Posted in Whathaveyou on July 8th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Swedish heavy rockers Greenleaf have spent a decent portion of this year in celebration of the 25th anniversary of their self-titled debut EP (discussed here), and that indeed is a worthy cause. Looking back on that outing, its simple, organic nature is perfectly suited to nostalgia; it was something of a nostalgic sound to begin with. Something influenced by classics becoming classic. The march of generations, and such.
But of course, Greenleaf have more to offer than looking back. Their 2024 album, The Head and the Habit (review here), was supported by tours last Fall and this Spring, and the band will continue on in November, hitting the road for club dates in the post-fall-fest style. The tour runs nine days in Germany, Switzerland, France and Spain, which isn’t the most expansive run they’ve ever undertaken, but covers a decent amount of ground in the time allotted.
If you’ve never seen Greenleaf, hot they do the thing onstage is a big part of why I think of them as one of the best rock bands in the world. I’ve had the good fortune a few times at this point, and if you’re in their path, either for this tour or at any point, consider yourself lucky.
From Sound of Liberation on socials:
⚡️GREENLEAF – EUROPEAN TOUR 2025⚡️
Swedish stoner rock heavyweights Greenleaf are returning to the road this November, bringing their signature mix of thunderous riffs, fuzz-drenched grooves, and unstoppable live energy to clubs across Europe! 💥
Expect a wild ride of pure rock power – loud, heavy, and straight from the heart. Don’t sleep on this!
Here are the full tour dates: 21.11.2025 (DE) München, Feierwerk 22.11.2025 (CH) Aarau, Kiff 23.11.2025 (FR) Lyon, Rock’n Eat 24.11.2025 (FR) Toulouse, Rex 25.11.2025 (SP) Barcelona, Upload 26.11.2025 (SP) Madrid, Bolte 28.11.2025 (FR) Marseille, Molotov 29.11.2025 (CH) Martigny, Caves Du Manoir 30.11.2025 (FR) Colmar
Don’t miss this powerhouse live experience – tickets available now! 🎟️
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 27th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I don’t know if you saw, but in addition to Magnetic Eye recently reissuing most of Greenleaf‘s Small Stone Records era albums — 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here), 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (reissue review here) and 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here) — the Swedish rockers will also put out a special 25th anniversary edition next year of their self-titled debut EP (discussed here), originally released in 2000 through Tommi Holappa‘s Molten Universe imprint (anybody got a CD copy of the Molten Universe Vol. 1 compilation? I’ve been looking for years), long out of print and the kind of vinyl you see tagged with words like “rare,” priced accordingly.
The band have also just announced Spring 2025 European tour dates as they continue to support this year’s The Head and the Habit (review here), the latest in an ongoing thread of killer full-lengths. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they make the trip over for Ripplefest Texas / Desertfest New York as the closely-associated Dozer did in 2024. Greenleaf spent the bulk of this Fall on the road co-headlining with Slomosa, and as they’ll play both thus-far-announced Sound of Liberation anniversary parties and tour Australia and New Zealand over the winter, it seems only likely that more shows will be forthcoming. In the meantime, this tells us that High Desert Queen (from Austin, Texas) will trek abroad early next Spring, and that Belgium’s Gnome will likely have plenty going on as well.
This is eight shows. It’s eight good ones. Sound of Liberation posted the following:
GREENLEAF – THE TRICKING TREE TOUR 2025
Hey friends,
Greenleaf is hitting the road for The Tricking Tree Tour 2025!🌳🔥
Joining the ride: the mighty High Desert Queen, and on select dates, the epic Gnome!
DATES & CITIES:
28.03.25 (DE) Karlsruhe, SOL Psych Out 29.03.25 (DE) Cologne, SOL Sonic Ride ^ 30.03.25 (FR) Wasquehal, The Black Lab * 31.03.25 (FR) Paris, Backstage * 01.04.25 (FR) Nantes, Le Ferrailleur * 03.04.25 (NL) Deventer, Burgerweeshuis * ^ 04.04.25 (NL) Eindhoven, Effenaar * ^ 05.04.25 (DE) Aschaffenburg, Colos-Saal * ^
* High Desert Queen ^ Gnome
Tickets are flying – don’t miss out!
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
People and faces, horses and wolves in the mind, a tumult of inner and outer overwhelm; it’s no wonder that Greenleaf‘s ninth album, The Head and the Habit, starts with the reminder to “Breathe, Breathe Out” amid all the tumult. There’s more to it as well. 2024 makes it 10 years since 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here) introduced vocalist Arvid Hällagård to listeners. Hällagård stepped in to fill the significant shoes of Oskar Cedermalm (also Truckfighters), who had handled vocals on their two prior outings, and has gradually become a defining presence in the band. Never more so than on The Head and the Habit, which in addition to serving as a handy showcase for how the Swedish four-piece founded by guitarist Tommi Holappa (also Dozer) have taken shape in the last decade, is also the band’s first outing for Magnetic Eye after a trilogy of releases — 2021’s Echoes From a Mass (review here), 2018’s Hear the Rivers (review here) and 2016’s Rise Above the Meadow (review here) — issued through Napalm Records.
Hällagård fronts the band — Holappa, bassist Hans Fröhlich and drummer Sebastian Olsson — with marked presence in the material, and with the somewhat contrasting pair of shorter, subdued blues cuts “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” positioned at the end of each side, his soulful delivery has become an essential facet in the band’s consistently evolving dynamic, as well as the symmetry of this LP in its own right. Greenleaf has seen a number of vocalists (not to mention bassists or drummers) come and go, between Fredrik Nordin (Dozer), Peder Bergstrand (Lowrider). and Cedermalm, but the nine songs of The Head and the Habit wouldn’t function as they do with another singer. In framing the lyrics around his experience as a counselor, handling the cover art (Lili Krischke also contributed to the layout) and recording whatever of his own performance wasn’t captured by the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (who once upon a time drummed in Greenleaf, lest we forget) at Studio Gröndahl in Stockholm, Hällagård‘s work in cuts like the duly charging “Different Horses” or the eight-minute side B apex “The Tricking Tree” cannot be discounted as part of the band’s persona, especially as they lean further into their own version of a heavy blues sound.
That’s not to say The Head and the Habit lacks for thrust, but where Echoes From a Mass edged closer than ever in terms of riffing to the intensity Holappa might proffer with Dozer — whose first album in 15 years, Drifting in the Endless Void (review here), came out in 2023 on Blues Funeral — this 43-minute collection feels more dug into Greenleaf‘s distinguishing elements. The meandering solo before “The Tricking Tree” slams into its final, nodding roll, answering back to the weight wrought in the likely-titled-for-its-tumbling-riff second cut “Avalanche” much as “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” or even the hooky “Breathe, Breathe Out” and its side-B-opening counterpart “The Sirens Sound” serve as complements. The structure of the record puts one additional song on side A, but the cohesiveness and clarity of purpose throughout — as well as the breadth of the mix/master Lidén at his Tri-Lamb Studios — allows Greenleaf to shift intention from one track to the next without losing sight of where they are in the overarching progression.
The result is that The Head and the Habit flows smoothly despite conveying a bumpier path in theme and sound. Part of what makes it a success is the swagger put into a piece like “Oh Dandelion,” with its start-stop verse and twisting chorus, but as Greenleaf once again diverge from Dozer in terms of style, it’s the bluesier nature underlying even the shove of “Different Horses” or the foreboding “A Wolf in My Mind” — the hook of which brings the album’s title line — that comes into focus as being crucial to the songs. From the righteous shaky-cam rumbles of tone in “Avalanche” to Holappa‘s wistful leads in “An Alabastrine Smile,” as heavy and loud and brash or as quiet, lonely and contemplative as they want to get, it all becomes part of a take that is inextricably Greenleaf while reorienting the band’s position in terms of style, pulling in a direction they seem to be charting as they go.
This is exciting enough in concept — Greenleaf are approaching the 25th anniversary of 2000 their self-titled EP (discussed here); such ongoing creative development is rare regardless of how personnel factors in — but none of it would matter if the songs didn’t hold up. Fortunately, they do. It’s hardly the first time the band have been catchy and able to pack an emotional punch, but they continue to make it sound easier than it actually is from “Breathe, Breathe Out” on. And even in “The Tricking Tree,” with its earlier bashing away and pre-midpoint departure into mellower, jammier, bassier fare, they hold a sense of energy that is individual, unquestionably theirs. Olsson‘s drumming can’t be discounted in keeping the material fluid, but this incarnation of Greenleaf has put in the time on stage and in the studio to win their chemistry as a collective, and the strength of craft across The Head and the Habit feels like its own reward. It’s not just Holappa‘s riffs — though that might be enough, considering — or Hällagård‘s vocals, the character in Fröhlich‘s bass or Olsson‘s drums; it’s how they come together around these songs, which vary in shape but are largely unflinching in quality.
Any album a given band might release is a marker of an ‘era’ in terms of encapsulating a time in that band’s existence — and, obviously, all things end at some point or another; Greenleaf don’t owe anyone anything and have precious little to prove, though they keep proving it anyhow — but The Head and the Habit seems so much to look ahead and to so fervently bask in what makes Greenleaf who they are nearly a quarter-century on that one can’t help but think of it as the realization of what their last decade has been driving toward. A to-date culmination made all the more vital by the high level of performance, the almost deceptively tight songwriting, and the fullness of scope in its component pieces and the flow between them. They’re a special band, and to call The Head and the Habit one of 2024’s best in heavy rock feels like limiting its appeal in terms of time and underselling the growth that’s led Greenleaf to this point — it’s part of a story bigger than itself — but it’s true just the same.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A couple raw stats here to start. Greenleaf‘s ninth LP, The Head and the Habit, is out June 21 on Magnetic Eye. Slomosa‘s second album, the title of which I don’t think is public yet, is scheduled to arrive later this year (presumably before this tour) through Stickman Records. And Psychlona, who also signed to Magnetic Eye at the end of 2023, reportedly just finished tracking their own upcoming album this past week.
Three killer bands touring with new music, is the upshot. It’s emblematic of the continued ascent of Norwegian four-piece Slomosa to the forefront of the European heavy underground that they’re co-headlining with a band who’ve been around for about 25 years, but as the single “Cabin Fever” (video premiered here) makes plain, their intent is to continue the significant momentum behind them at this point, and no doubt this Fall tour — hitting Into the Void in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, Up in Smoke in Switzerland, and Keep it Low in Germany on the Sound of Liberation October festival circuit — will help them do that.
For Greenleaf, the tour announcement comes coupled with the unveiling of “Avalanche,” the duly-tumbling-of-groove second single from The Head and the Habit, which seems nestled into its hook for the duration until… well, I won’t spoil it. But if you think maybe they named the song after the riff, I’ll agree that it’s a definite possibility. At very least, they’d have been well justified in doing so.
Who’s first on the poster depends on whose poster you’re seeing — note the two below — but ‘Habit of the Tundra’ starts Sept. 30 either way. The below is from multiple PR wire sources, so maybe reads a bit choppy, but if you find the dates and the music, you’ll get the idea anyhow. Have at it:
Swedish heavy rockers GREENLEAF reveal a sparkling lyric video for the groovy ten-ton track ‘Avalanche’ as the next single from their forthcoming full-length “The Head & The Habit”, which is scheduled for release on June 21, 2024 via Magnetic Eye Records! In support of “The Head & The Habit”, GREENLEAF have just announced European live dates of the “Habit of the Tundra Tour” with Norwegian desert rockers SLOMOSA and support from PSYCHLONA for autumn 2024.
Following first, previously-released new singles, “Cabin Fever” as well as “Rice”, taken off their forthcoming studio album, Norwegian desert rock upstarters SLOMOSA have confirmed a European Tour with Swedish heavy groove rockers GREENLEAF, who are currently gearing up for the release of their new album “The Head & The Habit” (June 21st via Magnetic Eye Records)! Make sure to catch this killer tour package live at the dates below:
GREENLEAF & SLOMOSA w/ PSYCHLONA 30 SEP 2024 Leipzig (DE) Werk2 01 OCT 2024 Berlin (DE) Lido 02 OCT 2024 (DE) Hamburg (DE) Gruenspan 03 OCT 2024 Köln (DE) Club Volta 04 OCT 2024 Bielefeld (DE) Forum 05 OCT 2024 Leeuwarden (NL) Into the Void 06 OCT 2024 Pratteln (CH) Up in Smoke 07 OCT 2024 Innsbruck (AT) PMK 09 OCT 2024 Wien (AT) Arena 10 OCT 2024 Zagreb (HR) Vintage Industrial Bar 11 OCT 2024 Graz (AT) PPC 12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
SLOMOSA are: Benjamin Berdous – Vocals/guitar Marie Moe – Vocals/bass Tor Erik Bye – Guitar Jard Hole – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Well, the album was the missing piece to Greenleaf spending much of the rest of 2024 on tour supporting a new album, so this little bit of paperwork takes care of that. The announcement just came through and brings the first single “Breathe, Breathe Out” from the record in question, titled The Head and the Habit and due June 26 through Magnetic Eye Records, which I haven’t even had time yet to hear owing to the domestic whathaveyou of a given morning. I’ll get there as soon as possible, to be sure. [EDIT: Got there. The video is charming and the song feels right on. Duh, I’m stoked for the record.]
Expect summer and autumn tours around the fest appearances listed below, more to come on the album, and, well, probably a lot of me nerding out about Greenleaf coinciding with all of it. I’ve been lucky enough to see the band a couple times in the last few years, and in addition to being gentlemen of the highest order, they’re brilliant on stage. Catch them if you can.
More later. This now:
GREENLEAF release first video single ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ and details of new album “The Head & The Habit”!
Swedish heavy rockers GREENLEAF release the tongue-in-cheek video clip and super catchy tune ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ as the first driving single taken from their forthcoming full-length “The Head & The Habit”, which is slated for release on June 26, 2024 via Magnetic Eye Records!
The video ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ combines the struggles of great parenting with social commentary on the generational gap and film directing.
“The first single ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ conveys a message of self-reflection and resilience”, explains vocalist Arvid Hällagård. “The repetition of the chorus emphasizes the importance of taking a moment to relax and let go of negative emotions. The overall theme encourages embracing one’s current state, appreciating what you have, and navigating through life with a sense of control and acceptance. I’ve had to teach these things to myself during the last couple of years. This is also the overall theme of the album, the head and its habits.”
With their ninth full-length “The Head & The Habit”, GREENLEAF have reached the pinnacle of a long evolution. The musical handwriting and well-honed mastery of guitarist Tommi Holappa, who has been a pioneer and pillar of the European stoner rock scene for more than 25 years, shines clearly through. This is perfectly complemented by the soulfulness, intuitive sense of melody, and depth of character that the vocals of classically-trained singer Arvid Hällagård brings to the sound of GREENLEAF.
Apart from world-class vocal lines and massive riffs with electric fuzz-power, GREENLEAF have put extra thought into the themes of “The Head & The Habit”, which lift its lyrics far above much of the often cliché-ridden genre. As the album title implies, the new songs resemble symbolic short stories that revolve around emotional struggles and even mental illness. Written by the vocalist, the lyrics reflect real life experience as Hällagård works with people who suffer from problems with drug abuse and psychological health.
Tracklist: 1. Breathe, Breathe Out 2. Avalanche 3. Different Horses 4. A Wolfe in My Mind 5. That Obsidian Grin 6. The Sirens Sound 7. Oh Dandelion 8. The Tricking Tree 9. An Alabastrine Smile
GREENLEAF Live: 2 APR 2024 Barcelona (ES) BCN @ Sala Upload 3 APR 2024 Bilbao (ES) Bullitt Groove Club 04 APR 2024 Avilés (ES) Factoria Sound 05 APR 2024 Porto (PT) Hard Club 06 APR 2024 Madrid (ES) Wurlitzer Ballroom 05 JUN 2024 London (UK) Stoomfest 12 June 2024 Erfurt (DE) Stoned from the Underground 31 AUG 2024 Aarschot (BE) Down the Hill 12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low
Recording with Karl Daniel Lidén at Studio Gröndahl, Stockholm (SE) Additional vocals recorded by Arvid Hällagård at Studio Baking Cabin Mix by Karl Daniel Lidén in Tri-lamb Studios, Stockholm (SE) Mastering by Karl Daniel Lidén in Tri-lamb Studios, Stockholm (SE)
Artwork by Arvid Hällagård Layout by Arvid Hällagård & Lili Krischke
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
