Posted in Whathaveyou on September 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Geez, guys. If you wanted to go look at leaves, it’s fine. You didn’t have to book a whole long-weekender in New England to make it happen. But I guess while you’re there…
Both from the Philadelphia-ish area — Oktas in the city proper, Oldest Sea somewhere on the other side of the river in my beloved Garden State — and both supporting ridiculously strong 2022 releases, it would seem that Oldest Sea and Oktas fit well as tour partners despite not having a whole lot in common sonically. Actually, maybe in part it’s because of that disparity in their respective approaches that the match feels like it makes so much sense. Yeah, they’re both under the general umbrella-categories of ‘heavy’ and ‘dark,’ but Oktas dove headfirst into extremity on their 2022 debut, The Finite and the Infinite (review here) while Oldest Sea‘s Strange and Eternal (review here) leaned into folk-tinged doom.
You know, it’s funny. I say those things like they’re two completely different worlds, but people outside of this thing? Outside of the sphere of underground influence? They’d neither know nor care about any aesthetic distance between one and the other here, or about the bands themselves, or the styles more generally. When I drop my kid off at school, I see all these normal people getting ready to go lead normal lives. I don’t think I’m better than anyone for being involved in what might be kindly regarded as a deviant subculture (definitely a compliment given dominant culture), but it sure does feel weird to have a bunch of specified knowledge about something that’s invisible to more than 99 percent of the general population.
Life is weird, is what I’m saying.
I’d do with new releases from both of these bands — gluttony forever — but for now I’m just glad they’re getting out, since the more they can spread the word about what they’ve done so far and what might come next, the better off they and anyone fortunate enough to attend one of these shows will be. I was talking about the many joys of Ralph’s Rock Diner the other day, and not sarcastically. Easily was my favorite venue in Massachusetts when we lived there, and this is exactly the kind of show that’s best to see in that spot.
Wherever you are though, give consideration to something new even if you’re not familiar with the bands. Think about it. Take a listen. Enjoy a bit of adventure. Maybe you want to go see the leaves too:
OLDEST SEA & OKTAS – New England Fall 2023
TOUR ANNOUNCEMENT
This November we’ll be heading up to New England with our buds in @oktasband
11.09 – Ralph’s Diner – Worcester MA 11.10 – The Mayday – Providence RI 11.11 – Urban Farm Fermentory – Portland ME 11.12 – The Monkey House – Burlington VT 11.13 – Desperate Annie’s – Saratoga Springs NY
Thanks to @stephasketch for the beautiful flyer artwork (#128420#)
Says Oktas: “We put together a fun New England tour with our friends Oldest Sea this November! Big thanks to Steph Stevenson for lending us one of her paintings for the poster!”
Posted in Reviews on January 12th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
We press on, until the end, though tired and long since out of adjectival alternatives to ‘heavy.’ The only way out is through, or so I’m told. Therefore, we go through.
Morale? Low. Brain, exhausted. The shit? Hit the fan like three days ago. The walls, existentially speaking, are a mess. Still, we go through.
Two more days to go. Thanks for reading.
Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #81-90:
Farflung, Like Drones in Honey
No question Farflung are space rock. It’s not up for debate. They are who they are and on their 10th full-length, Like Drones in Honey (on Sulatron, which suits both them and label), they remain Farflung. But whether it’s the sweet ending of the “Baile an Doire” or the fuzz riffing beneath the sneer of “King Fright” and the careening garage strum of “Earthmen Look Alike to Me,” the album offers a slew of reminders that as far out as Farflung get — and oh my goodness, they go — the long-running Los Angeles outfit were also there in the mid and late ’90s as heavy rock and, in California particularly, desert rock took shape. Of course, opener “Acid Drain” weaves itself into the fabric of the universe via effects blowout and impulse-engine chug, and after that finish in “Baile an Doire,” they keep the experimentalism going on the backwards/forwards piano/violin of “Touch of the Lemmings Kiss” and the whispers and underwater rhythm of closer “A Year in Japan,” but even in the middle of the pastoral “Tiny Cities Made of Broken Teeth” or in the second half of the drifting “Dludgemasterpoede,” they’re space and rock, and it’s worth not forgetting about the latter even as you blast off with weirdo rocket fuel. Like their genre overall, like Sulatron, Farflung are underrated. It is lucky that doesn’t slow their outbound trip in the slightest.
Whether you want to namedrop one or another Coltrane or the likes of Amon Düül or Magma or whoever else, the point is the same: Neptunian Maximalism are not making conventional music. Yeah, there’s rhythm, meter, even some melody, but the 66-minute run of the recorded-on-stage Finis Gloriae Mundi isn’t defined by songs so much as the pieces that make up its consuming entirety. As a group, the Belgians’ project isn’t to write songs to much as to manifest an expression of an idea; in this case, apparently, the end of the world. A given stretch might drone or shred, meditate in avant-jazz or move-move-move-baby in heavy kosmiche push, but as they make their way to the two-part culmination “The Conference of the Stars,” the sense of bringing-it-all-down is palpable, and so fair enough for their staying on theme and offering “Neptunian’s Raga Marwa” as a hint toward the cycle of ending and new beginnings, bright sitar rising out of low, droning, presented-as-empty space. For most, their extreme take on prog and psych will simply be too dug in, too far from the norm, and that’s okay. Neptunian Maximalism aren’t so much trying to be universal as to try to commune with the universe itself, wherever that might exist if it does at all. End of the world? Fine. Let it go. Another one will come along eventually.
Four years after their 2018 self-titled debut (review here), Denver heavy rock and rollers Near Dusk gather eight songs across and smooth-rolling, vinyl-minded 37 minutes for Through the Cosmic Fog, which takes its title from the seven-and-a-half-minute penultimate instrumental “Cosmic Fog,” a languid but not inactive jam that feels especially vital for the character it adds among the more straightforward songs earlier in the record — the rockers, as it were — that comprise side A: “The Way it Goes,” “Spliff ’em All,” and so on. “Cosmic Fog” isn’t side B’s only moment of departure, as the drumless guitar-exploration-into-acoustic “Roses of Durban” and the slower rolling finisher “Slab City” fill out the expansion set forth with the bluesy solo in the back end of “EMFD,” but the strength of craft they show on the first four songs isn’t to be discounted either for the fullness or the competence of their approach. The three-piece of Matthew Orloff, Jon Orloff and Kellen McInerney know where they’re coming from in West Coast-style heavy, not-quite-party, rock, and it’s the strength of the foundation they build early in the opening duo and “The Damned” and “Blood for Money,” that lets them reach outward late, allowing Through the Cosmic Fog to claim its space as a classically structured, immediately welcome heavy rock LP.
The 2023 self-titled debut EP from Portland, Oregon’s Simple Forms collects four prior singles issued over the course of 2021 and 2022 into one convenient package, and even if you’ve been keeping up with the trickle of material from the band that boasts members of YOB, (now) Hot Victory, Dark Castle and Norska, hearing the tracks right next to each other does change the context somewhat, as with the darker turn of “From Weathered Hand” after “Reaching for the Shadow” or the way that leadoff and “Together We Will Rest” seem to complement each other in the brightness of the forward guitar, a kind of Euro-style proggy noodling that reminds of The Devil’s Blood or something more goth, transposed onto a forward-pushing Pacific Northwestern crunch. The hints of black metal in the riffing of “The Void Beneath” highlight the point that this is just the start for guitarists Rob Shaffer and Dustin Rieseberg, bassist Aaron Rieseberg and grunge-informed frontman Jason Oswald (who also played drums and synth here), but already their sprawl is nuanced and directed toward individualism. I don’t know what their plans might be moving forward, but if the single releases didn’t highlight their potential, certainly the four songs all together does. A 19-minute sampler of what might be, if it will be.
Probably safe to call Lybica a side-project for Justin Foley, since it seems unlikely to start taking priority over his position as drummer in metalcore mainstays Killswitch Engage anytime soon, but the band’s self-titled debut offers a glimpse of some other influences at work. Instrumental in its entirety, it comes together with Foley leading on guitar joined by bassist Doug French and guitarist Joey Johnson (both of Gravel Kings) and drummer Chris Lane (A Brilliant Lie), and sure, there’s some pretty flourish of guitar, and some heavier, more direct chugging crunch — “Palatial” in another context might have a breakdown riff, and the subsequent “Oktavist” is more directly instru-metal — but even in the weighted stretch at the culmination of “Ferment,” and in the tense impression at the beginning of seven-minute closer “Charyou,” the vibe is more in line with Russian Circles than Foley‘s main outfit, and clearly that’s the point. “Ascend” and “Resonance” open the album with pointedly non-metallic atmospheres, and they, along with the harder-hitting cuts and “Manifest,” “Voltaic” and “Charyou,” which bring the two sides together, set up a dynamic that, while familiar in this initial stage, is both satisfying in impact and more aggressive moments while immersive in scope.
Just as their moniker might belong to some lost-classic heavy band from 1972 one happens upon in a record store, buys for the cover, and subsequently loves, so too does Naples four-piece Bird tap into proto-metal vibes on their latest single Walpurgis. And that’s not happenstance. While their production isn’t quite tipped over into pure vintage-ism, it’s definitely organic, and they’ve covered the likes of Rainbow, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, so while “Walpurgis” itself leans toward doom in its catchy and utterly reasonable three-plus minutes, there’s no doubt Bird know where their nest is, stylistically speaking. Given a boost through release by Olde Magick Records, the single-songer follows 2021’s The Great Beast From the Sea EP, which proffered a bit more burl and modern style in its overarching sound, so it could be that as they continue to grow they’re learning a bit more patience in their approach, as “Walpurgis” is nestled right into a tempo that, while active enough to still swing, is languid just the same in its flow, with maybe a bit more rawness in the separation of the guitar, bass, drums and organ. Most importantly, it suits the song, and piques curiosity as to where Bird go next, as any decent single should.
Without getting into which of them does what where — because they switch, and it’s complicated, and there’s only so much room — the core of the sound for Melbourne-based four-piece Pseudo Mind Hive is in has-chops boogie rock, but that’s a beginning descriptor, not an end. It doesn’t account for the psych-surf-fuzz in two-minute instrumental opener “Hot Tooth” on their Eclectica EP, for example, or the what-if-Queens–of–the–Stone–Age-kept-going-like-the-self-titled “Moon Boots” that follows on the five-song offering. “You Can Run” has a fuzzy shuffle and up-strummed chug that earns the accompanying handclaps like Joan Jett, while “This Old Tree” dares past the four-minute mark with its scorching jive, born out of a smoother start-stop fuzz verse with its own sort of guitar antics, and “Coming Down,” well, doesn’t at first, but does give way soon enough to a dreamier psychedelic cast and some highlight vocal melody before it finds itself awake again and already running, tense in its builds and overlaid high-register noises, which stand out even in the long fade. Blink and you’ll miss it as it dashes by, all momentum and high-grade songcraft, but that’s alright. It does fine on repeat listens as well, which obviously is no coincidence.
On. Slaught. Call it atmospheric sludge, call it post-metal; I sincerely doubt Philadelphia’s Oktas give a shit. Across the four songs and 36 minutes of the two-bass-no-guitar band’s utterly bludgeoning debut album, The Finite and the Infinite, the band — bassist/vocalist Bob Stokes, cellist Agnes Kline, bassist Carl Whitlock and drummer Ron Macauley — capture a severity of tone and a range that goes beyond loud/quiet tradeoffs into the making of songs that are memorable while not necessarily delivering hooks in the traditional verse/chorus manner. It’s the cello that stands out as opener “Collateral Damage” plods to its finish — though Macauley‘s drum fills deserve special mention — and even as “Epicyon” introduces the first of the record’s softer breaks, it is contrasted in doing so by a section of outright death metal onslaught so that the two play back and forth before eventually joining forces in another dynamic and crushing finish. Tempo kick is what’s missing thus far and “Light in the Suffering” hits that mark immediately, finding blackened tremolo on the other side of its own extended cello-led subdued stretch, coming to a head just before the ending so that finale “A Long, Dreamless Sleep” can start with its Carl Sagan sample about how horrible humans are (correct), and build gracefully over the next few minutes before saying screw it and diving headfirst into cyclical chug and sprinting extremity. Somebody sign this band and press this shit up already.
This is a rock and roll band, make no mistake. Berlin’s Scream of the Butterfly draw across decades of influence, from ’60s pop and ’70s heavy to ’90s grunge, ’00s garage and whatever the hell’s been going on the last 10-plus years to craft an amalgamated sound that is cohesive thanks largely to the tightness of their performances — energetic, sure, but they make it sound easy — the overarching gotta-get-up urgency of their push and groove, and the current of craft that draws it all together. They’ve got 10 songs on The Grand Stadium, which is their third album, and they all seem to be trying to outdo each other in terms of hooks, electricity, vibe, and so on. Even the acoustic-led atmosphere-piece “Now, Then and Nowhere” leaves a mark, to say nothing of the much, much heavier “Sweet Adeleine” or the sunshine in “Dead End Land” or the bluesy shove of “Ain’t No Living.” Imagine time as a malleable thing and some understanding of how the two-minute “Say Your Name to Me” can exist in different styles simultaneously, be classic and forward thinking, spare and spacious. And I don’t know what’s going on with all the people talking in “Hallway of a Thousand Eyes,” but Scream of the Butterfly make it easy to dig anyway and remind throughout of the power that can be realized when a band is both genuinely multifaceted and talented songwriters. Scary stuff, that.
Based in Kassel with lyrics in their native German, Holz are vocalist/guitarist Leonard Riegel, bassist Maik Blümke and drummer Martin Nickel, and on their self-titled debut (released by Tonzonen), they tear with vigor into a style that’s somewhere between noise rock, stoner heavy and rawer punk, finding a niche for themselves that feels barebones with the dry — that is, little to no effects — vocal treatment and a drum sound that cuts through the fuzz that surrounds on early highlight “Bitte” and the later, more noisily swaying “Nichts.” The eight-minute “Garten” is a departure from its surroundings with a lengthy fuzz jam in its midsection — not as mellow as you’re thinking; the drums remain restless and hint toward the resurgence to come — while “Zerstören” reignites desert rock riffing to its own in-the-rehearsal-room-feeling purposes. Intensity is an asset there and at various other points throughout, but there’s more to Holz than ‘go’ as the rolling “50 Meilen Geradeaus” and the swing-happy, bit-o’-melody-and-all “Dämon” showcase, but when they want to, they’re ready and willing to stomp into heavier tones, impatient thrust, or as in the penultimate “Warten,” a little bit of both. Not everybody goes on a rampage their first time out, but it definitely suits Holz to wreck shit in such a fashion.
Posted in Questionnaire on November 18th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
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: Bob Stokes of Oktas
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
As a bass player I always love the sound of heavily distorted bass chords and tremolo picked bass leads. I feel it’s a sound rarely explored and instead of waiting around for someone else to do it I decided to do it myself.
Describe your first musical memory.
The earliest I remember is when I was a kid and suffered from night terrors. That’s when you have nightmares so intense and you’re screaming in your sleep. It’s like some Freddy Kruger shit. So my parents sent me to therapy for it. One of the suggestions was to play classical music when I’m trying to sleep. Still to this day I have great appreciation for classical music, some of which comes out in our music.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
There’s so many but I’ll narrow it down to a couple. The Type O Negative Halloween shows at the Trocadero in Philadelphia in the late 90’s early ’00s were some of the best shows of my life. I was a young avid pit monkey at the time and the energy and fun of those shows were impactful. I also remember an Ozzfest around the same time when Black Sabbath just started coming back around. This particular show in Camden Ozzy was sick and couldn’t perform. So none other than Rob Halford stepped in and sang the whole set and it was In F***King Credible!
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Probably with the release of this album. I love most subgenres of metal but I feel a lot of them are treading water. Reproducing the same sound and vibe over and over again. Not that any of that is bad, it’s just the same. We’re trying to do something different with this project. Trying to kick the can down the road a little bit. Whether anyone is hungry for that or not is yet to be seen.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
Hopefully to challenge yourself and your audience. It’s easy and safe to give your crowd the same old tried and true. It’s a lot riskier and scary to go out on a limb and do something different.
How do you define success?
I’ve always been more concerned with fulfillment than monetary success. Money comes and goes but it is never truly yours. Being able to pluck an idea out of your mind and translate that into a format that someone else can relate to is a true skill and power few of us explore. The cathartic and therapeutic results of that are far more valuable than any sum of money.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
We’ve all been through shit we wish we didn’t have too but it’s how we cope with adversity is what makes us who we are. Through that adversity we come out the other side either stronger and more resilient or we can let it destroy us. I choose the former than the latter.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
Oh there’s always a laundry list of things I’m working on. I used to throw a bunch of art shows but then the pandemic hit and destroyed that. So more art and music shows in the future. I also have some business ventures I’m still fleshing out.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
Communication. Communicating a thought, an idea, an emotion, an exploration of medium, a memory, a struggle, a fantasy, a reality, a dream, a nightmare and connecting with an audience or individual.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
Traveling. I draw a lot of inspiration from traveling, especially out in nature. It’s been tough the past couple years for obvious reasons but traveling is important. Seeing other parts of the country and world are intrical in understanding ourselves. Once you get past the fantasy of what other places are like then you discover how we’re all doing the same thing, just figuring things out in different ways.
