By the time today is through — come hell or high water! — we will be at the halfway point of this two-week Quarterly Review. It hasn’t been difficult so far, though there are ups and downs always and I don’t think I’m giving away secrets when I tell you that in listening to 50 records some are going to be better than others.

Truth is that even outside the 100 LPs, EPs, etc., I have slated, there’s still a ton more. Even in something so massive, there’s an element of picking and choosing what goes in. Curation is the nice word for it, though it’s not quite that creatif in my head. Either way, I hope you’ve found something that connects this week. If not yet, then today. If not today, then maybe next week. As I’m prone to say on Fridays, we’re back at it on Monday.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

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Pallbearer, Mind Burns Alive

While I won’t take away from the rawer energy and longing put into their earlier work, maturity suits Pallbearer. The Little Rock, Arkansas, four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell, guitarist/backing vocalist Devin Holt, bassist/synthesist/backing vocalist Joseph D. Rowland and drummer Mark Lierly have passed their 15th anniversary between 2020’s Forgotten Days (review here) and the self-recorded six tracks of Mind Burns Alive, and they sound poised harnessing new breadth and melodic clarity. They’ve talked about the album being stripped down, and maybe that’s true to some degree in the engrossing-anyhow opener “When the Light Fades,” but there’s still room for sax on the 10-minute “Endless Place,” and the quieter stretches of the penultimate “Daybreak” highlight harmonized vocals before the bass-weighted riff sweeps in after the three-minute mark. Campbell has never sounded stronger or more confident as a singer, and he’s able to carry the likewise subdued intro to “Signals” with apparent sincerity and style alike. The title-track flashes brighter hopes in its later guitar solo leads, but they hold both their most wistful drift and their most crushing plod for closer “With Disease,” because five records and countless tours (with more to come) later, Pallbearer very clearly know what the fuck they’re doing. I hope having their own studio leads to further exploration from here.

Pallbearer on Facebook

Nuclear Blast website

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BleakHeart, Silver Pulse

With its six pieces arranged so that side A works from its longest track to its shortest and side B mirrors by going shortest to longest, Denver‘s BleakHeart seem to prioritize immersion on their second full-length, Silver Pulse, as “All Hearts Desire” unfolds fluidly across nearly eight minutes, swelling to an initial lumbering roll that evaporates as they move into the more spacious verse and build back up around the vocals of Kiki GaNun (also synth) and Kelly Schilling (also bass, keys and more synth). Emotional resonance plays at least as much of a role throughout as the tonal weight intermittently wrought by JP Damron and Mark Chronister‘s guitars, and with Joshua Quinones on drums giving structure and movement to the meditations of “Where I’m Disease” before leaving the subsequent “Let Go” to its progression through piano, drone and a sit-in from a string quartet that leads directly into “Weeping Willow,” the spaces feel big and open but never let the listener get any more lost in them than is intended. This is the first LP from the five-piece incarnation of BleakHeart, which came together in 2022, and the balance of lushness and intensity as “Weeping Willow” hits its culmination and recedes into the subdued outset of “Falling Softly” and the doomed payoff that follows bodes well, but don’t take that as undercutting what’s already being accomplished here.

BleakHeart on Facebook

Seeing Red Records website

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Pryne, Gargantuan

Austria’s Pryne — also stylized all-caps: PRYNE — threaten to derail their first album before it’s even really started with the angular midsection breakdown of “Can-‘Ka No Rey,” but that the opener holds its course and even brings that mosher riff back at the end is indicative of the boldness with which they bring together the progressive ends of metal and heavy rock throughout the 10-song/46-minute offering, soaring in the solo ahead of the slowdown in “Ramification,” giving the audience 49 seconds to catch its breath after that initial salvo with “Hollow Sea” before “Abordan” resumes the varied onslaught with due punch, shove and twist, building tension in the verse and releasing in the melodic chorus in a way that feels informed by turn-of-the-century metal but seeming to nod at Type O Negative in the first half bridge of “Cymboshia” and refusing flat-out to do any one thing for too long. Plotted and complex even as “The Terrible End of the Yogi” slams out its crescendo before the Baronessy verse of “Plaguebearer” moves toward a stately gang shout and squibbly guitar tremolo, they roll out “Enola” as a more straight-ahead realignment before the drone interlude “Shapeless Forms” bursts into the double-kick-underscored thrash of closer “Elder Things,” riding its massive groove to an expectedly driving end. You never quite know what’s coming next within the songs, but the overarching sense of movement becomes a uniting factor that serves the material well regardless of the aggression level in any given stretch.

Pryne on Facebook

Pryne on Bandcamp

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Avi C. Engel, Too Many Souls

Backed by looped percussive ticks and pops and the cello-esque melody of the gudok, Toronto experimental singer-songwriter Avi C. Engel is poised as they ask in the lyrics of “Breadcrumb Dance,” “How many gods used to run this place/Threw up their hands, went into real estate” near the center of the seven-song Too Many Souls LP. Never let it be said there wasn’t room for humor in melancholy. Engel isn’t new to exploring folkish intimacy in various contexts, and Too Many Souls feels all the more personal even in “Wooly Mammoth” or second cut “Ladybird, What’s Wrong?” which gets underway on its casual semi-ramble with the line, “One by one I watch them piss into the sun,” for the grounded perspective at root. An ongoing thread of introspection and Engel‘s voice at the center draw the songs together as these stories are told in metaphor — birds return in the album’s second half with “The Oven Bird’s Song” but there’s enough heart poured in that it doesn’t need to be leaned into as a theme — and before it moves into its dreamstate drone still with the acoustic guitar beneath, “Without Any Eyes” brings through its own kind of apex in Engel‘s layered delivery. Topped with a part-backmasked take on the traditional “Wayfaring Stranger” that’s unfortunately left as an instrumental, Too Many Souls finds Engel continuing their journey of craft with its own songs as companions for each other and the artist behind them.

Avi C. Engel on Facebook

Somnimage website

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Aktopasa, Ultrawest

The 13-minute single “Ultrawest” follows behind Aktopasa‘s late-2022 Argonauta Records debut, Journey to the Pink Planet (review here), and was reportedly composed to feature in a documentary of the same name about the reshaping of post-industrial towns in Colorado. It is duly spacious in its slow, linear, instrumentalist progression. The Venice, Italy, three-piece of guitarist Lorenzo Barutta, bassist Silvio Tozzato and drummer Marco Sebastiano Alessi are fluid as they maintain the spirit of the jam that likely birthed the song’s floating atmospherics, but there’s a plan at work as well as they bring the piece to fruition, with Alessi subtly growing more urgent around 10 minutes in to mark the shift into an ending that never quite bursts out and isn’t trying to, but feels like resolution just the same. A quick, hypnotic showcase of the heavy psychedelic promise the debut held, “Ultrawest” makes it easy to look forward to whatever might come next for them.

Aktopasa on Facebook

Aktopasa on Bandcamp

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Guenna, Peak of Jin’Arrah

Right onto the list of 2024’s best debuts goes Guenna‘s Peak of Jin’Arrah, specifically for the nuance and range the young Swedish foursome bring to their center in heavy progressive fuzz riffing. One might look at a title like “Bongsai” or “Weedwacker” (video premiered here) and imagine played-to-genre stoner fare, but Guenna‘s take is more ambitious, as emphasized in the flute brought to “Bongsai” at the outset and the proclivity toward three-part harmonies that’s unveiled more in the nine-minute “Dimension X,” which follows. The folk influence toward which that flute hints comes forward on the mostly-acoustic closer “Guenna’s Lullaby,” which takes hold after the skronk-accompanied, full-bore push that caps “Wizery,” but by that point the context for such shifts has been smoothly laid out as being part of an encompassing and thoughtful songwriting process that in less capable hands would leave “Ordric Major” disjointed and likely overly aggressive. Even as they make room for the guest lead vocals of Elin Pålsson on “Dark Descent,” Guenna walk these balances smoothly and confidently, and if you don’t believe there’s a generational shift happening right now — at this very moment — in Scandinavia, Peak of Jin’Arrah stands ready to convince you otherwise. There’s a lot of work between here and there, but Guenna hold the potential to be a significant voice in that next-gen emergence.

Guenna on Facebook

The Sign Records website

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Slow Green Thing, Wetterwarte / Waltherstrasse

The interplay of stoner-metal tonal density and languid vocal melody in “I Thought I Would Not” sets an atmospheric mood for Slow Green Thing on their fourth LP, Wetterwarte / Waltherstrasse, which the Dresden-based four-piece seem to have recorded in two sessions between 2020 and 2022. That span of time might account for some of the scope between the songs as “Thousand Deaths” holds out a hand into the void staring back at it and the subsequent “Whispering Voices” answers the proggy wash and fuzzed soloing of “Tombstones in My Eyes” with roll and meditative float alike, but I honestly don’t know what was recorded when and there’s no real lack of cohesion within the aural mists being conjured or the heft residing within it, so take that as you will. It’s perhaps less of a challenge to put temporal considerations aside since Slow Green Thing seem so at home in the flow that plays out across Wetterwarte / Waltherstrasse‘s six songs and 44 minutes, remaining in control despite veering into more aggressive passages and basing so much of what they do on entrancing and otherworldly vibe. And while the general superficialities of thickened tones and soundscaping, ‘gaze-type singing and nod will be familiar, the use made of them by Slow Green Thing offers a richer and deeper experience revealed and affirmed on repeat listens.

Slow Green Thing on Facebook

Slow Green Thing on Bandcamp

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Ten Ton Slug, Colossal Oppressor

Don’t expect a lot of trickery in Ten Ton Slug‘s awaited first full-length record, Colossal Oppressor, which delivers its metallic sludge pummel with due transparency of purpose. That is to say, the Galway, Ireland, trio aren’t fucking around. Enough so that Bolt Thrower‘s Karl Willetts shows up on a couple of songs. Varied but largely growled or screamed vocals answer the furious chug and thud of “Balor,” and while “Ghosts of the Ooze” later on answers back to the brief acoustic parts bookending opener “The Ooze” ahead of “Mallacht an tSloda” arriving like a sledgehammer only to unfold its darkened thrash and nine-plus-minute closer “Mogore the Unkind” making good on its initial threat with the mosh-ready riffing in its second half, there’s no pretense in those or any of the other turns Colossal Oppressor makes, and there doesn’t need to be when the songs are so refreshingly crushing. These guys have been around for over a decade already, so it’s not a surprise necessarily to find them so committed to this punishing mission, but the cathartic bloodletting resonates regardless. Not for everyone, very much for some on the more extreme end of heavy.

Ten Ton Slug on Facebook

Ten Ton Slug on Bandcamp

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Magic Fig, Magic Fig

Don’t let the outward Beatles-bouncing pop-psych friendly-acid traditionalism of “Goodbye Suzy” lull you into thinking San Francisco psych rockers Magic Fig‘s self-titled debut is solely concerned with vintage aesthetics. While accessible even in the organ-and-synth prog flourish of “PS1” — the keyboards alone seeming to span generations — and the more foreboding current of low end under the shuffle and soft vocals of “Obliteration,” the six-song/28-minute LP is no less effective in the rising cosmic expanse that builds into “Labyrinth” than the circa-’67 orange-sun lysergic folk-rock that rolls out from there — that darker edge comes back around, briefly, in a stop around the two-minute mark; it’s hard to know which side is imagining the other, but “Labyrinth” is no less fun for that — and “Distant Dream,” which follows, is duly transcendent and fluid. Given additional character via the Mellotron and birdsong-inclusive meditation that ends it and the album as a whole, “Departure” nonetheless feels intentional in its subtly synthy acoustic-and-voice folkish strum, and its intricacy highlights a reach one hopes Magic Fig will continue to nurture.

Magic Fig on Facebook

Silver Current Records on Bandcamp

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Scorched Oak, Perception

If you followed along with Dortmund, Germany’s Scorched Oak on their 2020 debut, Withering Earth (review here), as that album dug into classic heavy rock as a means of longer-form explorations, some of what they present in the 39 minutes of Perception might make more sense. There was plenty of dynamic then too in terms of shifts in rhythm and atmosphere, and certainly second-LP pieces like “Mirrors” and “Relief” come at least in part from a similar foundation — I’d say the same of the crescendo verse of “Oracle” near the finish — but the reportedly-recorded-live newer offering finds the band making a striking delve into harder and more metallic impacts on the whole. An interplay of gruff — gurgling, almost — and soulful melodic vocals is laid out as opener/longest track (immediate points) “Delusion” resolves the brooding toms of its verse with post-metal surges. Perhaps it’s obvious enough that it doesn’t need to be said, but Scorched Oak aren’t residing in a single feel or progression throughout, and the intensity and urgency of “Reflection” land with a directness that the closing “Oracle” complements in its outward spread. The element of surprise makes Perception feel somewhat like a second debut, but that they pull off such an impression is in itself a noteworthy achievement, never mind how much less predictable it makes them or the significant magnitude of these songs.

Scorched Oak on Facebook

Scorched Oak on Bandcamp

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Each successive full-length from Turku, Finland’s Craneium up to this point has been a progressive step forward from the one before it. It’s where that progression has brought them that makes their fourth long-player, Point of No Return, a special moment. As the sweeping, lush and gorgeous crescendo of opening track “One Thousand Sighs” to its final peak — a tonally rich and urgent but not too fast chug pushed forward by emphatic snare carefully placed in the mix, surrounded by layers of melodic vocals in a dynamic movement that prefaces the encompassing breadth of much of what follows before dropping with residual echo to a sentimental intertwining of acoustic and electric guitar as denouement across the last 40 seconds of its 5:34 — the band’s mastery is glaringly obvious, a brightness cast in kind with the Jaime Zuverza cover art. Point of No Return is the four-piece’s second outing backed by The Sign Records after 2021’s Unknown Heights (review here), and sees them working again with that album’s producer, Joona Hassinen, who also mastered late-2018’s The Narrow Line (review here), at a Studio Underjord now relocated from Norrköping to Finspång, Sweden, while Karl Daniel Lidén of Stockholm’s Studio Gröndahl handled the mix and master.

Across the six songs and deceptively-expansive 37 minutes, whether it’s in the underlying performances of guitarist/vocalists Andreas Kaján and Martin Ahlö, bassist Jonas Ridberg and drummer Joel Kronqvist, or the more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts grandeur they cast in the memorable choruses of “One Thousand Sighs,” “The Sun,” “A Distant Shore,” “…Of Laughter and Cries,” “Things Have Changed” and “Search Eternal” — yeah, that’s all six; it’s front-to-back — or the way even the most impact-minded stretches complement and maintain the atmospheres harnessed through contemplative, patient, purposeful semi-drift, the overarching mastery can’t be ignored. More than a decade on from first getting together in 2011 and nine years after their debut LP, Explore the Void, got them picked up by Ripple Music for a 2016 release, Craneium present themselves as mature and intentional in their craft, graceful in rhythm and melody alike, and aware of what they want their songs to be doing and how they want each to inform the greater context and undulating flow of the album as a whole.

This is conveyed in Frida Eurenius of Spiral Skies guesting on vocals to help put that already-noted apex of “One Thousand Sighs” over the top, as well as Skraeckoedlan‘s Robert Lamu contributing lead guitar to “The Sun” — I’ll note also what seem to be keyboard or piano strikes in that song’s verse; Lamu‘s band employed similar urgency in “Mysteria” from their own new album for a nice shout-out — and, for a just-them example, the way the final solo of “A Distant Shore” holds its tension in Kronqvist‘s soon-fading toms as the non-lyric vocals (ready for an audience singalong as much as they are an epilogue), far-back Mellotron and airy guitar end side A only to have the initial crash of “…Of Laughter and Cries” immediately reground with the more uptempo groove that follows. With a direct shift, that bit of contrast echoes how the buildup of “The Sun,” which is Point of No Return‘s most fervent shove, responds to the quiet finish of “One Thousand Sighs” just before, and though the interaction changes as the couple seconds of silence on side B between the penultimate “Things Have Changed” — the chugging verse and declarative chorus of which mirror “The Sun” in their grounded execution — and “Search Eternal” are tense with anticipation, Craneium nonetheless feel mindful in these pairings and their arrangement across the two sides, each set up such that its procession complements the other.

The split on the vinyl version (I’m not sure there is a CD; take that, ’90s heads), between “A Distant Shore” and “…Of Laughter and Cries,” makes for three songs on each side, and the symmetry of construction extends to “A Distant Shore” (7:35) and “Search Eternal” (7:23) each as the longest running track among its respective three. It’s not the most radical difference between those and the others between five and six minutes long, but still a choice that feels purposeful, especially as “Search Eternal” enters its final outward-pointed movement in a midsection marked by near-elephantine keyboard swells and cycles of guitar that, indeed, seem to be exploring and finding their way forward. And that “Search Eternal” has a hook in its early going is no less representative of Point of No Return as a whole.

On sound alone, it and “A Distant Shore” both work as grand finales. The side-A-capper plunging into Mellotron-laced melancholy and a post-stoner float, and its chorus stands ready to imprint itself on your brain, but the way its riff hits more straight-on before the cymbal wash and danger-zone guitar lead into a heavier rush — still methodical in the detailing with key or guitar sounds peppered in the momentary tumult — before the solo brings “A Distant Shore” to a head and it recedes into the aforementioned, immersive ending, Ridberg‘s bass and Kronqvist‘s drums tasked with keeping feet on the ground through the transition as the melody and ambience lend an aspect of drama without feeling like Craneium have pushed too far and gotten lost. What makes “Search Eternal” function so well where it does is how it emphasizes the fluidity of everything preceding. Beginning with resonant low end fuzz and moving swiftly into its verse, it lacks nothing for fullness of sound at its heaviest — and the mix is a significant space to fill — but Point of No Return would be a much different album if volume was its only priority.

Further, the ease with which they turn from a few measures of bombast to the march-through-the-cosmos instrumental ending, while evocative of the stated climate-crisis thematic, underscores the point of the directorial role they’ve played a songwriters. It’s not that they’ve given up the riffy foundations from whence they’ve come, but while the core “The Sun” could be read as extrapolated from Songs for the Deaf-era Queens of the Stone Age, there’s no denying that Craneium take that particular charge and use it toward their own ends. That, coupled with the care and attention so clearly paid to the root performances and the additional layers constructed around them, affirms Point of No Return as the defining statement of Craneium‘s tenure thus far. Accordingly, where their own ‘search eternal,’ i.e., their collective ambitions in sound, craft and expression, might take them from here feels broader in possibility than it ever has.

Craneium, “Things Have Changed” official video

Craneium, “One Thousand Sighs” official video

Craneium, Point of No Return (2024)

Craneium on Facebook

Craneium on Instagram

Craneium on Bandcamp

The Sign Records on Facebook

The Sign Records website

Swedish fuzz rockers — okay! Stop right there! You got me. I’m in. I know, the rest of the sentence was gonna be about how Swedish fuzz rockers Guenna are set to issue their debut full-length in the coming months through The Sign Records. Crucial info; it tells you who they are, where they’re from, what they’re doing and gives some hint at what they’re about. Who, what, where, when, why, how. Classic stuff. But if I said, “Swedish fuzz rock” and left it there, wouldn’t you kind of still be on board?

But really, are there three more beautiful words in the English language than “Swedish fuzz rock?” and I invite you as you dig into the premiere of the first video from Guenna‘s Peak of Jin’Arrah to consider the band’s place in that particular oeuvre. Am I wrong to hear young Dozer or Truckfighters in amid the modernities of their sound? Am I wrong to think of bands like Skraeckoedlan who might be an influence, alongside bigger bands like Red Fang (decidedly not Swedish) or Monolord (as proportionally Swedish as Red Fang aren’t), or Black Rainbows (how did we get to Italy) as Guenna ingest inspiration new and old and process it into the beginning stages of a sound of their own?

And I mean, I’m actually asking that question since I haven’t heard Peak of Jin’Arrah yet, though if you’d like to dig further after the clip premiering below for “Weedwacker,” their Bandcamp has a prior EP and a compilation track for research purposes. Their self-titled March 2020 EP doesn’t match this initial album single for production value, but the rampant vocal melody in the new track is an element that’s clearly been there from the start — and with good reason. As alluded above, “Swedish fuzz rock” is a high standard to live up to, generally speaking. Guenna‘s melodic focus and the energy of their delivery — the fun and sense of personality highlighted in the video for “Weedwacker” as well — are how they’re meeting that challenge as they head toward their first long-player, and the result is an engaging, fluid listen that reminds you you’re dying fast, and with humor, joy and a catchy hook, the band encourage you to make the most of what you’ve got as regards time. They seem to be doing just that.

The clip is a blast. Look out for the twang guitar on the back of the truck and the guy playing “Wonderwall” on an acoustic, skateboarding into the pool and the hilariously epic framing of the solo before they bring back the chorus.

Rad. There’s more to say here, but it can and should wait until the record, which after this video, I find myself nothing if not ready for. See if you feel the same. I hope you enjoy.

PR wire info follows:

Guenna, “Weedwacker” video premiere

The Sign Records are proud to announce that Guenna has joined the label for the release of their debut album “Peak of Jin’Arrah”. Hailing from the southernmost part of Sweden, this 4 piece offers a thrilling take of fuzzy, progressive and heavy rock with vocal harmonies, perhaps described best by Nick Oliveri during a night when Guenna opened up for his band Stöner in Malmö; “Guenna sound like if YES played heavy stoner music, with all the harmonies and stuff. And I mean the good part of YES! It’s fucking rad!”

Guenna’s debut album “Peak of Jin’Arrah” will be released in 2024 and the first single “Weedwacker” is released on all streaming platforms on the 1st of December. Robert from the band comments:

“I came up with the theme for Weedwacker when I was taking a walk in my hometown near the Norwegian border in Sweden. I walked past fields and big luxury houses with well trimmed gardens, and started to think about how crazy lawn mowing would be if weeds and grass had the same sense of fear and pain as living creatures. A complete massacre!”

Guenna on Facebook

Guenna on Instagram

Guenna on Bandcamp

The Sign Records on Facebook

https://www.instagram.com/the_sign_records

https://linktr.ee/TheSignRecords

The Sign Records website

My understanding of the situation is that Turku, Finland, heavy progressives Craneium finished recording their upcoming fourth LP, Point of No Return, in Oct. 2022. That was a month after premiering a video for “Victim of Delusion”, which was issued as a standalone digital single following 2021’s Unknown Heights (review here), which was their first album for The Sign Records.

That’s plenty of lead time. I say put the thing out Friday. “One Thousand Sighs” sure sounds ready to be heard, let alone either of the tracks they’ve put out as singles thus far, “Things Have Changed” (true: the band have grown) and “The Sun,” which boasts a guest appearance from Skraeckoedlan‘s Robert Lamu. All told, Point of No Return runs six songs, and as someone listening to it right now, I’ve yet to find a dud in the bunch.

I can only imagine the relief Craneium will feel to get this out after sitting on it for a year-plus. Note the Karl Daniel Lidén mix and master and keep in mind ideas of clarity and refinement. Their choruses speak more to the listener here than they have before. I’m interested to get to know the songs better and I’ll hope to have more before the record’s already been out for like four months or some such.

From the PR wire:

Craneium are set to release their fourth album “Point of No Return” in February 2024 via The Sign Records. The Finnish four piece’s upcoming, studio recorded effort is their most ambitious one yet, washing over you through a constant ebb and flow of fuzzy heaviness, complemented by psychedelic melodies and atmospheric passages. The album follows their 2021 studio effort “Unknown Heights” (The Sign Records), “The Narrow Line” (2018, Ripple Music), and “Explore The Void” (2016, Ripple Music).

The album was recorded by Joona Hassinen at his new Studio Underjord in Finspång, Sweden with mixing and mastering duties handled by legendary Karl Daniel Lidén (Studio Gröndahl). The band has long admired his work with giants such as Lowrider and Greenleaf, and we are more than pleased with the end result. With the songwriting expanding upon the Craneium sound with atmospheric guitar leads and heavy riffing, the dynamics have become more polished and clean. Conceptually, the lyrics deal with the climate catastrophe and the responsibility of mankind for planet Earth. The artwork was handled by psychedelic artist Jaime Zuverza and complements the music perfectly.

Craneium is:
Andreas Kaján – Vocals & Guitars
Martin Ahlö – Vocals & Guitars
Joel Kronqvist – Drums
Jonas Ridberg – Bass

https://www.instagram.com/craneiumband/
https://www.facebook.com/craneiumband/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7fRtbrVBXuRjfpdyEiOBRK
http://craneiumband.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thesignrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/the_sign_records
https://linktr.ee/TheSignRecords
http://www.thesignrecords.com

Craneium, “Things Have Changed” official video

Craneium, “The Sun” (feat. Robert Lamu) official video

It’s a pretty traditional singer-songwriter arrangement put to the new solo single from Dorian Sorriaux, which comes from his debut LP, Children of the Moon, set to release through Sweden’s The Sign Records. Best known for his work on the first two Blues Pills albums as well as the sundry other releases around them and the heavy-impact touring that band did during that era, which one could argue was their most influential, he’s been playing alongside Parker Griggs (Radio Moscow, whose former rhythm section was also in Blues Pills earlier on, might still be, etc.) in the revamped El Perro for most of 2023 and it’s looking like that will stick going forward as well. His debut solo release, an EP called Hungry Ghost, came out in 2016 and was issued through Soulseller Records in 2018.

You’ll hear piano and acoustic guitar, a sweet vocal delivery, and soothing melodicism. There’s a tinge of the psychedelic to it, but it’s a stretch for the ears and Sorriaux doesn’t really need to hide behind effects, either as a guitarist or a singer. Folk roots showing up for sure, and it’s classic-feeling in a ’70s singer-songer sense, but produced modern and clear in its purpose.

Something different, if from a familiar name. The PR wire brought the following. Hope you dig:

Former Blues Pills member Dorian Sorriaux signs with The Sign Records

-Release first single and music video from upcoming studio album

The Sign Records are proud to announce that Dorian Sorriaux has joined the label for the release of album Children of the Moon. Best known for being the lead guitarist of Blues Pills for 6 years, Dorian has toured extensively all around Europe and Australia with Blue Pills playing some of the biggest European Festivals like Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Download, Rock Werchter, Wacken, Roskilde, Sweden Rock, and opening for bands such as Deep Purple, John Fogerty, Rival Sons, and Europe. He released several EP’s, two studio albums and two live albums before leaving the band in 2018.

Many young players look to the guitar heroes of the 60s and 70s for inspiration, but very few are able to channel their influences as mesmerizingly as Dorian Sorriaux. When the young French guitarist burst onto the scene with rockers Blues Pills, he displayed an incredible maturity and expressiveness as a musician that was captured on their 2014 self-titled debut. Comparisons with legendary bluesmen Peter Green and Paul Kossoff weren’t hyperbole; you could hear their quality in Dorian’s playing touch. Following the success of Blues Pills’ second album Lady In Gold (2016), Dorian Sorriaux revealed surprising new depths to his talent as a singer / songwriter with his debut solo EP Hungry Ghost. The EP received wonderful reviews and allowed Dorian to tour all over Europe as a solo act opening for Myles Kennedy. He now reveals a much more personal style of music and songwriting with his upcoming record Children of the Moon coming out in 2024 on The Sign Records.

The first single from Dorian’s upcoming album is called “I Believe That You Can Change” and is released on all streaming platforms on the 15th of December together with a music video. Dorian comments on the single:

The song “I Believe That You Can Change“ talks about having a spiritual experience, communicating with the elements and believing that a change for the better is possible. It´s about realizing that we are all connected and that hurting one another is not the way to go and suggest to go within to find the answers. Musically it has a nice mid-tempo groove, a strange tuning and slide guitar, piano and organ as well as beautiful backing vocals by my friend Adeline Haudiquet.

https://www.doriansorriaux.com/
https://www.facebook.com/spacedorre
https://www.instagram.com/doriansorriaux
https://www.tiktok.com/@doriansorriaux

https://www.facebook.com/thesignrecords/
http://www.thesignrecords.com

Dorian Sorriaux, “I Believe That You Can Change” official video

With the advent of ‘Blood of the Lord’ — the audio of which was released last week and the purposefully grainy, narrative-plus-performance-footage video for which you can see premiering below — Swedish doom rockers Dun Ringill move one step further to their next full-length, Where the Old Gods Play Act 1. As the number in the title implies, it’s not the only ‘act’ to come, but part of a duology with Act 2 to follow the first installment sometime in between now and next Spring through The Sign Records. But that’s fine, since it seems like the Gothenburg outfit are giving plenty for listeners to dig into either way as they move forward, and maybe a bit of time to digest Act 1 is reasonable ahead of the conclusion.

To wit, “Blood of the Lord” is 4:46 in the video, but you’re probably going to want to hear the track two or three times before it really begins to sink in. There’s an immediate hook, which is helpful — a severe, pious melody behind the throaty incantations of vocalist Thomas Eriksson — but that melody is from an actual chorus, and thrice-over guitar only gives an even grander sensibility to the track. It’s not haphazard or kitchen-sink’ed for the sake of rudderless maximalism, but there’s a lot going on in sound over that solidified structure, and that’s before you even get to the actual themes of the album, song, video, etc.

You might recall way back in Nov. 2022, Dun Ringill put out “Awakening” (video premiere here) as the first A/V sign of Where the Old Gods Play Acts 1 & 2 to come. At that point, they gave a bit of background on the tale, saying, “The storyline is set in 1904 on the Isle of Skye in Scotland where Lucia, with low self-esteem from her troubled past, meets a local church group which is led by a strong, charismatic and manipulative individual.” She joins a cult, in other words. We’ve all been there, right? Maybe your cult is weed, maybe it’s riffs — mine is doom and Star Trek — maybe it’s playing squash on Thursdays, hell, maybe it’s your band, but as human I think we learn that the drive to belong to something bigger can be a treacherous impulse to follow. Maybe you find a home, maybe you find a trap. Maybe you find both.

Perhaps that’s a bit of what’s going on here in terms of plot as protagonist Lucia leaves behind her ‘mother church’ in favor of the new place she’s found in the Scottish Highlands, and fair enough. Dun Ringill are less dogma-takedown than they might otherwise be — at least here; recall there’s two LP’s worth of material still to come — and seem to prefer to serve the characters and action rather than the underlying message, which is how a project like this works without being crushed by its own ambitions. If you caught wind either of 2020’s Library of Death (review here) or 2019’s debut, Welcome (review here), the contextual backdrop of classic doom will feel consistent with what’s come before, but this isn’t the kind of thing a band takes on lightly, especially for a third (and fourth) record.

Much intrigue here. Four months after the first single (they’re going quarterly, which I can appreciate), Dun Ringill directly speak in sound to the ‘going-big’ implications in the concept behind Where the Old Gods Play Acts 1 & 2. And I won’t put too fine a point on it, but why the hell not? If we’ve learned anything since Library of Death it’s that life is too short to stifle yourself. Fucking a, Dun Ringill. All-in. Do it. It’ll be the better part of at least another year before this full story is told, but the plot thickens on multiple levels with “Blood of the Lord,” and one is eager to see where they go from here. I guess it’ll be a few more months, huh?

More background from the band (via the PR wire) follows the video itself on the player below.

Please enjoy:

Dun Ringill, “Blood of the Lord” video premiere

 

Dun Ringill returns with second single from double concept album!

Get it: https://orcd.co/dunringill_bloodofthelord

Dun Ringill returns with the second single leading up to their double concept album ”Where the Old Gods Play Act 1 & 2”. ”Blood of the Lord” is an epic track by the Swedish 6-piece group on which Nordic folk influences are combined with doom and progressive metal to create huge, monumental soundscapes. The single tells the story about the concept album’s main character Lucia’s religious conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism.

Dun Ringill on ”Blood of the Lord”:

“A big meaning needs a big sound!!!

This song has one of the deepest meanings on this conceptual album and it inspired us to write one of our most epic tracks ever!

To bring the feeling of the lyrics alive, we used choirs for the first time ever and accompanies it with three-harmony guitars, playful drums and super heavy bass lines to give the song a larger-than-life presence.

The lyrics are about Lucia, who has to convert from Catholicism to Protestantism to take the communion in order to stay in the congregation where she has found peace.

But is there peace within this Parrish?

Note that the chants of Blood of the lord, Body of the lord take a sinister twist towards the end to become Blood for the lord, Body for the lord….”

”Blood of the Lord” (radio edit) is out on all streaming platforms from the 3rd of March. Dun Ringill’s double concept album will be released as two separate albums during 2023 and 2024 respectively via The Sign Records.

Upcoming gigs with Dun Ringill:
14/4 – Retro Bar, Raufoss, Norway
15/4 – Telerock, Notodden, Norway
19-20/5 – Kristiflax festivalen, Tjörn, Sweden

Dun Ringill is:
Thomas Eriksson – Vocals (Also in Intoxicate and Ex-Grotesque and Doomdogs)
Neil Grant – Drums (Ex- End Of Level Boss and RAAR)
Patrik Andersson Winberg – Bass (Ex The Order of Israfel and Doomdogs)
Jens Florén – Guitar ( Also in Lommi and ex live guitarist for Dark Tranquillity)
Tommy Stegemann – Guitar ( Ex Silverhorse)
Patric Grammann – Guitar ( Ex Southern Festival Train and Neon Leon)

Dun Ringill, “Awakening” official video

Dun Ringill on Facebook

Dun Ringill on Bandcamp

The Sign Records on Facebook

The Sign Records website

Last I heard from Finnish outfit Craneium, the Turku-based heavy rockers had finished recording their next full-length for The Sign Records, following up on 2021’s Unknown Heights (review here). Frankly, it still hasn’t been that long since that record came out, so it’s not really a worry that instead of news about the next album, the new song “Sands of Gold” arrives specifically pointed out as a standalone single rather than a herald of an LP to follow.

If it’s the ubiquitous pressing delays, cost-of-everything concerns, or whatever else might be behind putting this out before moving forward with a new album, it doesn’t really matter. New Craneium is welcome regardless, and if this is the capstone for their Unknown Heights era, it both reminds how cool that record was and makes me look forward to what’s coming next.

YouTube stream is at the bottom of this post. If you prefer another service, there’s a bunch linked in the PR wire info that follows here:

Craneium release stand alone single “Sands of Gold”!

The new single from Finlands’ Craneium is called “Sands of Gold” and it oozes of heavy blues rock, desert sand and gasoline. But it’s more than a heavy rock tune with a lot of drive, it’s also a song filled with hope.

The stand alone single was written during the sessions for the bands’ latest album “Unknown Heights” (2021). The band recorded the song at V.R. Studio in Turku together with Joona Hassinen from Studio Underjord.

Listen to the single via your favorite streaming platform or right here: https://orcd.co/sandsofgold

Guitarist Martin, who also handles the lead vocal duties on the track, explains:
“The line ‘we all must do our part / got a new world here in our hearts’ is inspired by a quote by anarcho-syndicalist Buenaventura Durruti. The song is about believing in your thing and staying true to your ideas, even if it at times may seem dark. Something we all could use a little more of right now.”

“Sands of Gold” is out now on all streaming platforms via The Sign Records: https://orcd.co/sandsofgold

Craneium is:
Andreas Kaján – Vocals & Guitars
Martin Ahlö – Vocals & Guitars
Joel Kronqvist – Drums
Jonas Ridberg – Bass

https://www.instagram.com/craneiumband/
https://www.facebook.com/craneiumband/
http://craneiumband.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/thesignrecords/
http://www.thesignrecords.com

Craneium, “Sands of Gold”

A six-minute chug-riffer with burl to spare, Dun Ringill’s new single “Awakening” is the first herald of their upcoming two-part full-length release, Where the Old Gods Play, set to issue next Fall and in early 2024 as their first outings through The Sign Records. Early for a single, you say? Yeah, it is, but somehow with two record’s worth of material in their pocket I think the band aren’t in danger of running out of new material anytime soon.

And such productivity isn’t necessarily new for the Swedish six-piece, who got together in 2017 after bassist Patrik Winberg‘s prior outfit, The Order of Israfel, well, fell. In 2020, Dun Ringill brought forth Library of Death (review here) as the follow-up to 2019’s debut, Welcome (review here), so they’ve kept a pretty steady pace, perhaps making up for a bit of lost-to-the-void pandemic-time with these back-to-back LP offerings. But however they get it done, it’s emblematic of their style as well as work ethic that they’re as recognizable as they are, touting Nordic folk elements that, yeah, are there, while the band meanwhile completely manages to skirt actually being folk metal.

Where the Old Gods Play Acts 1 & 2, should they follow the pattern — and the expectation they will is born of the band’s reliable level of songwriting — will be doom rockers for the converted, but make no mistake, they’re metal-born. The same is true of “Awakening.” The medieval-style visuals, creepy-stuff-in-the-woods, and dudes playing on hillsides with amps to be found nowhere (I’m sorry, I love that shit; takes me right back to Headbanger’s Ball) could hardly be more appropriate for the song itself. If you want to think of “Awakening” as an early check-in from Dun Ringill, proof of life and announcement of good things to come, do that. But it’s also a righteous groove on its on with some wicked guttural vocals that, if you’ve got a quota for dudely in your afternoon, will almost surely meet it.

Further, if even just the word “Awakening” triggers religious associations in your mind — a spiritual awakening, in other words — that would seem to be no coincidence, since Where the Old Gods Play Acts 1 & 2 takes its narrative framework from a film script penned by Winberg. I’ve never made a movie and I’m not familiar with the process from start to finish — as opposed to, say, making a record by doing the drums/basic tracks first — but I’d imagine both Acts will be out before an actual cinematic manifestation of the story appears, but still, having a storyline reach across two full-length albums is not exactly lacking ambition as it stands.

I’ll hope to have more to come as we get closer to the release of Where the Old Gods Play Act 1, but for now, here’s “Awakening” followed by what details are available now for the album(s).

Enjoy:

Dun Ringill, “Awakening” official video

Dun Ringill on “Awakening”

”This is the Awakening……”

This opening song from the new album starts off with the sound of the waves breaking against the shore with distant bagpipes being heard, before the heavy folky-doom takes the listener on a menacing dance between light and darkness. The bruised and scarred Lucia (main character of this concept album), has just woken up on the sea-shore to start her unpredictable journey…

”The memories are frightening…”

The storyline is set in 1904 on the Isle of Skye in Scotland where Lucia, with low self-esteem from her troubled past, meets a local church group which is led by a strong, charismatic and manipulative individual.

”This is the day of reckoning…”

The music of the album carefully reflects the main story which unfolds. Behind the dramatic backdrop of the Scottish highlands, we follow Lucia’s dark inner journey which will form her personality and mind, leading to her Awakening.

”I will meet it with a welcoming…”

Awakening on:
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/album/2uvbqSrKjbBdVn9XFVl3NK
iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/album/id/1648458207
Deezer – https://www.deezer.com/album/363385027

Awakening is the first single taken from the forthcoming double concept album ”Where the Old Gods Play Acts 1 & 2”. The piece of work will be available over two single albums, released in Autumn 2023 & spring 2024.

WTOGP 1 & 2 is the follow up to their highly acclaimed albums “Welcome” and “Library of Death”. After the release of album No 2 ” Library of Death”, the band decided to challenge themselves further by writing an ambitious double concept album. To enhance the story, the band (now with a new drummer) choose to increase the intensity of their dark, progressive visions whilst still faithfully incorporating their native Nordic folk influences.

The release of their new album will be an adventurous double concept album, released as two single albums via The Sign records, is based on a movie script written by Patrik Andersson Winberg (bassist and main songwriter in DR) and Jonas Granath (teacher in religion and literature). Contact has been made with movie producers who have shown great interest in the script thus far. More info to follow later this year. The story (based in Scotland in early 1900) centers around the manipulation of the church with a priest whose secret agenda only reveals itself at the end.

Dun Ringill is:
Thomas Eriksson – Vocals (Also in Intoxicate and Ex-Grotesque and Doomdogs)
Neil Grant – Drums (Ex- End Of Level Boss and RAAR)
Patrik Andersson Winberg – Bass (Ex The Order of Israfel and Doomdogs)
Jens Florén – Guitar ( Also in Lommi and ex live guitarist for Dark Tranquillity)
Tommy Stegemann – Guitar ( Ex Silverhorse)
Patric Grammann – Guitar ( Ex Southern Festival Train and Neon Leon)

Dun Ringill on Facebook

The Sign Records on Facebook

The Sign Records website