You know how it gets. The whole morning and early afternoon, the voice in my head telling me not to do the thing, to stay home, the weather sucks, driving in NY is expensive, depressing and tedious, the couch and the dog and Twilight Princess are here, so who ever wanted to do a weekend of commuter-fest? There was no logical case to be made against this. I just had to tell that frankly much more reasonable portion of my brain to can it and get myself out of the house. I wouldn’t say it was easy. Shut up, it’s fine, shut up. It’ll be fine.
This was the schedule of the night:
COSMIC STAGE – The Meadows
11:15 Dead Meadow 60min
10:05 Al-Qasar 45min
8:40 The Atomic Bitchwax 60min
7:30 Electric Citizen 50min
6:30 Mirror Queen 45min
5:30 Worshipper 45min
4:30 Alreckque 45min
SONIC STAGE – The Woodshop
45min sets except where noted, 15-20min changeovers
11:30 Sphaèros Possession
10:30 Satan’s Satyrs
9:20 Sun Voyager
8:10 Casket Rats
7:05 The Golden Grass
6:15 Dead Hits (30min set)
5:10 River Cult
No way I was going to see all of it, right? Unreasonable expectations. But with some back and forth, it would be mostly doable. The drive was every bit as pleasant as pre-departure anxiety made it out to be, but I still had some time to sit in the car with the window open (raining) and vape like a douchebag to try and calm my nerves. I was about two blocks from the venues and walked over in the rain, good and stoned and wet walking into The Meadows for Alreckque.
Alreckque
Familiar faces, the three of them being veterans of the Boston underground, Jim Healey on vocals and guitar, Aaron Gray on bass and backing and some lead vocals, and Rob Davol on drums. Melody and crunch were kind of what you’d expect from them, but the configuration was new to me live and it was cool to see those guys doing the thing. Obviously they’ve written more songs since they did that demo in 2024 (review here).
I popped down to the Wood Shop for River Cult, who for sure are a band I need to see again, and I say that having seen not all that much since they hit it a couple minutes late and Worshipper were about to go on at The Meadows. This was kind of going to be the story of the night, and fair enough. The back and forth probably wouldn’t kill me, but I wanted to see a lot of the bands playing the show, so that’s what I did. River Cult were still on when I got back to The Wood Shop, so I got to see at least the start and finish. Take what I can get.
River Cult
It was back to Wood Shop ahead of Dead Hits, with exes from Naam and La Otracina, among others. My first time seeing them too, and though there was some nasty feedback of the unintentional kind at the start, once the set actually began, it was all kind of a haze, and that very much was intentional. Boogie, howl and scorch, none of which was a surprise given their makeup, but the psychblast element was most certainly appreciated. I couldn’t stay, since Mirror Queen were about to hit it next door, but I’d never seen them before, so I decided I’d be back. Again, that’s the night. I’m not saying stop reading now, but please know you’re never obligated at any point to continue.
The bummer of it, honestly, is that I’m not a very good photographer. I’ve been doing it for 15 years, and I’ve had some good ones along the way, but I’ve frankly never had the commitment to it as a creative endeavor to make it anything more than something I do to go along with the writing. I wish I had a great passion for it but I don’t. I just didn’t have a better solution than doing it myself.
Dead Hits
But even going back and forth to shoot this or band, the proximity shouldn’t be left out of the conversation. It’s The Meadows, and then the next door down is The Wood Shop. So easy enough, for which I was grateful. Night two at The Meadows and The Monarch would be the same. I think The Monarch is the door after that. Maybe that’s where the hardcore fest was.
No, not even close to my first time seeing Mirror Queen, but their mellowrockpsychprog always goes down smooth and they did a new song called “City Skies” that Kenny — whose shindig this whole thing is — said had never before been played by humans. Duh, it was mellowrockpsychproggy. Then they hit into the thrashy “Rider on the Rain” and I knew Dead Hits were done anyway so I had a couple minutes before I needed to be over there for The Golden Grass.
Mirror Queen
It had been a while. New bassist. Don Berger. You’ll never guess where I looked that up. By a while I meant years and years, and I already knew it would be a sampling, but again, you go with it. It was a fomo kind of night, and of course as it went on it would be harder to get up front. I needed to rethink the strategy.
Hard choices. The Golden Grass are always great, but they had technical trouble before getting started, so it was a delay. I decided I’d settle in at The Meadows for Electric Citizen and most of The Atomic Bitchwax until Sun Voyager went on. I knew Al-Qasar and Satan’s Satyrs would be more back and forth later, but some things can’t be helped.
Electric Citizen played my town last summer, so aside from the forever-points thereby earned as regards general appreciation, they were relatively fresh in mind, but even so, they had a different keyboardist out with them, so that was a change. Also there was a disco ball and a dude dancing in the back. They killed, in other words. And golly, that last record smoked. They were the only full set I saw all night, and no, not just because they came to Parsippany frickin’ New Jersey. But like I said, forever-points anyhow.
The Golden Grass
Those points could be yours. Come to Jersey. (Please note points hold no cash or other value.)
In all seriousness, I was glad to see them pull the crowd they did, and extra glad I was part of it. They make a mean five-piece. Laura Dolan made an impassioned testimony between songs about having played an early gig with Dead Meadow and how it opened doors for them and it meant something to be playing with them again, kind of celebrating the scene as it were, where the bands know each other and the fans know the bands and a lot of the time the bands know the fans too. It’s a weird era in heavy rock as it is in everything else, but you can’t really look around underground heavy music at this point and say it’s lacking either quality or quantity. 10 years ago this show might’ve happened — Tee Pee did a Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous in 2015; I lived in Massachusetts at that point or I might’ve gone — but not 20. It was SHoD and Emissions and a few in Europe. That growth is a thing worth honoring, all the more because I think the genre has grown and changed as well, even in its most willfully traditional niches.
Electric Citizen
Electric Citizen occupy one of those, as there’s always been plenty of ’70s in their sound, but they’re a perfect example of a band who’ve progressed over their decade-plus, who have pushed themselves to try new things. And you could certainly say The Atomic Bitchwax have changed over their 27 years, though they’re arguably faster and fiercer in recent years than they’ve ever been, so I guess that tells you something. Plus every now and then they break out something midtempo that seems slow by comparison. It’d be the regular set and I would see most not all of it, but that is the order of things, as the Jem’Hadar are wont to say.
Forever on a tear, The Bitchwax smoked the room nicely as they will, and a slew of classics and recent burners were aired, same set they’ve been doing the last few years, but shit, it ain’t broke. Homeboy in the back was dancing again, which is the kind of thing you can see when you stay in a room for more than 10 minutes of a set. Tomorrow I’ll do differently. But the TAB, with Bob Pantella bashing away in back like he’s actually annoyed at the drums, Chris Kosnik and Garrett Sweeny all smiles up front, it’s a good show to see and a tough one to walk out of to catch the start of Sun Voyager, over at The Wood Shop. They premiered their latest single “Running Hot” here and I wanted to catch it in-person. They line checked with it, so I didn’t wait long.
The Atomic Bitchwax
Bassist Stefan Mersch caught some flack for the poncho, good-natured, of course, and not from me. I’m bad enough at regular human conversation that I feel like throwing around playful gibes isn’t what I need to be spending my time doing. I’d just end up talking shit and not meaning to. But they are not a band I take for granted seeing, and they’ve come through a lot the last few years to sound so righteous as they did. I had time before Al-Qasar went on to check out a goodly portion of the set. More because Sun Voyager basically went on on time.
The guitar of Christian Lopez (also Heavy Temple) was loud enough that up front your earplugs were little more than a cute accessory. When I lay down to go to bed tonight and I’m still hearing those solo notes from “Running in Circles” repeating themselves via tinnitus, I won’t be surprised. “God is Dead” had that same dude dancing. David and Danielle there, their buddy Craig who’s super-nice, Bill Kerls, a bunch of other people you meet and know in this thing. Sacri Monti rolled in amd were hanging out; I got to say hi to Anthony Meier, which is always nice, and even slow-burning Sun Voyager is still on fire, so the room was in. I don’t think the lights changed at all from the start of the set. Doesn’t matter. The band were hypnotic in that cool light and they remain a blast to see. I’m glad they’ve stuck it out and come so far the last couple years. Lopez, Mersch, drummer Kyle Beach. I can’t think of another band on the Eastern Seaboard who revels in the psych-gnarly like they do or with nearly as much joy.
Sun Voyager
Al-Qasar were soon on at The Meadow, so it was back out into the (now lighter) rain for all of 10 seconds to go from one venue to the other. I think they were kind of a mystery for most people but the Middle Eastern-vibing psych outfit feature Thomas Bellier, formerly of Blaak Heat Shujaa, so there’s the Tee Pee connection. I remember that band fondly and got to see them live despite their being from France, and thought they were way more interesting than they got ever credit for. That same drive toward the individual is in Al-Qasar, even if most of the rest has changed.
They would probably be the only band of the weekend to lead the crowd in a chant of “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free,” admirable as that is. And that’s hardly all stood out about them, what with Bellier on the oud and their vocalist running two mics through a processor, slap bass and Arab-influenced rhythms. You could dance to it, say, if you’d been dancing all night, but for sure too, Satan’s Satyrs were about to rip shit at The Wood Shop, so I did my last bit of back and forth ahead of closing the night with Dead Meadow, and I’ll just say that Clayton Burgess’ band certainly wasn’t any less charged for having Erik Larson (so many bands) on drums. I hope to see Thunderchief, in which he also plays, later this summer, as I did last summer on CT, whereas the last time I saw Satan’s Satyrs was next door at a Desertfest NY pre-show and they had Sean Saley of Pentagram, etc. drumming. Funny how these things go sometimes.
Al-Qasar
Satan’s Satyrs
I decided while they were playing that the next morning, in addition to sorting photos and all the rest, I’d pick up some Doan’s for my back — which come to think of it, I started taking after a recommendation from Larson however many years ago — and maybe one of those gross sticky things that are always so cold but also work. My back hurt, is the underlying message. Satan’s Satyrs’ power boogie would surely have had me up for a two-step otherwise; they are an absolute shove, and even when they’re not going full-speed, you know it’s only a matter of time before the next round starts. They had glee at the racket they made in common with Sun Voyager.
My night capped back at The Meadows for Dead Meadow. By then, I guess the hardcore fest was done because people were lining up like for a dance club, which is to say better dressed than either the hardcore crowd or this one. Nobody’s wearing camo shorts on line for the cluuub.
Dead Meadow
I had told myself I wouldn’t sit on the stage, but I did anyhow. Come on, I made it to the last band, and I was dragging. But where Satan’s Satyrs were running laps around the universe, Dead Meadow’s signature roll is of a calmer spirit, and that warmth and nod felt like a good way to end it for me. A fuzz to give comfort. There was still the commute home and back for night two to consider, whether I wanted to be considering them or not. Hazards of commuter-fest. Glad I was there at all, even long past the point of being able to hang with it as I was.
Ride in was Genghis Tron, Nine Inch Noize, Elder and Floor. Ride home was the Genghis Tron again. I had that shirt on too.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 7th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
Barring some disaster or marital ultimatum, I’ll be at Tee Pee Records‘ Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous in a couple weeks, and to be honest, part of posting the day splits here is so I have them, but one way or the other, dang that’s a good lineup. And Tee Pee, as both a label and the organizing principal behind the two-dayer (plus pre-show), didn’t even have to stray too far from its own roster to make it happen.
Each of the two days offers something different, and thinking about it as commuterfest, which is how I’d be doing it, is daunting, but I’ve done more for way less, so yeah. I’m curious to see how the schedule plays out and how brutal some of these overlaps are — that Saturday could very easily become a day filled with tears — but it looks like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out. That’s the insight on this one. Go to a show.
From the PR wire:
COSMIC SONIC RENDEZVOUS from Legendary Label TEE PEE RECORDS Announce Day Splits and New Additions
Tee Pee Records and United Sounds NYC bring a two-day celebration of heavy rock and psychedelia to Brooklyn this May featuring a stacked lineup of underground icons and rising stars…
Brooklyn, New York – May 23rd–24th, 2026 – Tee Pee Records and United Sounds NYC proudly present Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous, a thunderous new festival set to ignite an industrial block in Brooklyn for one unforgettable weekend this May.
Celebrating the raw power and transcendence of guitar-driven music, Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous brings together a stacked lineup spanning heavy rock, doom, and psychedelia, uniting underground legends and rising acts for an immersive sonic experience.
Presented by Tee Pee Records – a label renowned for its one-of-a-kind boutique vinyl – the festival reflects decades of dedication to heavy and psychedelic music culture. From the dark, menacing riffs of Pentagram, Eyehategod, and Legions of Doom to the expansive, sky-gazing grooves of Dead Meadow, Electric Citizen, and Al-Qasar, the festival promises two days of rock and roll in its purest, loudest forms.
The festival is also thrilled to welcome Sphaèros Possession (Paris) and Spit Shine (Philadelphia) to the lineup. Recent additions include Electric Citizen (Cincinnati), Freedom Hawk (Richmond, VA), and Sabbath Warlock (NYC).
A pre-festival show will take place on Friday, May 22nd (7:00–10:00 PM) at Sleepwalk. Entry is $10, or free with a weekend pass. Space is extremely limited, and Sphaèros Possession will perform an intimate set, with an opener to be announced.
Be sure to check out the striking poster design by acclaimed artist Michael Fulcher.
SATURDAY
COSMIC STAGE:
Dead Meadow Al-Qasar The Atomic Bitchwax Electric Citizen Mirror Queen Worshipper Alreckque
SONIC STAGE:
Freedom Hawk Satan’s Satyrs Sun Voyager Casket Rats The Golden Grass Dead Hits River Cult
SUNDAY
COSMIC STAGE:
Pentagram Eyehategod Legions of Doom The Obsessed Sacri Monti
SONIC STAGE:
Sphaéros Possession Carousel Black Moon Cult Magick Potion Ike’s Wasted World Sabbath Warlock Spit Shine
BEER GARDEN:
Mick’s Jaguar Cat’s Eye Dave Hill
Shows will take place across three Brooklyn venues – The Brooklyn Monarch, The Meadows, and The Woodshop – transforming the neighbourhood into a hub of fuzz-drenched riffs, hypnotic rhythms, and communal energy.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 30th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Brooklyn classic heavy rockers The Golden Grass have a new live album, Eye for an Eye: The Troy Concert (I guess they’ve only been there once; that’s more than me so far as I can recall), due imminently. I’m assuming from the below that the trio are issuing it themselves, mostly based on the below and the fact that, if it was Heavy Psych Sounds behind it — the label that released their most recent studio LP, Life is Much Stranger (review here) — the promo cycle would’ve already started.
The band released Heavy Colour: Jena 2019 in 2020, so this will be their second live record, as well as their first with bassist Don Berger in the lineup alongside guitarist/vocalist Michael Rafalowich and drummer/vocalist Adam Kriney. I’m not sure if that or the touring they’ll do starting Oct. 9 on the Eastern Seaboard is bigger news, but if your takeaway here is “The Golden Grass have stuff goin’ on,” I don’t think anybody’s gonna fight you on that. They’ll be supported for part of the run by Philly’s Spit Shine.
So here’s that stuff. They get big bonus points in my head for the somehow-accuracy of “rollersnakin’.”:
THE GOLDEN GRASS – October Tour & Live Record
New York City’s very own hard rockin’ proto-metal boogie machine THE GOLDEN GRASS will embark on a 9-date East Coast/Mid-Atlantic tour run this Oct 2025. The boys have been at it since way back in 2013, and obviously have no signs of letting up anytime soon. Having released 4 full length albums across legendary labels Svart Records, Listenable Records and Heavy Psych Sounds, the group have tirelessly reimagined a sonic world of heavy psychedelic and progressive sounds, overflowing with vocal harmonies and ecstatic jams all the while eschewing only the most respectful and tasty homage to the endlessly inspiring musical movements of the 60’s/70’s.
The group will have physical copies of their new album “Eye For An Eye: The Troy Concert” on this tour. The master recordings come from an incredible live recording from Oct 2023 at No Fun in Troy, NY and have been further produced and elevated to reveal a stunning snapshot of the group onstage. They had just started working with current bassist Don Berger, and were performing updated versions/arrangements of their stellar repertoire from their lengthy back catalog and the (at the time) new album “Life Is Much Stranger”. Never ones to settle, THE GOLDEN GRASS are always seeking the sound, molding their music, revamping, recreating, revisioning their creative ideas, and what you’ll get here are distinct versions of all the songs, exploding with colour, and delightfully unique from all previously released iterations!
The first leg of the tour will include dates with new Philadelphia band SPIT SHINE, featuring Davis M. Shubs (of GRAVE BATHERS).
THE GOLDEN GRASS “Eye For An Eye” East Coast Tour Oct 2025
Thur Oct 9 Brooklyn/NY @ Main Drag Music W/ Spit Shine + Illumintated Sidewalks + Freaky Wilderness
Fri Oct 10 Easton/PA @ the Lafayette Bar W/ Spit Shine + Double Fun + Dj Big Sir + Dj Warlock
Sat Oct 11 Lambertville/NJ @ Soupcon Salon W/ Spit Shine + Psychic Bison
Sun Oct 12 Philadelphia/PA @ Lucky Cat Cycles “loose & Fast Festival” W/ Grave Bathers + Spit Shine + More
Posted in Features on December 18th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]
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It is encouraging in the extreme to see heavy music, as both concept and practical reality, growing more diverse. For all its rebellious airs, rock and roll has always been predominantly white and male, and its heavy underground form is no different. But for any artform to survive let alone evolve, it has to be open to new ideas and perspectives, and I firmly believe that the underground is becoming a more inclusive community. It has a distance to go that can only be measured in light years, but progress is progress.
2023 was a stunner from the start, with early highlights that stuck around and were joined by more as the months progressed. And while we’re speaking about it in past tense and it’s wrap-up time and so on, there are still new releases coming out every day and week. All over the planet, the heavy underground represents a vibrant subculture, rife with creativity and purpose, speaking inside genre and out, and all the time looking to grow artistically and in terms of listenership. As a result, the work being released holds itself to a high standard.
And yes, that’s true even if it’s about bongs.
Actually, that such willful primitivism is taking place at the same as doom forays into goth, psych forays into mania and tone-worshipping stoner rock seems intent to both double-down on simplicity while expanding into increasingly progressive territory is emblematic of that very standard and the diversity among practitioners of these styles in the current and up and coming generation.
One could go on here, speculate on future directions and so forth, but frankly there isn’t time just now. The list you see below is mine. I made it. It’s informed by my listening habits — what I had on most — by what I see as the greatest level of achievement by the band in question, and in some cases by critical import. It’s a weird mix, but let’s face it, you don’t care. The bottom line is all I’m claiming to represent here is myself and this site.
Accordingly, as with every year, I’ll ask you to please be mindful of the feelings and opinions and others if and as you proffer your own. I love comments here, I love discussions on this post most of any throughout any year, every year, but that can’t happen if somebody’s being a jerk, so don’t. If you disagree with me or someone else, I don’t care if you have a 40-page treatise on your opinion or if you just don’t dig a thing, but if you’re seeing these words, it is our responsibility to each other to be respectful and kind.
Beyond that, in advance of what’s about to unfurl below, please know that I thank you for reading.
**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2023
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For the last two years (2022 and 2021, linked for reference), I’ve done my own list as a countdown from 60, and since it feels both like way too much, over-the-top, totally unnecessary, and like a completely inadequate sampling of what was worth hearing this year, I guess it’s the way to go once again. Right now is the first of three times I’ll encourage you not to skip this list.
This is the second. Here we go:
60. Codex Serafini, The Imprecation of Anima (review here)
59. Strider, Midnight Zen (review here)
58. Black Helium, Um (review here)
57. Humulus, Flowers of Death (review here)
56. Fuzz Evil, New Blood (review here)
55. Blood Lightning, Blood Lightning (review here)
54. Rotor, Sieben (review here)
53. Cleõphüzz, Mystic Vulture (review here)
52. Black Sky Giant, Primigenian (review here)
51. Khan, Creatures (discussed here)
50. Slumbering Sun, The Ever-Living Fire (review here)
49. Massive Hassle, Number One (review here)
48. Búho Ermitaño, Implosiones (review here)
47. Black Moon Circle, Leave the Ghost Behind (review here)
46. Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, a Ghost (review here)
45. Edena Gardens, Dens (discussed here)
44. Merlock, Onward Strides Colossus (review here)
43. Obelyskkh, The Ultimate Grace of God (review here)
42. Lord Mountain, The Oath (review here)
41. Dorthia Cottrell, Death Folk Country (review here)
40. Yawning Balch, Volume One / Volume Two (reviews here and here)
39. The Golden Grass, Life is Much Stranger (review here)
38. Somnuri, Desiderium (review here)
37. Haurun, Wilting Within (review here)
36. Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, Aion (review here)
35. Stinking Lizaveta, Anthems and Phantoms (review here)
34. Black Rainbows, Superskull (review here)
33. Polymoon, Chrysalis (review here)
32. Fuzz Sagrado, Luz e Sombra (review here)
31. Yawning Man, Long Walk of the Navajo (review here)
Notes:
This is the third time I’m telling you not to skip this list. Linking to more on these is new. I haven’t done that before for this part of the list, but I hope it helps if you want to dig in.
That Khan stands out to me as needing to be higher given the quality of the work itself, but I got there late. But if you sent this into the year-end poll as your top 30, I feel like you wouldn’t be ‘wrong’ with some of the showings here, whether that’s the blinding shimmerprog of Polymoon, Merlock’s axe-swing sludge or Dorthia Cottrell of Windhand’s acoustic-based solo work.
Strong debut full-lengths from Haurun, Oldest Sea, Boston supergroup Blood Lightning, Cleõphüzz who already broke up, the aforementioned Merlock, mega-weirdos Codex Serafini, Slumbering Sun (kin to Monte Luna and Destroyer of Light), Church of the Cosmic Skull offshoot Massive Hassle, Turkish heavy rockers Strider and Californian metal traditionalists Lord Mountain. Established outfits like Yawning Man, Stinking Lizaveta, Cottrell, Black Rainbows, The Golden Grass, and Rotor continue to explore new avenues of their sound.
In the meantime, the respective progressions displayed by the likes of Black Helium, Fuzz Sagrado, Somnuri and Bees Made Honey in the Vein Tree, the e’er-listenable Fuzz Evil and Argentinian instrumentalists Black Sky Giant offered thrills anticipated and not. Humulus bringing in Stefan Koglek from Colour Haze was a nice touch, and though I haven’t even reviewed it yet, the third and maybe-last Edena Gardens LP completes that collaborative trilogy with members of Causa Sui and Papir as fluidly as one could ask, which is only saying something because of the personnel involved.
There are a ton of others I wanted to put on this list, but numbers are cruel and if I get into decimals or fractions or something like that I’m going to end up huddled in a ball crying. But please know that because something’s not here doesn’t mean it sucked even just in my own opinion or whatever. At the end of the list come the honorable mentions and rarely have they been so honorable.
Buenos Aires trio Moodoom nailed a classic, ’70s-style Sabbathian blues rock with a non-cornball vintage feel better than anyone else I heard who tried in 2023. Their Desde el Bosque didn’t top half an hour, but you can almost feel the heat from the tubes of the amplifiers behind it, and it’s such an organic flow that it’s undeniable as an LP. Dig that creeper riff in “El Ente,” man. Proh. Toh. Doom.
The eighth full-length in a career that goes back 33 years, Zero Minus Infinity is the second Negative Reaction album since guitarist/vocalist Kenny Bones moved himself and the band from Long Island to West Virginia and revamped the lineup, and it’s a beast. It’d be here for “I’ll Have Another” alone with that crush of distortion and Bones raw-throating “It’s you I need,” on repeat, perhaps to alcohol, but that’s just one example of the disaffected delights on offer from the kings of anxiety sludge.
Downpour is one of two 2023 outings from upstart progressive Norwegian instrumentalists Kanaan, as they answered its Spring release with the jammy Diversions Vol. 2: Enter the Astral Plane. Any way you go, composed or improvised, this is a band with a special chemistry. In addition to the nodder highlight “Amazon,” which brought a collaboration with Hedwig Mollestad and the dense boogie riff-push of “Black Time Fuzz” at the start, they proceeded on an evolutionary path that looks now like it will go as long as they do. For now, in its urgency and space both, Downpour is a pinnacle achievement. How long that lasts depends on what comes next.
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27. Mathew’s Hidden Museum, Mathew’s Hidden Museum
Some records make a world. Mathew Bethancourt of Josiah, Cherry Choke, etc., put at least a solar system into the self-titled debut from his solo-project Mathew’s Hidden Museum. Melding lysergic experimentalism and off-kilter vibing with classic boogie, acoustic grunge, the piano quirk of “Golden” and more, it drew lines connecting disparate ideas and ended up making its own kind of sense, with depth enough in its layers that when I close out a week with it half a decade from now (inshallah), I’ll probably still be talking about it. Go get swallowed.
Recorded in Winter 2021/2022, Borracho‘s Blurring the Lines of Reality carried its where-did-we-go-wrong head-scratching sensibility into 2023, where to be sure it remained relevant. The Washington D.C. riffer trio know who they are and what they’re about, and their songwriting, groove and total lack of pretense continue to satisfy five records later even as the band pushes themselves further in structure and craft. And if you’d hold the social comment of their lyrics against them, first, grow up, second, your loss. Give me that smooth jam at the end of “Burning the Goddess” every time.
It was a total shock when superlatively-filth-encrusted sludgers Khanate not only returned with the surprise release of their first LP in 14 years, but that they pulled off such a remarkable change of style, abandoning their former miseries in favor of a more upbeat, uptempo outlook and poppier structures. What’s that you say? That didn’t happen? The record was just so completely, engrossingly wretched that my unconscious mind actually replaced it with something more palatable because Khanate stretch the limits of what punishment human beings can absorb in sound? Well fucking right on. That sounds like Khanate.
Oslo-based doom rockers Saint Karloff harnessed an energy that 25 years ago or so propelled the very beginnings of modern Scandinavian heavy rock and roll, and they did it as a duo paying tribute to bassist Ole Sletner as well. Rife with familiar genre elements, stoner riffing, and band-in-room vibes, and even a little cosmic prog in closer “Supralux Voyager,” Paleolithic War Crimes had its emotional crux in its celebration of song and style, and so became the successful rebound after a terrible loss. If you call yourself a fan of heavy rock, chances are there’s something for you in it.
Though they released the single-song I EP (review here) in 2018, the severely-titled Soul Murder is their first full-length since late-2016’s Blueside (review here). It puts the heavy blues frontmanship of guitarist/vocalist Mathias Northway at the fore as he, bassist Danny Smith and drummer Michael Lowe offer the most live-sounding studio effort I heard this year. Even if you go beyond the songwriting, the soul in the performances, the emotionalism and the believability of their blues, the classic warmth in their tones, the epic oil painting from Nick Keller that adorns its cover, you still have vitality (yes, even in slow parts) and the instrumental conversation happening between the members of the band. The degree of that alone warrants inclusion here.
It can be a challenge to keep up with the ongoing progression of Bergen, Norway, progressive black metal innovators Enslaved, but these 32 years on from their founding it remains worth the effort. Heimdal followed tumultuous but busy years for the band, who mostly supported 2020’s Utgard (review here) digitally for obvious reasons, and was perhaps that much freer in its experimentation as a result of the period of less live activity. However they got to the keyboard part sticking out of “Congelia,” it is only fortunate that they did, since certainly in another couple decades the rest of us might actually be on Enslaved‘s wavelength, and we’ll be glad for it. Until then, they outclass just about everyone’s everything across the board. One of the world’s best bands, outdoing themselves as ever.
Mondo Drag‘s fourth album was also their first in eight years, and with it the Oakland outfit put the lie to the stereotype that prog music is staid. Indeed, the crux of Through the Hourglass came with the passing of founding keyboardist/vocalist John Gamiño mother, in whose honor the Days of Our Lives reference in the title was made. That personal exploration of loss became a classic melancholy progressive psychedelic rocK, bolstered by a partially revamped lineup that includes bassist Conor Riley (Birth, ex-Astra) and drummer Jimmy Perez alongside the established character in the guitars of Nolan Girard and Jake Sheley (both also founding members). Likewise beautiful and sad, songs like “Passages” and “Death in Spring” resonated with the universal experience of mourning as filtered through a rich breadth of influences, memorable movements and entrancing melody. One hopes it was a comfort to Gamiño as surely it has been to others.
With shorter, tightly composed songs, Northern Ireland trio Slomatics managed to make the most atmospheric record of their career to-date. Their seventh LP, it used its time in songs like “Time Capture” and “Zodiac Arts Lab” to underscore the melody that’s been in their sound all the while but has never as much been the focus when set next to the abiding crush of David Majury and Chris Couzens‘ guitars, and though he’s behind the kit, drummer/vocalist Marty Harvey seemed all the more a frontman as his voice soared when called upon to do so. Of course, there was still plenty of time in the 36-minute run for Slomatics‘ crushall in “Wooden Satellites,” “I, Neanderthal,” later in “Voidians,” and so on, but it’s clear their range and reach have grown and their gradual evolution has brought a new level of complexity to their approach. If they keep this up, they risk feeling compelled to stop calling themselves Neanderthals, and while that would be a bummer, one very much hopes they keep it up anyway.
A new solo incarnation of Hamilton, New Zealand’s Craig Williamson — who is best known for his other one-man operation, Lamp of the Universe — the full-band-style heavy roller riffs throughout Dead Shrine‘s The Eightfold Path scratched what must have been a pretty fervent itch for heavy groove, classic swing, and fuzz, fuzz, fuzz, which cuts like “The Formless Soul,” “As Pharaohs Rise,” and side-ending self-jammers “Enshrined” and “Incantation’s Call” fortunately also have a mix spacious enough to hold. Williamson has rocked plenty since the turn of the century when he was in the heavy rock trio Datura, and around 2010 when he had the trio Arc of Ascent going. That band and this one have a lot in common, but Williamson has proven his most sustainable and seemingly preferred way of working is solo, and as one, Dead Shrine stands alongside Lamp of the Universe (wait for it…) in a way that feels like it could be longer term, even as Williamson seemed to blur the lines between the two sides on Lamp of the Universe‘s own 2023 outing…
Although they’re certainly distinct enough to be separate from each other at this point, Dead Shrine and Lamp of the Universe obviously share a lot in common and it felt right to pair them like this. Every year I give myself one ‘#a’ pick, so this is it for 2023 and I’ll just use it to say how incredibly vast Lamp of the Universe has become. While remaining loyal to its beginnings in acid folk and meditative psychedelia, Williamson‘s multi-instrumentalism, the scope of his production, and the absolute care he puts into the project have brought it beyond what reasonable expectations might’ve been. And in part, by that I mean Kaleidoscope Mind rocks. That wah solo in “Golden Dawn?” The blowout drums behind nine-minute opener “Ritual of Innerlight?” Goodness gracious, yes. Even “Immortal Rites,” which is about as close as Williamson gets to Lamp‘s beginnings here, has evolved. But it’s also still the same thing in the root. I don’t know. If you don’t stretch reality to get there, try again later. The most honest thing I can say about it is I feel lucky to be a fan.
It was the feeling that at any given point they might just go anywhere that made Sherpa‘s Land of Corals a surprise as the Italian practitioners of the psychedelic arts have thrown open the doors of both perception and microgenre and come across as thoroughly willful in their krautrock-minded ethereality, and just because the listener doesn’t know what might be next doesn’t mean the band aren’t working with a plan regardless. The follow-up to 2018’s Tigris and Euphrates (review here), the six-song/39-minute collection seemed to be fearless in what it took on, and though much of it was less serene than either of their first two outings, the divergences and the complexities in mood, ambience and arrangement render Land of Corals unto itself. Are we post-heavy here? Maybe. Still heavy as the drums behind “High Walls” show, however, though Sherpa‘s take on what that means and how that manifests is no less individualized than anything else in these tracks. Not something everyone is going to get — I’m not convinced I get it myself at this point — but an act whose creativity has yet to get its due.
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17. Gozu, Remedy
Released by Blacklight Media / Metal Blade Records. Reviewed May 18.
The Boston riff factory known as Gozu have only gotten more vicious, more pointed with time, and yet, tucked at the end of their 2023 outing, Remedy, which has them as veterans at 14 years’ tenure, are “Ash” and “The Handler” and it just goes from sweet to sweeter. Yeah, it’s a ripper into its blood with “CLDZ,” “Tom Cruise Control,” and Gozu — Marc Gaffney (vocals/guitar), Doug Sherman (guitar), Joe Grotto (bass) and Seth Botos (drums), working with producer Dean Baltulonis for a threepeat — have a brand of melody in Gaffney‘s vocals that’s all their own, and fast or slow, loud or quiet, ’80s movie reference or ’70s movie reference, Gozu have been around long enough to know what they’re about. But, after 2018’s Equilibrium (review here) and 2016’s Revival (review here), Remedy feels one step heavier. Revivalwas a great sharpening of sound. Equilibrium brought refinement to that. Remedy comes across with a little of a sense of letting go, of the band digging in where it’s more about what they can do together than the response it’ll get afterward. It suits them.
Oh, The Machine. Seven records deep and still in your 30s. That’s the advantage of starting early, which the Netherlands-based trio most definitely did. Wave Cannon, accordingly, is both masterful in its conjurations of warm heavy psychedelic fuzz, and energetic in its delivery, with founding guitarist/vocalist David Eering bid welcome to bassist Chris Both and farewell to original drummer Davy Boogaard. And where 2018’s Faceshift (review here) tipped a balance in their style toward more of a punker push, Wave Cannon led off with “Reversion” and seemed all the more purposeful in its mature heavy psychedelic delve for that. It could be Wave Cannon will be the blueprint for a settled-in aesthetic the trio now more than ever driven by Eering, or it could be the beginning of a whole new evolution of sound from the revamped three-piece recommitted to trippy sounds and warm nod. Either way, it’s not that often you talk about a band’s forward potential after seven full-lengths, so The Machine are in a pretty special place circa 2023 and Wave Cannon, whatever it leads to, is a special moment of transition captured.
Similar to how trees live in an experience of time separate from ours and the way an earth year is laughably tiny set against the scale of the universe, Chicago heavy psych rockers REZN seem to operate on their own temporal wavelength throughout their fourth album, Solace. Able to crush at will, as at the end of “Possession,” or the early going of “Stasis,” in the trades of “Reversal,” et al, Solace found REZN more confident in their dives through melody and atmosphere than even they were on 2020’s Chaotic Divine (review here), they created a space and dimensionality of sound that belongs solely to them in the style. Quieter stretches in “Webbed Roots” enthralled with their depth, and the ethereal vocals brought human presence while furthering the smoke-swirls and incense mystique. On their own terms, and yes, very much at their own pace, REZN have made themselves one of America’s most essential heavy psych bands, and Solace — joined in 2023 by REZN‘s collaboration with Mexico’s Vinnum Sabbathi, Silent Future (discussed here) — crowns their to-date discography.
I’m not saying I think it’s cool to write songs about serial killers, but if you’re going to listen to a Church of Misery release almost 30 years after bassist Tatsu Mikami started the band, chances are you know their stated theme is nothing if not consistent. Born Under a Mad Sign delivered on its promise of memorable doom riffs, and as the songwriter and figurehead for arguably Japan’s most influential doom export, Mikami acted as ringmaster while returning vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda brought mapcap intensity (and fun) to the grooves fostered through Yukito Okazaki‘s guitar, Tatsu‘s bass and Toshiaki Umemura‘s swinging drums. As ever, loyalty and reverence to Black Sabbath are at the core of Church of Misery‘s everything, and in that sphere, there are very, very few humans walking the planet who can do the thing as well as Tatsu. Like, maybe four going on five. As such, regardless of the subject matter (something I can say because I don’t know anyone who’s been murdered) and some eight years after their preceding long-player, Church of Misery are essential as the vehicle for that.
I’m not sure if in 2015 when Boston’s Kind released their first album, Rocket Science (review here), anyone would have guessed there would even be a third full-length from them, let alone one that so much typifies the personality the band has built for itself. Comprised of the otherwise-plenty-busy lineup of vocalist Craig Riggs (also Sasquatch‘s drummer and so constantly touring), guitarist Darryl Shepherd (ex-Milligram, Blackwolfgoat, Test Meat, scores of others), bassist Tom Corino (Rozamov) and drummer Matt Couto (Aural Hallucinations, ex-Elder), Kind have found a sound that is separate from what its component members have done on their own, and become a genuinely more-than-sum-of-parts grouping. Whether it’s the rush of “Power Grab” or the way the rhythm of “What it is to Be Free” seemed to gain so much extra punch, or “Massive” at the record’s center earning its name in tone and swing alike. The “whoa baby come on” at 1:56 into that song is of course the reason Close Encounters made this list, but rest assured that across the span Kind are at what is a thus-far peak of their powers.
Stay with me here, because as you scroll further down this post, you’re going to see that Iron Jinn‘s hour-long 2LP first offering, declaratively-titled Iron Jinn, is my pick for debut album of 2023. Born out of an initial onstage collaboration at Roadburn 2018 (review here), the Arnheim, Netherlands-based four-piece brings together guitarist/vocalists Oeds Beydals (Molassess, ex-Death Alley, ex-The Devil’s Blood) and Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed) with the labyrinth-constructing rhythm section of bassist Gerben Bielderman (Pronk, etc.) and drummer Bob Hogenelst, and from the late pointed lead lines of “Truth is Your Dagger” acting in duly jabbing fashion to the heady ambient drama of “Bread and Games” and the dark-prog atmospheres fleshed out as a backdrop to the melodies of “Soft Healers” and “Blood Moon Horizon,” the all-corners turns of “Lick it or Kick It,” on and on and on, the album resounds with both scope and ambition. What the long-term story of this project will be, I have no idea, but Iron Jinn is a record that brings new ideas to a sphere that very much needs them, and if there’s any luck, it will prove influential in the coming years.
Let the record show that when tasked with the biggest moment of their career to this point, Green Lung absolutely stepped up to meet it. This Heathen Land, as their first full-length with Nuclear Blast‘s backing (and third overall), will be the point of introduction for what will gradually become the bulk of their audience, and in its occult lyrics, sweeping, unironic, all-in grandiosity, weight of tone and craft of hooks, it tells you everything you need to know about why and how Green Lung got to where they are (save perhaps touring). Their task from here will be to find and refine the balance between metal and rock in their sound, but for a band whose clear intention from the outset was to take on the world to bring themselves to a point where they’re arguably doing so at least as regards the heavy underground is an accomplishment in itself. Then you get to songs like “Maxine (Witch Queen)” and the over-the-top finale “Oceans of Time,” and if you can let yourself have a little fun every now and again with your doom and witches and whatnot, this one was just about irresistible.
The album that boldly asked if it needed to be a wizard to earn your love, the fifth long-player from volume/tone/devil-worshiping (and perhaps in that order) Polish doomcrafters Dopelord was not at all the first heavy record to use Satan as a political statement — specifically in this case about social oppression in their home country and the political power of the catholic church there — but they wielded their rebel-angel argument with already-in-your-head songs like “Night of the Witch,” “The Chosen One,” “One Billion Skulls,” “Evil Spell” and the upped nastiness of “Worms,” in other words each and every of the non-intro/outro tracks, with emergent mastery and a plod that was as clear and infectious a call to praise as I heard in 2023, no less for its melodicism than its heft or the crispness of its delivery, the guttural rasps of “Worms” aside, which swapped in vitriol at just the right time. Songs for Satan was a new level for Dopelord‘s approach and as much an epistemological fuckoff to fundamentalism as it was consuming nod, and there was none more righteous in their cause. At the risk of saying the quiet part loud, dudes are going to be copping riffs from it for years.
Returning with their fourth long-player, Swedish trio Domkraft have found the style they’ve been working toward all along. As with some of the others on this list, it’s not that Sonic Moons was such a radical departure. It wasn’t. They worked with the same production team that helmed their 2022 Ascend/Descend (review here) split with Slomatics as well as 2021’s Seeds (discussed here). Björn Atldax‘s cover art was on point and in keeping with their visual aesthetic. But there’s a spaciousness on Sonic Moons in “Downpour” and amid the intensity of crash in “Stellar Winds,” and their sound has grown to become dynamic enough that as nine-minute leadoff “Whispers” pushed through its crescendo it seemed to get more and more physically forceful as part of the process. Couple that with assured writing and performances from bassist/vocalist Martin Wegeland, guitarist Martin Widholm and drummer Anders Dahlgren, and Domkraft honed in on an evolved cosmic noise rock and were unafraid to incorporate elements of psychedelia, space and classic stoner riffing into a definitive statement of their purpose.
Ukrainian progressive heavy rockers Stoned Jesus released a career album this year. Did you catch it? Restricted from touring as their home country continues to struggle against a Russian invasion that’s been ongoing for, well, a decade, but more intensely for the better part of the last two years, Stoned Jesus offered something different across each of Father Light‘s six tracks. From the catchy strums of “CON” to the only-timely-but-written-earlier “Thoughts and Prayers” and the you-want-riff-here’s-your-riff 11-minute neckroll of “Season of the Witch,” they proved once again to be a more diverse and thoughtful act than they’re almost ever given credit for being. Expanded stylistically from 2018’s Pilgrims (review here), Stoned Jesus — guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko, bassist/backing vocalist Sergii Sliusar and drummer Dmytro Zinchenko — toyed with retroism on “Thoughts and Prayers” while the late solo in “Get What You Deserve” underscores the sentiment in that climate-change-themed finisher, all the while standing astride their own material, solid, confident, still looking forward. It’s the world that’s the problem, not the band.
First of all, I stand by the review. To expand on that (and the review itself was expanded on here), it was the songwriting that kept me coming back to the second album from Washington trio Kadabra, who progressed on all fronts from their already-impressive 2021 debut, Ultra (review here). They made hooks like “The Serpent” and “The Devil” feel like landmarks in a record-long horror feature that’s told as much in riffs as lyrics, but at the same time there’s nothing fancy happening in terms of sound. Some organ in “Mountain Tamer,” plenty of fuzz throughout, and the songs. It’s the songs. The songs. The fucking songs. That uplift in “Midnight Hour.” The feeling of oh-shit-we’ve-arrived in “The Serpent.” Playing toward some of Uncle Acid‘s lyrical creep with tight-knit grooves and sharp turns, Umbra not only showed the preceding LP wasn’t a fluke, it conveyed mood and atmosphere without giving up momentum or structure, and every move it made, from the shimmer opening “White Willows” to the last strains underscoring the chorus of “The Serpent” in the concluding acoustic reprise “The Serpent II,” Kadabra‘s sophomore outing communed with genre with a perspective becoming increasingly its own. And again, the songs.
There was a while there where I honestly didn’t think Dozer were ever going to do another record, so Drifting in the Endless Void is a life event as far as I’m concerned. The trailblazing Swedish heavy rockers have been playing live periodically for the last decade, and word has been kicking around of studio work, new songs following what was until this year their most recent album in 2008’s Beyond Colossal (featured here), but to actually have such a thing manifest and take the form it did made it a reinvigoration of Dozer‘s sound and what seemed to be a chance to try both new and old methods of working. In the raging “Ex-Human, Now Beast” and the breadth of “Missing 13,” Dozer reminded older heads. and showed a generation that’s come up since, why they’ve had the influence they have over the last quarter-century, including in their absence. Realize you’re lucky to be on the planet with it.
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5. Mars Red Sky, Dawn of the Dusk
Released by Vicious Circle Records and Mrs Red Sound. Reviewed Dec. 7.
A fifth full-length brought fresh ideas and new perspectives to the established progressive, melodic heavy psychedelic rock methodology of Bordeaux’s Mars Red Sky, who’ve greeted their maturity as a band with creative openness rather than stagnation. To be sure, guitarist/vocalist Julien Pras, bassist Jimmy Kinast and drummer Mathieu “Matgaz” Gazeau — each crucial to the group as they are — have plenty of recognizable aspects for longtime fans. Indeed, their signature blend of warm but remarkably heavy tonality and floating melodic vocals remains unflinching, but what they do with it has changed. And that’s not just set up for mentioning the Queen of the Meadow collaboration either (more below), glorious as Helen Ferguson‘s contributions to “Maps of Inferno” are (she’s also on the closing reprise “Heavenly Bodies”), or that Jimmmy takes a lead vocal on “The Final Round.” You can hear the progression in “Break Even,” in the expanses of “Carnival Man,” that groove in “Slow Attack,” and even the spaciousness around the lurch of “A Choir of Ghosts.” Fast or slow, loud or quiet, even the interludes here shine with a sense of purpose, and if e’er forward is to be the course of Mars Red Sky for hopefully a long time to come, so much the better.
I will not mince words. This has been a difficult, taxing year for me personally and emotionally, and anytime I felt like I wanted to beat my head into the wall — which has been A LOT — Seattle bringers of chicanery-laced heavy punk-metal Sandrider were ready to go along for the ride. Working as ever with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, a small city’s worth of others), guitarist/vocalist Jon Weisnewski (who also released a killer record this year with his experimental grind/weirdo project Nuclear Dudes; don’t skip), bassist/vocalist Jesse Roberts and drummer Nat Damm wound at mostly high speed through energy summoned from a place I’ve clearly never been with songs that, while they were smashing all your favorite everything to tiny bits, left a memorable impression behind as bruises in the shape of themselves and ended up with enough bounce so that cuts like “Alia,” “Weasel” (the delivery of, “Here comes the mouth/Look at all its teeth”) the their-version-of-epic-and-that’s-pretty-epic “Ixion,” “Circles,” “Grouper,” the title-track, were fun in doing so. It’s their fourth record and I don’t know if there are a ton of surprises, but I sure was happy when it came along and kicked so much ass in such a specific and, for me, helpful way. A catharsis record, but don’t take that to mean it’s just angry. There’s a lot of humor here as well and the songs are a blast. Hard to imagine this isn’t what Sandrider had in mind when they set out over a decade ago.
A breakthrough in craft and style, and immaculate in its turns, tight-but-not-choked arrangements, and willingness to go and be in unexpected spaces, Elektrik Ram was for South African heavy rockers Ruff Majik — comprised of guitarist/vocalist Johni Holiday, bassist Jimmy Glass, guitarist/backing vocalist Cowboy Bez and drummer Steven Bosman — a rare realization of potential. I said as much in the review. Not every band gets to make a record like this. From the charge of its title-track and “Hillbilly Fight Song” and the unspeakable catchiness that begins there and threads throughout the stylistic shifts of “She’s Still a Goth,” “Cement Brain,” “Delirium Tremors” — on the 15th anniversary reissue, maybe bring the triangle down in the mix? (kidding; it’s painful and should be) — and into the broader grooves of its ending section with “A Song About Drugs (With a Clever Title),” “Shangrilah Inc.” and the raw-emotive “Chemically Humanized,” which when set against the oh-look-I-just-beat-your-ass thematic of “Hillbilly Fight Song” feels duly brought low. This is a great — yes, great — album, and I don’t think I listened to anything as much this year as I listened to it. They’ve already started work on their next LP, reportedly, and I worry it’s soon, but with the kind of control over their approach that they demonstrate here, there’s really no choice but to trust they know what they’re doing, since that is so much the underlying message in the material, even if its lyrical themes were by and large much darker.
It wasn’t exactly a secret that Howling Giant had momentum and progression on their side. They’ve toured hard the last couple years, offered the instrumental Alteration EP (review here) in 2021 following their oh-shit-these-guys-are-for-real split with Sergeant Thunderhoof, Masamune/Muramasa (review here), and back to their debut LP, 2019’s The Space Between Worlds (review here), and have worked so diligently to engage their audience that a sense of reachout has become part of their sound. You knew that when they next set themselves to making a long-player, there was a real chance for them to sculpt something special, but Glass Future was still a surprise. Unflinching in its construction, mixed for brightness as well as weight, and cutting through that with clearly-schooled harmonies between guitarist Tom Polzine, drummer Zach Wheeler and bassist Sebastian “Seabass” Baltes to give a pop-ish sensibility to progressive sounds that in other hands would serve far more self-indulgent ends. Received as a whole work with its timely endtimes lyrical foundation, it exuded welcome in the hooks of “Siren Song,” “Hawk in a Hurricane,” “Glass Future,” “Sunken City,” “Juggernaut” and the periodic slowdowns through “Aluminum Crown,” “Tempest, and the Liar’s Gateway” and the closer “There’s Time Now,” which called back to the Twilight Zone reference (Simpsons did it) in intro “Hourglass” while fleshing out a brilliantly melodic comedown for the human species. As with the finest of any year’s releases, it will hold its relevance far past the coming January, and for Howling Giant, it sets them on a path of fresh ideas and expansive sound, filtered through a cohesive process to be the engaging good-time apocalypse they’ve become. Glass Future makes Howling Giant one of America’s most essential heavy rock bands and figureheads for a generation still on the rise.
There was never another choice, and not much choice to start with. The manner in which founding guitarist/vocalist Lori S. revamped her band, bringing in bassist/synthesist Bryce Shelton (Nik Turner’s Hawkwind) and drummer Jason Willer (Jello Biafra’s Guantanamo School of Medicine) as the rhythm section supporting the band’s trademark rolling fuzz, and collaborating with Black Cobra‘s Jason Landrian, who added guitar and synth to the tracks, was an expansion and redirection of sound that simply wasn’t anticipated from a band closing in on three decades of activity. But after 2015’s still-undervalued Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (discussed here, review here), saw Lori and her then-lineup explore more heavy psychedelic sounds, Beyond Vision expanded on that with atmospheres never before conjured by any incarnation of Acid King, and Billy Anderson‘s production, as ever, allowed for scope and claustrophobia to exist in the same aural space. Hypnotic in the riffs of year-highlight “Mind’s Eye” and its penultimate title-track, Beyond Vision freely incorporated an influence from Author and Punisher into the slow plods of “Electro Magnetic” and the huge-in-a-new-way-for-them “90 Seconds,” tripped out easy on the roundly immersive opener “One Light Second Away” and galloped to a (again, surprisingly) rousing finish in “Color Trails.” A band you thought was a known quantity, whose sound you thought was set, showing that creativity doesn’t have to stop just because you have an established sound or are known for doing one thing. Acid King are still Acid King on Beyond Vision, but the boldness with which the album is realized and the sheer bravery of taking the risks it takes in pushing beyond (oh!) what were the parameters of Acid King‘s trailblazing, mellow-psych-informed stoner riffing — always possible it would fall flat in ways it obviously very much doesn’t — came together on a level that was simply unmatched in 2023. Acid King have perhaps never been more royal, more regal as they unfurl these seven cosmic triumphs, but somehow underneath they’re still punk rock. One way or the other, that the on-paper concept of Beyond Vision — all the changes, growth, shifts — winds up secondary to the strength and listening experience of the songs themselves makes it undeniable as the album of the year. It was a no-doubter.
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The Top 60 Albums of 2023: Honorable Mention
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I could very easily do another top 60 with these, and then some. Alphabetically:
1782, Abanamat, Acid Magus, Ahab, Albinö Rhino, Ananda Mida, Astral Sleep, Bell Witch, Benthic Realm, Bismut, Black Helium, Black Rainbows, Blood Ceremony, Blood Lightning, Bong Corleone, Bongzilla, Bridge Farmers, Cavern Deep, Cleõphüzz, Cloud Catcher, Clouds Taste Satanic, Danava, Darsombra, Dead Feathers, Deadpeach, Delco Detention, Desert Storm, Dommengang, Doom Lab, Dr. Space, Earthbong, Ecstatic Vision, David Eugene Edwards, End of Hope, Avi C. Engel, Fin del Mundo, Fire Down Below, The Fizz Fuzz, Formula 400, Fuzz Evil, Gévaudan, Ghorot, Giöbia, Godflesh, Godsleep, Graveyard, The Gray Goo, Green Yeti, Hail the Void, Haurun, Healthyliving, Hexvessel, Hope Hole, Humulus, IAH, Iron Void, JAAW, Jack Harlon & the Dead Crows, Katatonia, La Chinga, Lamassu, Larman Clamor, L’Ira del Baccano, Love Gang, Lucid Void, Maggot Heart, The Magpie, Mammatus, Mammoth Caravan, Mansion, Margarita Witch Cult, Masheena, Melody Fields, Melt Motif, Merlock, Minnesota Pete Campbell, Mizmor, Moon Coven, Moonstone, Morag Tong, Morass of Molasses, Morne, The Moth, Mountain of Misery, Mouth, Mudness, Mud Spencer, Los Mundos, Mutoid Man, Natskygge, Nebula Drag, Nuclear Dudes, Obelyskkh, Conny Ochs, Øresund Space Collective, Orsak:Oslo, Patriarchs in Black, Plainride, Primordial, Restless Spirit, Ritual King, The River, Robots of the Ancient World, Rocky’s Pride & Joy, Royal Thunder, Runway, Sadus The Smoking Community, SÂVER, Seum, Siena Root, Slowenya, Smokey Mirror, Evert Snyman, Sonic Moon, Sorcia, Spidergawd, Spotlights, Surya Kris Peters, Swan Valley Heights, These Beasts, Thousand Vision Mist, Thunder Horse, Tidal Wave, Tortuga, Travo, Treedeon, Trevor’s Head, Unsafe Space Garden, Vlimmer, Warp, Westing, Wet Cactus, Witch Ripper, WyndRider, Yakuza, Zone Six, and apparently frickin’ everything that Dr. Space touches.
Notes:
Certainly a landmark year for Blues Funeral and Magnetic Eye, while Ripple Music, Heavy Psych Sounds, Small Stone, Kozmik Artifactz, Napalm, Sound Effect, Spinda, Mongrel Records and Exile on Mainstream fostered a deeply admirable swath of sounds. If you’re not following these however you do your following — email lists, social media, Bandcamp, etc. — I suggest in a spirit of friendship that you consider doing so.
A couple thoughts before we wrap the big list. First, I harbor no delusions that it’s complete. There always are and always will be records that slip by me. I’m one person running this site. I’ll never be able to hear everything, appreciate everything I do hear to the utmost as everyone else might, or even want to. This is my list, my listening habits for the year and what I thought were 2023’s best full-length releases. If you’d put more in it than that, go look at the headline again. It’s a list. I take it seriously, of course, but if you had Swan Valley Heights or Godflesh or La Chinga at number three on your list — all of which are totally valid picks, just like the rest — and I didn’t, that’s okay.
In fact, it’s beautiful, but it doesn’t always come out that way in the discussion. I’m asking as I do every year to please keep opinions and conversations civil in their presentation. I know arguing on the internet is fun but I’d rather not have the drama and rest assured, I take it all personally.
So, about the honorable mentions: where do you even start? While the balance of the main list, the top 60, is toward established and even veteran acts, it’s encouraging to see so many up and coming groups forcing their way into consideration. From the ambient evocations of Orsak:Oslo to Sorcia’s thick sludge and Melt Motif’s sultry industrializations, Mountain of Misery branching off from Spaceslug, outfits like IAH and Swan Valley Heights finding new maturity, Mammoth Caravan bring aggro edge to huge tones, Healthyliving, Merlock, Morag Tong, Godsleep, These Beasts, Margarita Witch Cult, Warp, Earthbong, Abanamat, Runway, WyndRider, Trevor’s Head, Fire Down Below, High Priest, Nebula Drag, The Magpie, Love Gang, Jack Harlon and others, a slew of impressive debuts and second albums, the generational evolution of sound is ongoing, vibrant, bands establishing themselves and claiming their aesthetic place and respective audiences as we speak. I would urgently encourage you to engage with these artists now, both for immediate satisfaction and as investment in the shape of heavy music to come, which they will make.
The bottom line is this: I believe deeply in the power of art to affect your life, to make it richer, fuller, better. There are mornings when The Obelisk is the reason I’m getting out of bed, and I thank you for reading, for being a part of this. I’ll say more later. We still have a ways to go.
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Debut Album of the Year 2023
Iron Jinn, Iron Jinn
Other notable debuts (alphabetical):
Altered States, Survival
Astral Hand, Lords of Data
Benthic Realm, Vessel
Blood Lightning, Blood Lightning
Bog Monkey, Hollow
Bong Corleoone, Bong Corleone
Cleõphüzz, Dune Altar
Codex Serafini, The Imprecation of Anima
Daevar, Delirious Rights
Dead Shrine, The Eightfold Path
Deer Lord, Dark Matter Pt. 1
Dread Witch, Tower of the Severed Serpent
Ego Planet, Ego Planet
Embargo, High Seas
From the Ages, II
Fuzzy Grapes, Volume 1
Haurun, Wilting Within
Hibernaut, Ingress
HIGH LEAF, Vision Quest
High Priest, Invocation
Inherus, Beholden
JAAW, Supercluster
The Keening, Little Bird
King Potenaz, Goat Rider
Lord Mountain, The Oath
Margarita Witch Cult, Margarita Witch Cult
Massive Hassle, Massive Hassle
Mammoth Caravan, Ice Cold Oblivion
Medicine Horse, Medicine Horse
Merlock, Onward Strides Colossus
Milana, Milvus
Mountain of Misery, In Roundness
Ockra, Gratitude
Oldest Sea, A Birdsong, a Ghost
Pyre Fyre, Pyre Fyre
Runway, Runway
Slow Wake, Falling Fathoms
Strider, Midnight Zen
WyndRider, WyndRider
Slumbering Sun, The Ever-Living Fire
Sonic Moon, Return Without Any Memory
Tō Yō, Stray Birds From the Far East
Tribunal, The Weight of Remembrance
Weite, Assemblage
Notes:
Tell your friends. I think what I like most about that glut of names just above is that there’s a full spectrum of sounds there. Yeah, it’s all under an umbrella of expanded-definition heavy, but that’s the point too. A creative boom is happening that’s seeing the post-Gen X and the earlier end of the Millennials making room for newer acts with new ideas and perspectives.
Why did I pick Iron Jinn as debut of the year, when there was obviously so much otherwise to choose from? Easy. It was the most its own thing out of any of these releases. I love Dead Shrine, Blood Lightning’s intensity speaks to my brain in a way not everything can, Margarita Witch Cult have been building buzz all year. Oldest Sea’s debut is a melancholic declaration of arrival. I was not short on choices, and I’ll probably keep adding to this list as the next week or so goes on.
Dark, heavy, progressive in its approach and complex enough that I still feel like I’m getting to know it, Iron Jinn‘s self-titled so much brimmed with purpose that it seemed to go beyond a first record. My hope, honestly, is that Oeds Beydals and Wout Kemkens spend the next 30 years or so refining that collaboration and exploring where it can go, because if this is the starting point, it’s got enough to it to be the beginning of a lifetime’s exploring. One never knows how things will work out when songwriters work together, but clearly Iron Jinn drew from the strengths of all its members. Records like this, on the unlikely occasion they happen at all, don’t happen by accident.
And yes, Iron Jinn are a new band not necessarily comprised of inexperienced players, but most bands start from members of other bands. Blood Lightning, Slumbering Sun, Weite, Mountain of Misery, JAAW, Ego Planet, Massive Hassle, all the way back up to Benthic Realm and Altered States. New bands, new sounds, new ideas all coming to the fore. Couple that with acts like WyndRider, Daevar, Lord Mountain, Hibernaut, Oldest Sea, Mammoth Caravan, Sonic Moon, Tō Yō, Medicine Horse, High Priest and others here whose members haven’t necessarily appeared in an Obelisk year-end post before, and you get a more complete picture of the churning magma that is the potential for the heavy underground over the rest of the 2020s and hopefully beyond.
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Short Release of the Year 2023
Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow, Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow
Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc.
Aawks, Luna EP
Aawks & Aiwass, The Eastern Scrolls Split LP
Apollo80 & Dimartis, Reverberations Vol. 1: Tales of Dust and Winds Split LP
Beastwars, Tyranny of Distance EP
Black Glow, Black Glow EP
Bloodsports, Bloodsports EP
Book of Wyrms, Storm Warning Single
Borracho, Kozmic Safari Single
The Bridesmaid, Come on People Now Smile on Your Brother
Burning Sister, Get Your Head Right EP
Cervus, Shifting Sands
Familiars, Keep the Good Times Rolling EP
The Freqs, Poacher
Grin, Black Nothingness EP
Guided Meditation Doomjazz, Expect EP
High Desert Queen & Blue Heron, Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake Split LP
The Holy Nothing, Volume I: A Profound and Nameless Fear EP
Iress, Solace EP
Josiah, rehctaW EP
Kal-El, Moon People EP
Kombynat Robotron & DUNDDW, Split LP
Lammping, Better Know Better EP
Monolord, It’s All the Same EP
Mordor Truckers, Nowhere
Nerver & Chat Pile, Brothers in Christ Split
Night Fishing, Live Bait EP
Oxblood Forge, Cult of Oblivion
Zack Oakley, Demon Run / Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter EP
Severed Satellites, Aphelion EP
Space Queen, Nebula EP
Speck & Interkosmos, Split LP
Stöner, Boogie to Baja EP
Suspiriorium, Suspiriorum EP
Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Destination Ceres Station: Reefersleep EP
Ufomammut, Crookhead EP
Vokonis, Exist Within Light EP
Weedevil & Electric Cult, Cult of Devil Sounds Split LP
The Whims of the Great Magnet, Same New Single
Notes:
In keeping with their history of releasing EPs ahead of their LPs, Mars Red Sky this Spring offered the Mars Red Sky & Queen of the Meadow short outing as a preface to Dawn of the Dusk (number five on the big list), but with just three songs it became one of the releases I listened to most this year. I had “Maps of Inferno” on repeat to a degree that was kind of embarrassing to me even in front of family, and since the EP was basically that, the companion “Out at Large,” which isn’t on the full-length, and an edit that cuts out most of the trippy midsection of “Maps of Inferno” so that it all the more hammers groove into your head in what drummer Matgaz very kindly explained to me was 4/4 timing with three extra beats. Good luck following along to his kick on what seems like such a straightforward nod. What a band. I’m not doing a separate section for it, but “Maps of Inferno” was also hands-down my song of the year.
You can see above, it’s a pretty broad mix, both of release types, of new and older acts, and of styles. I’ve been hailing Vokonis’ better-future queer prog-doom on the regular, and Josiah, Monolord and Ufomammut’s EPs were nothing if not listenable. I dug the first outing from Suspiriorum (mems. Destroyer of Light and more) and hope they continue to flesh out their cult-horror ambience, and Severed Satellites’ (mems. Sixty Watt Shaman, etc.) jams set just right in their Marylander groove. Lammping will likely be on some list of mine until they break up — I’m hooked — and Zack Oakley’s funk also resonated. From the warm heavy psych of Cervus to The Bridesmaid’s all-in-on-far-out experimentalism, a victory lap from Stöner after two quality LPs and the High Desert Queen and Blue Heron split that’s another landmark in Ripple’s ongoing ‘Turned to Stone’ series, it’s been a good year if you’re willing to be distracted bouncing from one thing immediately to the next, which apparently I am.
It’s no coincidence Aawks are on the list twice, and I haven’t reviewed that Black Glow EP yet (it’s in the next Quarterly Review), but it’s a gem as well. Also very interested to see where The Freqs go as a new voice in heavy rock from Boston, and Night Fishing (mems. Abrams) feel like they’re just starting to find what they’re looking for, but this year was also their first and second releases, so they’re on their way. Grin’s assault was furious, and Beastwars always tick that box as well. I continue to dig the vibe of Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships and look forward to more from them, and same goes for both DUNDDW and Bloodsports here, as well as both Apollo80 and Dimartis on that split. Burning Sister took advantage of an opportunity to expand on their sound, and their take on Mudhoney’s “When Tomorrow Comes” was overflowing with love for the source material. If you can’t get behind a band being fans, I’m not sure what we’re doing here.
Because a ‘short release’ can be so much, I won’t call this list complete. If you have a single you loved, or an EP or split or anything else of the sort, and you don’t see it above, please just leave a comment. Maybe I left off something crucial. Maybe you can put me onto something awesome I didn’t hear. I’ll take it either way, and only ask again please be kind.
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Live Album of the Year
Ecstatic Vision, Live at Duna Jam
Other notable live albums:
The Atomic Bitchwax, Live at Freak Valley
Causa Sui, Loppen 2021
Dool, Visions of Summerland
Duel, Live at Hellfest
Edena Gardens, Live Momentum
King Buffalo, Live at Burning Man
Messa, Live at Roadburn
Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Live in NY
Rainbows Are Free, Heavy Petal Music
Sacri Monti, Live at Sonic Whip
Temple Fang, Live at Freak Valley
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue
Villagers of Ioannina City, Through Space and Time
Notes:
This isn’t a huge list, but it’s burners front to back, and in that regard there’s little in the heavy underground, certainly toward the maddened-space-psych end of it, that can touch Ecstatic Vision’s intense performance ethic. If they’re not yet, I firmly believe the Philadelphia outfit led by guitarist/vocalist Doug Sabolick (also guitar for Author & Punisher) are on their way to having their reputation as a live band precede them, and Live at Duna Jam is further evidence that it should. Issued through Heavy Psych Sounds, it both captured the four-piece’s ultra-dead-on cosmic blast, but it paired that with the theatre-of-the-mind romance of Duna Jam itself; the best-kept-secret-in-heavy week-long unofficial festival held each year in Sardinia is the ultimate escapist daydream. That combination was just too powerful to ignore.
King Buffalo’s surprise Live at Burning Man release will do well to hold over till their next full-length, and I’ll just tell you flat out that no home should be without Causa Sui’s Loppen 2021. Uncle Acid’s first live outing was somewhat obligatory but welcome, and Messa’s Live at Roadburn celebrated the emergence of that genre-blending Italian unit as one of the most essential up and coming bands in Europe. They also made their first appearance on North American shores this year. One suspects it won’t be their last.
I’ll be very much anticipating what’s next from Sacri Monti, Duel, Causa Sui (of course), Temple Fang and actually the rest on this list, which leads us to…
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Looking Ahead to 2024
You’re almost there. Just keep going. Special thanks to the folks in The Obelisk Collective on Facebook for the help on rounding up this hopefully-alphabetized list of names:
10,000 Years, Acid Mammoth, Apostle of Solitude, Big Scenic Nowhere, Bismarck, Blue Heron, Castle Rat, Coogans Bluff, Crystal Spiders, Curse the Son, Deer Creek, DVNE, Foot, Full Earth, Fu Manchu, Greenleaf, Hashtronaut, Heavy Temple, High on Fire, Horseburner, Iota, Ironrat, King Buffalo, Kungens Män, Lamassu, Mammoth Caravan, Mammoth Volume, Maragda, Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers, Monarch, Monkey3, Moura, My Diligence, The Obsessed, Orange Goblin, Psychlona, Red Mesa, Rhino, Ruff Majik, Sacri Monti, Sasquatch, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Slift, Slomosa, Spirit Mother, Stonebride, Troy the Band, Ufomammut, Unida, Vitskär Süden, Vokonis, Weedpecker, and just because they should probably be on this list every year until a new record comes out if one ever actually does: Om.
If you’ve got names here too, the more the merrier, comment button is below.
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THANK YOU
This has not been a minor undertaking, whether or not you count the fact that I started keeping notes for 2023 in 2022, just like right now I’ve already got notes going for 2024. It never stops. But every year, I feel like this is among the most important things this site puts out and I use these lists all the time for reference, looking back on what was happening where and when, what came out when, etc. I hope you also find something useful here. I don’t have an exact count, but just by estimate there are at least somewhere between 200-300 bands talked above above. It’s a lot. It’s overwhelming. But I hope you can find something that sounds like it’s speaking directly to you, because I know that I have several times over. Any one of my top five picks I consider an ‘album of the year,’ if that’s a decent place to start.
Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for her support, love and inexplicable willingness to put up with my crap. Right this second, she is keeping our daughter hooked into a going-late morning loaf in bed I think specifically until I get up from the couch, go in the other room, and declare I’m about to start The Pecan’s breakfast, which I probably should’ve done like an hour ago. I am luckier than I am able most days to realize, and I’m working on that, and it is the beauty and flat-out amazing nature of the two people with whom I share our home that is the reason why it’s worth that effort.
I’m sure I said as much above, but I believe in art. I believe in creativity. I believe these things are a path to fulfillment that lives without them do not experience. There are ups and downs to everything, and any glorious creative individual is just as likely to be their own worst critic, but isn’t that still worth it too? Don’t we move forward anyway, because what’s the other choice?
I thank you for reading a lot. I’ll do it again now: Thanks for reading. Your support is the reason this site is still here. It’s why it’s worth it to me to take hours from days stretched across the better part of a week (I actually finished early, thanks again to The Patient Mrs.) to do this in the first place, let alone entertain the notion of doing so again next December and on into some unknown measure of perpetuity.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you’re seeing these words, I wish you and yours the best of everything for fucking ever, and cannot begin to tell you how much I value your time and willingness to spend it here.
Taking tomorrow off, but after that, we go as ever: onward.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Today, Brooklynite sunshine heavy rock trio The Golden Grass announce the addition of Don Berger on bass. Berger comes to the group — or ‘groop’ if you prefer — after playing in Rattlesnake with The Golden Grass‘ founding drummer/vocalist Adam Kriney (also La Otracina, etc.) and will take the place of Frank Caira, who had joined in 2015.
Caira‘s time in the band led him to appear on their two latest full-lengths, 2018’s Absolutely (review here) and earlier-2023’s Life is Much Stranger (review here), which saw the band return a bit to simplified traditionalist ’70s structures after a more progressive turn on the third record. It’s early to think about them hitting the studio again, obviously, but they’ve got two long weekenders lined up for this Fall — including the Heavy Psych Sounds Fest in NYC and Baltimore — and those should help the new dynamic get settled.
I’m not sure if Berger is adding vocals to those of Kriney and guitarist Michael Rafalowich — harmony being an important part of what they do — but we’ll find out sooner or later. Maybe even at a show. The band sent the following down the PR wire:
THE GOLDEN GRASS is thrilled to announce new bassist, the fabulous Don Berger, who had previously collaborated with drummer Adam Kriney in the heavier Southern-rock vibed group RATTLESNAKE.
Don joins the band on the heels of the band’s uber successful April 2023 European Tour and the recent release of their 4th studio album “Life Is Much Stranger”, issued on the Heavy Psych Sounds Label.
And in true Golden Grass fashion, the boys wasted NO time getting Mr Berger into the fold, and are happy to now reveal the details of their upcoming November 2023 USA Tour! The Boogie Rolls ON!
THE GOLDEN GRASS 2023 USA TOUR Wed Nov 1 – Allentown PA Soft Machine Gallery w/ THE BIG SHABOOZIE Thur Nov 2 – Pittsburgh PA Brillobox w/ SWEAT, OUTSIDE INSIDE Fri Nov 3 – Asheville NC Fleetwood’s w/ ROCKY MOUNTAIN ROLLER, ROUGAROU Sat Nov 4 – Richmond VA Cobra Cabana w/ SINISTER HAZE, MISTER EARTHBOUND, PHANTOM STEEL ***** Wed Nov 8 – Troy NY No Fun w/ FLAVOUR Thur Nov 9 – Kingston NY Tubby’s w/ SUN VOYAGER Fri Nov 10 – Brooklyn NY Saint Vitus Bar – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest NYC Sat Nov 11 – Baltimore MD Metro Gallery – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Baltimore
THE GOLDEN GRASS is: Adam Kriney – drums/lead vocals Michael Rafalowich – electric guitar/lead vocals Don Berger – electric bass guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Two bands left to announce, huh? Well, having been in Baltimore earlier this month to see them, Holy Fingers would sure as shit be a welcome addition to this bill, and if Heavy Temple are back from Europe by then (and I’m not sure they will be), they’d be my other pick, though certainly Heavy Psych Sounds wouldn’t be out of line to tap either Ecstatic Vision or Ruby the Hatchet for those spots, again pending their availability.
Whoever remains to be added, it’s already a pretty sick bill for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 in New York and Baltimore. Bongzilla‘s new record will be out by then, The Golden Grass put out a banger this year, that Gozu album is a beast, so yeah, toss in Lüger from Montreal and The Atomic Bitchwax who are always welcome, add even more cool bands, and it’s a Heavy Psych Sounds Fest. At the Saint Vitus Bar. I remember a time when nobody went to heavy rock shows in New York. Not a label from Italy is hosting a festival in Brooklyn. Time is very, very weird.
I’m gonna say that’s enough since you probably stopped reading anyhow, skimmed the lineup and clicked off, either to buy tickets or elsewhere. Safe travels, either way.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York & Baltimore to take place on November 10-11th with Bongzilla, The Atomic Bitchwax and more; tickets on sale
In cooperation with Saint Vitus Bar and Savage Party, Heavy Psych Sounds Records take over the East Coast with the first edition of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York & Baltimore, to take place respectively at Saint Vitus Bar and Metro Gallery on November 10-11th, 2023. Ten bands are already confirmed, don’t wait to get your tickets!
“We are stoked to organize one of our HPS Fests on the US East Coast for the very first time! After conquering the West Coast in March, we are ready to rock the East Coast too!” says Rajko Dolhar from Heavy Psych Sounds.
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York 2023 Saint Vitus Bar – 1120 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222 BUY TICKETS
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Baltimore 2023 Metro Gallery – 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201 BUY TICKETS
With BONGZILLA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX HIGH REEPER THE GOLDEN GRASS GEEZER BLACK LUNG WITCHPIT COSMIC REAPER GOZU LÜGER + two more bands TBA
They’re not wrong, you know, about the strangeness. When Brooklyn trio The Golden Grass, born a decade ago out of the harmony-prone collaboration between vocalist/guitarist Michael Rafalowich and vocalist/drummer Adam Kriney, released their first tape, 456th Div. (review here), it was a different time. And make no mistake, life was pretty strange then too, but the sunshiny melodic focus and unironic classic early-1970s heavy rock spirit they wrought on that 2013 EP and their subsequent, Svart-issued 2014 self-titled full-length debut (review here) distinguished them as an unapologetically optimistic presence in the heavy underground.
Throughout the remainder of heavy ’10s, The Golden Grass grew increasingly progressive, signing to Listenable Records for 2016’s Coming Back Again (review here) — their first with bassist/backing vocalist Frank Caira in the lineup — and their 2018 third album, Absolutely (review here), while touring internationally, amassing a reputation as craft-minded artists digging into their approach with a mind toward continued growth and flourishing of sound, and a sound that was made to flourish and grow. Melody, always, at the core.
That was half a decade ago, and what a five years it’s been. They did the live album, Heavy Colour in 2020, and the title-track of 2019’s 100 Arrows EP (review here) appears as the centerpiece on their fourth long-player, the Heavy Psych Sounds-delivered Life is Much Stranger, so at least some of the material on the seven-song/37-minute offering dates back that far, and you’ll pardon me if I spare you (and myself) recounting the multifaceted and encompassing trauma clusterfuck that the unfolding of the 2020s was and still is, but it leaves the looming question over Life is Much Stranger: is there a place in this world for The Golden Grass?
Life is Much Stranger opens with its longest piece (immediate points) in the six-minute “Howlin'” (premiered here) and the first lyrics of the record as delivered by Kriney would seem to be an acknowledgement of the bent timeline in which the album manifests. The initial verse begins, “I just don’t wanna carry on/’Cuz all my friends are dead and gone,” and has been the case all along in their work, that’s not accidental. The Golden Grass have always been a considered band, and that remains true on Life is Much Stranger as, they mostly take the issue head on, and much of what follows is informed by that perspective laid out right there in “Howlin’.”
Note that it’s not “I can’t carry on,” it’s “I don’t wanna.” This is a huge difference in terms of where the speaker is coming from in terms of mental state. Elsewhere in the proceedings, they explore the somewhat cynical “Not Without its Charm” — that cynicism is set to tambourine-inclusive Humble Pie-style funk boogie, mind you — and twisting leads from Rafalowich over Kriney‘s steady snare taps in “Island in Your Head” on side A, its proto-metallic central riff nestled a companion for second cut “Springtime on Stanwoods,” the “she’s a bad go-getter” chorus there feeling more like escapism than narrative after the confession of the opener, even with the woodblock keeping time. For a band whose initial purpose was in no small part to keep it light, some of the sentiment on Life is Much Stranger feels pretty heavy.
But if one would ask why, look no further than the title. Recorded by Andrea Zavareei, Lou DeRose and Kriney (who also helmed additional tracking afterward) at Urban Spaceman in Brooklyn with mixing by Jeff Berner at Studio G and mastering by Myles Boisen at Headless Buddha, the overarching vibe of Life is Much Stranger is one of reclaiming that space that the band once occupied in their listeners’ consciousness. From less capable songwriters, the contradictions between theme and their sonic expression — that is, the feel of the tracks themselves — would be too incongruous to coincide, but The Golden Grass are accordingly fluid on Life is Much Stranger, true to what they’ve done in the past while seeking out new ways to groove in hard times.
Kriney and Rafalowich mostly swap lead vocal duties — Kriney starts with “Howlin'” while Rafalowich picks up “Springtime on Stanwoods,” Kriney does “Island in Your Head” and “100 Arrows,” Rafalowich “Not Without its Charm,” Kriney the penultimate “The Answers Never Know” and Rafalowich the closer “A Peculiar Situation” — while complementing each other’s work thoughtfully. They trade lines and verses (nothing is so one-or-the-other cut and dry), come together in the rampant hooks for lush but willfully unpretentious arrangements, with Caira backing while thickening the twisting progression at the finish of “Island in Your Head,” underscoring the prowling shuffle that emerges following the Scorpions-esque harmony about 90 seconds into “The Answers Never Know,” and insuring via smoothness of tone in “A Peculiar Situation” that they cap on a highlight.
Across the span, the songs are bright in the high end, with shimmering guitar and outgoing vocals working against the more introverted aspects, and are perhaps that much more urgent for the sincerity of the search The Golden Grass are undertaking, which almost makes it a shame they already put out a record called Coming Back Again when one considers the back-at-it nature of this outing, arriving after the longest break between albums of the band’s career to-date. Rafalowich seems to answer Kriney direct in the first verse of “A Peculiar Situation” with the lines, “Trying to keep it together/But my mind’s like a restless child,” and that’s as much emblematic of the cohesion of purpose in The Golden Grass as the down/up nature of Life is Much Stranger as anything else, but one should not understate the sense of release in this material.
To most humans, finding catharsis in realizing existential angst in uptempo positivist boogie rock might be counterintuitive. It’s another day at the office for The Golden Grass, and they offer reassurance to their audience both in the ease of movement in “Island in Your Head” and the sweet jazzy meander tucked into “Springtime on Stanwoods” as well as the crisp, pro-shop production, chops-heavy-but-not-too-showy performances captured, and the unhurried nature of their transitions. Does Life is Much Stranger succeed in shaking off the negativity of its era? It’ll be impossible to know until they do another if they do (one never knows), but no question they take the untethered atmosphere of the time since Absolutely came out and use it to sculpt relatable and engaging songs, conveying exhaustion without giving the impression of actually being exhausted.
So, to return to the question, is there a place in this world for The Golden Grass? Was there ever? Is there a place for anyone? I’m not sure, but the fact remains that they tapped into something distinctly theirs 10 years ago, and in the tumult-defined years since have only managed to move it forward in style and substance. And there’s depth to Life is Much Stranger that goes beyond the layered voices singing out through the headphones. That they even made fourth record is heartening, never mind actually hearing the thing, and if offering comfort is going to be the hallmark of this era of their work, they appear ready for it and up to the task. They’re survivors and they sound like it.
It doesn’t feel like that long since the last time The Golden Grass had an album out until you remember that 2018 was five years ago. That record, Absolutely (review here), seemed to push its more progressive impulses against the band’s established modus of classic heavy rock, sometimes-boogie, sometimes-jammy songwriting. They issued their 100 Arrows EP (review here) in 2019 to take on tour in Europe, but the upcoming Life is Much Stranger is their first offering since then, and can anyone think of anything major that’s happened over the course of those years since? Hmm?
Yeah, you don’t have to go far to find at least an interpretation (if not the interpretation) for the title of The Golden Grass‘ fourth full-length, and while they emerge from the figurative plague-bunker like so many others, take a look around and assess the state of the world around them, the seven songs on Life is Much Stranger sound accordingly like a reset. I’ll spare you the review (for now), but in addition to the album announcement below, you’ll find the premiere of “Howlin’,” which is the opener and longest track (immediate points), on the player below, marrying together upbeat shuffle with bluesier lyrics. Recommend you dig into that and enjoy with the promise of more to come.
Life is Much Stranger is out April 7, 2023, as The Golden Grass‘ first release through Heavy Psych Sounds. Preorder link and more follows, courtesy of the PR wire:
Band quote: “The Golden Grass is thrilled to be an official part of the HPS family one of the best contemporary true underground heavy rock/psych labels! In 2012 while on tour with my old band La Otracina I was high on LSD and I wandered upon a late-night psychedelic Dunajam freakout on the beach in Sardinia Italy and immediately began drumming with them. After the music stopped is when I first met HPS label-head Gabriele who was playing bass in this impromptu supergroup. Since then we have stayed great friends and it has been a pleasure to watch his label grow exponentially and for HPS to become our natural new home! We look forward to growing with HPS and keeping shit weird heavy and boogie-ing into the wild unknowns!” – Adam/The Golden Grass
Band bio: Hard and heavy swinging progressive boogie rock…that’s THE GOLDEN GRASS! This NYC power trio embodies the glory of harmony filled catchy and tough rock n roll of the 60s/70s! But these boys are no revisionists! They are post-modern collagists connecting the dots between heavy glam rock boogie jazzy psychedelia stompin’ proto-metal bluesy prog rock and southern hard rock! They weave a NEW and NOW sonic tapestry a linear and logical aural narrative that pushes beyond and delivers a show stopping feel-good golden sound that is NEEDED in these dark times! Formed in 2013 the band has released an impressive discography on esteemed underground labels such as Svart Records Electric Assault Records Listenable Records and Who Can You Trust? Records. In 2023 they will release their 4th studio LP on Heavy Psych Sounds Records !!
THE GOLDEN GRASS is: Adam Kriney – drums/lead vocals Michael Rafalowich – electric guitar/lead vocals Frank Caira – electric bass guitar/backing vocals
