Well here we are, at last. A couple weeks ago I looked at my calendar and ended up pushing this Quarterly Review to mid-July instead of the end of June, and it’s been hanging over my head in the interim to such a degree that I added two days to it to cover another 20 records. I’m sure it could be more. The amount of music is infinite. It just keeps going.

I’ll assume you know the deal, but here it is anyhow: 10 records per day, for seven days — Monday through Friday, plus Monday and Tuesday in this case — for a total of 70 reviews. Links and audio provided to the extent possible, and hopefully we all find some killer new music we didn’t know about before, or if we did know about it, just to enjoy. That doesn’t seem so crazy, right?

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Bongzilla, Dab City

None higher. Following extensive touring before and (to the extent possible) after the release of their 2021 album, Weedsconsin (review here), Madison, WI, canna-worship crust sludge-launchers Bongzilla return with Dab City, proffering the harsh and the mellow as only they seem to be able to do, even among their ’90s-born original-era sludge brethren. As second track “King of Weed” demonstrates, Bongzilla are aurally dank unto themselves, both in the scathing vocals of bassist Mike “Muleboy” Makela and the layered guitar of Jeff “Spanky” Schultz and the slow-swinging groove shoving all that weighted tone forward in Mike “Magma” Henry‘s drums. Through the seven tracks and 56 minutes of dense jams like those in the opening title-cut or the 13-minute “Cannonbong (The Ballad of Burnt Reynolds as Lamented by Dixie Dave Collins” (yes, from Weedeater) or the gloriously languid finale “American Pot,” the shorter instrumental “C.A.R.T.S.,” or in the relatively uptempo nodders “Hippie Stick” and “Diamonds and Flower,” Bongzilla underscore the if-you-get-it-then-you-get-it nature of their work, at once extreme in its bite and soothing in atmosphere, uncompromising in purpose. I’m not going to tell you to get bombed out of your gourd and listen, but they almost certainly did while making it, and Dab City is nothing if not an invitation to that party.

Bongzilla on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Trevor’s Head, A View From Below

Adventures await as Redhill, UK, three-piece Trevor’s Head — guitarist/vocalist Roger Atkins, bassist/vocalist/synthesist Aaron Strachan (also kalimba), drummer/flutist/vocalist/synthesist Matt Ainsworth (also Mellotron) — signal a willfully open and progressive creativity through the heavy psych and grunge melodies of lead track “Call of the Deep” before the Primus-gone-fuzz-prog chug of “Under My Skin” and the somehow-English-pastoral “Grape Fang” balances on its multi-part harmonies and loose-feeling movement, side A trading between shorter and longer songs to end with the seven-minute, violin-inclusive folk-then-fuzz-folk highlight “Elio” before “Rumspringa” brings the proceedings to ground as only cowbell might. As relatively straight-ahead as the trio get there or in the more pointedly aggressive shover “A True Gentleman” on the other side of the Tool-ish noodling and eat-this-riff of “What Got Stuck” (answer: the thrashy gallop before the final widdly-widdly solo, in my head), they never want for complexity, and as much as it encapsulates in its depth of arrangement and linear course, closer “Don’t Make Me Ask” represents the band perhaps even more in looking forward rather than back on what was just accomplished, building on what 2018’s Soma Holiday (review here) hinted at stylistically and mindfully evolving their sound.

Trevor’s Head on Facebook

APF Records website

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Vorder, False Haven

Born in the ’90s as Amend, turned more extreme as V and now perhaps beginning a new era as Vorder — pronounced “vee-order” — the Dalarna, Sweden, unit return with a new rhythm section behind founding guitarists Jonas Gryth (also Unhealer) and Andreas Baier (also Besvärjelsen, Afgrund, and so on) featuring bassist Marcus Mackä Lindqvist (Blodskam, Lýsis) and drummer Daniel Liljekvist (ex-Katatonia, In Mourning, Grand Cadaver, etc.) on drums, the invigorated four-piece greet a dark dawn with due presence on False Haven, bringing Baier‘s Besvärjelsen bandmate Lea Amling Alazam for guest vocals on “The Few Remaining Lights,” which seems to be consumed after its melodic opening into a lurching and organ-laced midsection like Entombed after the Isis-esque ambience of post-apocalyptic mourning in “Introspective” and “Beyond the Horizon of Life.” Beauty and darkness are not new themes for Vorder, even if False Haven is their first release under the name, and even in the bleak ‘n’ roll of the title-track there’s still room for hope if you define hope as tambourine. Which you probably should. The penultimate “Judgement Awaits” interrupts floating post-doom with vital shove and 10:32 finale “Come Undone” provides a resonant melodic answer to “The Few Remaining Lights” while paying off the album as a whole in patience, heft and fullness. Vorder use microgenres like a polyglot might switch languages, but what’s expressed from the entirety of the work is utterly their own, whatever name they use.

Vorder on Facebook

Suicide Records website

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Inherus, Beholden

Multi-instrumentalist Beth Gladding (also of Forlesen, Botanist, Lotus Thief, etc.) shares vocal duties in New York’s Inherus with bassist Anthony DiBlasi (ex-Witchkiss) and fellow guitarist/synthesist Brian Harrigan (Grid, Swallow the Ocean), and the harsh/clean dynamic puts emphasis on the various textures presented throughout the band’s debut album. Completed by drummer Andrew Vogt (Lotus Thief, Swallow the Ocean), Inherus reach toward SubRosan melancholy on “Forgotten Kingdom,” which begins the hour-flat/six-track 2LP, and they follow with harmonies and grandeur to spare on “One More Fire” (something in that melody reminds me of Indigo Girls and I’m noting it because I can’t get my head away from it; not complaining) and “The Dagger,” which resolves in Amenra-style squibble and lurch without giving up its emotional depth. “Oh Brother” crushes enough to make one wonder where the line truly is between metal and post-metal, and the setup for closer “Lie to the Angels” in the drone-plus piece “Obliterated in the Face of the Gods” telegraphs the intensity to follow if not the progginess of that particular chug or the scope of what follows. Vogt signals the arrival at the album’s crescendo with stately but fast double-kick, and if you’re wondering who gets the last word, it’s feedback. Beholden may prove formative as Inherus move forward, but what their first full-length lays out as their stylistic range is at least as impressive as it is ambitious. Hope for more to come.

Inherus on Facebook

Hypnotic Dirge Records store

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Sonic Moon, Return Without Any Memory

Even in the second half of “Tying Up the Noose” as it leads into “Give it Time” — which is about as speedy as Sonic Moon get on their Olde Magick Records-delivered first LP, Return Without Any Memory — they’re in no particular hurry. The overarching languid pace across the Aarhus five-piece’s 41-minute/seven-tracker — which reuses only the title-track from 2019’s Usually I Don’t Care for Flowers EP — makes it hypnotic even in its most active moments, but whether it’s the Denmarkana acoustic moodiness of centerpiece “Through the Snow,” the steady nod of “Head Under the River” later or the post-All Them Witches psych-blues conveyed in opener “The Waters,” Sonic Moon are able to conjure landscapes from fuzzed tonality that could just as easily have been put to use for traditional doom as psych-leaning heavy rock, uniting the songs through that same fuzz and the melody of the vocals as “Head Under the River” spaces out ahead of its slowdown or “Hear Me Now” eschews the huge finish in favor of a more unassuming, gentler letting go, indicative of the thoughtfulness behind their craft and their presentation of the material. Familiar enough on paper and admirably, unpretentiously itself, the self-recorded Return Without Any Memory discovers its niche and comes across as being right at home in it. A welcome debut.

Sonic Moon on Facebook

Olde Magick Records on Bandcamp

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Slow Wake, Falling Fathoms

With cosmic doom via YOB meeting with progressive heavy rock à la Elder or Louisiana rollers Forming the Void and an undercurrent of metal besides in the chug and double-kick of “Controlled Burn,” Cleveland’s Slow Wake make their full-length debut culling together songs their 2022 Falling Fathoms EP and adding the prior-standalone “Black Stars” for 12 minutes’ worth of good measure at the end. The dense and jangly tones at the start of the title-track (where it’s specifically “Marrow”-y) or “In Waves” earlier on seem to draw more directly from Mike Scheidt‘s style of play, but “Relief” builds from its post-rocking outset to grow furious over its first few minutes headed toward a payoff that’s melody as much as crunch. “Black Stars” indulges a bit more psychedelic repetition, which could be a sign of things to come or just how it worked out on that longer track, but Slow Wake lay claim to significant breadth regardless, and have the structural complexity to work in longer forms without losing themselves either in jams or filler. With a strong sense of its goals, Falling Fathoms puts Slow Wake on a self-aware trajectory of growth in modern prog-heavy style. That is, they know what they’re doing and they know why. To show that alone on a first record makes it a win. Their going further lets you know to keep an eye out for next time as well.

Slow Wake on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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The Fierce and the Dead, News From the Invisible World

Unearthing a bit of earlier-Queens of the Stone Age compression fuzz in the start-stop riff of “Shake the Jar” is not even scratching the surface as regards textures put to use by British progressive heavies The Fierce and the Dead on their fourth album, News From the Invisible World. Comprised of eight songs varied in mood and textures around a central ethic clearly intent on not sounding any more like anyone else than it has to, the collection is the first release from the band to feature vocals. Those are handled ably by bassist Kev Feazey, but it’s telling as to the all-in nature of the band that, in using singing for the first time, they employ no fewer than six guest vocalists, mostly but not exclusively on opener/intro “The Start.” From there, it’s a wild course through keyboard/synth-fed atmospheres on pieces like the Phil Collins-gone-heavy “Photogenic Love” and its side-B-capping counterpart “Nostalgia Now,” which ends like friendlier Godflesh, astrojazz experimentalism on “Non-Player,” and plenty of fuzz in “Golden Thread,” “Wonderful,” “What a Time to Be Alive,” and so on, though where a song starts is not necessarily where it’s going to end up. Given Feazey‘s apparent comfort with the task before him, it’s a wonder they didn’t make this shift earlier, but they do well in making up for lost time.

The Fierce and the Dead on Facebook

Spencer Park Music on Facebook

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Mud Spencer, Kliwon

Kliwon is the second offering from Indonesia-based meditative psych exploration unit Mud Spencer to be released through Argonauta Records after 2022’s Fuzz Soup (review here), and its four component songs find France-born multi-instrumentalist Rodolphe Bellugue (also Proots, Bedhunter, etc.) constructing material of marked presence and fluidity. Opener “Suzzanna” is halfway through its nine minutes before the drums start. “Ratu Kidul” is 16 minutes of mindful breathing (musically speaking) as shimmering guitar melody pokes out from underneath the surrounding ethereal wash, darker in tone but more than just bleak. Of course “Dead on the Heavy Funk” reminds of Mr. Bungle as it metal-chugs and energetically weirds out. And the just under 16-minute “Jasmin Eater” closes out with organ and righteous fuzz bass peppered with flourish details on guitar and languid drumming, becoming heavier and consuming as it moves toward the tempo kick that’s the apex of the album. Through these diverse tracks, an intimate psychedelic persona emerges, even without vocals, and Mud Spencer continues to look inward for expanses to be conveyed before doing precisely that.

Mud Spencer on Facebook

Argonauta Records store

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Kita, Tyhjiö

It would seem that in the interim between 2021’s Ocean of Acid EP and this five-song/41-minute debut full-length, Tyhjiö, Finnish psychedelic death-doomers Kita traded English lyrics for those in their native Finnish. No, I don’t speak it, but that hardly matters in the chant-like chorus of the title-track or the swirling pummel that surrounds as the band invent their own microgenre, metal-rooted and metal in affect, but laced with synth and able to veer into lysergic guitar atmospherics in the 10-minute opener “Kivi Puhuu” or the acoustic-led (actually it’s bass-led, but still) midsection leading to the triumphant chorus of bookending closer “Ataraksia,” uniting disparate ideas through strength of craft, tonal and structural coherence, and, apparently, sheer will. The title-track, “Torajyvä” and “Kärpässilmät,” with the centerpiece cut as the shortest, make for a pyramid-style presentation (broader around its base), but Kita are defined by what they do, drawing extremity from countrymen like Swallow the Sun or Amorphis, among others, and turning it into something of their own. Striking in the true sense of: it feels like being punched. But punched while you hang out on the astral plane.

Kita on Facebook

Kita on Bandcamp

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Embargo, High Seas

Greek fuzz alert! Heavy rocking three-piece Embargo hail from Thessaloniki with their first long-player, High Seas, using winding aspects of progressive metal to create tension in the starts and stops of “Billow,” “EAT” and “Candy” as spoken verses in the latter and “Alanna Finch” draw a line between the moody noise rock of Helmet, the grunge it informed, and the heavy rock that emerged (in part) from that. Running 10 tracks and 44 minutes, High Seas is quick in marking out the smoothness of its low tonality, and it veers into and out of what one might consider aggression in terms of style, “with 22 22” thoughtfully composed and sharply pointed in kind, one of several instrumentals to offset some of the gruffer stretches or a more patient melodic highlight like “Draupner,” which does little to hide its affinity for Soundgarden and is only correct to showcase it. They also finish sans-vocals in the title-track, and there’s almost a letting-loose sense to “High Seas” itself, shaking out some shuffle in the first half before peaking in the second. Greece is among Europe’s most packed and vibrant undergrounds, and with High Seas, Embargo begin to carve their place within it.

Embargo on Facebook

Embargo on Bandcamp

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Here’s mud in yer eye. How are you feeling so far into this Quarterly Review? The year? How are things generally? How’s your mom doing? Everybody good? Hope so. Odd as it is to think, I find music sounds better when you’re not distracted by everything else going to shit around you, so I hope you don’t currently find yourself in that situation.

Today’s 10 records are a bit of this, bit of that, bit of here, but of there, but I’ll note that we start and end in Greece, which wasn’t on purpose or anything but a fun happenstantial byproduct of slating things randomly. What can I say? There’s a lot of Greek heavy out there and the human brain forms patterns whether we want it to or not. Plenty of geographic diversity between, so let’s get to it, hmm?

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #31-40:

The Temple, Of Solitude Triumphant

Though they trace their beginnings back to the mid-aughts, Of Solitude Triumphant (on the venerable I Hate Records) is only the second full-length from Thessaloniki doom metallers The Temple. With chanting vocals, perpetuated misery and oldschool-style traditionalism metered by modern production’s tonal density, the melodic reach of the band is as striking as profundity of their rhythmic drag, the righteousness of their craft being in how they’re able to take a riff, slog it out across five, seven, 10 minutes in the case of post-intro opener “The Foundations” and manage to be neither boring nor a drag themselves. There’s a bit of relative tempo kick in “A White Flame for the Fear of Death” and the tremolo guitar (kudos to the half-time drums behind; fucking a) at the outset of closer “The Lord of Light” speaks to some influence from more extreme metals, but The Temple are steady in their purpose, and that nine-minute finale riff-marches to its own death accordingly. Party-doom it isn’t, and neither is it trying to be. In mood and the ambience born out of the vocals as much as the instruments behind, The Temple‘s doom is for the doomly doomed among the doomed. I’ll rarely add extra letters to it, but I have to give credit where it’s due: This is dooom. Maybe even doooom. Take heed.

The Temple on Facebook

I Hate Records website

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Dead Man’s Dirt, Dead Man’s Dirt

Gothenburg heavy rockers Dead Man’s Dirt, with members of Bozeman Simplex, Bones of Freedom, Coaster of Souls and a host of others, offer their 2023 self-titled debut through Ozium Records in full-on 2LP fashion. It’s 13 songs, 75 minutes long. Not a minor undertaking. Those who stick with it are rewarded by nuances like the guitar solo atop the languid sway of “The Brew,” as well as the raucous start-stop riffing in “Icarus (Too Close to the Sun),” the catchy “Highway Driver” and the bassy looseness of vibe in the penultimate “River,” which heads toward eight minutes while subsequent endpoint “Asteroid” tops nine. It is to the band’s credit that they have both the material and the variety to pull off a record this packed and keep the songs united in their barroom-rocking spirit, though some attention spans just aren’t going to be up to the task in a single sitting. But that’s fine. If the last couple years have taught the human species anything, it’s that you never know what’s around the next corner, and if you’re going to go for it — whatever “it” is — go all-in, because it could evaporate the next day. Whether it’s the shuffle of “Queen of the Wood” or the raw, in-room sound of “Lost at Sea,” Dead Man’s Dirt deserve credit for leaving nothing behind.

Dead Man’s Dirt on Facebook

Ozium Records store

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Witchfinder, Forgotten Mansion

Big rolling riffs, lurching grooves, melodies strongly enough delivered to cut through the tonal morass surrounding — there’s plenty to dig for the converted on Witchfinder‘s Forgotten Mansion. The Clermont-Ferrand, France, stoner doomers follow earlier-2022’s Endless Garden EP (review here) and 2019’s Hazy Rites (review here) full-length with their third album and first since joining forces with keyboardist Kevyn Raecke, who aligns in the malevolent-but-rocking wall of sound with guitarist Stanislas Franczak, bassist Clément Mostefai (also vocals) and drummer Thomas Dupuy. Primarily, they are very, very heavy, and that is very much the apparent foremost concern — not arguing with it — but as the five-song/36-minute long-player rolls through “Marijauna” and on through the Raecke-forward Type O Negative-ity of “Lucid Forest,” there’s more to their approach than it might at first appear. Yes, the lumber is mighty. But the space is also broad, and the slow-swinging groove is always in danger of collapsing without ever doing so. And somehow there’s heavy metal in it as well. It’s almost a deeper dive than they want you to think. I like that about it.

Witchfinder on Facebook

Mrs Red Sound store

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Fumata, Días Aciagos

There’s some whiff of Conan‘s riffing in “Acompáñame Cuando Muero,” but on the whole, Mexico City sludge metallers Fumata are more about scathe than crush on the six tracks of their sophomore full-length, Días Aciagos (on LSDR Records). With ambient moments spread through the 35-minute beastwork and a bleak atmosphere put in place by eight-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Orgullo y Egoísmo,” with its loosely post-metallic march and raw, open sound, the four-piece of Javier Alejandre, Maximo Mateo, Leonardo Cardoso and Juan Tamayo are agonized and chaotic-sounding, but not haphazard in their delivery as they cross genre lines to work in some black metal extremity periodically, mine a bit of death-doom in “Anhelo,” foster the vicious culmination of the bookending seven-minute title-track, and so on. Tempo is likewise malleable, as “Seremos Olvidados” and that title-track show, as well as the blasting finish of “Orgullo y Egoísmo,” and only the penultimate “No Engendro” (also the shortest song at 4:15) really stays in one place for its duration, though as that place is in an unnamed region between atmosludge, doom and avant black metal, I’m not sure it counts. As exciting to hear as it is miserable in substance, Días Aciagos plunges where few dare to tread and bathes in its own pessimism.

Fumata on Facebook

LSDR Records on Bandcamp

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Sumerlands, Dreamkiller

Sumerlands‘ second album and Relapse debut, Dreamkiller finds Magic Circle‘s Brendan Radigan stepping in for original vocalist Phil Swanson (now in Solemn Lament), alongside Eternal Champion‘s Arthur Rizk, John Powers (both guitar), and Brad Raub (bass), and drummer Justin DeTore (also Solemn Lament, Dream Unending, several dozen others) for a traditional metal tour de force, reimagining New Wave of British Heavy Metal riffing with warmer tonality and an obviously schooled take on that moment at the end of the ’70s when metal emerged from heavy rock and punk and became its own thing. “Force of a Storm” careens Dio-style after the mid-tempo Scorpions-style start-stoppery of “Edge of the Knife,” and though I kept hoping the fadeout of closer “Death to Mercy” would come back up, as there’s about 30 seconds of silence at the finish, no such luck. There are theatrical touches to “Night Ride” — what, you didn’t think there’d be a song about the night? come on. — and “Heavens Above,” but that’s part of the character of the style Sumerlands are playing toward, and to their credit, they make it their own with vitality and what might emerge as a stately presence. I don’t know if it’s “true” or not and I don’t really give a shit. It’s a burner and it’s made with love. Everything else is gatekeeping nonsense.

Sumerlands on Facebook

Relapse Records store

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Expiatoria, Shadows

Shadows is the first full-length from Genoa, Italy’s Expiatoria — also stylized with a capital-‘a’: ExpiatoriA — and its Nov. 2022 release arrives some 35 years after the band’s first demo. The band originally called it quits in 1996, and there were reunion EPs along the way in 2010 and 2018, but the six songs and 45 minutes here represent something that no doubt even the band at times thought wouldn’t ever happen. The occasion is given due ceremony in the songs, which, in addition to being laden with guest appearances by members of Death SS, Il Segno del Comando, La Janera, and so on, boasts a sweeping sound drawing from the drama of gothic metal — loooking at you, church-organ-into-piano-outro in “Ombra (Tenebra Parte II),” low-register vocals in “The Wrong Side of Love” and flute-and-guitar interlude “The Asylum of the Damned” — traditional metal riffing and, particularly in “7 Chairs and a Portrait,” a Candlemassian bell-tolling doom. These elements come together with cohesion and fluidity, the five-piece working as veterans almost in spite of a relative lack of studio experience. If Shadows was their 17th, 12th, or even fifth album, one might expect some of its transitions to be smoothed out to a greater degree, but as it is, who’s gonna argue with a group finally putting out their debut LP after three and a half decades? Jerks, that’s who.

ExpiatoriA on Facebook

Black Widow Records store

Diamonds Prod. on Bandcamp

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Tobias Berblinger, The Luckiest Hippie Alive

Setting originals alongside vibe-enhancing covers of Blaze Foley and Commander Cody, Portland’s Tobias Berblinger (also of Roselit Bone) first issued The Luckiest Hippie Alive in 2018 and it arrives on vinyl through Ten Dollar Recording Co., shimmering in its ’70s ramble-country twang, vibrant with duets and acoustic balladeering. Berblinger‘s nostalgic take reminds of a time when country music could be viable and about more than active white supremacy and/or misappropriated hip-hop, and boozers like “My Boots Have Been Drinking” and the Hank Williams via Townes Van Zandt “Medicine Water” and “Heartaches, Hard Times, Hard Drinking”, and smokers like the title-track and “Stems and Seeds (Again)” reinforce the atmosphere of country on the other side of the culture war. Its choruses are telegraphed and ready to be committed to memory, and its understated sonic presence and the wistfulness of the two-minute “Crawl Back to You” — the backing vocals of Mariya May, Marisa Laurelle and Annie Perkins aren’t to be understated throughout, including in that short piece, along with Mo Douglas‘ various instrumental contributions — add a sweetness and humility that are no less essential to Americana than the pedal steel throughout.

Tobias Berblinger website

Ten Dollar Recording Co. store

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Grandier, The Scorn and Grace of Crows

Based in Norrköping, Sweden, the three-piece Grandier turn expectation on its head quickly with their debut album, The Scorn and Grace of Crows, starting opener/longest track (immediate points) “Sin World” with a sludgy, grit-coated lumber only to break after a minute in to a melodic verse. The ol’ switcheroo? Kind of, but in that moment and song, and indeed the rest of what follows on this first outing for Majestic Mountain, the band — guitarist Patrik Lidfors, bassist/many-layered-vocalist Lars Carlberg, (maybe, unless they’re programmed; then maybe programming) drummer Hampus Landin — carve their niche from out of a block of sonic largesse and melodic reach. Carlberg‘s voice is emotive over the open-feeling space of “Viper Soul” and sharing the mix with the more forward guitars of “Soma Goat,” and while in theory, there’s an edge of doomed melancholy to the 44-minute procession, the heft in “The Crows Will Following Us Down” is as much directed toward impact as mood. They really are melodic sludge metal, which is a hell of a thing to piece together on your first record as fluidly as they do here. “Smoke on the Bog” leans more into the Sabbathian roll with megafuzz tonality behind, and “Moth to the Flames” is faster, more brash, and a kind of dark heavy rock that, three albums from now, might be prog or might be ’90s lumber. Could go either way, especially with “My Church of Let it All Go” answering back with its own quizzical course. Will be very interested to hear where their next release takes them, since they’re onto something and, to their credit, it’s not immediately apparent what.

Grandier on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Subsun, Parasite

Doomers will nod approvingly as Ottawa’s Subsun cap “Proliferation” by shifting into a Candlemassian creeper of a lead line, but that kind of doomly traditionalism is only one tool in their varied arsenal. Guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Jean-Michel Fortin, bassist/vocalist Simon Chartrand-Paquette and drummer Jérémy Blais go to that post-Edling well (of souls) again, but their work across their 2022 debut LP, Parasite, is more direct, more rock-based and at times more aggressive on the whole. Recorded at Apartment 2 by Topon Das (Fuck the Facts), the seven-songer grows punkish in the verse of “Mutation” and drops thrashy hints at the outset of “Fusion,” while closer “Mutualism” slams harder like noise rock and punches its bassline directly at the listener. Begun with the nodding lurch of “Parasitism” — which would seem as well to be at the thematic heart of the album in terms of lyrics and the descriptive approach thereof — the movement of one song to the next has its underlying ties in the vocals and overarching semi-metal tonality, but isn’t shy about messing with those either, as on the lands-even-harder “Evolution” or the thuds at the outset of “Adaptation,” the relative straightforwardness of the structures allowing the band to draw together different styles into a single, effective, individualized sound.

Subsun on Facebook

Subsun on Bandcamp

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Bazooka, Kapou Allou

The acoustic guitar of opener “Kata Vathos” transitions smoothly into the arrival-of-the-electrics on “Krifto,” as Athens’ Bazooka launch the first of the post-punk struts on Kapou Allou, their fourth full-length. Mediterranean folk and pop are factors throughout — as heard in the vocal melody of the title-track or the danceable “Pano Apo Ti Gi” — while closer “Veloudino Kako” reimagines Ween via Greece, “Proedriki Froura” traps early punk in a jar to see it light up, and “Dikia Mou Alithia” brings together edgy, loosely-proggy heavy rock in a standout near the album’s center. Wherever they go — yes, even on “Jazzooka” — Bazooka seem to have a plan in mind, some vision of where they want to end up, and Kapou Allou is accordingly gleeful in its purposed weirdoism. At 41 minutes, it’s neither too long nor too short, and vocalist/guitarist/synthesist Xanthos Papanikolaou, guitarist/backing vocalist Vassilis Tzelepis, bassist Aris Rammos and drummer/backing vocalist John Vulgaris cast themselves less as tricksters than simply a band working outside the expected confines of genre. In any language — as it happens, Greek — their material is expansive stylistically but tight in performance, and that tension adds to the delight of hearing something so gleefully its own.

Bazooka on Facebook

Inner Ear Records store

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Long-running Greek doom metallers The Temple released their debut album, Forevermourn — get it? — in 2016 and followed that with a split single alongside Sweden’s Acolytes of Moros the next year. Of Solitude Triumphant is the first offering of any kind, then, in half a decade from the four-piece who released their first demo in 2007. They’re streaming the new song “A White Flame for the Fear of Death” now and if you’ve got a box for doom, said box will be thoroughly ticked, Gregorian-style chanting and classical-style grandiosity. If you’re coming back after five years, no reason not to go big, and The Temple do that with a resonant sense of intention.

The backing of label I Hate Records is noteworthy here as well. The imprint has a long history of releasing killer doom, and though in recent years they’ve branched out along other metallic traditionalisms, there’s no denying they know their stuff when it comes to slow riffs and grueling groove. It caught my eye, anyhow, and then my ear. Maybe it’ll do the same for you.

From the PR wire:

THE TEMPLE – “Of Solitude Triumphant”

Label: I Hate Records
Release date: 9. Dec. 2022

I Hate Records proudly presents the new full-length album of Greek doom metallers THE TEMPLE!

The new temple pillar. Hear these words vilifiers and pretenders; the finest doom band from the Hellenic Republic has returned for their second outing in triumph! Building upon the foundations of their house of worship, their solemn threnodies of purest doom take the form of a concept album about a soul’s journey from coming into being, all the way through rebirth, loss, the fear of death and ending with it at peace in the Light.

Highly recommended to fans of Scald, Isole and While Heaven Wept!

A White Flame For The Fear Of Death” – Official Track Stream:

https://ihate.bandcamp.com/track/a-white-flame-for-the-fear-of-death

TRACKLIST
1. Me To Lichno Tou Astrou
2. The Foundations
3. Reborn In Virtue
4. Profound Loss
5. A White Flame For The Fear Of Death
6. Premonitions Of The Final Hour
7. The Lord Of Light
(playing time: 49:54 min.)

LINE-UP
Father Alex – Bass / Vocals
Felipe – Guitar (Lead)
Stefanos – Guitar (Rhythm)
Paul – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/the.temple.doom.metal
https://thetemple2.bandcamp.com/releases

https://www.facebook.com/ihaterecords/
https://ihate.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ihate.se/

The Temple, Of Solitude Triumphant (2022)

Greece’s Naxatras have already been included in a few of the Sound of Liberation-related Fall festivals throughout Europe for this October — Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp, Keep it Low in Munich, Up in Smoke in Pratteln, Switzerland — and had already unveiled their UK run to take place in September anchored by an appearance at Riffolution Festival in Sheffield, so to have them tie it together with club dates isn’t necessarily a surprise, though it’s welcome.

I’m not sure who’s supporting, if anybody — these are package-heavy days as the world somewhat hesitantly re-embraces live music culture, but sometimes bands do tour alone — but this might be considered a complement to Naxatras‘ Spring run, which was with Puta Volcano, and it finds them continuing to support their Feb. 2022 album, IV (review here), and the radical shift toward progressive rock songwriting it presented.

As to when they might place their native country, well, they just did throughout June and July, so there. No way that one of the forerunners of the Greek underground would leave out home base. Now if only we could trick them into coming to the US for a few shows, preferably with one of them in my back yard.

Until then, this:

NAXATRAS – AUTUMN TOUR 2022

Hello friends and fellow aliens, we are super hyped to announce that we’ll be touring Europe once more this autumn!

See ya all down the galactic highway.

Mind-blowing poster courtesy of CHRIS RW

Powered by Sound of Liberation

02.10.22 SWI Pratteln, Up in Smoke
03.10.22 ITA Bologna, Freak Out Club
04.10.22 AT Innsbruck, PMK
05.10.22 AT Salzburg, Rockhouse
07.10.22 DE Munich, Keep It Low
10.10.22 POL Warsaw, Hydrozagadka
11.10.22 DE Berlin, Zukunft
12.10.22 DE Wiesbaden, Schlachthof
14.10.22 DE Oldenburg, Cadillac
15.10.22 BEL Antwerpen, Desertfest
16.10.22 NL Utrecht, DB´s
+ more to be announced!

Tickets will be on sale very soon at: https://www.naxatras.gr/tour

UK TOUR 2022

Stocked to announce that we’ll be touring the United Kingdom this fall, also playing Scotland for the first time ever! Can’t wait to see ya, mates.

Tickets available at: https://echelontalent.agency/roster/naxatras/

14.9 Brighton, Green Door Store
15.9 Bristol, The Exchange
16.9 London, The Underworld
17.9 Sheffield, Riffolution Festival
18.9 Glasgow, Ivory Blacks

Naxatras are:
John Delias – Guitar, Vocals
John Vagenas – Bass, Vocals
Kostas Charizanis – Drums and Percussion
Pantelis Kargas – Keyboards and Synthesizers

http://www.naxatras.gr
http://www.facebook.com/naxatras
http://www.instagram.com/naxatras
http://naxatras.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6HN1s0JzLowapZ7nhOAJ71?si=w5UAkxrZQDujUwmi7tl8aA
https://www.youtube.com/naxatrasofficial

Naxatras, IV (2022)

Last day. Maybe I’m supposed to have some grand reflection as we hit 100 of 100 records for the Quarterly Review, but I’ll spare you. I’ve put a few records from the bunch on year-end lists, enjoyed a lot of music, wondered why a few people got in touch with me in the first place, and generally plotzed through to the best of my ability. Thanks as always to The Patient Mrs., through whom all things are possible, for facilitation.

And thank you for reading. I hope you’ve managed to find something killer in all this, but if not, there’s still today to go, so you’ve got time.

Next QR is probably early October, and you know what? I’ve already got records lined up for it. How insane is that?

Quarterly Review #91-100:

Jo Quail, The Cartographer

To list the personnel involved in Jo Quail‘s Roadburn-commissioned five-movement work The Cartographer would consume the rest of this review, so I won’t, but the London electric cellist is at the center of an orchestral experiment the stated purpose of which is to find the place where classical and heavy musics meet. Percussion thuds, there’s piano and electric violin and a whole bunch of trombones, and whatever that is making the depth-charge thud underneath “Movement 2,” some voices and narration at the start by Alice Krige, who once played the Borg Queen among many other roles. Though Quail composed The Cartographer for Roadburn — originally in 2020 — the recording isn’t captured on that stage, but is a studio LP, which lets each headphone-worthy nuance and tiny flash of this or that shine through. So is it heavy? Not really in any traditional sense, but of course that’s the point. Is SunnO))) heavy? Sure. It’s less about conforming to given notions of genre characteristics than bringing new ideas to them and saying this-can-be-that in the way that innovative art does, but heavy? Why the hell not? Think of it as mind-expansion, only classy.

Jo Quail on Facebook

By Norse Music website

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Experiencia Tibetana, Vol. II

An aptly named second full-length from Buenos Aires trio Experiencia Tibetana greatly solidifies the band’s approach, which of course itself is utterly fluid. Having brought in Gaston Saccoia on drums, vocals and other percussion alongside guitarist/vocalist Walter Fernandez and bassist Leandro Moreno Vila since their recorded-in-2014-released-in-2020 debut, Vol. I (review here), the band take the methodology of meditative exploration from that album and pare it down to four wholly expansive processions, resonant in their patience and earthy psychedelic ritualizing. Each side of the 48-minute LP is comprised of a shorter track and a longer, and they’re arranged for maximum immersion as one climbs a presumably Tibetan mountain, going up and coming back down with the longest material in the middle, the 16-minute pair “Ciudad de latahes” and “(Desde el) Limbo” running in hypnotic succession with minimalism, noise wash, chanting, percussive cacophony, dead space, bass fuzz, spoken word and nearly anything else they want at their disposal. With “El delito espiritual I” (8:18) and the maybe-eBow(?) ghost howls of “El delito espiritual II” (7:19) on either side, Vol. II charts a way forward for the trio as they move into unknown aural reaches.

Experiencia Tibetana on Facebook

Experiencia Tibetana on Bandcamp

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People of the Black Circle, People of the Black Circle

Not quite like anything else, Athenian conjurors People of the Black Circle plunge deep into horror/fantasy atmospheres, referencing H.P. Lovecraft and Robert Howard within the five tracks of their nonetheless concise 34-minute/five-track self-titled debut. Weighted in tone and mood, almost garage-doom in its production, the synth-backing of “Cimmeria” unfolds after the outward crunch of leadoff “Alchemy of Sorrow” — like Euro doom dramaturge transposed onto a bed of ’80s synths with Om-style bass — and from centerpiece “The Ghoul and the Seraph (Ghoul’s Song II)” through the bookending choral figures and either sampled or synthesized horns over the resolute chug of “Nyarlathotep” and more straight-ahead slow-motion push of closer “Ghosts in Agartha,” which swirls out a highlight solo after a wailing verse lets go and seems to drift away after its payoff for the album as an entirety. While in concept, People of the Black Circle‘s aesthetic isn’t necessarily anything new, there’s no denying the boundaries of dungeon synth and horror/garage doom are being transcended here, and that mixture feels like it’s being given a fresh perspective in these songs, even if the thematic is familiar. A mix of new and old, then? Maybe, but the new wins out decisively. In the parlance of our times, “following.”

People of the Black Circle on Facebook

Red Truth Productions on Bandcamp

—

 

Black Capricorn, Cult of Blood

It always seems to be a full moon when Black Capricorn are playing, regardless of actual cloud cover or phase. The Sardinian trio of guitarist/vocalist Fabrizio Monni (also production; also in Ascia), bassist Virginia Pras and drummer Rachela Piras offer an awaited follow-up to their 2019 Solstice EP (discussed here). Though it’s their fifth full-length overall, it’s the second with this lineup of the band (first through Majestic Mountain), and it comes packed with references like the doomly “Worshipping the Bizarre Reverend” and “Snake of the Wizard” as distorted, cultish and willfully strange vibes persist across its 44-minute span. Doom. Even the out-there centerpiece kinda-interlude “Godsnake Djamballah” and the feedback-laced lurch-march of the nine-minute “Witch of Endor” have a cauldron-psych vibe coinciding with the largely riff-driven material, though, and it’s the differences between the songs that ultimately bring them together, closer “Uddadhaddar” going full-on ritualist with percussion and drone and chanting vocals as if to underscore the point. It’s been five years since they released Omega (review here), their most recent LP, and Cult of Blood wholly justifies the wait.

Black Capricorn on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

—

 

SABOTØR, Skyggekæmper

The Danish title Skyggekæmper translates to English as “shadow fighter,” and if punk-informed heavy rocking Aarhus three-piece SABOTØR mean it in a political context, then fair enough. I speak no Danish, but their past work and titles here like “2040-Planen” — seemingly a reference to Denmark’s clean energy initiative — the stomping, funky “Ro På, Danmark!” (‘calm down, Denmark’) and even the suitably over-the-top “King Diamond” seem to have speaking about Danishness (Danedom?) as an active element. Speaking of “active,” the energy throughout the nine-song/49-minute span of the record is palpable, and while they’re thoroughly in the post-Truckfighters fuzz rock dominion tonally, the slowdowns of “Edderkoppemor” and the closing title-track hit the brakes at least here and there in their longer runtimes and expand on the thrust of the earlier “Oprør!” and “Arbejde Gør Fri,” the start-stop riffing of which seems as much call to dance as a call to action — though, again, I say that as someone without any actual idea if it’s the latter — making the entire listening experience richer on the whole while remaining accessible despite linguistic or any other barriers to entry that might be perceived. To put it another way, you don’t have to be up on current issues facing Denmark to enjoy the songs, and if they make you want to be afterward, so much the better.

SABOTØR on Facebook

SABOTØR on Bandcamp

—

 

The Buzzards of Fuzz, The Buzzards of Fuzz

Vocalist/rhythm guitarist Van Bassman, lead guitarist/backing vocalist Benjamin J. Davidow and bassist/backing vocalist/percussionist Charles Wiles are The Buzzards of Fuzz. I’m not sure who that leaves as drummer on the Atlanta outfit’s self-titled Sept. 2021 debut LP — could be producer/engineer Kristofer Sampson, Paul Stephens and/or Nick Ogawa, who are all credited with “additional instrumentation” — and it could be nobody if they’re programmed, but one way or the other, The Buzzards of Fuzz sure sound like a complete band, from the trippin’-on-QOTSA vibe of “Tarantulove” and “Desert Drivin’ (No Radio)” (though actually it’s Kyuss alluded to in the lyrics of the latter) to the more languid psych pastoralia of “All in Your Head” and the spacious two minutes of “Burned My Tongue on the Sun,” the purposeful-feeling twist into Nirvana of “Mostly Harmless” and the nod to prior single “Lonely in Space” that is finale “Lonely in Space (Slight Return).” Sleek grooves, tight, hooky songwriting and at times a languid spirit that comes through no matter how fast they’re playing give The Buzzards of Fuzz, the album, a consistent mood across the 11 songs and 32 minutes that allows the delivery to play that much more of a role in making short pieces feel expansive.

The Buzzards of Fuzz on Facebook

The Buzzards of Fuzz on Bandcamp

—

 

Temple of Void, Summoning the Slayer

Crawl into Temple of Void‘s deathly depths and you may find yourself duly consumed. Their style is less outright doom than it used to be, but the Detroit extremist five-piece nonetheless temper their bludgeoning with a resilient amount of groove, and even at their fastest in songs like “Hex, Curse & Conjuration” and some of the more plundering moments in “A Sequence of Rot” just prior, the weight behind their aural violence remains a major factor. The keys in “Deathtouch,” which follows down-you-go opener “Behind the Eye” and leads into “Engulfed” branches out the band’s sound with keyboards (or guitar-as-keyboards, anyway) and a wider breadth of atmosphere than they’ve enjoyed previously — “Engulfed” seems to touch on Type O Negative-style tonality as it chugs into its midsection — and the concluding “Dissolution” introduces a quieter, entirely-clean approach for just under three key-string-laced minutes that Temple of Void have legitimately never shown before. Seems doubtful they’ll take that as far as Opeth in putting out Damnation — though that’s just crazy enough to work — but it shows that as Temple of Void move toward the 10-year mark, their progression has not abated whatsoever. And they still kill, so no worries there.

Temple of Void on Facebook

Relapse Records website

—

 

Anomalos Kosmos, Mornin Loopaz

Psych jazz, instrumental save for some found voice samples which, if you were listening on headphones out in the wild, say, might have you wondering if you’re missing the announcement for your train at the station. Based in Thessaloniki, Greece, Anomalos Kosmos brim with experimentalist urgency on the half-hour of Mornin Loopaz, the seven tracks of which are titled playing off the days of the week — “Meinday,” “Chooseday,” “Whensday,” etc. — but which embark each on their own explorations of the outer reaches of far out. The longest of the bunch is “Thirstday” at just over five minutes, and at 30 minutes one could hardly accuse them of overstaying their welcome. Instead, the shimmering tone, fluid tempos and unpredictable nature of their style make for a thrilling listen, “Thirstday” remaining vital even as it spaces out and “Friedday” picking up directly from there with a ready sense of relief. They spend the weekend krautrocking in “Shatterday” and managing to squeeze a drum solo in before the rushing Mediterranean-proggy end of “Sinday,” the crowd noise that follows leaving one wondering if there aren’t more subversive messages being delivered beneath the heady exterior. In any case, this is a band from a place where the sun shines brightly, and the music stands as proof. Get weird and enjoy.

Anomalos Kosmos on Facebook

Anomalos Kosmos on Bandcamp

—

 

Cauchemar, Rosa Mystica

This third full-length from Quebec-based doom outfit Cauchemar brings the band past their 15th anniversary and makes a bed for itself in traditionalist metallurgy, running currents of NWOBHM running through opener “Jour de colère” and “Rouge sang” while “Danger de nuit” takes a more hard rock approach and the penultimate roller “Volcan” feels more thoroughly Sabbathian. With eight songs presumably arranged four per vinyl side, there’s a feeling of symmetry as “Le tombeau de l’aube” tempts Motörhead demons and answers back with wilful contradiction the late-’70s/early-’80s groove that comes late in “Notre-Dame-sous-Terre.” Closer “La sorcière” tolls its bells presumably for thee as the lead guitar looks toward Pentagram and vocalist Annick Giroux smoothly layers in harmony lines before the church organ carries the way out. Classic in its overarching intentions, the songs nonetheless belong to Cauchemar exclusively, and speak to the dead with a vibrancy that avoids the trappings of cultism while working to some of its strengths in atmosphere, sounding oldschool without being tired, retro or any more derivative than it wants to be. No argument here, it’s metal for rockers, doom for doomers, riffs for the converted or those willing to be. I haven’t looked to see if they have patches yet, but I’d buy one if they do.

Cauchemar on Facebook

Temple of Mystery Records website

—

 

Seum, Blueberry Cash

If you ever wanted to hear Weedeater or Dopethrone hand you your ass with Sons of Otis-worthy tones, Seum‘s Blueberry Cash has your back. The no-guitar-all-bass-and-drums-and-screams Montreal three-piece are just as crusty and weedian as you like, and in “Blueberry Cash,” “John Flag” and the seven-minute “Hairy Muff,” they reinforce sludge extremity with all that extra low end as if to remind the universe where the idea of music being heavy in the first place comes from. Grooves are vital and deathly, produced with just enough clarity to come through laced with what feels like extra nastiness, and “John Flag”‘s blues verse opens into a chasm of a chorus, waiting with sharpened teeth. Rounding out, “Hairy Muff” is a take on a song by vocalist Gaspar‘s prior band, Lord Humungus, and it’s drawn out into a plodding homage to liberation, pubes and the ability of sludge to feel like it’s got its hands on either side of your face and is pressing them together as hard as it can. These guys are a treasure, I mean that, and I don’t care what genre you want to tag it as being or how brutal and skinpeeling they want to make it, something with this much fuckall will always be punk rock in my mind.

Seum on Facebook

Seum on Bandcamp

—

 

At some point, there must have been a conversation. I don’t know Thessaloniki, Greece’s Naxatras personally — though they’ve always been very polite in my dealings with them, which counts for a lot in my book — but even if it was the most tentative, “Let’s try something different this time,” there’s no way that a record like IV follows a record like 2018’s III (review here) without a conscious acknowledgement of changing approach. Sure enough, as IV‘s reported storyline is, “A fantasy tale of bizarre landscapes and valiant quests. A saga of transformation,” this would seem to be at least a tacit recognition of the shift that’s taken place in Naxatras over the last few years — one is reminded of the old adage that any act of creation is ultimately telling the story of the creating itself, consciously or not.

And as Naxatras have evolved from the admirably organic, dedicated-to-improvisation jams of III, the prior 2017 single All the Stars Collide into a Single Ray (discussed here), 2016’s II (review here) and EP (discussed here), as well as their 2015 self-titled debut (discussed here), into the spirited and multifaceted progressive rock — classic and modern in kind — that has so clearly here been worked out from those same jams into the 10-song/51-minute entirety of IV, topped with Chris RW‘s likewise lush, fantasy-style cover art, the story in these songs is inevitably also their own. And indeed, it is one of change to such a degree that one can put on old and new Naxatras next to each other and not even realize it’s the same band.

This ambition on the part of the group — a four-piece here for the first time with the welcome addition of Pantelis Kargas on keys and synth alongside the returning trio of guitarist/vocalist John Delias, bassist/vocalist John Vagenas and drummer/percussionist Kostas Charizanis — is remarkable. And it’s not just about having keyboards or vocals for the first time. It extends to the very construction of the songs themselves, even instrumentals like the opener “Reflection (Birth)” later complemented by the more electrified “Reflection (Death & Rebirth)” and the swirling but plotted “Journey to Narahmon” — which has vocals, but no lyrics — and the fact that even the impressionistic, which is not to say vague, placement of the words in “Omega Madness” early on feels intentional.

The calm AOR-on-the-beach realization of “The Answer,” blatantly classic pop, and the accompanying three-minute psychedelic hints of “Ride with Time” are different from anything Naxatras have done before, and they manifest the patience of the band’s jammier past while pushing deeper to hone a present that sees the songs tie together in a full-album flow while serving their own purposes in atmosphere. The band have essentially taken tighter control of the aspects of their creativity they formerly seemed to take such delight in letting roam free while rolling tape to give their listeners as organic an experience as possible.

IV is inevitably defined by this departure. It can’t help but be. The dreamy Rhodes notes, percussion and mellow uptempo strum that emerges in “Radiant Stars” is hypnotic and comes coupled with the ultra-memorable “Horizon” — which is both among the most straightforward of the inclusions and the kind of song that might, if somehow conjured out of a ‘thin air’ jam, might drive a group to reevaluate their processes in the first place — as if to emphasize the point of Naxatras‘ ability to create the world in which this story takes place. Aided by the clear and full production of Nikos Logiotatidis at Magnanimous Recording Studio, who also helmed the admirable mix (Dave Collins mastered), Naxatras are able to present their turn as more than simply that; rather, it is a step forward from who they were and a bolder confrontation against what might be expected of them than more bands would be willing to make.

IV shares its willingness to be beautiful, to be unrestrained by considerations of needing to be weighted-down tonally, needing to be this or that, and needing to be anything other than what the band feels it needs to be, with what Naxatras have done before, but again, it’s the shape that takes that is distinguishing factor both from their past and from the bulk of progressive rock at large, heavy or otherwise. The long stretch of “The Battle of Crystal Fields,” which lays parts after each other in linear fashion and leaves the subsequent “Reflection (Death & Rebirth)” to tie that procession in with the rest of its surroundings — effectively, mind you; it works — feels every bit like the culmination it is because the band are wholly confident in their delivery. Like the best of anything, Naxatras get away with redefining themselves through IV simply by doing it and leaving no room for questions.

That said, Naxatras are of a profile as regards acts within European underground heavy and certainly among the top exports of Greece’s ever-admirable crop of bands that there will be those unable to follow them on this new path, if indeed that’s what IV represents over the longer term. Does that matter? Probably not to the band, who will see new heads at shows to replace those dropped out precisely as a result of these changes and the more accessible nature of their songwriting as it is here. They should, if they haven’t, find a venue in which to present IV in its entirety live with all the according instrumental shifts to carry them to the acoustic, semi-twanging roll of the epilogue closer “Shape of the Evening,” but however IV comes to stand in their catalog in the context of what they might do next, the fact remains that in listening, it feels like exactly what Naxatras want it to be.

And for a group of musicians to not only take that new path but to bring their intention to life with such an accomplishment of craft is a staggering achievement. It may be since Sweden’s Witchcraft modernized their once-vintage-style sound that a band has so readily charted a way forward from the trappings of microgenre, and whatever else IV does for Naxatras over the next few years — whatever their next conversation might lead to — their uncompromised vision has made them a less predictable unit with a scope beyond what was known from them before. That would be enough to call the record a triumph, even if the songs weren’t also so richly executed as they fortunately are.

Naxatras, IV (2022)

Naxatras store

Naxatras website

Naxatras on Facebook

Naxatras on Instagram

Naxatras on Bandcamp

Naxatras on Spotify

Naxatras on YouTube

Preorders go live today for Naxatras‘ new album, IV, ahead of its Feb. 25 release date. In accordance with that, there comes the first streaming single from the record, titled “Journey to Narahmon,” which throughout its space-rocking six minutes serves to highlight some — not all, but some — of the sonic shifts the formerly jam-based Greek outfit have undertaken in sound, building more traditionally structured songs out of those jam rather than offering up the jams themselves. It’s three months from yesterday until the record comes out, so I’m not going to go on and on about it — I’ll review in good time — but Naxatras are right to give their audience a chance to get on board with where they’re at as soon as possible, let alone reach new ears as they inevitably will throughout 2022.

The recently announced tour is conspicuously lacking in festival appearances, but don’t be surprised when those start showing up too throughout Summer and Fall, conditions permitting.

Here’s links, info, audio:

Pre-order “IV” at https://naxatras.shop
Pre-save “IV” on all digital platforms: https://orcd.co/naxatras_iv

Tour dates with Puta Volcano:
31.03. – Sofia (BG), “Mixtape 5”
01.04. – Novi Sad (RS), SKCNS Fabrika
02.04. – Budapest (HU), Akvárium Klub Official
03.04. – Zagreb (HR), Klub Močvara
05.04. – Vienna (AT), ((szene)) Wien
06.04. – Linz (AT), Stwst Stadtwerkstatt
08.04. – Munich (DE), Feierwerk
09.04. – Jena (DE), KuBa
13.04. – Stockholm (SE), Hus 7
15.04. – Copenhagen (DK), VEGA
17.04. – Hamburg (DE), Knust Hamburg
18.04. – Dresden (DE), Chemiefabrik Dresden (Chemo)
20.04. – Berlin (DE), Bi Nuu
21.04. – Dortmund (DE), JunkYard
23.04. – Rotterdam (NL), Podium Grounds
24.04. – Paris (FR), La Maroquinerie
26.04. – Marseille (FR), Le Molotov
27.04. – San Sebastian (ES), Dabadaba
28.04. – Madrid (ES), SALA CARACOL MADRID
29.04. – Barcelona (ES), Sala Upload Barcelona
30.04. – Porto (PT), Hard Club
+ more to be announced!

Tickets: will be on sale very soon via https://www.naxatras.gr/tour

Vocals by Evi Seitanidou

Artwork by Chris RW ( https://www.instagram.com/chris__rw/ )
Recorded and mixed by Nikos Logiotatidis at Magnanimous Recording Studio

Naxatras are:
John Delias – Guitar, Vocals
John Vagenas – Bass, Vocals
Kostas Charizanis – Drums and Percussion
Pantelis Kargas – Keyboards and Synthesizers

http://www.naxatras.gr
http://www.facebook.com/naxatras
http://www.instagram.com/naxatras
http://naxatras.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6HN1s0JzLowapZ7nhOAJ71?si=w5UAkxrZQDujUwmi7tl8aA
https://www.youtube.com/naxatrasofficial

Naxatras, “Journey to Narahmon”

Let the record show that the first thing I said about Naxatras‘ upcoming album, IV, was that the Greek now-four-piece were ‘going all in.’ The last thing I said about it was I expected copious tour dates to follow in good time. That was last week and, well, the proof is in the poster. Naxatras have never been particularly shy about hitting the road, but as they announce this long round of gigs alongside Puta Volcano, the band seem to be setting themselves up for a big response to the impending full-length, and I think they’re going to get it. More than anything, I’m curious if a US debut won’t be far behind. Psycho Las Vegas, maybe? That’d be just fine, thank you very much. Hell, they can bring Puta Volcano along for that too.

Sound of Liberation booked the run, and the band posted it as you see here, plus a few emojis:

Naxatras European Tour 2022

It feels so great to finally announce our next European Tour, it’s beyond words!

After more than two years since we played our last gig abroad, we can hardly describe how much we’ve missed you people.

Can’t wait to get back on stage and share moments of pure magic with all of you, see you on the road!

We are happy to share this experience with our friends Puta Volcano, who will be our special guests in every show of the tour!

Original artwork and design by CHRIS RW

Final layout by John Kontan

Thank you Sound of Liberation, for booking this.

31.03. – Sofia (BG), “Mixtape 5”
01.04. – Novi Sad (RS), SKCNS Fabrika
02.04. – Budapest (HU), Akvárium Klub Official
03.04. – Zagreb (HR), Klub Močvara
05.04. – Vienna (AT), ((szene)) Wien
06.04. – Linz (AT), Stwst Stadtwerkstatt
08.04. – Munich (DE), Feierwerk
09.04. – Jena (DE), KuBa
13.04. – Stockholm (SE), Hus 7
15.04. – Copenhagen (DK), VEGA
17.04. – Hamburg (DE), Knust Hamburg
18.04. – Dresden (DE), Chemiefabrik Dresden (Chemo)
20.04. – Berlin (DE), Bi Nuu
21.04. – Dortmund (DE), JunkYard
23.04. – Rotterdam (NL), Podium Grounds
24.04. – Paris (FR), La Maroquinerie
26.04. – Marseille (FR), Le Molotov
27.04. – San Sebastian (ES), Dabadaba
28.04. – Madrid (ES), SALA CARACOL MADRID
29.04. – Barcelona (ES), Sala Upload Barcelona
30.04. – Porto (PT), Hard Club
+ more to be announced!

Tickets: will be on sale very soon via https://www.naxatras.gr/tour

New single “Journey to Narahmon” drops November 26th already!

Pre-save “Journey to Narahmon” on all digital platforms: https://orcd.co/naxatras_journeytonarahmon

Naxatras are:
John Delias – Guitar, Vocals
John Vagenas – Bass, Vocals
Kostas Charizanis – Drums and Percussion
Pantelis Kargas – Keyboards and Synthesizers

http://www.naxatras.gr
http://www.facebook.com/naxatras
http://www.instagram.com/naxatras
http://naxatras.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6HN1s0JzLowapZ7nhOAJ71?si=w5UAkxrZQDujUwmi7tl8aA
https://www.youtube.com/naxatrasofficial