Day 1 of the Spring 2026 Quarterly Review starts now. I know you’ve had it on your calendar just like I’ve had it on mine, and I’ll just say that if you’re new to the process or don’t know what this thing is all about, that’s cool too. A Quarterly Review, or QR if I’m feeling saucy, is a review roundup I do every few months for however long, always with 10 releases covered per day. The bare minimum for a QR is 50, and sometimes that actually happens. More often these days, it’s more than a five-day run, and that’s true this time as well.

This Quarterly Review will go seven days and cover a total of 70 works from bands and artists all over the world. It’s always a little nervewracking to start one of these, but it’s a special kind of deluge of music for me and I’ve been looking forward to it. Accordingly, it’s time to get this show on the road, as my dear wife might say.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

The Cosmic Dead, Beyond the Beyond

Four one-word titles on what I read somewhere is The Cosmic Dead‘s 10th album since 2010? That’s not even ridiculous. In any case, Beyond the Beyond strikes as advertised — the Glasgow-based heavy cosmic rockers are indeed far, far out. The 16-minute longest-track “Further” opens (immediate points), and even though the last song is called “Aether” (it bookends at 12 minutes), they’re pretty ethereal across the board as Luigi Pasquini‘s synth and Calum Calderwood‘s effects-laden fiddle lead the way into an obscure, semi-Eastern-scaled modern psychedelic krautrock, Omar Aborida‘s guitar (he also plays bass, mixed, and did the cover art) running deep in wah in shorter second cut “Stronger” as Tommy Duffin‘s drums both ground the procession and help push — wait for it — further. The immersion factor is high, and when “Aurora” gives over to “Aether,” there is a sense of having now arrived at the place you’ve been going all along, the long drone intro seeing a jangly movement rise up and recede again before it’s done, righteously imperfect and expanded of mind. If you could do this kind of thing all the time maybe you’d have 10 albums too.

The Cosmic Dead website

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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SÖNUS, Planes of Torment

If you might hear opening cut “Pagan Woman” and think The Cult, SÖNUS drive the point home by covering “Phoenix” penultimate to the closing title-track of Planes of Torment, so yes. Elsewhere on the David Wachsman-led heavy rock/classic metal trio’s third LP, “Heart of Stone” touches on Danzig and the flute-inclusive “Scorpio” touches on Middle Eastern-influenced progressivism and “Sisyphus Stomp” enacts a bluesier course. The seven-song release is tied together by Wachsman‘s vocals and the apparently-at-least-mostly-live-recorded energy of the performances around them, and though the prevailing atmosphere even in the classic rocking “Saturation Driver” is moody, by the time they come around to the grandiosity of “Planes of Torment”‘s 10-minute sequence, the stage has been duly set for such a dramatic finish. They are no strangers to the perils of living between styles, but the songwriting remains firm and SÖNUS are sure in their purposes across Planes of Torment, which pushes them forward in sound and construction and continues to refine the persona, craft and intent behind the project.

SÖNUS website

SÖNUS on Bandcamp

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Uzio, Uzio

A hard-hitting Dec. 2025 self-released and self-titled full-length debut from this Richmond, Virginia, trio, Uzio‘s Uzio hits with force from the outset as they open up the groove in “And When it Doesn’t Break Your Fall” before giving burlier ’90s vibes in “Lantern Fly” — somewhere between C.O.C. and Ugly-era Life of Agony (see also “Wandering Eye”), with Chris Sundstrom‘s guitar and vocals leading the way with Ed Fierro on bass and Erik Larson (Thunderchief, ATP, Avail, etc.) drumming. They find a noteworthy fervency of chug in “Katabasis” and loose a “Hole in the Sky” of swing in “No One Sacred” before “Leeches” thrashes out and “Dissolve” throws big-riff elbows and “Dark Empath” caps with a more metallic crux, distant from the punk of “Familiars” earlier but subtly so with a continuity of structure throughout. One to watch if you feel like getting roughed up, as everybody does from time to time.

Uzio on Bandcamp

Uzio on Instagram

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Mount Palatine, Wormholy World

There is a strong meditative current built up around the apparent root jams of Finland’s Mount Palatine. The Helsinki outfit’s six-song/53-minute debut on Argonauta imprint Octopus Rising, Wormholy World is rife with texture and expanse as 10-minute opener “The Sands” casts a vast landscape of intertwining guitar lines and a slow march through the desert hinted at by its title. “Whispers of the Holy Land” grows more aggressive in its midsection, preceding a solidification of groove in the back end of the song that’s both satisfying and consistent in ambience with the opener. That crunch proves essential to “The Dreaming” and “Panther Eyes” as well, and the balance and blend of urgency and warmth keeps Wormholy World united but not staid in approach as their pilgrimage takes them through the outreach of lead guitar in “Ethereal” and into “Newborn Sun,” which closes out as less an arrival than a next departure point. So one hopes, anyhow. They’re not the first to work in this style, but there’s burgeoning perspective to be found here.

Mount Palatine website

Argonauta Records website

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Death of Manfish, Desert Cuttlefish

Smooth boogie alert as Perth, Australia’s Death of Manfish — who accrue weirdo points before you even get to the shufflefunk of “Sync” just based on the name — unfurl the five-track/16-minute Desert Cuttlefish with “Brunt,” a rollout that would make Brant Bjork smile and a hint of intent at things to come. “Sync” makes a rousing centerpiece to the short instrumental outing, which is furthers its outsiderism with “Manfish Folk 4” and “Manfish Folk 2,” the first of which is wistful with accordion sounds and the latter of which has acoustic guitar at its core but is more urbane, preceding the space-jammier finish in “Fritz.” So what you get is five instrumentalist pieces, each kind of operating in a different style, drawn together by rhythmic fluidity but more celebrating their differences than trying to convince you it’s all part of the same thing, which it is anyhow. Good fun, purposefully and effectively oddball, and backed up by chops and groove to spare. There’s more going on here than the 16 minutes imply, but the brevity of the format suits the showcase aspect of Death of Manfish‘s sound.

Death of Manfish on Bandcamp

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Ralph Penegun, Who the Fuck is Ralph Penegun?

Ralph Penegun ask and waste precious little time answering the operative question on their apparent debut, Who the Fuck is Ralph Penegun?, released in early January. The answer is they’re a band, not a person, and with the record, they offer a driving and aggressive heavy-hardcore punk sound. “Choose Your Poison” feels positively expansive at 3:54, and that’s as close as the Turin, Italy, unit come to expanse, as most of the album is given to the shove of cuts like “Epitaph” or “Working Class Idiot,” the latter of which follows the title-track intro and feels complemented by the head-down, fist-throwing “New Level Slave,” which closes, though those are hardly the only two on a sociopolitical bent. The earlier “Sickness” brings up tonal largesse and pays off its push with a nodder of a groove, and “Caught in a Trap” ends with a sample of Elvis Presley‘s “Suspicious Minds,” so there’s some deviation from the genre norm happening, but know that if you’re going to take it on, you should be ready to keep up. That’s who Ralph Penegun are.

Ralph Penegun on Bandcamp

Ralph Penegun on Instagram

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Winds of Neptune, Winds of Neptune

Longtime stoner rockers will recall Winds of Neptune bassist/vocalist Ross Westerbur from 500 Ft. of Pipe. He, guitarist Kevin Roberts (The Meatmen) and drummer Mike Alonso (Flogging Molly) foster an expansive take on classic heavy rock with Winds of Neptune‘s Small Stone-issued self-titled debut, bringing what began as a pandemic project to a place of embodying post-grunge heavy rock with an even deeper classic sense of reach. There’s some psychedelia to be had in the first half of “The Fitz,” where “Temporal Mutant” is more boogie, and the eight-song/hour-long album welcomes listners with a bright sensibility on “The Faun’s Rhyme,” but make no mistake, once they dig in, they stay dug. “La Cacciata” shimmies like Scorpions while “U.S.L.” gives breadth to grounded roll, but the real deal is the closing trilogy of “So Sayeth the Mouth of the Void” (9:09) “The Fitz” (9:02) and “Queen of Sumatra” (10:21), which are basically a record unto themselves. Bluesier Roadsaw-style heavy with just an edge of spaceblast? Ready for it.

Winds of Neptune on Instagram

Small Stone Records website

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Nero Kane, For the Love, the Death and the Poetry

Let’s pretend you were raised to believe in god. Doesn’t matter which one or denomination; any world-creating, all-powerful/wise/comforting/afterlife-bringing deity will do. Nero Kane‘s third (maybe fourth?) album, For the Love, the Death and the Poetry, hits like the moment you realized that god you were brought up to trust and put faith in isn’t real, and that out there in the void, there is neither guiding hand nor salvation. That is to say, it might make you feel empty and crushed, but it has the unmistakable ring of truth about it. The Italian songwriter makes use of empty space in the mix and darker neofolk mystique, working with producer Matt Bordin and collaborator Samantha Stella to craft a sound that is organic, mostly sad, indebted to Americana without being Americana, and encompassing in mood. The organ drones of “Land of Noting” are full and the strum and intertwining voices of “The World Heedless of Our Pain” feed into the melancholic ambience, and the closer “Until the Light of Heaven Comes” has the smack of ritual as it closes. That light is never coming.

Nero Kane website

Nero Kane on Bandcamp

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Giant Lungs, Praise the Laze

Can’t help but feel like Augsburg, Germany’s Giant Lungs are selling themselves short by calling their debut full-length Praise the Laze, particularly since there’s very little lazy about it in either craft or presentation. Taking influence from the likes of Lowrider, Truckfighters, and the shoegazier end of modern heavy melodymaking, in neither tempo nor tone are they lax, and, what, you’re gonna tell me that “Crab Riders” doesn’t move? The artwork is somewhat severe for the sound, which is fuzzier in its riffing than one might be led to believe and marked by the breathy vocal delivery, but the vibe is right on, and as they make their way toward the big-rolling 11-minute capper “Tourists,” they hone a depth and appeal that the finale effectively and purposefully encapsulates. I’m trying to figure out where “laze” comes in, unless they all quit their dayjobs to hang out and follow fuzzriffs, in which case, double kudos.

Giant Lungs on Bandcamp

Giant Lungs on Instagram

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Yeast Machine, Bad Milk

A creative and cohesive follow-up to the Tübingen-based five-piece’s debut, Sleaze, the 10-song/34-minute Bad Milk never stays in one place too long, but finds its path in thickened desert-style heavy songwriting, a strong current of Queens of the Stone Age present in the style of riffing early, though again, Yeast Machine find distinction in tone, as well as in their vocals. The acoustic-led (at least most of it) “Dust on the Radio” precedes the atmospheric heft of “Feeding Poison to the Spiders Was Never Really My Thing,” and the emotive wisp in the penultimate “Wobbly Wizard” puts me in mind of forgotten Eurodesert rockers Elvis Deluxe, and that’s a comparison I very much intend as a compliment to the song. They finish with largesse in “The Golden Cage,” but there too are mindful of the mood they’re fostering as they go. Bad Milk is my introduction to the band, and it is an intriguing one.

Yeast Machine website

Noisolution website

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Happy Monday, and welcome to the Quarterly Review. Or welcome back, anyhow. I said last month that I might try to sneak another one of these weeks in before the end of November, and I’m honestly not prepared to say this’ll be it for the year. There’s a lot out there to keep up with, and this is the most efficient means I have for ‘keeping up,’ as best as I can do that anyhow. I don’t know, man. I’m just trying to get through the day.

This QR is 50 releases — I was slating them right up to yesterday, so some of it’s pretty fresh — and will go from today through Friday. It will be most, if not all, of what is posted this week. I hope you find something you enjoy. Let’s go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Beastwars, The Ship // The Sea

At nearly 15 years’ remove from their self-titled debut (review here), New Zealand’s Beastwars have been through ringers in life and music alike, but their sound on their sixth full-length, they’ve never sounded quite so refined. Understand, it’s Beastwars, so I still mean immersive and crushing riff-heavy rock, which the band have honed to a point of bordering on noise rock in pieces like “The Storm” or the later “You Know They’re Burning the Land.” “Rust” and “The Howling” maintain a sense of the epic with Matt Hyde‘s shouts alternately into and out from the abyss, but the band have grown in the six years since their last album of originals, 2019’s IV (review here), and for the blowout in “The Devil” and the weight of chug in “Guardian of Fire,” their impact feels all the more craterous for it.

Beastwars store

Beastwars on Bandcamp

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Lacertilia, Transcend

I won’t take away from the shorter bangers here, whether it’s the wah-on immediacy of “Listen Close” or “Weird Scenes” with its stick-click immediacy, but each half(-ish) of Lacertilia‘s third LP (first for Majestic Mountain), Transcend, ends with a more extended cut, with “Nothing Sacred” (10:34) and “The Sun is the Key” (7:13) rounding out their respective sides, and the band are right to take the time when they take it. Of course, it’s symptomatic of the broader variety brought to the Cardiff five-piece’s craft, and they make Transcend a showcase of their reach, be it into acoustic strum and emergent bluesier scorch on “Over and Out,” the twisting lead guitar progressivism of “Deviate From the Plan,” which meets the grandeur halfway, or the percussion-laced instrumentalist build of the semi-title-track “Transcending.” They end up offering something different with each of the 10 songs, and balance raucousness and expressive purpose as they go in malleable and distinctive style.

Lacertilia on Bandcamp

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Dune Aurora, Ice Age Desert

With their debut album, Turin three-piece Dune Aurora draw together disparate ideas from across the modern riffy pastiche such that garage-style sway and more traditonalist stoner chug combine with at-times-ethereal melody, desert push, psychedelia and, in the case of “Trapdoor,” a poppier take entirely. There’s cohesion in the songwriting to match the aesthetic ambition, though, and Dune Aurora don’t come off as haphazard so much as multifaceted. The reworked prior single “Fire” demonstrates a fuzzy drive waiting in the wings as part of their approach, but the nod in “Burning Waters” is more dug in, and “Sunless Queen” reveals a patience underlying their builds that might come out more on subsequent outings, but the shove of “Crocodile” and that Nirvana riff in “Dune Chameleon” are vital to Ice Age Desert too, and it’s still just a sampling of the elements Dune Aurora use to ensnare the listener. As much as they have going on, that they don’t come across as confused seems to give them all the more potential.

Dune Aurora on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records website

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Khayrava, Ghost Pain

Ghost Pain is the debut two-songer from Almeria, Spain, post-metallic four-piece Khayrava, who present “Red Hot Sun” (7:04) and “Ghost Pain” (10:32) with a marked sense of texture as part of their intention. Both tracks crush, but both also offer a moment of departure from that, and the latter plays off the impact of the former with a keyboardier air and its later divergence into floating melody and crash before, just past the eight-minute mark, they torch the whole thing with a worthy and minutes-long crescendo. “Red Hot Sun” is huge, but its midsection gives over to a break of Tool-y groove met with heavy post-rock flourish from the guitar. That also, of course, comes back around to the pummel, but it’s in the getting there that Khayrava begin to reveal the character of the band, and with the depth of mix they bring to Ghost Pain and the clear intent toward nuance of style, I’ll be on the lookout for where they go from here.

Khayrava on Bandcamp

Khayrava on Instagram

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River Cult, High Anxiety

“Who invented 9-5,” River Cult ask on “Fast Crash.” “They should be shot dead,” is the answer the lyrics give. Fair. The third long-player from the heretofore undervalued New York-based disgruntled fuzzbringers manages to make a mental health crisis swing like desert rock on “Smoke Break,” the sixth of the seven inclusions on the 38-minute offering, seeming to answer the crash-in, warm tone and lyrical fuckall of the opening title-track in the process. They’re not wrong, and if you’re gonna say the world sucks, at least “Feels Good to Scream” has a density of distortion to hold up to the message, vocals biting through like early-metal’s cultist inheritor, cavernous and obscure ahead of centerpiece “Mind the Teeth” start-stop chugging as the lore of ‘The Wolf’ is cast. The trio of guitarist/vocalist Sean Forlenza, bassist Anthony Mendolia and drummer Eli Pizzuto (ex-Naam) find a niche for themselves in downtrodden fuzz, ending with “New Song,” which even having been tracked at Brooklyn’s Studio G sounds fresh off the stage.

River Cult on Bandcamp

River Cult on Instagram

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Beast Eagle, Sorceress

In the soaring vocals of Kate Prokop and the riffs behind them chugging away at the verses of “The Dead Follow” and the moodier surge into the layered hook of “Witch Hunt,” Omaha, Nebraska’s Beast Eagle answer their 2024 self-titled debut EP with five more songs of metal-rooted heavy groove, clear and fluid in “Sharp Tongue” but not without aggression underlying. The bass in “The Dead Follow” is mixed the way I feel bass should always be — forward — and that gives even the mellower stretch as they move into the ending a different sense of presence than it might otherwise have, but in the galloping verse and sprawling chorus of “The Demonstration” and the rush of “Send Me Down,” the latter of which, admittedly, is more of a rocker, speaking to a burgeoning dynamic in their sound, they retain a feeling of charge, and that defines Sorceress‘ 19-minute run as much as the taut chug in “Sharp Tongue.”

Beast Eagle on Bandcamp

Beast Eagle on Instagram

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The Munsens, Degradation in the Hyperreal

Having relocated from Denver to Asbury Park, New Jersey, The Munsens are no less vicious or crushing on their second album, Degradation in the Hyperreal. “Eternal Grasp” starts the procession as much death metal as it is sludge, which is an ethic that “Supreme Death” will bring to gorgeously extreme fruition a short time later, while pieces like the melancholic, minimalist instrumental “Vesper” and the blistering megasludger “Sacred Ivory” and the outro “I Avow” offset the onslaught of “The Knife,” “Scaling Ceausescu’s Balcony” and the lumber-into-double-kick of “Drauga,” vocals offering precious little comfort for the downward journey of the record’s 46 minutes. That “The Knife” finishes, specifically, ahead of “I Avow,” stands as testament to just how far The Munsens have pushed into extremity over the course of their decade-plus, but they are not entirely unforgiving either, despite having grown only more gnashing over the course of their decade-plus tenure.

The Munsens on Bandcamp

The Munsens on Instagram

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Rattlesnake Venom Trip, Eclipse the Sun

They’re not thrash, but thrash is part of what Dayton, Ohio’s Rattlesnake Venom Trip get up to on their new four-song EP, Eclipse the Sun, with a sharp edge to the riffing on lead cut “Hollowed Eyes” that tells the tale. The second half of that track subsides some in terms of forward thrust, setting up the still-chugging-but-slower “Ablaze Set I,” with a more resonant hook, and “Brushstrokes/Eclipse the Sun,” which in its first half is as far as Rattlesnake Venom Trip go in divergence from the burl and push, but in its second answers for the metal and the nod both that it seems to have inherited from the opener. Punchy bass’ed reinforcement takes place over the five minutes of “Cold Winds Blow,” and the four-piece maintain a clear-eyed sense of identity through whatever turns the material makes, somewhere between heavy rock, Southern metal, thrash and stoner idolatry. You could sit and parse it, but the band make it pretty easy to trust where they’re headed as they go.

Rattlesnake Venom Trip website

Rattlesnake Venom Trip on Bandcamp

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Pesta, The Craft of Pain

For their third long-player, The Craft of Pain (on Glory or Death), Brazil’s Pesta offer a take on doom born of traditional metal. They’re not aggro, or outwardly depressive, but “Masters of the Craft of Pain” and the swinging “Marked by Hate” find a route from Sabbath and the NWOBHM to doom just the same. A guest appearance from Scott “Wino” Weinrich (The Obsessed, etc.) on vocals for “Mirror Maze” is a departure, but not so radical as to be out of place, especially backed by the depth of groove in the subsequent rocker “In the Drive’s End.” On side B, the pair of “The Inquisitor Pt. I” and the initially-acoustic-based “The Inquisitor Pt. II” provide a more theatrical reach, but the acoustic-and-key-strings “Canto XXI” brings in Rodrigo Garcia (Diffuse Reality) for another curve before “Shadows of a Desire” returns to ground to finish out not so far from where “Marked by Hate” left off. At no point do Pesta feel like they’ve diverged from where they want to be.

Pesta on Bandcamp

Glory or Death Records website

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Atom Lux, Voidgaze Dopamine Salad

The lyrics posted with the cumbersomely-titled “J.I.B.B.E.R.I.S.H. (John Inflates Balloons Because Every Remote Island Starts Hallucinating)” are wrong, and the level of psychedelic tricksterism and playfulness across Atom Lux‘s debut, Voidgaze Dopamine Salad is such that I’m not sure if that’s on purpose or not. Rest assured, different references to “I Am the Walrus” are being made. The self-recording solo-project of Roman multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Lucio Filizola is a garden of weirdo delights, with the keyboardy bounce of “Death by Small Talk” giving away none of the subversively easy garage swing of “Spaghettification Apocalypse” and “Stoned Monkey Heritage” bashing away like it’s an alternate-reality 1964, which by the way I’m no longer convinced it isn’t. It’s from gleeful oddities like “Dance Plague Delirium” that progressive rock first emerged in the comedown era. The same trajectory may or may not be in store for Atom Lux long term, but right now any kind of ‘comedown’ still feels a good ways off.

Atom Lux on Bandcamp

Atom Lux on Instagram

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There’s info and such below, courtesy of the PR wire, and I’m never gonna be somebody who tells you to skip it because sometimes I get paid money to write that stuff and it’s important context besides — maybe somebody’s leg fell off and they wrote the whole album about it; you’d never know! — but the song is the feature here, so if you want to skip to the video for “Sunless Queen” that you can find at the bottom of this post, I may not all-the-way approve, but I understand. With that moral complication out of the way, surely you’ll be ready to dig into the choice groove, big riffs and proggy outreach of the first sampling to come from Dune Aurora‘s debut full-length, which will be released this Fall.

You might notice that Argonauta Records / Octopus Rising doesn’t have a release date set for the album. You might also notice there isn’t a title mentioned. So, clearly, while these things are being discussed as gonna-happens, there’s going to be some time between now and when the thing actually comes out. Maybe 2026? Possible, but I wouldn’t write off November or December either.

To the aforementioned PR wire:

DUNE AURORA Unveil First Single and Video “Sunless Queen” from Upcoming Debut Album

Italian fuzz-heavy rockers DUNE AURORA have released their brand new single and official video, “Sunless Queen”, offering the first taste of their highly anticipated debut full-length, due out this Fall via Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records.

The track and its haunting visual companion dive deep into the band’s sonic core: slow-paced heaviness, hypnotic atmospheres and monolithic riffing. Speaking about the new single, the band states:

“Sunless Queen is a slow, cadenced song with dark atmospheres that has a monolithic presence in our album, thanks to its rhythmic pattern and repetitive riffs. The song depicts a queen who reigns in her own golden age and relates to a being whose presence darkens the sun, a demon she must embrace in order to be reborn. We think this single captures the essence of the sound of our first upcoming album. We are thrilled to present it today with Octopus Rising/Argonauta Records and share it with you.”

The release follows the band’s critically noted trajectory, which began with their debut EP Lonely Town in 2022 and continued through a trilogy of standalone singles (Solar Reward, Sail, and Fire) each supported by distinctive music videos that helped define DUNE AURORA’s strong visual and artistic identity.

A key element in the sonic impact of Sunless Queen, and the entire upcoming album, is the mastering by legendary engineer James Plotkin, known for his work with groundbreaking acts such as ISIS, Pelican and Earth. Plotkin’s signature mastering gives the song an immersive and massive depth, perfectly complementing the band’s fuzz-laden intensity.

Based in Turin, Italy, DUNE AURORA currently features Ginny Wagon (vocals, guitar), Serena Bodratto (drums) and Roberta Finiguerra (bass). Their sound merges raw power and emotional weight, blending fuzzy riffs with dark, introspective moods.

A year after joining the Octopus Rising / Argonauta Records roster, the band is now set to unveil the next chapter in their evolution.

[band pic. courtesy of Luca Maccario]

https://duneaurora.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/duneaurora/
https://www.facebook.com/duneaurora21

www.argonautarecords.com
https://argonautarecords.bandcamp.com/
www.facebook.com/ArgonautaRecords
https://www.instagram.com/argonautarecords/

Dune Aurora, “Sunless Queen” official video

Tons and Viscera/// release their split LP Feb. 28 through Subsound Records. As the dually-referential cover art above indicates, the split is number 10 in a label series, and for being 31 minutes and seven songs, it’s a pretty wild ride. Both bands are Italian — Tons are from Turin and Viscera/// are from Cremona — and there is some commonality there in a willingness to screw around with notions of genre, but the divergence between them is broad and feels like a purposeful act of curation. The label rather than the bands putting it together, I mean, though I don’t know if that’s how it actually happened. In any case, by the time the rasp in Tons‘ “Rime of the Modern Grower,” the dirty stonersludge groove has long since been set and so when it gets harsh, you’re about as ready for it as you’re going to be.

Monolithic as the seven-plus-minute “Rime of the Mordern Grower” might seem, Tons aren’t locked into a sound here. Second cut “Milk It” is a Nirvana cover from In Utero, and the last of their three, “Boards of the Unlighter,” goes down a semi-psych rabbit hole of dark surf-rock weirdness and handclap-inclusive shuffle to cap. To call that a stark turn is an understatement, but the ‘fuck it’ comes through clear and they’re right. It’s fun and it grooves, so it works. “Boards of the Unlighter” has a rough, garage-y, kind of campy darkness, and as Viscera/// take over for side B starting out with the four-minute noise intro “House of Soul Surgery” to lead into “Celebrate Death” (also premiering below), the thickening plot feels like no coincidence.

While they’ve been around since the turn of the century and have over the course of that time expanded their sound from its beginnings in more extreme metal, Viscera/// remain caustic-capable, and “House of Soul Surgery” brings that to light in two interweaving drones. If a hum could be urgent, this one might be, or at least mixed loud, and it moves into harsher synth noise en route to the sweeping guitar that kicks off “Celebrate Death,” the riff standout out triumphant having made its way forward through the aural mire, and within the first minute the band have aligned around the central riff and are on their way to the clean-sung verse and catchy chorus. I’ll admit this is my first time hearing Viscera///, but knowing their roots in grind, the harshness makes sense, and with their progressive elements, there’s an almost latter-day Enslaved feel to parts, but ultimately the band are on their own trip.

And it’s a weird one. Tons putting sludge to the side for a bit of garage rock was a curveball, sure, and Viscera/// might not have any such radical stylistic shifts playing out across their four inclusions, but the wash in “Mystical Cherry Bomb” before the vocals enter in the second half is immersive enough to make it seem like “Celebrate Death” rose up from a river of noise and receded again beneath the surface when it was done. All the while, the river runs. The transition to closer “Turmoil” is no less direct, and with a harsh buzz and a sample of a recorded voice on a phone that feels like a remnant from a time far less apocalyptic, the finisher of the split turns its modus more fully to evocation and ambience.

Like a lot of what is happening across the relatively brief runtime for this split, the ending makes sense when you hear it. A couple of bands getting together, pushing hard against the imaginary walls of genre, exploring — and yeah, getting up to a bit of charming fuckery as well — is a good time. The two tracks premiering below don’t represent the entirety of the split. Don’t expect them to. But whatever elements they do or don’t share in sound, they are the base around which both bands seem to be building during their portion of the LP.

PR wire info follows. As always, I hope you enjoy:

Tons, “Rime Of The Modern Grower”

Viscera/// “Celebrate Death”

Heavy Psych Experimental Post-Metal New EP ‘Subsound Split Series #10’ Out February 28th 2025 via Subsound Records

Bandcamp: https://subsoundsplitseries.bandcamp.com/album/split-10-tons-viscera
Shop: https://subsoundrecords.bigcartel.com/artist/tons-viscera

Italian powerhouses TONS (sludge/doom) and VISCERA/// (post-metal) join forces on Subsound Records’ Split Series #10. A beautiful opportunity to get wild with the genres and to experiment! If TONS maintain their signature sound on the first track “Rime of the Modern Grower”, they totally revisit their classic track “Boards of the Unlighter” in a garage/surf flavour. The third song is a cover version of Nirvana’s “Milk it” taken from the recording sessions of their previous album Hashenshion.

“This latest opus marks the band’s studio comeback since 2018’s ‘City Of Dope And Violence’, plus the opportunity to work with underground scene juggernauts like Tons and Subsound Records and the consolidation of Alexander Lizzori as active producer (“Cyclops” / “2” era drummer and long time collaborator)” say VISCERA/// about their record side.

The I Subsound Split Series’ is a collectors series of 12″ limited edition vinyls. Each release features two bands of the Italian and international underground scene, spanning multiple genres. Artworks and illustrations are curated by Stonino and play on the interaction between two movie characters chosen by the musicians of the split in an imaginative way. This one features James Wood/Max Renn in David Cronenberg l s ‘Videodrome’ (Viscera///’s choice) and Ghostbusters’ Rick Moranis (by TONS).

TRACK LISTING ‘Subsound split Series 10’
A SIDE
1. Tons – Rime Of The Modern Grower
2. Tons – Milk It
8. Tons – Boards Of The Unlighter
B SIDE
4. Viscera/// – House of Soul Surgery
5. Viscera/// – Celebrate Death
6. Viscera/// – Mystical Cherry Bomb
7. Viscera/// – Turmoil

TONS are:
Phatty B.: voice, bass
Duncan McLoud: lead guitar
Little Stevie: rhythm guitar
Oreste Pennarelli: drums

VISCERA are:
Michele Basso: vocals/guitars/electronics
Marcello Bellina: guitars/electronics
Gian Lorenzo Cantb: bass
Federico de Bernardi di Valserra: drums

Tons on Facebook

Tons on Instagram

Tons on Bandcamp

Viscera/// on Facebook

Viscera/// on Instagram

Viscera/// on Bandcamp

Subsound Records store

Subsound Records on Facebook

There was some pretty good stuff this week, I gotta say. Feels self-congratulatory to be like, ‘hey good job slating reviews, me!’ but there it is. I don’t regret hearing anything I have thus far into the Winter 2023 Quarterly Review, and sometimes that’s not the case by the time we get to Friday.

Of course, there’s another week to go here as well. We’ll pick it back up on Monday with another 10 records and proceed from there. If you’ve been following along, I hope you’ve found something you dig as well.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #41-50:

Astrosaur, Portals

This is what happens when you have virtuoso players writing songs rather than paeans to their own virtuosity. Led by founding guitarist Eirik Kråkenes, with drummer Jonathan Eikum (also Taiga Woods) and bassist Steinar Glas (also Einar Stray Orchestra), Astrosaur are blindingly progressive on their third full-length, Portals (on Pelagic), operating with post-metallic atmospheres as a backdrop for stunning instrumental turns, builds and crashes, willful repetition and the defiant denial of same. There’s more scope in the intro “Opening” than on some entire albums, and what “Black Hole Earth” begins from there is a dizzying array of sometimes cosmic sometimes earthborn riffing, twisting bass and mindfully restless drums. “The Deluge” hitting into that chase after four minutes in, that seemingly chaotic swirling noise suddenly stopping “Reptile Empire” and the false start to the 23-minute epic “Eternal Return” — these details and many besides give the overarching weight of Portals at its heaviest a corresponding depth, and when coupled with the guitar’s ability to coast overhead, they are genuinely three-dimension in their sound. You’d be right to want to hear Portals for “Eternal Return” alone, but there’s so much more to it than that.

Astrosaur on Facebook

Pelagic Records on Bandcamp

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Kvasir, Sagittarius A* Star

Kvasir‘s Sagittarius A* Star is named for the black hole at the center of the galaxy, and the 21-minute single-song EP is the follow-up to their 2021 debut album, 4 (review here), a dug-in proto-metallic exploration composed in movements that flow together as a whole organic work. The Portland-based four-piece of guitarists Christopher Lee (also vocals) and Gabriel Langston, bassist Greg Traw and Jay Erbe work on either side between traditional metal and heavy rock riffing, inhabiting both here as “Sagittarius A* Star” launches into its initial verses over the first four minutes, a solo emerging after 5:30 to set the pattern that will hold for the remaining three-fourths of the song. A slowdown takes hold about a minute later and grooves until at about nine minutes in when the bass comes forward and things get funkier. The vocals return at about 11:30 to complement a galloping riff that’s fleshed out until just after the 14-minute mark, when a jazzier instrumental movement begins and the band makes it known they’re going out and not coming back, the swaying finish with more insistent guitar, first interjecting then satisfyingly joining that sway, capping with a (still plotted) jammier feel. If that’s the Milky Way succumbing to ultragravity and being torn apart molecule by molecule en route to physics-defying oblivion, then fair enough. Worse ways to go, certainly.

Kvasir on Facebook

Kvasir on Bandcamp

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Bloodshot, Sins of the Father

Though the leadoff Sins of the Father gets reminds of circa-’90s noise metal like Nailbomb, Marylander four-piece Bloodshot lean more into a hardcore-informed take on heavy rock with their aggressively-purposed debut album. Comprised of vocalist Jared Winegardner, guitarist Tom Stacey, bassist Joe Ruthvin (ex-Earthride) and drummer JB Matson (ex-War Injun, organizer of Maryland Doom Fest, etc.), the band push to one side or the other throughout, as on the more rocking “Zero Humility” and the subsequent metallic barker “Uncivil War,” the mid-period Megadeth-style riffer “Beaten Into Rebellion,” the brooding-into-chugging closing title-track and “Fyre,” which I’m pretty sure just wants to kick my ass. The 10-track entirety of the album, in fact, seems to hold to that same mentality, and there’s a sense of trying to recapture something that’s been lost that feels inherently conservative in its theme — “Faded Natives,” “Visions of Yesterday,” the speedier “Worn and Torn,” and so on — but gruff though it is, Sins of the Father offers a pissed-off-for-reasons take on heavy that’s likewise intense and methodical. That is to say, they know what they’re doing as they punch you in the throat.

Bloodshot on Facebook

Half Beast Records on Bandcamp

Nervous Breakdown Records store

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Tons, Hashension

A second release through Heavy Psych Sounds and Tons‘ third full-length overall, Hashension wears its love of all things cannabian on its crusty stoner sludge sleeve throughout its six-track/39-minute run, begun with the riffnotic “Dope Dealer Scum” before “A Hash Day’s Night” introduces the throatripper vocals and backing growls and a more heads-down, speedier tempo that hits into a mosh of a slowdown. “Slowly We Pot” — a play on Obituary‘s Slowly We Rot — to go along with the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd (and Gummo) titular references — follows in a spirit as angry as one imagines Bongzilla might be if someone un-freed their weed. Yes, “Hempathy for the Devil” and “Ummagummo” precede the sample-topped slamming march of “Hashended,” and lo, the well-baked extreme sludge they’ve wrought rumbles and thuds its way out, not so much gnashing in the way of “A Hash Day’s Night” or the roll after the midpoint in “Ummagummo” — though the lyrics there seem to be pure weed-worship — but lumbering in such a way as to ensure the point gets across anyhow. I’m not going to tell you you should be stoned listening to it, because I don’t know, maybe you’re driving or something, but I doubt Tons would argue if you brought some edibles to the gig. Enough to share, perhaps.

Tons on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds store

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Mothman & the Thunderbirds vs. World Eaters, Split

In the battle of Philly solo-project Mothman and the Thunderbirds vs. Ontario-based duo World Eaters, the numbers may be on the side of the latter, but each act offers something of its own on their shared 18-minute EP. Presenting two tracks from each band, the outing puts Mothman and the Thunderbirds‘ “Rusty Shackleton” and “Nephilim” up front, the latter particularly reinforcing the Devin Townsend influence on the part of multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Alex Parkinson, while “Flash of Green” and “The Siege” from World Eaters — drummer Winter Stomp and guitarist/bassist/vocalist/synthesist David Gupta — present an atmospheric death metal, more than raw bludgeoning, but definitely that as well. As a sampler platter for both bands, there’s more time to get to know World Eaters since their songs are markedly longer, but the contrast from one to the other and the progression into the mire of “The Siege” gives the split an overlaid personality, almost a narrative, and the melodies in Parkinson‘s two cuts have a lingering presence over the masterful decay that follows in World Eater‘s material. One way or the other, these are both relatively upstart projects and their will toward progression is clear, as pummeling as its form may be. Right on.

Mothman & The Thunderbirds on Bandcamp

World Eaters on Bandcamp

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Deer Lord, Dark Matter Pt. 1

Preceded by the two-song single Witches Brew/Psychedelic Roadkill, the six-song/24-minute Dark Matter Pt. 1 is short but feels nonetheless like a debut album from Sonoma County, California (try the cabernet), three-piece Deer Lord, who present adventures like getting stoned with witches on a mountaintop, riding free with an out-on-bail “Hippie Girl” in the backseat of presumably some kind of roadster, going down the proverbial highway and, at last, welcoming you to “Planet Earth” after calling out and casting off any and all “Ego” along the way. It is a modern take on stonerized heavy, starting off with “Witches Brew” as the opener/longest track (immediate points) with a languid flow and psychedelic underpinnings that flesh out even amid the apex soloing of “Planet Earth” or the fervent push of the earlier “Ride Away,” that tempo hitting a wall with the intro of “Ego” (don’t worry, it takes off) so as to support the argument in favor of Dark Matter Pt. 1 as an admittedly brief full-length, the component tracks working off each other to enhance the entirety. The elements beneath are familiar enough, but Deer Lord put an encouraging spin of their own on it, and especially as their debut, it’s hard to imagine some label or other won’t get on board, if not for pressing this, then maybe Pt. 2 to come. Perhaps both?

Deer Lord on Facebook

Deer Lord on Bandcamp

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IO Audio Recordings, Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK

Compiling two 2022 EPs into a single LP and releasing through a microcosm of underground imprints in various terrestrial locales, IO Audio Recordings‘ Awaiting the Elliptical Drift & VVK is my first exposure to the Orange, CA, out-there-in-space unit, and from the blower kosmiche rocking “Awaiting the Elliptical Drift” to the sitar meditation “Luminous Suspension,” and the hazy wash of “Sunrise and Overdrive” (that’s side A) to the experimentalist consumption of “VVK” and “Gramanita” rounding out with its heartbeat rhythm giving over to a hardly-flatlined drone after shuffling cool and bassy and fuzzy with jangly jam strum overtop, I tell you in all sincerity it won’t be my last. There’s a broad cross-section stylistically, which suits a compilation mindset, but I get the feeling that if you called it an album instead, the situation would be much the same thanks to an underlying conceptualism and the adventuring purpose beneath the open-structured fluidity. That’s just fine, as IO Audio Recordings‘ sundry transformations only enhance the anything-that-works-goes and shelf-your-expectations listening experience. Not that there’s no tension in their groovy approach, but the abiding sensibility advises an open mind and maybe a couple deep breaths in and out before you take it on. But then definitely take it on. If you need me, I’ll be spending money I don’t have on Bandcamp.

Weird Beard Records store

Fuzzed Up and Astromoon Records on Bandcamp

We Here & Now on Bandcamp

Ramble Records on Bandcamp

Echodelick Records on Bandcamp

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Bong Voyage, Feverlung

While “bong” in a band name usually connotes dense sludge in my head, Oslo four-piece Bong Voyage defy that stereotype with their Dec. 2022-released second single, “Feverlung” — the first single was October’s “Buzzed Aldrin” — and no, the song isn’t about the pandemic, it’s about getting high. The six-minute rocker hoists jammy flourish mostly in its second half, in a break that, in turn, shifts into uptempo semi-space rock post-Slift pulsations atop a progression that, while I’ll readily admit it sounds little like the song on the whole still puts me in mind of Kyuss‘ “Odyssey” in its vocal patterning and melody. That ending is a step outward from the solidified early verses, which are more straight ahead heavy rock in the vein of Freedom Hawk or a less-directly-Ozzy take on Sheavy, and while one listening for them to bring it back around to the initial riff will find that they don’t, the band’s time isn’t necessarily misspent in terms of serving the song by letting it push beyond exospheric traps. They won’t catch me by surprise next time aesthetically, and it wouldn’t be a shock to find Bong Voyage in among the subset of up and coming heavy rockers that’s put Norway on the underground radar so much these last couple years. Either way, I’ll look forward to more here.

Bong Voyage on Facebook

Bong Voyage on Bandcamp

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Sun Years, Sun Years (Demo)

IMG

In its early going, Sun Years‘ “Codex” stagger-sludges like Eyehategod with guitarist Dalton Huskin‘s shouty echoing vocals on top, but as it moves into its second half, there’s a pickup in tempo and a bit of swirling lead guitar emerges in the 4:37 song’s closing stretch as Asechiah Bogdan (ex-Windhand, ex-Alabama Thunderpussy) makes his presence felt. Alongside bassist Buddy Bryant and drummer Erik Larson (once-and-again guitarist for Alabama Thunderpussy, drummer of Avail, Omen Stones, ex-Backwoods Payback, the list goes on), Bogdan and Huskin explore mellower and more melodic reaches the subsequent “Teeth Like Stars,” still holding some of their demo’s lead track’s urgency as a weighted riff takes hold in trade with the relatively subdued verse. That’s a back and forth they’ll do again, moving the second time from the more weighted progression into a solo and build into a return of the harsher vocals, some double-kick drumming and a last shove that lasts until everything drops out except one guitar and that riffs for a few seconds before being cut off mid-measure. Well, that’s a band with more dynamic in their first two tracks than some have in their entire careers, so I guess it’s safe to say it’ll be worth following the Richmond, Virginia, foursome to see where they end up next time out.

Sun Years on Bandcamp

Minimum Wage Recording on Facebook

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Daevar, Delirious Rites

Recorded by Jan Oberg (Grin, Slowshine, EarthShip) at Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin, Daevar‘s five-track/32-minute 2023 debut album, Delirious Rites, arrives likewise through Oberg‘s imprint The Lasting Dose Records and finds the man himself sitting in for guest vocals on the 10-minute “Leviathan” alongside the band’s own bassist/vocalist Pardis Latif, who leads the band from the depths of the rhythm section’s lurch on the gradually unfolding Windhand-vibing leadoff “Slowshine,” the particularly Monolordian “Bloody Fingers” with Caspar Orfgen‘s guitar howling over a marching riff, and “Leila” where Moritz Ermen Bausch‘s drums offer a welcoming grounding to Electric Wizardly nod and swirl. Thus, by the time his spot in the aforementioned “Leviathan” rolls (and I do mean rolls) around, just ahead of closer “Yellow Queen,” the layers of growling and screaming he adds to the procession are a standout shift well placed to play off the atmosphere established by the previous tracks. Shortest at 5:10, “Yellow Queen” lumbers through more ethereal doom and hints at a psychedelic current that might continue to develop in a midsection drifting break that builds back into the catchy plod from whence it came. Not necessarily innovative at this point — they’re a new band — but they seem to know what they want in terms of sound and style, and that only ever bodes well.

Daevar on Facebook

The Lasting Dose Records on Bandcamp

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Torino riff bullies Tons will release their new album, Hashension, along with a reissue of their debut, 2012’s Musineè Doom Session, Vol. 1, on Oct. 7 through Heavy Psych Sounds. Tons had a split with Bongzilla out last year as part of the label’s own Doom Sessions series, and the latest continues an association between the group and its countryman imprint that has lasted since that first record’s release a decade ago. You’ll note below that the reissue for Musineè Doom Session, Vol. 1 is listed as catalog number ‘HPS005v2,’ which would seem to mean it was the fifth release ever on the label. Needless to say, both parties involved have had a hell of a 10 years.

A track from Hashension is streaming now — The Sleeping Shaman had the premiere; love as always to Lee Edwards — and as you can see it’s just one example of the record’s weedian wordplay titles. Frankly, I almost always find that kind of thing charming. “Hempathy for the Devil?” “Slowly We Pot?” “Ummagummo?” Who doesn’t love that shit?

Cops, I guess.

Info and preorder links from the PR wire:

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the TONS upcoming brand new album HASHENSION and of the 10th Anniversary REISSUE of their debut album Musineè Doom Session, Vol 1 (2022 Remastered) !!!

After the infamous split album with the almighty Bongzilla, Tons are back with their third full-length studio album. Hashension is composed by 6 heavy reefer songs which express the band’s devotion to the Green God. The recipe is the same, but always evolving: an infusion of slow and swampy doom/sludge metal with hints of psychedelia, and the band members’ hardcore-punk background gives the record a groovy and personal feel throughout.

RELEASE DATE FOR BOTH ALBUMS: OCTOBER 7th

ALBUM PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS246

USA PRESALE:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD 3 COLOURS STRIPED BLUE/YELLOW/PINK VINYL
400 LTD NEON GREEN VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL
TRACKLIST

Dope Dealer Scum
A Hash Day’s Night
Slowly We Pot
Hempathy For The Devil
Ummagummo
Hashended (Outro)

HPS005v2 *** TONS – Musineè Doom Session, Vol 1 (2022 Remastered) ***

– 10th Anniversary Remastered REISSUE of the TONS debut album with new cover and coloured vinyls –

RELEASED IN
15 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD SIDE A-SIDE B BLACK/WHITE/GOLD VINYL
400 LTD GOLD VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL

TRACKLIST
Musineè Doom Session
Once Upon A Tentacle
Rime Of The Ancient Grower
Tangerine Nightmare
Ketama Gold
At War With Yog-Sothoth

TONS is an italian band formed in Turin in October 2009 from the ashes of three popular hardcore bands of the city. The aim of the band is to remain close to the harcore influence of the city where they were born but they decided to move on to sludge and doom. “Musineè Doom Session Volume 1” was their debut album out in June 2012 on Heavy Psych Sounds. Now the label and the band decided to release a very special 10th anniversary reissue with new cover, remastered tracks and coloured vinyls !!

BIOGRAPHY

Tons formed in 2009 with members of hardcore bands from the Turin scene (The Redrum, Lama Tematica and NoInfo). Slow and heavy sounds take the place of the frenetic HC rhythms; the texts speak about weed in an ironic way, but also about a certain tendency to esotericism that characterizes the city of Turin. In 2010 they recorded a demo and in 2012 the first full length “Musineè Doom Session”, recorded by Danilo “Dano” Battocchio, was released for the Turin-based Escape From Today and for the Roman Heavy Psych Sounds. In 2013 a split with Lento from Rome came out and Tons began to plow the European venues, opening the stage for bands like Bongzilla, Unsane, Church of Misery, Napalm Death, Pentagram etc ….. In 2014 they were invited to play at the Duna Jam in Sardinia and at the Incubate Fest in Tillburg (NL). In 2015 the drummer Marco Dinocco left the band and was replaced by Andrea Peracchia (Dogs for Breakfast/Slaiver). Paolo Paganelli (Woptime/Linea77) was also added as a solo guitarist. In 2018 the second full length of the band “Filthy Flowers of Doom” was released for Heavy Psych Sounds Rec., which would bring Tons again around Europe in 2018 and in 2019.

In 2021 the band released a split album with Bongzilla on Heavy Psych Sounds. In 2022 Tons are coming back with a brand new album and with a 10th Anniversary Remastered edition of their debut album Musineè Doom Session, Volume 1 !!!

TONS is:
Slowninja : vocals, bass, synth
Little Stevie : guitars
Glüten Freidrich : guitars
Vito Power : drums

https://www.facebook.com/TONSBAND/
https://soundcloud.com/tonsofeedback
https://www.youtube.com/user/tonsband

https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/

Tons, “A Hash Day’s Night”

There’s a teaser for the upcoming Nibiru album, Panspermia, down at the bottom of this post, but I’m gonna go ahead and recommend you don’t actually watch it. The audio is kind of manic and chaotic and extreme in a way that one would expected from the Turin-based, but the accompanying video — at least until it cuts to the album cover, which you can see below anyway, is someone’s body being cut up and eaten by birds, and I don’t know what the situation is there, real, fake, death ritual or what, but yeah, its not something that’s about to make your day better by viewing. Obviously that’s something purposeful from the trio, who’ve been pushing the boundaries of extreme sludge for years now, and it’s not something to be held against them, but yeah, kinda gross.

It’s down there though, if you’re up for it. If not, nobody’s about to think any less of you.

To the PR wire:

Blackened Drone & Sludge heavy weights, NIBIRU, unleash album details and first, disturbing yet haunting teaser!

“Panspermia” coming out November 13th on Argonauta Records!

Following their latest album, “Salbrox” (2019, Ritual Productions), Blackened Sludge and Drone trio, NIBIRU, have re-signed with Argonauta Records for the release of their sixth studio album, titled “Panspermia”, that will be seeing the light of day on Friday the 13rd of November 2020.

NIBIRU deliver a very special, truly unique and inspiring sound, as they develop their musical aesthetics through the recitation of the Enochian keys, whose evocation aims at precise ritual effects, and the insertion of intimate and disturbing verses in Italian. The band’s sources of extramusical influences are inspired by occultists and esotericists such as Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, Austin Osman Spare and Julius Evola, but also psychiatric essays, a deep inner illness and a peculiar cult for the actor Klaus Kinski. The trio invites the listener to be part of a ritual: NIBIRU’s sound is a mental, noisy and apocalyptic journey of visionary magic, elemental prophecies and esoteric superomism. Tribal percussions, evocative mantras and hypnotic drones merge into a completely new interpretation of Black and Doom Metal, while psychedelic tapestries draw a fascinating and idiosyncratic art. The shrill and inhuman voice of Ardat will drag you into a kingdom of mystical abandonment and possession. NIBIRU is indeed a ritual; a heavily deep, disturbing, wild but atmospheric ride on every level – of your soul, spirit and body.

Become part of their sound ritual, and get on this disturbing yet haunting trip of their new album, as the band just unleashed a first teaser!

Vocalist and guitarist Ardat comments:

“Panspermia”, the limit of the alchemical path, the ancestral environment finds its balance in the mutability. The physical, ferocious rage of “Qaal Babalon”, the painfully cerebral violence of “Salbrox” and finally the primordial soup “Panspermia”, the last desolate journey divided into four steps, without interruption, alkaest, aqua solis, efflatus, kteis, ebb to the earth, to chaos to “Caosgon”.

NIBIRU’s upcoming album, which contains four long and blistering as hell tracks, will be coming out as 2LP, CD and in Digital formats on November 13rd 2020 with Argonauta Records, the pre-sale has just started at THIS LOCATION!

The tracklist of “Panspermia” will read as follows:
Alkaest
Aqua Solis
Efflatus
Kteis

NIBIRU is:
Ardat – guitars, percussions and vocals
RI – bass, drone and synthesizers
L.C.s Chertan – drums

www.facebook.com/nibiruritual
www.nibiruritual.com
www.argonautarecords.com

Nibiru, Panspermia teaser

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. I was kind of surprised — not unpleasantly, but surprised still — that Italian dark-drone ritualists Nibiru ever left Argonauta Records to begin with. As dense and consuming and taken-to-extremes as their sound is, it’s only ever going to have so much reach in terms of audience, and while Ritual Productions was a fit for them when it came to issuing last year’s Salbrox (review here), it’s not like they’re on the road 200 days a year either, and the niche they’re in suits them. The two parties — Argonauta and Nibiru — are now reunited for the release of the band’s forthcoming sixth album this Fall. Hey, sometimes you try a thing.

No word on a title or any of that yet for the record — if history is anything to go by, it’ll be drawn out of some mythology or other — but there’s time for such things yet and if it’s an October release, that gives them plenty of time to set the atmosphere just how they like it, which is more or less essential for what the band does.

The PR wire brings the news:

Blackened Sludge & Drone masters NIBIRU re-sign with Argonauta Records!

Brand new album coming out this Fall!

Never change a winning team. This team’s story started back in 2013, when NIBIRU released their pathbreaking debut on the ever-growing powerhouse label Argonauta Records. Together they have released four highly acclaimed full-length albums and one EP, until the band inked a deal with Ritual Productions. Today, the Italian collective announced their return to Argonauta Records, who will release NIBIRU’s forthcoming, sixth studio album in the Fall of 2020!

NIBIRU was born in 2012, following a relentless process of spiritual and emotional knowledge that involves every member of the band and is reflected in an impetuous creative approach. Since their first album Caosgon, the music of NIBIRU draw the attention as a unique identity, instinctive and difficult to label. The genre proposed by NIBIRU could be described as Ritual Psychedelic Sludge and finds no term of stylistic comparison with other active bands, although the influences of Black Sabbath, Neurosis and MZ.412 have always been pretty clear since their inception until today. But in terms of atmosphere, NIBIRU relate themselves to the post-punk/darkwave scenes of the early ’80s (Fields Of The Nephilim, Virgin Prunes, early Christian Death, Joy Division) and to the pioneers of Depressive Black Metal, then bands like Xasthur or Shining. NIBIRU is a deep experience, an evil and visceral representation that sets new rules for genres such as Black Metal, Sludge and Drone as we know them. On their journey to date, NIBIRU played prestigious stages such as Roadburn Festival as well as shows with acts alike Enisum, Oranssi Pazuzu, Uada, Suma, Nightstalker or Phantom Winter to name just a few.

Says the band: “We are very proud and happy to be part of the Argonauta family again. We think this is the right choice to better promote and enhance the band and our music.”

NIBIRU develop their musical aesthetics through the recitation of the Enochian keys, whose evocation aims at precise ritual effects, and the insertion of very intimate and disturbing verses in Italian. The band’s sources of extramusical influences are inspired by occultists and esotericists such as Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, Austin Osman Spare and Julius Evola, but also psychiatric essays, a deep inner illness and a peculiar cult for the actor Klaus Kinski.

While staying true to their creative method of recording live albums, NIBIRU invite the listener to be part of their ritual. NIBIRU is a mental and apocalyptic journey of visionary magic, elemental prophecies and esoteric superomism. Tribal percussions, evocative mantras and hypnotic drones merge into a completely new interpretation of Black and Doom Metal, while psychedelic tapestries draw a fascinating and idiosyncratic art. The shrill and inhuman voice of Ardat drags us into a kingdom of mystical abandonment and possession. NIBIRU is a ritual, a heavily deep, disturbing and wild but yet atmospheric ride on every level – of your soul, spirit and body.

After their latest album, Salbrox, mastered by Audiosiege ( Sunn O))), Mantar, Converge & many more ) and released with Ritual Productions last year, the Fall of 2020 will see NIBIRU return with their sixth record on Argonauta Records. Watch out for many more details and sounds to follow in the weeks ahead!

NIBIRU is:
Ardat – guitars, percussions and vocals
RI – bass, drone and synthesizers
L.C.s Chertan – drums

www.facebook.com/nibiruritual
www.nibiruritual.com
www.argonautarecords.com

Nibiru, “Nanta” official video