward motion in the drums, less lush than the song before it, but flowing easily enough from one to the other. Momentum is already on The Angelus‘ side as the first half of Why We Never Die careens ahead, never really bursting out with energy or pushing over the top, but not at all staid in its delivery either. Both “Of Ashen Air” and the more shimmer-and-crash-prone heavy post-rock of “When the Hour is Right” hold to the central atmosphere, which is not necessarily paramount — that’s songwriting and performance, as regards priorities — but always there in terms of the backdrop on which the action of the songs takes place; a stretched out Western landscape, breeze blown and looming, maybe threatening. The quicker “Another Kind” sneaks in post-industrial electronics ahead of its satisfyingly thickened payoff, leading into the seven-minute title-track, the arrival of which feels no less momentous than that of “There Will Be No Peace” on the 2017 sophomore LP of the same name, despite the fact that the intro didn’t reference it specifically. Harmonies and instrumental dynamics alike serve as strengths alongside old-timey phrasing in the lyrics, as heard when the instruments drop out behind the vocals after four minutes in, the melody quickly setting up the building triumph that follows. This is considered, progressive movement in craft, but the mood behind it feels real.
Along with a looped-seeming fuzzy guitar line that borders on techno, the outro “Hustle the Sluggard” provides closing Morricone-ism to bookend that of “Honor to Feasts,” right down to a moment of military snare drum, as the album carries to its finish. It is a last reminder of the coherence at work in The Angelus‘ material, pushing forward even as they move farther out from the place they were as a unit. This is bolstered by a smoothness of the production and a balance of mix brings perfect emphasis on the shifting balance of melody and heft throughout. Why We Never Die is impeccable in its realization, but it does not come across as forced even in its most nuanced reaches.
On the player below, you can stream the premiere of “Hex Born.” Rapstine, also of Dead to a Dying World, offers some comment on the track, and more PR wire info follows.
Please enjoy:
Emil Rapstine on “Hex Born”:
Death and rock & roll, rock & roll and death. Hex Born was one of the first songs I started working on for “Why We Never Die” and the first I finished the lyrics for. Those lyrics would set the theme and tone for the rest of the record.
“The curse is spoken, cast down to me.
The spell remains unbroken, calling out forever unto thee.”
The curse mentioned is one shared by all humanity and one handed down from generation to generation. A curse to die. The unbroken spell is the music we summon up, an eternal current we connect to to find meaning, and one that will ring out long after we are gone.
“Come lay your head beneath this heavy stone, come carve your given name.
We’ll save you a space, where we’re dreaming no more, with the waking and the slain”
As we leave this world we mark our place with headstones and engravings for others to remember us by. Music can also serve this purpose, creating a record and space for the world to remember our hopes and desires and in a way letting us live forever.
In a dim world, with death our only guarantee, The Angelus returns with their third full-length offering ‘Why We Never Die’. An album full of songs both powerfully engulfing and mesmerizingly intimate, the album’s title alludes to one’s constant rebirth through the creation of music and to the band’s hope to transcend the impending eventuality of death when all that remains is the music, and art becomes artifact. The cover art, featuring a highly stylized rendering of a white peacock resembling the traditional description of the phoenix, reinforces the hope that rebirth through creation allows us to live forever in the material world. The Dallas, Texas trio consists of Emil Rapstine (Dead To A Dying World) on guitar and vocals, accompanied by his stalwart co-conspirator Justin Evans on drums and backing vocals, and their newest accomplice Justin Ward on bass. The album, saturated with plaintive, intoning, and harmonizing vocals, despairing lyrics and darkly droning guitar, draws from post-rock, doom, folk, and dark psychedelic rock. The pleading voices and resounding chords here do not decay because they belong to any ears open to hear them as they reverberate for eternity.
Tracklist: Honor To Feasts Hex Born Ode To None Of Ashen Air When The Hour Is Right Another Kind Why We Never Die Hustle The Sluggard
“Why We Never Die” was recorded by Alex Bhore (formerly of This Will Destroy You) in Dallas, TX at Elmwood Recording, which belongs to Grammy Award winning producer John Congleton (SWANS, Chelsea Wolfe, St. Vincent, Angel Olsen). The album was mastered by Sarah Register (Protomartyr, Horse Lords, Lower Dens).
The Angelus: Emil Rapstine (guitar, vocals), Justin Evans (drums, vocals), and Justin Ward (bass)
