Posted in Whathaveyou on January 17th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Periodically caustic industrial metallurgist Brandon Gallagher, otherwise known as Trace Amount, has been set in an upward trajectory since before the project’s 2022 full-length debut, Anti Body Language (review here), and with a new single heralding a new EP and tours both behind and ahead, it seems like Trace Amount will look to build on that success. The EP in question is called Simulation Fetish and it was mixed by Rhys Fulber (Front Line Assembly, Fear Factory, etc.), and “Living Accessory,” the hey-what-did-you-do-with-my-phone-oh-you’re-making-a-statement-with-art cover of which might fill you in as regards theme in a way that’s correspondingly subtle to the beats of the track itself punching you in the stomach.
It’s a slow sway, with sharp jabs and harsh vocal changes, a groove that’s dug-in in its own way, not self-hypnotized, but programmed such that the slog and nod are part of it. Nod on, sloggers. Slog on, nodders. We live in an age where ‘heavy’ means many things. Be thankful and open of mind.
The following comes from Trace Amount‘s Bandcamp:
Living Accessory is the latest offering of new music since Anti Body Language, the debut full-length album released in April 2022 via Federal Prisoner, a label founded by Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Black Queen) and visual artist Jesse Draxler. Since the release of Anti Body Language, Trace Amount has been on a heavy touring grind, bringing his blend of metal influenced harsh industrial far and wide performing over 80 shows in 18 different countries, and most of the US in 2022 and 2023. This included runs with White Ring, King Yosef, Lana Del Rabies, 3 weeks in eastern and northern Europe with The Soft Moon, and a full North American run with Greg Puciato, Escuela Grind, and Deaf Club. There have also been select NYC support shows during this cycle with Author & Punisher, Uniform, Body Void, Thou, Dreamcrusher, Thoughtcrimes, L.O.T.I.O.N. and others.
‘Simulation Fetish’ EP was mixed by Rhys Fulber of Front Line Assembly, whose mixing work goes beyond his own projects and includes credits with Youth Code, Kanga, Noise Unit, and more. Trace Amount will be releasing the tracks intermittently throughout another leg of international touring, featuring dates in Australia with Greg Puciato, Japan with King Yosef, and the United Kingdom again with Greg Puciato in January through March. The first track “Living Accessory” will hit all streaming platforms on Wednesday, January 10th.
Thematically, these could be considered some of Trace Amount’s most irritated and hostile tracks to date. The first single “Living Accessory” is yet another beef track about the trials and tribulations of being a freelance creative, working without a financial safety net, and battling soul draining corporate companies. In early 2023, months before heading out for 3 weeks in Europe and quickly turning around for 5 weeks of touring in the USA, Trace Amount wrongfully had his instagram and facebook deleted by the gods above for promoting a song that had the word k*ll in it.
“Artists are so shackled to social media because it’s really the only platform you have these days, and that’s what “m3t4pr1s0n3r” is all about. So much time and effort put into creating and building a platform just vanished like that. The algorithm bots can’t tell the difference between art and hate and I paid the price.” Gallagher adds. “Simulation Fetish”, the title track, is an analogy for how badly everyone wants everything to go right for themselves, and that’s just not how life works. Gallagher sarcastically adds, “Sometimes I’ll throw a dollar or two on a well crafted thought out, NBA parlay to win hundreds, and just think damn if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic hit triple doubles tonight I’m buying a new drum machine. It’s pretty fucked up when you think about the root of this behavior. But hey, whatever you need to escape your reality.”
The ‘Simulation Fetish’ EP will be released in its entirety before a yet-to-be-announced April USA tour on Friday, March 22nd. credits
Mixed by Rhys Fulber Mastered by Kris Lapke Artwork by Trace Amount
Here begins day two of 10. I don’t know at what point it occurred to me to load up the Quarterly Review with killer stuff to make it, you know, more pleasant than having it only be records I feel like I should be writing about, but I’m intensely glad I did.
Seems like a no brainer, right? But the internet is dumb, and it’s so easy to get caught up in what you see on social media, who’s hyping what, and the whole thing is driven by this sad, cloying FOMO that I despise even as I participate. If you’re ever in a situation to let go of something so toxic, even just a little bit and even just in your own head — which is where it all exists anyhow — do it. And if you take nothing else from this 100-album Quarterly Review besides that advice, it won’t be a loss.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Magnatar, Crushed
Can’t say they don’t deliver. The eight-song/38-minute Crushed is the debut long-player from Manchester, New Hampshire’s Magnatar, and it plays to the more directly aggressive side of post-metallic riffing. There are telltale quiet stretches, to be sure, but the extremity of shouts and screams in opener “Dead Swan” and in the second half of “Crown of Thorns” — the way that intensity becomes part of the build of the song as a whole — is well beyond the usual throaty fare. There’s atmosphere to balance, but even the 1:26 “Old” bends into harsh static, and the subsequent “Personal Contamination Through Mutual Unconsciousness” bounces djent and post-hardcore impulses off each other before ending up in a mega-doom slog, the lyric “Eat shit and die” a particular standout. So it goes into “Dragged Across the Surface of the Sun,” which is more even, but on the side of being pissed off, and “Loving You Was Killing Me” with its vastly more open spaces, clean vocals and stretch of near-silence before a more intense solo-topped finish. That leaves “Crushed” and “Event Horizon” to round out, and the latter is so heavy it’s barely music and that’s obviously the idea.
Three longform cosmic rock excursions comprise Wild Rocket‘s Formless Abyss — “Formless Abyss” (10:40), “Interplanetary Vibrations” (11:36) and “Future Echoes” (19:41) — so lock in your harness and be ready for when the g-forces hit. If the Dubliners have tarried in following-up 2017’s Disassociation Mechanics (review here), one can only cite the temporal screwing around taking place in “Interplanetary Vibrations” as a cause — it would be easy to lose a year or two in its depths — never mind “Future Echoes,” which meets the background-radiation drone of the two inclusions prior with a ritualized heft and slow-unfurling wash of distortion that is like a clarion to Sagan-headed weirdos. A dark-matter nebula. You think you’re freaked out now? Wild Rocket speak their own language of sound, in their own time, and Formless Abyss — while not entirely without structure — has breadth enough to make even the sunshine a distant memory.
An awaited debut full-length from Brooklyn multimedia artist/producer Brandon Gallagher, Trace Amount‘s Anti Body Language sees release through Greg Puciato‘s Federal Prisoner imprint and collects a solid 35 minutes of noise-laced harsh industrial worldbreaking. Decay anthems. A methodical assault begins with “Anxious Awakenings” and moving through “Anti Body Language” and “Eventually it Will Kill Us All,” the feeling of Gallagher acknowledging the era in which the record arrives is palpable, but more palpable are the weighted beats, the guttural shouts and layers of disaffected moans. “Digitized Exile” plays out like the ugliest outtake from Pretty Hate Machine — a compliment — and after the suitably tense “No Reality,” the six-minute “Tone and Tenor” — with a guest appearance from Kanga — offers a fuller take on drone and industrial metal, filling some of the spaces purposefully left open elsewhere. That leaves the penultimate “Pixelated Premonitions” as the ultimate blowout and “Suspect” (with a guest spot from Statiqbloom; a longtime fixture of NY industrialism) to noise-wash it all away, like city acid rain melting the pavement. New York always smells like piss in summer.
This band just keeps getting better, and yes, I mean that. Toronto’s Lammping begin an informal, casual-style series of singles with “Desert on the Keel,” the sub-four-minutes of which are dedicated to a surprisingly peaceful kind of heavy psychedelia. Multiple songwriters at work? Yes. Rhythm guitarist Matt Aldred comes to the fore here with vocals mellow to suit the languid style of the guitar, which with Jay Anderson‘s drums still giving a push beneath reminds of Quest for Fire‘s more active moments, but would still fit alongside the tidy hooks with which Lammping populate their records. Mikhail Galkin, principal songwriter for the band, donates a delightfully gonna-make-some-noise-here organ solo in the post-midsection jam before “Desert on the Keel” turns righteously back to the verse, Colm Hinds‘ bass McCartneying the bop for good measure, and in a package so welcome it can only be called a gift, Lammping demonstrate multiple new avenues of growth for their craft and project. I told you. They keep getting better. For more, dig into 2022’s Stars We Lost EP (review here). You won’t regret it.
Immediate three-part harmonies in the chorus of opener “Stealin’ Wine” set the tone for Limousine Beach‘s self-titled debut, as the new band fronted by guitarist/vocalist David Wheeler (OutsideInside, Carousel) and bringing together a five-piece with members of Fist Fight in the Parking Lot, Cruces and others melds ’70s-derived sounds with a modern production sheen, so that the Thin Lizzy-style twin leads of “Airboat” hit with suitable brightness and the arena-ready vibe in “Willodene” sets up the proto-metal of “Black Market Buss Pass” and the should-be-a-single-if-it-wasn’t “Hear You Calling.” Swagger is a staple of Wheeler‘s work, and though the longest song on Limousine Beach is still under four minutes, there’s plenty of room in tracks like “What if I’m Lying,” the AC/DC-esque “Evan Got a Job” and the sprint “Movin’ On” (premiered here) for such things, and the self-awareness in “We’re All Gonna Get Signed” adds to the charm. Closing out the 13 songs and 31 minutes, “Night is Falling” is dizzying, and leads to “Doo Doo,” the tight-twisting “Tiny Hunter” and the feedback and quick finish of “Outro,” which is nonetheless longer than the song before it. Go figure. Go rock. One of 2022’s best debut albums. Good luck keeping up.
Perfect Light is the closest Patrick Walker (also Warning) has yet come to a solo album with 40 Watt Sun, and any way one approaches it, is a marked departure from 2016’s Wider Than the Sky (review here, sharing a continued penchant for extended tracks but transposing the emotional weight that typifies Walker‘s songwriting and vocals onto pieces led by acoustic guitar and piano. Emma Ruth Rundle sits in on opener “Reveal,” which is one of the few drumless inclusions on the 67-minute outing, but primarily the record is a showcase for Walker‘s voice and fluid, ultra-subdued and mostly-unplugged guitar notes, which float across “Behind My Eyes” and the dare-some-distortion “Raise Me Up” later on, shades of the doom that was residing in the resolution that is, the latter unflinching in its longing purpose. Not a minor undertaking either on paper or in the listening experience, it is the boldest declaration of intent and progression in Walker’s storied career to-date, leaving heavy genre tropes behind in favor of something that seems even more individual.
Snagged by Heavy Psych Sounds in the early going of 2022, French rockers Decasia debut on the label with An Endless Feast for Hyenas, a 10-track follow-up to 2017’s The Lord is Gone EP (review here), making the most of the occasion of their first full-length to portray inventive vocal arrangements coinciding with classic-sounding fuzz in “Hrosshvelli’s Ode” and the spacier “Cloud Sultan” — think vocalized Earthless — the easy-rolling viber “Skeleton Void” and “Laniakea Falls.” “Ilion” holds up some scorch at the beginning, “Hyenas at the Gates” goes ambient at the end, and interludes “Altostratus” and “Soft Was the Night” assure a moment to breathe without loss of momentum, holding up proof of a thoughtful construction even as Decasia demonstrate a growth underway and a sonic persona long in development that holds no shortage of potential for continued progress. By no means is An Endless Feast for Hyenas the highest-profile release from this label this year, but think of it as an investment in things to come as well as delivery for right now.
The abiding shove of “Circle” and the more swinging “Abracadabra” begin Giant Mammoth‘s second full-length, Holy Sounds, with a style that wonders what if Lowrider and Valley of the Sun got together in a spirit of mutual celebration and densely-packed fuzz. Longer pieces “The Colour is Blue” and “Burning Man” and the lightly-proggier finale “Teisko” space out more, and the two-minute “Dust” is abidingly mellow, but wherever the Tampere, Finland, three-piece go, they remain in part defined by the heft of “Abracadabra” and the opener before it, with “Unholy” serving as an anchor for side A after “Burning Man” and “Wasteland” bringing a careening return to earth between “The Colour is Blue” and the close-out in “Teisko.” Like the prior-noted influences, Giant Mammoth are a stronger act for the dynamics of their material and the manner in which the songs interact with each other as the eight-track/38-minute LP plays out across its two sides, the second able to be more expansive for the groundwork laid in the first. They’re young-ish and they sound it (that’s not a slag), and the transition from duo to three-piece made between their first record and this one suits them and bodes well in its fuller tonality.
New Jersey trio Pyre Fyre may or may not be paying homage to their hometown of Bayonne with “Rinky Dink City,” but their punk-born fuzzy sludge rock reminds of none so much as New Orleans’ Suplecs circa 2000’s Wrestlin’ With My Ladyfriend, both the title-tracks dug into raw lower- and high-end buzztone shenanigans, big on groove and completely void of pretense. Able to have fun and still offer some substance behind the chicanery. I don’t know if you’d call it party rock — does anyone party on the East Coast or are we too sad because the weather sucks? probably, I’m just not invited — but if you were having a hangout and Pyre Fyre showed up with “Slow Cookin’,” for sure you’d let them have the two and a half minutes it takes them (less actually) to get their point across. In terms of style and songwriting, production and performance, this is a band that ask next to nothing of the listener in terms of investment are able to effect a mood in the positive without being either cloyingly poppish or leaving a saccharine aftertaste. I guess this is how the Garden State gets high. Fucking a.
Kamru, Kosmic Attunement to the Malevolent Rites of the Universe
Issued on April 20, the cumbersomely-titled Kosmic Attunement to the Malevolent Rites of the Universe is the debut outing from Denver-based two-piece Kamru, comprised of Jason Kleim and Ashwin Prasad. With six songs each hovering on either side of seven minutes long, the duo tap into a classic stoner-doom feel, and one could point to this or that riff and say The Sword or liken their tone worship and makeup to Telekinetic Yeti, but that’s missing the point. The point is in the atmosphere that is conjured by “Penumbral Litany” and the familiar proto-metallurgy of the subsequent “Hexxer,” prominent vocals echoing with a sense of command rare for a first offering of any kind, let alone a full-length. In the more willfully grueling “Cenotaph” there’s doomly reach, and as “Winter Rites” marches the album to its inevitable end — one imagines blood splattered on a fresh Rocky Mountain snowfall — the band’s take on established parameters of aesthetic sounds like it’s trying to do precisely what it wants. I’m saying watch out for it to get picked up for a vinyl release by some label or other if that hasn’t happened yet.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 16th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Brooklyn’s Trace Amount, aka Brandon Gallagher, will release the first full-length from the harsh industrial unit, Anti Body Language, on April 15 through Federal Prisoner Records. Gallagher, formerly of Old Wounds among a slew of other bands, has been kicking around collaborations and shorter offerings for the last couple years. 2020’s Endless Render EP (review here) was where I caught on, and Trace Amount has continued to steadily offer one-offs since. The news of an album having materialized is right fucking welcome.
Side note, it’s also nice to see Fade Kainer (formerly of Batillus among a slew of other bands; I remember him working at CBGB’s) involved in the production. I don’t know what he’s been up to, but if NY is going to have new brutal industrialism, it’s probably the right choice to have him on board.
I haven’t heard the record yet but there’s a video up for the first single “Anxious Awakenings,” and it’s fun to think of something like industrial music in 2022 as “raw,” but yeah, it is.
From the PR wire:
TRACE AMOUNT: new industrial visionary to release debut album “Anti Body Language” via Federal Prisoner; new music video now streaming
Anti Body Language, the debut full-length album by Trace Amount, will be released April 15th via Federal Prisoner, the label founded by Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Black Queen, Jerry Cantrell) and visual artist Jesse Draxler.
Pre-order the album, here: https://federalprisoner.shop/
Trace Amount is the solo project of Brooklyn-based producer, vocalist, and visual artist, Brandon Gallagher. First conceived in 2019, Trace Amount took shape during the early stages of the pandemic, inspired by the grim realities of life in New York City at that time, and has evolved at a lightning pace ever since.
The sound is a harsh strain of industrial music, evoking apocalyptic dread through primal rhythms, layers of synth and noise, and Gallagher’s distorted moans and screams.
Influenced by the daily grind of urban existence and paranoid visions of a hyper-technological world, Trace Amount sets a dark tone, but on Anti Body Language glimpses of color appear from within the void. Oppressive bangers like “Anxious Awakenings” are balanced by tracks like “Tone and Tenor,” featuring the sumptuous vocals of industrial-pop chanteuse KANGA, and the album’s closer, “Suspect,” which sees a sanguine saxophone weave its way into the mix.
Gallagher states: “Trace Amount falls under the industrial umbrella, but truthfully I get inspired by a lot of hip hop and experimental ‘pop’ music as well. Putting all electronic music under the same umbrella, I think you’re limitless as to where you can go with songwriting. I love Skinny Puppy and Nitzer Ebb, but I also love M.I.A., Ghostemane, and Eartheater. It seems like an insane combination but I was heavily influenced by all of these artists and I think you can hear all of their influences through my music, one way or another.”
Anti Body Language was co-produced by Fade Kainer (Statiqbloom) and mixed by Ben Greenberg (Uniform) at Circular Ruin in Brooklyn, NY. The album was mastered by Kris Lapke (Alberich).
Of equal importance to the music is Trace Amount’s visual dimension, expressed through graphic design and video work created by Gallagher himself and by collaborators of his choosing, illustrating a mix of real urban decay and sci-fi fantasy that intersects with the sonic assault to complete the picture. Gallagher states: “I started off as a graphic designer, but as I’ve progressed I’ve gotten more into video editing and animation. With Trace Amount I would describe the whole visual aspect as art direction. The beauty of it being a solo project is that I get to work with whomever I want depending on where I see it fitting.”
For the Anti Body Language album cover, he teamed up with none other than Federal Prisoner co-owner and world-renowned artist, Jesse Draxler. “I began working on Anti Body Language in early 2021 and by the end of March I had the record fleshed out instrumentally and most of the lyrics were written,” he says. “Since this was my first full-length with this project and I was really proud of how the songs were coming along, I wanted to aim high and work with a bucket-list level artist. For me that was Jesse Draxler. I felt his style would nail the overall attitude I was aiming to achieve with Anti Body Language, and it absolutely did.”
Anti Body Language is Trace Amount’s first full-length but it follows a slew of other recent releases; Gallagher has been barreling forward in high gear for the past year. Some highlights of the past twelve months include: the release of Under the Skin, a remix collaboration with Pig Destroyer’s Blake Harrison, released via Deathbed Tapes; the release of Alien Dust, a collaboration with Qual (William Maybelline of Lebanon Hanover), released via Faktor Music; a US tour with Black Magnet (20 Buck Spin); and the release of Endless Render 2.0, a redux of Endless Render, which features the drumming of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Billy Rymer, as well as a new B-side featuring remixes by Kontravoid, Qual, Michael Berdan (Uniform), and Misery Engine.
A testament to the power of collaboration; an example of the ways in which sound and vision can complement each other; a beacon of sheer drive and work ethic; Trace Amount is an exciting new force in the scene of industrial music and beyond. No limits.
Tracklist: 1) Anxious Awakenings 2) Anti Body Language 3) Eventually It Will Kill Us All 4) Digitized Exile 5) No Reality 6) Tone and Tenor (ft. KANGA) 7) Pixelated Premonitions 8) Suspect (ft. Statiqbloom)
Upcoming shows: Mar 7 – Brooklyn, NY @ Saint Vitus w/ Thou, Uniform
Discography: Fake Figures in the Sacred Scriptures – EP – 2019, self-released “Obsessive Diagnosis” – single – 2020, self-released “The Hanging Garden” (The Cure) – single – 2020, self-released Endless Render – EP – 2020, self-released “Concrete Catacomb” (ft. Body Stuff) – single – 2021, self-released Under the Skin – EP – 2021, Deathbed Tapes Alien Dust – EP – 2021, Faktor Music Endless Render 2.0 – EP – 2021, self-released Anti Body Language – LP – 2022, Federal Prisoner
Oh, hello there. Don’t mind me. I’m just here, reviewing another 10 records today. I did it yesterday too. I’ll do it again tomorrow. No big deal. It’s Quarterly Review time. You know how it goes.
Crazy day yesterday, crazy day today, but I’m in that mode where I kind of feel like I can make this go as long as I want. Next Monday? Why not? Other than the fact that I have something else slated, I can’t think of a reason. Fortunately, having something else slated is enough of one. Ha. Let’s go.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
DVNE, Etemen Ænka
It’s like Scotland’s DVNE threw all of modern heavy metal into a blender and hit “cohesive.” Etemen Ænka‘s lofty ambitions are matched indeed by the cohesion of the band’s craft, the professionalism of their presentation, and the scope of their second album’s 10 component tracks, whether that’s in the use of synth throughout “Towers” or the dreamy post-rock aside in “Omega Severer,” the massive riffing used as a tool not a crutch in “Court of the Matriarch,” closer “Satuya” and elsewhere, and even the interlude-y pieces “Weighing of the Heart,” “Adraeden” and the folkish “Asphodel” that leads into the finale. DVNE have made themselves into the band you wish Isis became. Also the band you wish Mastodon became. And probably six or seven others. And while Etemen Ænka is certainly not without prog-styled indulgence, there is no taking away from the significant accomplishment these songs represent for them as a group putting out their first release on Metal Blade. It’ll be too clean for some ears, but the tradeoff for that is the abiding sense of poise with which DVNE deliver the songs. This will be on my year-end list, and I won’t be the only one.
Beginning with its longest track (immediate points) in the 11-minute “Rekviem,” Yarost’ I Proshchenie is the third full-length from St. Petersburg’s Wowod, and its sudden surge from ‘unfold’ to ‘onslaught’ is a legitimate blindside. They hypnotize you then push you down a flight of stairs as death growls, echoing guitar lines and steady post-metallic drum and bass hold the line rhythmically. This sense of disconnect, ultimately, leads to a place of soaring melody and wash, but that feeling of moving from one place to another is very much the core of what Wowod do throughout the rest of the album that follows. “Tanec Yarosti” is a sub-three-minute blaster, while “Proshschenie” lumbers and crashes through its first half en route to a lush soundscape in its second, rounding out side A. I don’t care what genre “Zhazhda” is, it rules, and launches side B with rampaging momentum, leading to the slow, semi-industrial drag of “Chornaya Zemlya,” the harsh thrust of “Zov Tysyachi Nozhey” and, finally, dizzyingly, the six-minute closer “Top’,” which echoes cavernous and could just as easily have been called “Bottom.” Beautiful brutality.
The chaos of last year is writ large in the late-2020 Endless Render EP from Brooklyn-based solo industrial outfit Trace Amount. The project headed by Brandon Gallagher (ex-Old Wounds) engages with harsh noise and heavy beatmaking, injecting short pieces like “Pop Up Morgues” with a duly dystopian atmosphere. Billy Rymer (The Dillinger Escape Plan, etc.) guests on drums for opener “Processed Violence (in 480P)” and the mminute-long “Seance Stimulant,” but it’s in the procession of the final three tracks — the aforementioned “Pop Up Morgues,” as well as “S.U.R.V.I.V.A.L.” and “Easter Sunday” — that Gallagher makes his most vivid portrayals. His work is evocative and resonant in its isolated feel, opaque like staring into an uncertain future but not without some semblance of hope in its resolution. Or maybe that’s the dream and the dance-party decay of “Dreaming in Displacement” is the reality. One way or the other, I’m looking forward to what Trace Amount does when it comes to a debut album.
French instrumentalists Fuzzcrafter issued C-D in October 2020 as a clear answer/complement to 2016’s A-B, even unto its Jo Riou cover art, which replaces the desert-and-fuzz-pedal of the first offering with a forest-and-pedal here. The six works that make up the 41-minute affair are likewise grown, able to affect a sense of lushness around the leading-the-way riffage in extended cuts “C2” (13:13) and the psychedelic back half of “D2” (13:18), working in funk-via-prog basslines (see also the wah guitar starting “D1” for more funk) over solid drums without getting any more lost than they want to be in any particular movement. In those songs and elsewhere, Fuzzcrafter make no attempt to hide the fact that they’re a riff-based band, but the acoustic side-finales in “C3” (which also features Rhodes piano) and “D3,” though shorter, reinforce both the structural symmetry of the mirrored sides as a whole and a feeling of breadth that is injected elsewhere in likewise organic fashion. They’re not changing the world and they’re not trying to, but there’s a mark being left here sound-wise and it’s enough to wonder what might be in store for the inevitable E-F.
Pine Ridge‘s second album, Can’t Deny, finds the Russian four/five-piece working in textures of keys and organ for a bluesier feel to tracks like the post-intro opening title-cut and the classic feeling later “Genesis.” Songwriting is straightforward, vocals gritty but well attended with backing arrangements, and the take on “Wayfaring Stranger” that ends the record’s first half conjures enough of a revivalist spirit to add to the atmosphere overall. The four tracks that follow — “Genesis,” “Runaway,” “Sons of Nothing” and “Those Days” — featured as well on 2019’s Sons of Nothing EP, but are consistent in groove and “Sons of Nothing” proves well placed to serve as an energetic apex of Can’t Deny ahead of “Those Days,” which starts quiet before bursting to life with last-minute electricity. A clear production emphasizes hooks and craft, and though I’ll grant I don’t know much about Siberia’s heavy rock scene, Pine Ridge ably work within the tenets of style while offering marked quality of songwriting and performance. That’s enough to ask from anywhere.
Plain in its love for Sabbath-minded riffing and heavy Americana roll, “Bowls of Wrath” opens the three-song Dec. 2020 debut EP, Behold a Pale Horse, from Indiana-based solo-project Watchman, and the impression is immediate. With well-mixed cascades of organ and steadily nodding guitar, bass, drums and distorted, howling vocals, there is both a lack of pretense and an individualized take on genre happening at once. The EP works longest to shortest, with “Wormwood” building up from sparse guitar to far-back groove using negative space in the sound to bolster “Planet Caravan”-ish watery verses and emphasize the relative largesse of the track preceding as well as “The Second Death,” which follows. That closer is a quick four minutes that’s slow in tempo, but the lead-line cast overtop the mega-fuzzed central riff is effective in creating a current to carry the listener from one bank of the lake of fire to the other. In 15 minutes, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist/producer Roy Waterford serves notice of intention for a forthcoming debut LP to be titled Doom of Babylon, and it is notice worth heeding.
Bomg‘s Peregrination isn’t necessarily extreme the way one thinks of death or black metal as extreme styles of heavy metal, but is extreme just the same in terms of pushing to the outer limits of the aesthetics involved. The album’s four track, “Electron” (38:12), “Perpetuum” (39:10), “Paradigm” (37:17) and “Emanation” (37:49), could each consume a full 12″ LP on their own, and presented digitally one into the next, they are a tremendous, willfully unmanageable two-and-a-half-hour deep-dive into raw blowout dark psychedelic doom. The harsh rumble and noise in “Perpetuum” some 28 minutes on sounds as though the Ukrainian outfit have climbed the mountains of madness, and there is precious little clarity to be found in “Paradigm” or “Emanation” subsequent as they continue to hammer the spike of their manifestations deeper into the consciousness of the listener. From “Electron” onward, the self-recording Kyiv trio embark on this overwhelming journey into the unknown, and they don’t so much invite you along as unveil the devastating consequences of having made the trip. Righteously off-putting.
As much as something can fly under the radar and be a Nuclear Blast release, I’m more surprised by the hype I haven’t heard surrounding White Void‘s debut album, Anti. Pulling together influences from progressive European-style heavy rock, classic metal, cult organ, New Wave melodies and a generally against-grain individualism, it is striking in its execution and the clear purpose behind what it’s doing. It’s metal and it’s not. It’s rock and it’s pop and it’s heavy and it’s light and floating. And its songs have substance as well as style. With Borknagar‘s Lars Nedland as the founding principal of the project, the potential in Anti‘s eight component tracks is huge, and if one winds up thinking of this as post-black metal, it’s a staggeringly complex iteration of it to which this and any other description I’ve seen does little justice. It’s going to get called “prog” a lot because of the considered nature of its composition, but that’s barely scratching the surface of what’s happening here.
Leeds, UK, four-piece Day of the Jackal bring straight-ahead hard rock songwriting and performance with an edge of classic heavy. There’s a Guns ‘n’ Roses reference in “Belief in a Lie” if you’re up for catching it, and later cuts like “Riskin’ it All” and “‘Til the Devil” have like-minded dudes-just-hit-on-your-girlfriend-and-you’re-standing-right-there vibes. They’re a rock band and they know it, and while I was a little bummed out “Rotten to the Core” wasn’t an Overkill cover, the 10 songs of love and death that pervade this debut long-player are notably hooky from “On Your Own” to “Deadfall” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Deathride,” which casually inhabits biker riffing with no less ease of movement than the band would seem to do anything else. Production by James “Atko” Atkinson of Gentlemans Pistols highlights the clarity of the performance rather than giving a rawer glimpse at who Day of the Jackal might be on stage, but there’s plenty of vitality to go around in any case, and it’s headed your way from the moment you start the record.
Following their 2018 debut, Ashen Blood (review here), Denver heavy lifters Green Druid give due breadth to their closing take on Portishead‘s “Threads,” but the truth is that cover is set up by the prior five tracks of huge-sounding riffery, basking in the varying glories of stoner doom throughout opener “The Forest Dark” while keeping an eye toward atmospheric reach all the while. It is not just nod and crush, in other words, in Green Druid‘s arsenal throughout At the Maw of Ruin, and indeed, “End of Men” and “Haunted Memories” bridge sludge and black metal screaming as “A Throne Abandoned” offers surprising emotional urgency over its ready plod, and the long spoken section in “Desert of Fury/Ocean of Despair” eventually gives way not only to the most weighted slamming on offer, but a stretch of noise to lead into the closer. All along the way, Green Druid mark themselves out as a more complex outfit than their first record showed them to be, and their reach shows no sign of stopping here either.
Back to normal, such as it is, for The Obelisk Show. I did two songs in two hours last time and though it seemed to go over decently well in the chat, it was less welcomed by the station itself. Fair. I’ll readily admit that two hours of psychedelic improv is not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, even in a setting that supports extreme fare as a central ethic. I’m lucky they decided to air it. I’m lucky they let me do another episode.
In here you’ll find some more rocky stuff like Greenleaf and Formula 400. I’ve yet to really dig into the new Domkraft, so I wanted to give that a roll, and then the show gets into some heavier industrial stuff. Godflesh were talked about here last week, and Trace Amount, but some Sanford Parker and Author & Punisher too. I’ve had an itch lately that stuff has helped scratch. After that and Yawning Sons is my little homage to the Live in the Mojave Desert stream series. Mountain Tamer are on that this weekend and it’s well worth your time to search out. Of course, Earthless started that series so they’ll end the show here. Only fitting.
Thanks for listening and/or reading.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 03.05.21
Greenleaf
Love Undone
Echoes From a Mass
Genghis Tron
Ritual Circle
Dream Weapon
Sunnata
A Million Lives
Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth
VT
Sonic Demon
Black Smoke
Vendetta
Formula 400
Messenger
Heathens
Domkraft
Dawn of Man
Seeds
Kauan
Raivo
Ice Fleet
VT
Godflesh
Avalanche Master Song
Godflesh
Author & Punisher
Ode to Bedlam
Beastland
Trace Amount ft. Body Stuff
Concrete Catacomb
Concrete Catacomb
Sanford Parker
Knuckle Crossing
Lash Back
VT
Yawning Sons
Cigarette Footsteps
Sky Island
Spirit Mother
Space Cadets
Cadets
Nebula
Let’s Get Lost
Holy Shit
Mountain Tamer
Black Noise
Psychosis Ritual
Brant Bjork
Stardust & Diamond Eyes
Brant Bjork
VT
Earthless
Violence of the Red Sea
From the Ages
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is March 19 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Posted in Questionnaire on February 26th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Brandon Gallagher of Trace Amount
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
Trace Amount is the purest and most direct representation of both aspects of my audio and visual productions. My passion for things usually outlast and outweigh my counterparts, especially in group musical efforts, so I started Trace Amount to fully give myself an outlet that is not reliant on others, until I want it to be for things like remixes, song collaborations, vocal parts, whatever.
Describe your first musical memory.
I can’t pinpoint my exact first memory, but luckily with two older sisters there was always art and music around. A ton of No Doubt and Soundgarden. When I was really little I was obsessed with the Space Jam soundtrack, and also the Spice Girls.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
I’ve got a couple… but I think all time was seeing Nine Inch Nails and The Jesus and Mary Chain at Kings Theatre in Flatbush. NIN’s set was absolutely unreal. More recently seeing HIDE at Warsaw opening for the Soft Moon in early 2019 was an extremely inspiring set as well. Most meaningful? Probably seeing Converge in 2005.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Stepping away from Old Wounds. It was an extremely hard decision to make. I started the band and put so much energy and effort into every aspect of it for seven long years, but just knew it was the right time to put it to rest. I’m glad I did it but at the time it was tough.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
I think at the end of the day artistic progression is always a journey. Even thinking about what I’m doing now compared to what I was doing five years ago is on a completely different path. I’ve always had a strong passion to always keep creating. I don’t force it or fight it, I just let it happen.
How do you define success?
It’s really hard to gauge success because it’s so specific to what I’m doing. I try to only measure “success” with personal achievements and goals. To me, even *starting* a solo project was a huge success. It’s all up from here.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I guess I’m either extremely desensitized or extremely sheltered because I couldn’t think of a single thing that stuck with me to that extent.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
A full-length LP for Trace Amount. I’m working on it now.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
I don’t know if one function of art is more essential than the other. Sometimes I need to create, as a form of therapy, other times I’m bored, other times that coffee and weed combo is hitting just right. It is also nice to have both audio and visual forms of art to create, I never really get stuck on one thing.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
The new season of Beavis and Butt-Head. The summer. The mass population getting vaccinated so I can look forward to something that is musical. The next iced coffee.
