Before Show

We sat on the plane for more than an hour before taking off, and sat for another hour before going to the gate after landing. Nine hours on a seven-hour flight. In between, a shitty, shake-you-awake ocean-crossing, with the elbow of the woman sitting next to me rubbing into my lovehandle the entire time. God I hate flying.

I managed to sleep some, and that’s fortunate since with the extra delay I missed my first ride to the festival and needed to wait for the next one, about two hours later by the time I got through customs and got my bag. I was already falling asleep sitting there. Slept in the car too on the way to Netphen.

Pickup was a bit before 2PM, I think? Somewhere in there. I had time to go to the hotel to drop my stuff off before the first band would start — I also snuck in brushing my teeth — but that was it, the day was starting. Some day I will come to Freak Valley a day early, to rest and relax and check out the setup process before it all starts. Not 2025.

So I’d be a wreck by the end of it, but the first day of Freak Valley was set to roll, and it was time to roll with it. Here’s how that went:

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Sarkh

I made it. It was like five minutes before Sarkh went on, my credentials weren’t where they were supposed to be, but Ralf in back handed me a pass and told me to go and I did. Saying hi to the folks in the photo pit and others walking around. It was Freak Valley pretty much from the moment I walked in, and since I was late, probably well before that too, but solidified as same when fest-mainstay and all around nice guy Volker Fröhmer picked up the mic to introduce the instrumental trio Sarkh as he’ll introduce every band that plays this weekend, and the trio got underway with their black-metal-tinged take on heavygaze or heavy post-rock, whatever you want to call it when the guitar floats and the groove is pummeling you. Sarkh took part in last year’s International Space Station Vol. 2 four-way split (review here), which was on Worst Bassist Records (that’s Komet Lulu’s label; she’s a regular here), and starting off the day, they were immersive in a way you would want. They brought people to the front, and in the true spirit of this thing, were dug in from the outset. I count myself lucky to have seen them, and that’s a welcome beginning point for any weekend of rock and roll.

The Polvos!

Each day of Freak Valley 2025 has at least five acts I’ve never seen before, and The Polvos! followed on in that regard from Sarkh, coming from Chile to play to the early-assembled and waiting Freaks. I don’t know how long a flight that is, but I have to think the crowd made it worth the trip, packed as the grass was. Flowing cosmic heavy pervaded, not as metallic in the underpinning as was Sarkh, but certainly not lacking presence with three guitars. They were never quite out of control, but were jam-based, for sure, and the midtempo push helped put the crowd where the band wanted them to be, not quite lulled, but not far off, families with babies and kids, Deutschebros and loner weirdos and so on were all subject to The Polvos!’ creeper grooves, which got a little more forceful as they went on, unless that was me dreaming, but stayed vibrant all the while, mellowed again and blew it out again. They brought records to sell and said as much from the stage. I reviewed last year’s Floating (review here), and wouldn’t at all mind a revisit, especially after the show.

The Thing

This was about the time I remembered coffee exists, and that’s fortunate, because dragging ass as I was, I’d never have made it up for The Thing, who are from New York and were an entirely unknown quantity to me, despite my relative proximity to their hometown as compared to say, Siegen. They were young and rocked on stage in such a way as to make ke think they’ll take good stories home from this tour, and with the US connection and some psych-blues in their sound, I couldn’t help but recall how much this festival supported Baltimore’s The Flying Eyes when they were going, not to mention The Midnight Ghost Train. Not as madcap as the latter or as blues-specific as the former, The Thing were indeed their own Thing, and with a backstage coffee and a double-espresso from the booth out front, I felt like I was able to dig all the more into what they were doing — a bit of All Them Witches’ loose genre-awareness, but not necessarily adherence — and a party aspect that came through alongside some neospace swing. Thoroughly modern, and I’m not complaining about that. Also the weekend’s first drum solo. I think I wasn’t the only one in the crowd who didn’t know them — that’s a lie; I’m the most ignorant — but they had people moving up front and that energy was infectious… now that I’d had some goddamn coffee and wasn’t falling asleep sitting on the ground. Note to self on these dudes. Further investigation required.

The Dead Reds

English rockers The Dead Reds did an acoustic set for Rockpalast — who are here filming select sets, as always — earlier, and I saw them setting up for it. I guess from their retroist look, I was expecting hard ’70s boogie, but they turned out to be moodier and more flow-minded than all-swing-all-the-time; not that groove was lacking, but it came in a different context than my judging-a-book-by-its-cover, know-nothing ass anticipated, and the real fun was in finding that out. Some post-Janis blues twang on the vocals, but they were vibes for the era thereof, and noted from the stage it was their first time in Germany. Freak Valley has been sold out pretty much since it was announced as taking place — there’s a steady crew of regulars, others come and go each year, but generally speaking, if you come here, you want to come back, and I guess you get enough of those year after year and a band like The Dead Reds — like, communists? — have a full lawn to play to as the centerpiece band of the day. The mood was set enough that my man with the hippie-sticks busted ’em out by stage right. Others sat on blankets, stood in the sun, drank in the back, or wandered. I decided it was time for another coffee. Just one more for the night to come.

Jools

Brash, dually-fronted UK hard-punkers Jools released their new album, Violent Delights, at the beginning of this month. They’re not a band I know — told you I was the most ignorant — and probably not in my wheelhouse sound-wise, what with all the punk rock and the stage outfits and such. Nothing against young, in-shape people getting naked — that’s what being young and in-shape is for — but yeah. Certainly the crowd was into it, and the band were tight and energetic and everything they needed to be to sell it from the stage, including some between-song banter. They perhaps were picking up with some of what Amyl and the Sniffers brought last year in terms of intensity, showcasing punchy material with due verve and push, flexible enough to bring on hints of more metallic tones and to bask in that next-generation take on heavy whatever that is flourishing across the globe in this otherwise dumbest decade in the history of decades, but mostly in it for the charge, and bearing songs suited to that. I don’t know that I’ll dive into the record, but Jools were a sight to behold.

Windhand

Even my most known quantity for the day, Richmond, Virginia, murkmakers Windhand, had something new on offer in their return as a five-piece with Leanne Martz — who’s also playing alongside vocalist Dorothia Cottrell for solo sets, also ex-Heavy Temple, in Darling, etc. — on second guitar. This lineup of the band — there’s a new bassist as well, and it’s Tommy Hamilton from Druglord — is about a month out from playing their first show together, but I’ll be damned if they didn’t sound like Windhand. Guitarist Garrett Morris, drummer Ryan Wolfe and Cottrell could hardly do otherwise, and with a liquid light show from Mad Alchemy, they tied together the threads of doom, grey-toned psychedelia and grunge in their songs as one would expect a veteran band to do, and though I’m pretty sure I said as much last time I saw them, which was Fall 2023, nearly two years ago, I’ll double down on taking a new Windhand LP whenever one was ready to go. They’ve got a defined sound, to be sure, but you can’t listen to their records and accuse them of only doing one thing. They’ve evolved organically over the last 15 years, and I’ll put them up there with anyone of their generation in doom, and yes, that includes Pallbearer and YOB.

My Sleeping Karma

Finally. Genuinely one I’m crossing off my list. I’ve been a fan of My Sleeping Karma since their first album, now 19 years old, and had never seen the band before. I suspect that put me in the minority of the crowd, who no doubt were far more expert in what was coming, but while bittersweet in light of drummer Steffen Weigand passing away two years ago, the band’s moving forward felt naturally in homage to their drummer, and the music retains his spirit as André Stein, who was close to the band even before joining, has taken up the drummer role. He joins guitarist Seppi, bassist Matte and synthesist Norman in the lineup, and at the risk of honesty, they were my most anticipated band of the festival. So how was it, at last, after so long? Well, they pretty much had me at the line check. From there, they did the hug that I’ve seen photos and videos of however many times and gradually hit it in a way that was laid back but not lacking energy in André’s drumming, and Seppi’s guitar lines and Matte’s bass sort of wove around each other with the synth tying them together; the stuff of classic My Sleeping Karma to my mind. The tonal depth of their records and the space in their sound were accordingly on display, and though I don’t think they were a loud as Windhand, neither were they trying to be. People went off for them, dancing and such even as midnight came and went, and perhaps the highest compliment I can give the set is it lived up to my hopes, which were unreasonable, to be sure. The sound was spot on. They were hypnotic, no less with Mad Alchemy still on the oils, but had a presence on stage, and while they’ve always been instrumental, their songs are memorable for the varying paths they take, their riffy divergences, and the blend of elements that’s so much their own. I’m so glad I got to see them. It was a long time coming.

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Next Morning

The hotel coffee is so good I could melt into it. I’m at the Ewerts this year, where I’ve never stayed before. It’s smaller, seems family-owned, which is cool, has a small and gorgeous bar (where I got the coffee; the breakfast room is around the bend the other way). I was so tired last night as My Sleeping Karma were wrapping up that I decided to hoof it the 2.25 km (1.4 mi) from the AWO grounds. I got about a third of the way in the pitch black of night alongside what seems to be the main road of Netphen, at least that I’ve seen, and a cab came into view. I was asleep not terribly long thereafter. That too was a long time coming.

It’s gorgeous again today, supposed to be spectacular all the way through, so I’m looking forward to getting back out, but first shower and some of that hotel breakfast for cheese and eggs, what with the life force and such. Thanks for reading. More pics after the jump.

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In the interest of honesty, I’ll admit to tearing up a bit when I saw My Sleeping Karma would be playing Freak Valley in 2025. That’s a band I’ve listened to for 20 years, whom I’ve never seen, and who will be making their return to the stage this weekend as they play their first show since the passing of drummer Steffen Weigand in June 2023. Already I had very much hoped to be at Freak Valley next year — it would be my fourth in a row and it is a continual honor to be invited — but I think this pushes it to what social media might classify as a ‘life event.’ To think I might in a mere matter of months be ‘marked safe’ from never having seen My Sleeping Karma. If you need me, I’ll be daydreaming about standing in that photo pit when the music starts.

That’s not to discount Dead Meadow or Motorpsycho, certainly, or Sarkh, The Polvos! or The Thing — the latter are new to me as of this writeup, despite relative geographic proximity — just excited on a personal level. Fingers crossed I get to be there — as a policy, I never believe it all the way until I’m on the plane — for all of it. I did write the short announcement below (emojis and final line added later) and it went up last week, but I’m behind on stuff with the holiday, so forgive. The fest is sold out, as usual.

Here’s the latest:

Freaks,

From the bottoms of our freaky hearts, thank you for once again making Freak Valley Festival completely sold out. 💯

We haven’t finished with 2025 yet, though. Today brings six new additions to the lineup:

⚡Motorpsycho⚡
⚡Dead Meadow⚡
⚡My Sleeping Karma⚡
⚡The Thing⚡
⚡The Polvos!⚡
⚡Sarkh⚡

Of course, Norway’s heavy prog legends MOTORPSYCHO need no introduction. They’ll probably have three or four new albums out by June.

DEAD MEADOW will be touring on their upcoming album ‘Voyager to Voyager,’ making an emotional return to the stage.

We consider MY SLEEPING KARMA family, and their return to Freak Valley is a rightly anticipated reason to celebrate. It is an honor to host them as they also return to the stage in 2025 for a busy and emotional time. ❤️

We also welcome hard-driving New York garage rockers THE THING, Chilean cosmic fuzzlaunchers THE POLVOS!, and atmospheric progressive metal instrumentalists SARKH to the lineup for next June.

We look forward to welcoming you too. More to come early in the New Year.

We wish you a Heavy Christmas and a Fuzzy New Year

https://www.facebook.com/freakvalley
https://www.instagram.com/freakvalleyfestival/
http://www.rockfreaks.de/
http://www.freakvalley.de/

Dead Meadow, “The Space Between”

Admittedly, there’s some ambition in my mind calling this the ‘Spring 2024 Quarterly Review.’ I’m done with winter and March starts on Friday, so yeah, it’s kind of a reach as regards the traditional seasonal patterns of Northern New Jersey where I live, but hell, these things actually get decided here by pissing off a rodent. Maybe it doesn’t need to be so rigidly defined after all.

After doing QRs for I guess about nine years now, I finally made myself a template for the back-end layout. It’s not a huge leap, but will mean about five more minutes I can dedicate to listening, and when you’re trying to touch on 50 records in the span of a work week and attempt some semblance of representing what they’re about, five minutes can help. Still, it’s a new thing, and if you see ‘ARTIST’ listed where a band’s name should be or LINK where ‘So and So on Facebook’ goes, a friendly comment letting me know would be helpful.

Thanks in advance and I hope you find something in all of this to come that speaks to you. I’ll try to come up for air at some point.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

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Slift, Ilion

One of the few non-billionaire groups of people who might be able to say they had a good year in 2020, Toulouse, France, spaceblasters Slift signed to Sub Pop on the strength of that wretched year’s Ummon (review here) and the spectacle-laced live shows with which they present their material. Their ideology is cosmic, their delivery markedly epic, and Ilion pushes the blinding light and the rhythmic force directly at you, creating a sweeping momentum contrasted by ambient stretches like that tucked at the end of 12-minute hypnotic planetmaker “The Words That Have Never Been Heard,” the drone finale “Enter the Loop” or any number of spots between along the record’s repetition-churning, willfully-overblown 79-minute course of builds and surging payoffs. A cynic might tell you it’s not anything Hawkwind didn’t do in 1974 offered with modern effects and beefier tones, but, uh, is that really something to complain about? The hype around Ilion hasn’t been as fervent as was for Ummon — it’s a different moment — but Slift have set themselves on a progressive course and in the years to come, this may indeed become their most influential work. For that alone it’s among 2024’s most essential heavy albums, never mind the actual journey of listening. Bands like this don’t happen every day.

Slift on Facebook

Sub Pop Records website

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Grin, Hush

The only thing keeping Grin from being punk rock is the fact that they don’t play punk. Otherwise, the self-recording, self-releasing (on The Lasting Dose Records) Berlin metal-sludge slingers tick no shortage of boxes as regards ethic, commitment to an uncompromised vision of their sound, and on Hush, their fourth long-player which features tracks from 2023’s Black Nothingness (review here), they sharpen their attack to a point that reminds of dug-in Swedish death metal on “Pyramid” with a winding lead line threaded across, find post-metallic ambience in “Neon Skies,” steamroll with the groove of the penultimate “The Tempest of Time,” and manage to make even the crushing “Midnight Blue Sorrow” — which arrives after the powerful opening statement of “Hush” “Calice” and “Gatekeeper” — have a sense of creative reach. With Sabine Oberg on bass and Jan Oberg handling drums, guitar, vocals, noise and production, they’ve become flexible enough in their craft to harness raw charge or atmospheric sprawl at will, and through 16 songs and 40 minutes (“Portal” is the longest track at 3:45), their intensity is multifaceted, multi-angular, and downright ripping. Aggression suits this project, but that’s never all that’s happening in Grin, and they’re stronger for that.

Grin on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Pontiac, Hard Knox

A debut solo-band outing from guitarist, bassist, vocalist and songwriter Dave Cotton, also of Seven Nines and Tens, Pontiac‘s Hard Knox lands on strictly limited tape through Coup Sur Coup Records and is only 16 minutes long, but that’s time enough for its six songs to find connections in harmony to Beach Boys and The Beatles while sometimes dropping to a singular, semi-spoken verse in opener/longest track (immediate points, even though four minutes isn’t that long) “Glory Ragged,” which moves in one direction, stops, reorients, and shifts between genres with pastoralism and purpose. Cotton handles six-string and 12-string, but isn’t alone in Pontiac, as his Seven Nines and Tens bandmate Drew Thomas Christie handles drums, Adam Vee adds guitar, drums, a Coke bottle and a Brita filter, and CJ Wallis contributes piano to the drifty textures of “Road High” before “Exotic Tattoos of the Millennias” answers the pre-christofascism country influence shown on “Counterculture Millionaire” with an oldies swing ramble-rolling to a catchy finish. For fun I’ll dare a wild guess that Cotton‘s dad played that stuff when he was a kid, as it feels learned through osmosis, but I have no confirmation of that. It is its own kind of interpretation of progressive music, and as the beginning of a new exploration, Cotton opens doors to a swath of styles that cross genres in ways few are able to do and remain so coherent. Quick listen, and it dares you to keep up with its changes and patterns, but among its principal accomplishments is to make itself organic in scope, with Cotton cast as the weirdo mastermind in the center. They’ll reportedly play live, so heads up.

Pontiac on Bandcamp

Coup Sur Coup Records on Bandcamp

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The Polvos!, Floating

Already fluid as they open with the rocker “Into the Space,” exclamatory Chilean five-piece The Polvos! delve into more psychedelic reaches in “Fire Dance” and the jammy and (appropriately) floaty midsection of “Going Down,” the centerpiece of their 35-minute sophomore LP, Floating. That song bursts to life a short time later and isn’t quite as immediate as the charge of “Into the Space,” but serves as a landmark just the same as “Acid Waterfall” and “The Anubis Death” hold their tension in the drums and let the guitars go adventuring as they will. There’s maybe some aspect of Earthless influence happening, but The Polvos! meld that make-it-bigger mentality with traditional verse/chorus structures and are more grounded for it even as the spaces created in the songs give listeners an opportunity for immersion. It may not be a revolution in terms of style, but there is a conversation happening here with modern heavy psych from Europe as well that adds intrigue, and the band never go so far into their own ether so as to actually disappear. Even after the shreddy finish of “The Anubis Death,” it kind of feels like they might come back out for an encore, and you know, that’d be just fine.

The Polvos! on Facebook

Surpop Records website

Smolder Brains Records on Bandcamp

Clostridium Records store

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The Cosmic Gospel, Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love

With a current of buzz-fuzz drawn across its eight component tracks that allow seemingly disparate moves like the Blondie disco keys in “Hot Car Song” to emerge from the acoustic “Core Memory Unlocked” before giving over to the weirdo Casio-beat bounce of “Psychrolutes Marcidus Man,” a kind of ’60s character reimagined as heavy bedroom indie, The Cosmic Gospel‘s Cosmic Songs for Reptiles in Love isn’t without its resentments, but the almost-entirely-solo-project of Mercata, Italy-based multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Medina is more defined by its sweetness of melody and gentle delivery on the whole. An experiment like the penultimate “Wrath and Gods” carries some “Revolution 9” feel, but Medina does well earlier to set a broad context amid the hook of opener “It’s Forever Midnight” and the subsequent, lightly dub beat and keyboard focus on “The Richest Guy on the Planet is My Best Friend,” such that when closer “I Sew Your Eyes So You Don’t See How I Eat Your Heart” pairs the malevolent intent of its title with light fuzzy soloing atop an easy flowing, summery flow, the album has come to make its own kind of sense and define its path. This is exactly what one would most hope for it, and as reptiles are cold-blooded, they should be used to shifts in temperature like those presented throughout. Most humans won’t get it, but you’ve never been ‘most humans,’ have you?

The Cosmic Gospel on Facebook

Bloody Sound website

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Grave Speaker, Grave Speaker

Massachusetts garage doomers Grave Speaker‘s self-titled debut was issued digitally by the band this past Fall and was snagged by Electric Valley Records for a vinyl release. The Mellotron melancholia that pervades the midsection of the eponymous “Grave Speaker” justifies the wax, but the cult-leaning-in-sound-if-not-theme outfit that marks a new beginning for ex-High n’ Heavy guitarist John Steele unfurl a righteously dirty fuzz over the march of “Blood of Old” at the outset and then immediately up themselves in the riffy stoner delve of “Earth and Mud.” The blown-out vocals on the latter, as well as the far-off-mic rawness of “The Bard’s Theme” that surrounds its Hendrixian solo, remind of a time when Ice Dragon roamed New England’s troubled woods, and if Grave Speaker will look to take on a similar trajectory of scope, they do more than drop hints of psychedelia here, in “Grave Speaker” and elsewhere, but they’re no more beholden to that than the Sabbathism of capper “Make Me Crawl” or the cavernous echo of “Earthbound.” It’s an initial collection, so one expects they’ll range some either way with time, but the way the production becomes part of the character of the songs speaks to a strong idea of aesthetic coming through, and the songwriting holds up to that.

Grave Speaker on Instagram

Electric Valley Records website

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Surya Kris Peters, There’s Light in the Distance

While at the same time proffering his most expansive vision yet of a progressive psychedelia weighted in tone, emotionally expressive and able to move its focus fluidly between its layers of keyboard, synth and guitar such that the mix feels all the more dynamic and the material all the more alive (there’s an entire sub-plot here about the growth in self-production; a discussion for another time), Surya Kris Peters‘ 10-song/46-minute There’s Light in the Distance also brings the former Samsara Blues Experiment guitarist/vocalist closer to uniting his current projects than he’s yet been, the distant light here blurring the line where Surya Kris Peters ends and the emergently-rocking Fuzz Sagrado begins. This process has been going on for the last few years following the end of his former outfit and a relocation from Germany to Brazil, but in its spacious second half as well as the push of its first, a song like “Mode Azul” feels like there’s nothing stopping it from being played on stage beyond personnel. Coinciding with that are arrangement details like the piano at the start of “Life is Just a Dream” or the synth that gives so much movement under the echoing lead in “Let’s Wait Out the Storm,” as Peters seems to find new avenues even as he works his way home to his own vision of what heavy rock can be.

Fuzz Sagrado on Facebook

Electric Magic Records on Bandcamp

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Gozd, Unilateralis

Unilateralis is the four-song follow-up EP to Polish heavydelvers Gozd‘s late-2023 debut album, This is Not the End, and its 20-plus minutes find a place for themselves in a doom that feels both traditional and forward thinking across eight-minute opener and longest track (immediate points, even for an EP) “Somewhere in Between” before the charge of “Rotten Humanity” answers with brasher thrust and aggressive-undercurrent stoner rock with an airy post-metallic break in the middle and rolling ending. From there, “Thanatophobia” picks up the energy from its ambient intro and explodes into its for-the-converted nod, setting up a linear build after its initial verses and seeing it through with due diligence in noise, and closer “Tentative Minds” purposefully hypnotizes with its vague-speech in the intro and casual bassline and drum swing before the riff kicks in for the finale. The largesse of its loudest moments bolster the overarching atmosphere no less than the softest standalone guitar parts, and Gozd seem wholly comfortable in the spaces between microgenres. A niche among niches, but that’s also how individuality happens, and it’s happening here.

Gozd on Facebook

BSFD Records on Facebook

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Sativa Root, Kings of the Weed Age

You wouldn’t accuse Austria’s Sativa Root of thematic subtlety on their third album, Kings of the Weed Age, which broadcasts a stoner worship in offerings like “Megalobong” and “Weedotaur” and probably whatever “F.A.T.” stands for, but that’s not what they’re going for anyway. With its titular intro starting off, spoken voices vague in the ambience, “Weedotaur”‘s 11 minutes lumber with all due bong-metallian slog, and the crush becomes central to the proceedings if not necessarily unipolar in terms of the band’s approach. That is to say, amid the onslaught of volume and tonal density in “Green Smegma” and the spin-your-head soloing in “Assassins Weed” (think Assassins Creed), the instrumentalist course undertaken may be willfully monolithic, but they’re not playing the same song five times on six tracks and calling it new. “F.A.T.” begins on a quiet stretch of guitar that recalls some of YOB‘s epics, complementing both the intro and “Weedotaur,” before bringing its full weight down on the listener again as if to underscore the message of its stoned instrumental catharsis on its way out the door. They sound like they could do this all day. It can be overwhelming at times, but that’s not really a complaint.

Sativa Root on Facebook

Sativa Root on Bandcamp

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Volt Ritual, Return to Jupiter

Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Mateusz, bassist Michał and drummer Tomek, Polish riffcrafters Volt Ritual are appealingly light on pretense as they offer Return to Jupiter‘s four tracks, and though as a Star Trek fan I can’t get behind their lyrical impugning of Starfleet as they imagine what Earth colonialism would look like to a somehow-populated Jupiter, they’re not short on reasons to be cynical, if in fact that’s what’s happening in the song. “Ghostpolis” follows the sample-laced instrumental opener “Heavy Metal is Good for You” and rolls loose but accessible even in its later shouts before the more uptempo “Gwiazdolot” swaps English lyrics for Polish (casting off another cultural colonialization, arguably) and providing a break ahead of the closing title-track, which is longer at 7:37 and a clear focal point for more than just bearing the name of the EP, summarizing as it does the course of the cuts before it and even bringing a last scream as if to say “Ghostpolis” wasn’t a fluke. Their 2022 debut album began with “Approaching Jupiter,” and this Return feels organically built off that while trying some new ideas in its effects and general structure. One hopes the plot continues in some way next time along this course.

Volt Ritual on Facebook

Volt Ritual on Bandcamp

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