I have to admit, I’m having some trouble processing this one. What’s weird about it — well, there are a few things weird about it if we’re honest, but what’s weirdest to me is it doesn’t feel like that long. Not like I don’t believe it — I’ve lived the 17 years, no question — but that the 17 years itself, that lump sum, feels like not so much in the grand scheme.

And on the level of a lifetime, or, say, the universe, it’s not. But in rock and roll, that’s over a generation, easy. I’m 44 years old, and that means I’ve spent a significant portion of my life dedicated to… a music blog? Is that what this is? Is that who I am?

I guess it must be. Sounds kind of lame on paper — is ‘blog’ still a slur for unprofessional? does anyone care? — but living it feels pretty lucky. To wit, I’m writing from Las Vegas, where I’m staying for a festival at the home of a friend I’d likely never have made without music, and I can both look back on and look forward to more experiences like this in more places this year, in years past, and on from here. I have seen and experienced things I didn’t know people could do. I’ve listened to more music to write this dinky blog than most people hear in a lifetime. I have a wife, a kid, a car. My family is healthy. I own a home. I don’t work full-time. I pulled the Master Sword the other day in The Wind Waker (again). If I believed in ‘blessed,’ I’d call myself that.

The world is burning, has burned, but apparently life is at least in part about finding a pocket to put yourself in. A community. While I may be the guy in the community who’s over in the corner writing because he’s too awkward to exist around humans, at least I have a corner to be in. That’s something that I didn’t anticipate 17 years ago, and I appreciate it more than I am able to put into words.

So — finally we get to the reason we’re here — thank you.

I don’t think I’m going to do this forever. I don’t have a plan. I know I’d like to hit 20 years because numbers are fun and then I assume keep going because what else have I got going on, but that’s a goal, but not necessarily a finish line. Could I still be doing this when I’m 60 and the site is 33 years old? I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought it would go as long as it has. I honestly didn’t.

But apparently when you keep doing a thing, it keeps getting done, and maybe that’s the lesson for me of the last 17 years.

Thanks for reading. I don’t know what this year is going to bring yet, as regards travel, life, horrors, any of it, but I appreciate you being along for this trip with me.

Thanks to The Patient Mrs., The Pecan, my family, my wife’s family (very much also my family), Slevin who’s been there to help me and hand-hold my inept ass through having a website since websites were a thing people had, Behrang Alavi for the ongoing generosity in hosting and technical assistance, and everyone in my life for understanding how much I actually need to be doing this. I’ll go till I don’t feel like I need it in my day anymore. That’s the answer. That doesn’t feel like it’s going to happen anytime soon, so I guess I’ll keep going.

And no, political commentary isn’t going away. I write about my life and I take fascism personally. Grow up. Fuck ICE.

Much love, gratitude and freedom,

JJ Koczan

Jan. 31, 2026

Every year is different, and the 2025 year-end poll was a reminder of that. Styles develop over time, bands age out and new ones come in. I look at this results and it feels transitional, but to some degree or other, doesn’t it always? Even when there’s a clear winner from day one — and it was about day three this year; last year as I recall was tighter among the top results; it varies — we see over time the development of styles, the ebbs and flows of trend, and the rise and fall of fortunes.

Thank you to the over 255 people who took part in this year’s poll. The elephant in the room for me is that that number is down from past years, but The Obelisk didn’t have a Facebook page for half of December, so promoting was more difficult than it’s been. Hard to put things in front of eyes, though I still managed. Thanks as well to Blues Funeral Recordings, Howling Giant, Black Moon Cult and others who also shared the link around and helped to promote. That is always greatly appreciated.

As I have many, many times over, here are the rules cut and pasted. They don’t change:

Anything from Jan. 2025 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. If something is out digitally now and physical later and you want to include it, do. Two lists are tabulated; one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

Got it? Cool. Let’s jump in.

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Top 20 of 2025 — Weighted Results

1. Howling Giant, Crucible & Ruin (380 points)
2. Kal-El, Astral Voyager Vol. 1 (314)
3. Messa, The Spin (242)
4. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust (205)
5. Temple Fang, Lifted From the Wind (193)
6. Elder, Liminality/Dream State Return (147)
7. Naxatras, V (129)
8. Castle Rat, The Bestiary (127)
8. Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon (127)
9. Stoned Jesus, Songs to Sun (123)
10. Year of the Cobra, Year of the Cobra (121)
11. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) (119)
12. Conan, Violence Dimension (115)
13. Goya, In the Dawn of November (103)
14. Pelican, Flickering Resonance (100)
15. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths (94)
16. Maha Sohona, A Dark Place (89)
17. Bask, The Turning (88)
17. Faetooth, Labyrinthine (88)
18. Witchcraft, Idag (86)
19. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon (82)
20. Kaiser, 2nd Sound (77)

Honorable Mention:

The next 10: Kadavar (I Just Want to Be a Sound), Paradise Lost, Margarita Witch Cult, Rwake, Godzillionaire, Slomatics, Psychonaut, Bone Church, Borracho, Yawning Man.

Notes:

I’m not mad about it. I’m not surprised to see Messa and Castle Rat feature prominently here, and I’m not surprised that Howling Giant came out on top. Obviously that’s one I agree with. Kal-El had a strong showing, arguing in favor of accessibility and largesse in heavy rock, and Khan making their presence felt seems appropriate here, pushing the style of progressive heavy rock forward as they are.

Some reliable veteran names in Elder, Lo-Pan, Stoned Jesus, Conan, Pelican, Witchcraft, Bask, and Year of the Cobra, and some upstarts in Black Moon Cult, Kryptograf, Kaiser, Maha Sohona and the aforementioned Messa and Castle Rat, I was glad to see Temple Fang show up big, kind of surprised Witchcraft didn’t get more love, but I guess time marches on. There’s a lot here to like, and accordingly, I like a lot of it. If you were to use this as a listening guide, one way or the other, your life would be improved.

Now to the raw votes.

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Top 20 of 2025 — Raw Votes

1. Howling Giant, Crucible & Ruin (91 votes)
2. Kal-El, Astral Voyager (76)
3. Messa, The Spin (62)
4. Khan, That Fair and Warlike Form/Return to Dust (48)
4. Temple Fang, Lifted From the Wind (48)
5. Year of the Cobra, Year of the Cobra (39)
5. Stoned Jesus, Songs to Sun (39)
6. Elder, Liminality/Dream State Return (38)
7. Conan, Violence Dimension (37)
7. Naxatras, V (37)
8. Black Moon Cult, Ophidian Future (The Children of Yig) (36)
8. Lo-Pan, Get Well Soon (36)
9. Castle Rat, The Bestiary (35)
10. Goya, In the Dawn of November (31)
11. Faetooth, Labyrinthine (29)
12. Kryptograf, Kryptonomicon (26)
13. Margarita Witch Cult, Strung Out in Hell (25)
14. Bask, The Turning (24)
14. Maha Sohona, A Dark Place (24)
14. Seedy Jeezus, Damned to the Depths (24)
15. Kadavar, I Just Want to Be a Sound (23)
16. Godzillionaire, Diminishing Returns (21)
17. Slomatics, Atomicult (20)
17. Yawning Man, Pavement Ends (20)
18. Borracho, Ouroboros (19)
18. Kadavar, K.A.D.A.V.A.R. (19)
18. Winds of Neptune, Winds of Neptune (19)
19. Bone Church, Deliverance (18)
19. Causa Sui, In Flux (18)
19. Dead Meadow, Voyager to Voyager (19)
20. Paradise Lost, Ascension (17)

Notes:

First of all, no honorable mentions for a top 20 that has more than 30 entries on it. Let’s be reasonable.

Not a ton of surprises here after the weighted results above, but some interesting shuffling of place in the top 10, with Year of the Cobra faring better on the vote tally than the points, and Khan and Temple Fang tying here. Given Khan’s proggy expanse and Temple Fang’s longform meditative serenity, I imagine them in league, like, “same team” for dudes pushing heavy forward. As will happen, there were more ties this time around, Khan and Temple Fang being the first, and I wanted to include those too since, I don’t know, it seemed fair and when you believe in things like basic process transparency you end up making a list that includes its own honorable mentions. I do, anyhow.

I am not unaware that someone voted for Black Moon Cult 20 or however many times, and it’s not that I don’t care, it’s that I know that the people who read this site are intelligent enough to look at what they see with a critical eye. I count the votes as they come in, and as I’ve said in years past, I respect the hustle. If someone else’s work means enough to you to vote for it 20 times, the least I can do is honor that. If it’s someone from the band willing to put themselves out there when all the lists are published, well, isn’t that also something to honor? “I wish I was old enough to feel ways about stuff,” as Fry once said.

Bottom line, it’s a good list, and years from now when I look back at it (and yes, I assume I’m the only person who will), I’ll be glad for the shape it took in representing 2025 in underground heavy, and I guarantee you I’ll still be discovering things from all the lists included below. Because it’s infinite, so far as my feeble people-brain can process, and every year brings more than you could ever hope to enjoy in such a limited amount of time.

—

The same is true of life, at least in some ways.

It’s 2026 now, so we leave 2025 behind what feels like not a moment too soon in order to face the same terrible and stupid times, just with a different number attached. The happy news is the music is good, which is fortunate because if the last 12 months were anything to judge by, it’s going to need to be.

I leave you with everybody’s list. Note I forgot to include my own. Literally didn’t think of it until after the poll was closed. Idiota vagyok, one might say in Hungarian.

Always next year I guess.

Thanks for reading and click/push ‘read more’ to enjoy the lists.

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Read more »

[PLEASE NOTE: This post will remain on top of the page until the poll ends in January. New posts will appear underneath. Thanks for scrolling.]

It is time for my favorite post of the year. This one. And no, not just because half of it is copied over from last year with the rules and such — because I frickin’ love the year-end poll.

This has absolutely become my metric for what people have dug each year, and especially in the results post with all the lists, I still find stuff a decade later that people were hip to that I’m just discovering. As a resource, it’s priceless.

Thanks if you participate this year by adding a list of 20 of your favorite releases. Any social media sharing is deeply appreciated as well. The Obelisk’s Facebook page got suspended (again, for nothing), so I need all the help I can get spreading the word.

The form is here, and the rules are copied over from last year below that:

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Thanks for reading and taking part. Please share the link if you can.

The rules don’t change, except in what year it is: Anything from Jan. 2025 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. If something is out digitally now and physical later and you want to include it, do. Two lists are tabulated; one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

I’m not saying it’s a throwaway, but don’t overthink it. Somebody other than me is laughing at that, I know. I keep notes all year of my top releases, and I still struggle sometimes to put a list together. Do your best, pick what feels right, and please have fun.

As always, my most heartfelt thanks to Slevin, without whom this site wouldn’t exist. Slevin puts together the poll every year, tabulates the results, and does so with the sweetest ‘you’re my friend so I don’t charge you for this and I probably should’ indulgence possible. His pick of the year seems to have been Butthole Surfers’ Electriclarryland. Fair enough.

Poll runs until Dec. 31, 2025. Barring disaster or if I decide to let it go a couple extra days, results will be out Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, along with individual lists.

Have fun, and thanks again!

—

It’s been a couple days by now, but I didn’t want to let any more time pass before I marked the 16th anniversary of the site. I don’t have a specific day — it’s “end of January” n my head — because putting the site together was kind of a weekend project with Slevin, who very kindly installed WordPress, registered the domain, and helped set me up so I could login and roll as I’ve done nearly every day in the 16 years since. I guess by “with” there I meant he did all the work and I sat nearby, clueless. At least that’s how I remember it.

16 years.

This post isn’t about today, but I can’t ignore my present circumstances as relevant to the discussion. I’m writing from the airport in Las Vegas, sitting at the gate after spending the last four days basking in music and communal vibes at Planet Desert Rock Weekend V. I just spent one of the best weekends I’ve ever had, hanging out with old friends and new and enjoying bands I’ve never seen before, enriching my life with hugs and riffs alike.

A lot has changed in heavy music since The Obelisk started, and there’s no question in my mind that the international heavy underground is stronger than I’ve ever seen it. And I feel so astonishingly lucky to be aware of it since it still exists in this pocket universe outside the mainstream. To me, this makes it more precious and more a thing worth preserving, evolving as hopefully it will continue to do as a new generation of bands continues to come up and make their mark over the next few years.

Thank you if you’ve followed this site for any stretch of time in the last 16 years. People come and go, of course, but doing this site has allowed me to meet and spend time with countless excellent humans worldwide I’d never otherwise know, and I don’t take that for granted. It’s all part of the adventure, right?, but what I’ve found over time especially in the last few years since the pandemic is that by and large the heavy underground is on its own side.

Am I talking about “scene unity” in an Obelisk anniversary post? Give me a second to pull my head out from up my own ass and I’ll finish the thought. The truth of the matter is I think there are very few, whether it’s in bands, labels, promotional concerns, fans, fests, bookers, etc. — everybody who contributes to THIS THING one way or another, and I believe that everybody who’s part of it contributes — who don’t by 2025 know the deal.

This kind of heavy music, whether you call it stoner, or heavy rock, or psych and prog and doom and noise and sludge and whatever else you want to throw in the pastiche, is never going to break. Bands will get through to broader popular culture, one or two a generation, like early Queens of the Stone Age, but “the scene” is never going to be “the thing.”

And I don’t believe in blessings, but what a blessing that is. It belongs to the people who make it and engage with it. Even when there’s a label involved in the band-fan transaction, there is no intermediary. Everyone is there for love. That’s not universal — somebody out there thinks he’s gonna get rich off his riffs; probs not, chief — but passion is the impetus that underscores so much of what happens in the international heavy underground right now, including this site as I hope comes through, and apart from my marriage it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever been so fortunate to be part of.

So thank you. Inevitably. Thank you for reading, for coming along with me here, for saying hi at the show, any show. For sharing your opinion of a thing I wrote. For finding a fucking typo! Thank you for finding typos! Not only does that tell me you’re reading, but that you give a fuck about this. I do too, I’m just not a perfect typist. So thank you.

I have a list of people I could rattle off, whether it’s press contacts I’ve known for 20 years or dudes like Tony Treetops who I met this past weekend. People are on board for promoting and sharing what they’ve found with each other, and because this happens, and because it happens in a spirit of friendship, community, and again, passion, it is a beautiful foundation for so many relationships.

The Obelisk will continue. I’ll be here. I’m around. But I’ve always said it won’t last forever, and there might come a day where I need to stop to protect my family, but right now I’m here and I value this moment writing this post sitting in friggin’ Harry Reid Airport thinking about what this site’s become in 16 years and wondering where it might still go. 20? I’m 43 now. Will I still want to do The Obelisk at 50? 55?

Not a question I can answer, and that seems all the more reason for me to treasure what it is while it is. Thank you for making that worth doing.

Onward with love,
JJ Koczan

LV NV
02.03.25

This was a fun one to watch. Yeah, they’re all fun, but as it started to unfold, there were really five records that could’ve run away with it. Then of course, four, then three, two and here we are. I left the poll open a couple extra days, I don’t know, because it seemed like the thing to do? I’ve definitely run it longer, but someone did email — today, after it closed, of course — to tell me it was lame that it was still open. Fair enough, internet.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this poll (even that guy? especially that guy.), and maybe shared the link or spread the word in some way. I pushed this poll less than I have in years past, in part because I hate being on social media any longer than I have to or obsessively inevitably am anyway, and in part because I was busy, but as enjoyable as I think the poll is — it’s always a favorite of the year for me, honestly — I’m pretty turned off at this point by the state of the ‘internet persona’ and have no desire whatsoever to project otherwise about myself. The hi-now-I’m-a-brand thing holds zero appeal for me at this point in my life. Happy to grab band news and go back to perusing who’s selling vintage strategy guides for SNES games, thanks. I’m not trying to sell anything here, and if I was, it would be myself least of all.

Anyhoozle, if you like heavy rock and roll, sit tight because there’s a fair bit of it here. As always with the poll, there are two lists, amd now is where I cut and paste the part about how the weighted results work:

You submit your list of up to 20 favorites. Anything from the start of 2020 to the finish is eligible. There are two lists, one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

Everybody got it? Me neither, and it’s been years. Onward, to lists! And death!

Top 20 of 2024 — Weighted Results

1. Slomosa, Tundra Rock (404 points)
2. Greenleaf, The Head and the Habit (360)
3. Lowrider & Elephant Tree, The Long Forever (350)
4. Fu Manchu, The Return of Tomorrow (263)
5. Psychlona, Warped Vision (256)
6. Slift, Ilion (244)
7. High on Fire, Cometh the Storm (241)
8. Blue Heron, Everything Fades (208)
9. Rezn, Burden (195)
10. Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere (194)
11. High Desert Queen, Palm Reader (190)
12. 1000mods, Cheat Death (169)
13. Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome (167)
14. Sergeant Thunderhoof, The Ghost of Badon Hill (159)
15. Orange Goblin, Science, Not Fiction (137)
16. Valley of the Sun, Quintessence (136)
17. Black Pyramid, The Paths of Time Are Vast (126)
18. Monkey3, Welcome to the Machine (117)
18. Sundrifter, An Earlier Time (117)
19. Heavy Temple, Garden of Heathens (114)
20. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Nell’ Ora Blu (103)

Honorable Mention:

The next 10, in order: Abrams, Sacri Monti, Chat Pile, Delving, The Obsessed, Opeth, Brant Bjork Trio, Lord Buffalo, Mammoth Volume, Thou and Free Ride. That’s more than 10, but there was a tie.

Notes:

One tie on the list, which I actually always kind of like since it lets me sneak another record in. If that sounds crazy for a post that ends with everybody’s individual list — trying to squeeze in one more — I understand that.

This list is different from mine and I have absolutely no qualms with it (the lack of Brume notwithstanding; get on that, people). Slomosa number one? Shit yeah. That record’s great and the next generation of heavy rock is already starting to take influence from the Norwegian four-piece’s warm, organic and upbeat heavy style. Greenleaf after? Well they’re masters of the thing, so shit yeah again. Not lost on me that those two bands co-headlined in Europe this Fall. What a show that would’ve been to see.

It goes from there. The Lowrider/Elephant Tree split, which was my number one, had a solid showing here as well. Wrangling all the entries spelled differently was a task I wasn’t looking forward to, and sure enough, it took some doing, but there and from then on, I stand by the numbers. If you want to do your own tally (you don’t), the lists are after the “read more” jump, as always. Otherwise, I don’t think you can look at that top 10 and, even if it’s not the same as yours, argue too vociferously against it. It is not short on Blues Funeral and Magnetic Eye Records, between Greenleaf, Psychlona, Blue Heron, Lowrider/Elephant Tree, High Desert Queen, Heavy Temple and Mammoth Volume and Abrams in the honorable mentions, but the votes were what they were. I can’t help it if Jadd puts out good shit at such a staggering rate. And I just looked back — apparently I made the same joke last year too.

Moving on.

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Top 20 of 2024 — Raw Votes

1. Slomosa, Tundra Rock (102 votes)
2. Greenleaf, The Head and the Habit (93)
3. Lowrider & Elephant Tree, The Long Forever (88)
4. Fu Manchu, The Return of Tomorrow (71)
4. Psychlona, Warped Vision (71)
5. High on Fire, Cometh the Storm (66)
6. Slift, Ilion (64)
7. High Desert Queen, Palm Reader (57)
7. Rezn, Burden (57)
8. Blue Heron, Everything Fades (55)
9. Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome (50)
10. 1000mods, Cheat Death (49)
11. Blood Incantation, Absolute Elsewhere (46)
11. Sergeant Thunderhoof, The Ghost of Badon Hill (46)
12. Valley of the Sun, Quintessence (41)
13. Orange Goblin, Science, Not Fiction (39)
14. Black Pyramid, The Paths of Time Are Vast (38)
14. Brant Bjork Trio, Once Upon a Time in the Desert (38)
14. Monkey3, Welcome to the Machine (38)
14. Sundrifter, An Earlier Time (38)
15. Heavy Temple, Garden of Heathens (36)
16. Ufomammut, Hidden (31)
17. Delving, All Paths Diverge (29)
17. Lord Buffalo, Holus Bolus (29)
17. Sacri Monti, Retrieval (29)
18. Abrams, Blue City (28)
18. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Nell’ Ora Blu (28)
19. Mammoth Volume, Raised Up by Witches (27)
20. Big Scenic Nowhere, The Waydown (26)
20. Free Ride, Acido y Puto (26)

Honorable Mention:

Here’s some more: The Obsessed, The Lunar Effect, Causa Sui, MR.BISON, Thou, Opeth, DVNE, Bongripper and Sons of Arrakis. They were all pretty close. I kind of figured 29 for a top 20 was good and left it at that.

Notes:

Again, I don’t see much to fight with here, and it feels like the poll found a pretty solid representation for things like the crossover appeal of Blood Incantation and Opeth as well as a decent mix of newer and older bands between the two lists. Nothing is ever going to really be entirely comprehensive, but however many years from now when I look back on this and re-read this sentence, at least I can know I was down with it at the time.

The picture isn’t much different between the weighted results and the raw-vote tally, though Psychlona got a boost in the latter, I guess. And I was glad to see Fu Manchu high on the list (I felt like they should’ve been higher on my own) and that stuff like Sacri Monti and Mammoth Volume and Big Scenic Nowhere could get on. I don’t think I missed anyone, but if you do a count and see I’ve got something wrong, just reach out and let me know. I assure you no one has been slighted on purpose.

Not a ton of disparities between the lists — there are more ties here, which happens — but if I walked into your record store, venue, living room, car, etc., and you were playing nearly any of this shit front to back, I’d want to be your friend.

That’s a nice thought. Let’s leave it there.

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Thank you for reading.

I didn’t know what 2024 was going to bring and I am accordingly ignorant of the next 12 months. I wish you health and joy and good music.

Beyond that, I guess that’s it for 2024? Nah, I’ll probably still be reviewing stuff from last year in a Quarterly Review this June, but whatever. Thanks for reading, and before I turn you over to the ‘read more’ doodad and all of the lists that made up this poll — I’m in there too — thank you if you took time out of your day to be part of this. That means everything to me and I do not take it for granted.

Alright, off you go. Thanks again and have a great year. Here’s to whatever’s next.

Read more »

[PLEASE NOTE: This post will remain on top of the page until the poll ends in January. New posts follow underneath. Thanks.]

I have to admit to feeling somewhat clueless as to where this poll is headed. Some years it’s so blanket obvious that I feel silly even putting it up — though even then it’s fun, which is why I do anyhow — but there seem to be so many different directions this year’s poll could go between traditional styles in stoner, doom, etc., and the experimental, established acts and generational newcomers. There are more than a few acts I’m very curious about and have been for months now, and some records I feel like I’ve been sweating about all year that need more love. What’s it gonna be?

Rules and whatnot follow the form below:

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Thanks for reading and taking part. Please share the link if you can.

The rules don’t change, and like most of the post, they’re cut and pasted from last year: Anything from Jan. 2024 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. If something is out digitally now and physical later and you want to include it, do so. Two lists are tabulated; one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

If you’re not sure what counts or what to include, remember this is for your enjoyment. Stress about your top 20 if you want — I know I’m stressing about mine — but remember that the point here is to enjoy the thing. Debate is great, passion is the driving force of everything, but let’s keep debate civil and don’t give yourself too hard a time either.

As ever, I extend deepest gratitude to you for participating and to Slevin, who put together this poll and every year fields the “hey it’s poll time” text from me with grace and kindness and generosity. Thank you.

Poll runs until Dec. 31, 2024. Barring disaster or if I decide to let it go a couple extra days, results will be out Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, along with individual lists.

Have fun, and thanks again!

—

I must feel ways about The Obelisk turning 15, because I’m having a hard time starting this post. Of course, it’s also five in the morning, so falling asleep is a factor. I’ve spent years at this point nodding off in front of the laptop. You wake up and there’s a string of 10,000 spaces since your last quarter-of-a-sentence. Laying out images and links for news posts. Trying and generally failing to slate a review by the release date, screwing up lineups, release years, cropping press shots, on and on. You’ll know it’s not my favorite part of the experience when I tell you it’s a snoozefest.

The actual writing — what I consider the ‘work’ to which all the other labor is building toward — is why and how you wake up, though you be exhausted of spirit and middle-aged of body. I have said for years now that the simple fact of The Obelisk is I need it, and especially after this recent winter break, I think that’s still the case. I took a couple actual days off around Xmas, including the 26th, which I’ll admit felt brazen, and had a taste of what life would be without this site, but it turns out this site is a lot of my connection to the outside world.

The Obelisk has become a huge piece of my life. Not just dividing 42 by 15 and realizing I’ve spent more than a third of my time on earth doing this by now, and there are times when I don’t know where I end and it starts. I probably feel ways about that too, I guess. But I do need it. I don’t know where to put myself otherwise.

Thank you for your time, your attention at any single and all points in the last decade and a half. Thank you for reading, for being here and for making doing this at all worthwhile. I promise you this site wouldn’t still be going without your support. You are why it exists as it does, so if you like it, good work. And thank you.

Thank you to The Patient Mrs. for respecting what I do here even though it’s ridiculous. Also for staying married to me even though every two weeks I’m asking how much it would be to fly to some other festival. Thanks for driving me into the city to see Elder last week or whatever day that was.

Thank you to Slevin for helping me 15 years ago launch this site, for the year-end poll and for pretending to be impressed with my recent Zelda accomplishments. Thank you to Behrang Alavi for hosting the site. It is a load off my mind to know I can send a message 24 hours a day and any issue that arises as they inevitably do will be addressed quickly and professionally, and most important of all, by someone I trust. I do not take that lightly at all.

Thank you to Dave and crew at Made in Brooklyn Silkscreeners, and because I feel like maybe he’d (rightly) roll his eyes if I didn’t share it, here’s the link to Obelisk merch: https://mibk.bigcartel.com/

You should be aware that I don’t do crap for that. In almost all instances, Dave chases down the art (Steven Yoyoda!), does the printing, the shipping. I get half of the money; the only difference is he earns it. I won’t say I’ve never embezzled to pay a late fee or buy weed, but proceeds from merch for The Obelisk are specifically allocated in my mind as buy-music money. That goes back to the bands because it’s the bands that bring it in. Ain’t nobody sticking around here to see how long I’m gonna make the next sentence. They’re here for music. That’s as it should be, and MiBK Dave makes it easier/possible for me to have merchandise to sell in the first place, and I am eternally grateful for that. He makes the site real, and my mom wears the shirts. That alone. Thanks to my mom (and entire family) for wearing the shirts.

—

“He peaked a decade ago.” — Me, on me. Probably said a decade ago.

—

I don’t know yet what this year will bring. I have a couple festivals lined up — Freak Valley, Bear Stone — but I’m doing other traveling with my wife and daughter this year as well, to see national parks with my wife’s mother, and to spend a month in Budapest, Hungary, over the summer, so there will be more beyond the normal routine happening around here and I’m curious to see how it goes and how I handle that. Hopefully by then I have a new laptop to replace my recently busted one that was the best ever. I should put “replace” in quotes there.

So that’s it. 15 years and back to work. I had big plans. I wanted to do an all-dayer on the West Coast. I was going to ask Sandrider to headline, see if I could get Grayceon, Snail (yes, again), Brume, and a few others, but it didn’t happen and I only have so much capacity and that’s pretty low in general. So no, no anniversary party except in my head. I couldn’t even manage to get to Vegas this past weekend, and Spaceslug were there.

I know nobody reads blogs anymore. This is an outdated medium. I should be running a substack and begging everyone for a dollar. And you know what? Maybe if I did that, I’d have enough dollars to have booked that flight, or some other one, or maybe I’d have some kind of capitalism-bred feeling of validation that I don’t have now bringing in some kind of salary from this work. Or maybe I’d resent it as a job and stop and have ruined this thing that I’ve apparently now worked for 15 years to build.

Okay. So here’s my last chance to say something about The Obelisk turning 15. I’m glad people get something from this site. If that’s you, please know you have my entire heart’s appreciation. Every now and then, somebody on the internet says something very nice either to me or about me or about what I do here and it’s incredible. For a sphere that can be so incredibly terrible (i.e. the internet/social media), that I should feel so much a part of anything and so supported in this is astonishing and a better outcome than I could have hoped for in that 33-plus percent of my to-date lifetime.

Thank you. The Obelisk will not last forever. Nothing does. I might decide it’s too much or it’s been too long, drop the whole thing and never write another word, or I might get hit by a bus. One of these years I’m gonna pull the plug on this whole thing and go write like three reviews a year for Lee at The Sleeping Shaman. I tell him sometimes he’s my retirement plan. Honestly I’d be lucky if he’d have me.

Lucky if anyone would, which is kind of the hazard when you get as dug into a thing as I seemingly am here. But I’ve seen outlets come and go in the time that I’ve been writing The Obelisk, and I’m still here and I still stand by everything I write in this space — notwithstanding the plentiful typos, lineup screwups, etc. — and if I died tomorrow, I would just want you to know that to my very, very core, I value your support to a degree I can only call existential. Thank you.

15 more years? That would be absolutely insane. So maybe.

Thanks for reading,
JJ Koczan

…And yeah, it’s Monday, but here’s FRM anyhow:

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

We have arrived at the beginning of a new year, and it is accordingly time for the results of the 2023 Year-End Poll. I don’t know what 2024 will hold, but if I had to hazard a general guess, I’d say probably a bunch of cool-ass music? Just going by the last however-many years, mind you. Underground heavy rock, in new and established artists and bands, is flourishing now, on multiple continents and across multiple generations. Still waiting to see more 25-and-unders, but youth wants to play fast. It’s how punk rock happens.

But whether you’d obliterate yourself against a wall of bong-hued tone-age or spaghettify your brain in a cosmic impulse wash, your back was covered in 2023, as individual bands and whole styles continued a forward progression toward ends it’s not possible yet to know. A big part of the story for me is and just-about-is-always the interplay between newer and older bands — who puts out what, who tours with whom, etc. — but on pushing sound into different stylistic grounds alone, 2023 was a headspinner.

I could go on here, but there’s a lot to do. Here are the rules for the thing:

As ever (and I mean that, since this part is cut and pasted from last year), two polls were posted. Raw votes and points. For reference, here are the same rules that I’ve been cut and pasting for however long: You submit your list of up to 20 favorites. Anything from the start of 2020 to the finish is eligible. There are two lists, one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.

And here’s the thing:

Top 20 of 2023 — Weighted Results

1. Acid King, Beyond Vision (438 points)
2. Dozer, Drifting in the Endless Void (410)
3. Howling Giant, Glass Future (360)
4. Green Lung, This Heathen Land (355)
5. Domkraft, Sonic Moons (267)
6. Baroness, Stone (214)
7. REZN, Solace (211)
8. Church of Misery, Born Under a Mad Sign (207)
9. Hippie Death Cult, Helichrysum (182)
10. Dopelord, Songs for Satan (178)
11. Graveyard, 6 (150)
12. Ritual King, The Infinite Mirror (150)
13. Black Rainbows, Superskull (146)
14. Mutoid Man, Mutants (144)
15. Saint Karloff, Paleolithic War Crimes (127)
16. Hail the Void, Memento Mori (122)
17. REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi, Silent Future (120)
18. King Potenaz, Goat Rider (119)
19. Fire Down Below, Low Desert Surf Club (117)
20. Mondo Drag, Through the Hourglass (105)

Honorable Mention:

Restless Spirit, Swan Valley Heights, Kind, Desert Storm, Gozu, Bongzilla, Khan, Kanaan, Margarita Witch Cult, Kadabra and Spirit Adrift were the next bands on the list. Queens of the Stone Age were there as well, spelled 75 different ways across different lists.

Notes:

Not much to argue with. No ties. I’ve gotten used every year to there being one or two ties in each list, and it’s kind of a way for me to sneak in a couple extra releases here and there, but not for the points tally this year. Remember, this awards points based on where people rank a given record, and Acid King were pretty unanimously the top pick throughout the month. They took the top spot and were given a challenge both by Dozer and Howling Giant at various stages, but it was clear Beyond Vision would come out on top. Obviously I agree as well.

I’m glad to see up and coming bands — Howling Giant, Green Lung, Domkraft, Hippie Death Cult, Ritual King, Saint Karloff, Hail the Void, REZN, Fire Down Below — taking up so much real estate on the list alongside the returning Dozer and familiar names like Acid King, Baroness and Church of Misery. Look for some of these to become headliners in the next few years, and the records they put out in 2023 will be part of why. And thank you for taking the time to send a list if you did.

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Top 20 of 2023 — Raw Votes

1. Dozer, Drifting in the Endless Void (108 votes)
2. Acid King, Beyond Vision (104)
3. Howling Giant, Glass Future (93)
4. Green Lung, This Heathen Land (91)
5. Domkraft, Sonic Moons (74)
6. REZN, Solace (59)
7. Church of Misery, Born Under a Mad Sign (58)
8. Baroness, Stone (55)
9. Dopelord, Songs for Satan (51)
10. Hippie Death Cult, Helichrysum (48)
11. Black Rainbows, Superskull (47)
12. Ritual King, The Infinite Mirror (43)
13. Graveyard, 6 (40)
13. Mutoid Man, Mutants (40)
13. Saint Karloff, Paleolithic War Crimes (40)
14. Fire Down Below, Low Desert Surf Club (35)
14. Kind, Close Encounters (35)
15. Mondo Drag, Through the Hourglass (33)
16. Hail the Void, Memento Mori (31)
17. Margarita Witch Cult, Margarita Witch Cult (30)
18. Gozu, Remedy (29)
19. Bongzilla, Dab City (28)
20. Swan Valley Heights, Terminal Forest (28)

Honorable Mention:

Tidal Wave, Khan, Kanaan, Kadabra, Acid Magus, Slomatics, Borracho, Dead Feathers, Kadabra, Blood Ceremony, Desert Storm and REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi were close here.

Notes:

This is the first time in the however-many years I’ve been doing this poll — I think I started asking people for favorites in 2010? — that the ranked submissions and raw votes tallies don’t match in the top spot. That is to say, what happened here is that Dozer got more votes than Acid King, but enough people had Acid King in or near their top spot that it ranked higher than Dozer on the other list. That’s a new one. Both bands are legends. Take your pick, call it album of the year and embrace the utter lack of argument you’re likely to get.

The same applies about up and comers here, and I dig the spread of styles across the list, though we’re definitely in heavy rock territory with that top five. It’s encouraging how universal the Howling Giant record turned out to be, and Domkraft’s strong showing is indicative of how much that Swedish trio got very much right in their sound this year. Look out for Hail the Void and Margarita Witch Cult over the next few years, as their next releases will tell the tale of who they are as bands, and I’ll say the same for Saint Karloff and Ritual King as well. That Ritual King album was a gem. I’m glad to see it here.

Hard to ignore the influence of Jadd Shickler here. Dozer, Acid King, Howling Giant, Domkraft, Dopelord, REZN & Vinnum Sabbathi and Restless Spirit were all Blues Funeral Recordings and Magnetic Eye Records releases, and those names are everywhere. It was a landmark year for both labels in which Shickler is directly involved.

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Thank you. That’s the last thing I want to say. Thanks to you for reading, to The Patient Mrs. for staying married to me, to Slevin for making this thing, and to everybody who puts out and promotes this music that helps make days worth getting through. We keep going. Help each other. Thank you.

After the jump you’ll find the lists that were turned in. Thanks again to everyone who took part here and shared the link throughout December. Happy New Year and new music to come.

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