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
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
Posted in Reviews on January 6th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 6th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
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)
– 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
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 3rd, 2020 by JJ Koczan
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 atTHIS 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
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
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
I am woefully unqualified to talk about the occult, or about “alternative” spirituality (or spirituality at all, I guess), dark magic, or any of that kind of thing. I just never got there. I am far too mundane in my belief system. When I might otherwise have been reading Aleister Crowley and getting my beginner’s class in expanding my mind into the grim ether of our dimension, I was probably too busy getting drunk by myself and writing bad poetry. Not that the two necessarily need to be mutually exclusive, but in my case they seem to have been.
No doubt it’s my loss. I only bring it up because that sense of ritual, of reading dried-page books with symbols on them by candlelight, that spirit of invocation pervades everything Italian trio Nibiru does. It is writ large throughout their new album, Salbrox (review here), which was released in May as their first outing for Ritual Productions — rarely are a band and label more made for each other — as the follow-up to 2017’s Qaal Babalon (review here) on Argonauta. It is the Torino group’s fifth full-length overall, and at an encompassing 64 minutes long, it shows they’ve long since wormed their way into dark arts mastery. A bleak, psychological psychedelia pervades the wash of effects and course narration at the outset, but it’s in the repetition and the hypnotic effect thereof on the listener, as well as in the abyssal barks of the vocals, that Nibiru seem to dive ever deeper into their own spirit.
And it is very much an inward journey, even as much as it’s an outward sonic exploration on Salbrox. To listen to a song like “Exarp” or “Nanta,” for which they’re premiering a new video below, Nibiru seem to be challenging themselves as much as their listenership, crafting material that sounds excruciating to perform no less than it’s hard on the ear. The abrasive feedback laid overtop the roll of “Nanta” undercuts the notion of accessibility to its groove, and even that march seems to be directed permanently downward into some chaos waiting to be harvested.
Do they get to those depths of madness by the time 13-minute closer “Rziorn” is done? You know, the thing about endless pits of despair is they just kind of keep going, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Nibiru manage to push even further their next time out, but as “Nanta” shows, there’s plenty of insanity to be had. And not to shift back to real-world concerns or anything, but if you’re sensitive to flashing lights, you might want to tread carefully through the video, as both the performance footage and the handsy-torture-chamber scenes have some of that going on. Just fair warning.
And should you want to try your hand at some self-obliteration — now that I understand — I’ve included the full stream of Salbrox below, courtesy of Ritual Productions‘ Bandcamp. Dig in if you’re feeling like you need a litmus test for psyche destruction. Which we all do, frankly.
With love:
Nibiru, “Nanta” official video
‘NANTA’ taken from the Nibiru album ‘Salbrox’, out on Ritual Productions. Video directed by Marco Testa. ‘Salbrox’ available on LP/CD/DL at Ritual Productions.
Conceptually and spiritually, Salbrox is inspired by the continuous re-adjustment between disharmony and balance. Salbrox aims, via mysterious and enigmatic practices that reflect an ouroboros quality of death and rebirth, to explore the transmutation and regeneration of the human being that occurs at every level – spirit, soul and corporeality.
In turn, the alchemical practice of ‘Solve et Coagula’ – meaning to dissolve and coagulate – is the foundation of Salbrox. This ethos points towards the liberation of the self from impurities and the destruction of the Ego, bringing forth an alternative awareness and synthesis of the self. The rite is thus a magick process that follows the key principles of alchemy, merging deep, ancestral knowledge into sound voyages that awaken the darkest and most hidden chords of consciousness.
More computer bullshit this morning. I lost about 45 minutes because my graphics driver and Windows 10 apparently hate each other and before I could disable the former, the machine decided the best it could do for me was to load a blank screen. Hard to find the Pelican record on my desktop when I can’t see my desktop. The Patient Mrs. woke up while I was trying to fix it and suggested HDMIing it to the tv. When I did that, it didn’t project as was hoped, but the display came on — because go figure — and I was able to shut off the driver, the only real advantage of which is it lets me use the night light feature so it’s easier on my eyes. That’s nice, but I’d rather have the laptop function. Not really working on a level of “give me soft red light or give me death!” at this point. I may yet get there in my life.
Today’s the last day of this beast, wrapping up the last of the 60 reviews, and I’m already in the hole for the better part of an hour thanks to this technical issue, the second of the week. Been an adventure, this one. Let’s close it out.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Pelican, Nighttime Stories
Split into two LPs each with its own three-minute mood-setter — those being “WST” and “It Stared at Me,” respectively — Pelican‘s Nighttime Stories (on Southern Lord) carries the foreboding sensibility of its title into an aggressive push throughout the album, which deals from the outset with the pain of loss. The lead single “Midnight and Mescaline” represents this well in directly following “WST,” with shades of more extreme sounds in the sharp-turning guitar interplay and tense drums, but it carries through the blastbeats of “Abyssal Plain” and the bombastic crashes of presumed side B closer “Cold Hope” as well, which flow via a last tonal wash toward the melancholy “It Stared at Me” and the even-more-aggro title-track, the consuming “Arteries of Blacktop” and the eight-minute “Full Moon, Black Water,” which offers a build of maddening chug — a Pelican hallmark — before resolving in melodic serenity, moving, perhaps, forward with and through its grief. It’s been six years since Pelican‘s last LP, Forever Becoming (review here), and they’ve responded to that time differential with the hardest-hitting record they’ve ever done.
Though the peaceful beginning of 13-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “The Heavy Seed,” for which the five-song album is named, reminds of Swan Valley Heights‘ Munich compatriots in Colour Haze, the ultimate impression the band make on their Fuzzorama Records debut and second album overall behind a 2016 self-titled (review here) is more varied in its execution, with cuts like “Vaporizer Woman” and the centerpiece “Take a Swim in God’s Washing Machine” manifesting ebbs and flows and rolling out a fuzzy largesse to lead into dream-toned ethereality and layered vocals that immediately call to mind Elephant Tree. There’s a propensity for jamming, but they’re not a jam band, and seem always to have a direction in mind. That’s true even on the three-minute instrumental “My First Knife Fight,” which unfurls around a nod riff and simple drum progression to bridge into closer “Teeth and Waves,” a bookend to The Heavy Seed‘s title-track that revives that initial grace and uses it as a stepping stone for the crunch to come. It’s a balance that works and should be well received.
Released in the wee hours of 2019, Mark Deutrom‘s The Blue Bird marks the first new solo release from the prolific Austin-based songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist through Season of Mist, and it’s a 50-minute run of genre-spanning outsider art, bringing ’70s folk vibes to the weepy guitar echoes of “Radiant Gravity” right before “O Ye of Little Faith” dooms out for six of its seven minutes and “Our Revels Now Are Ended” basks in 77 seconds of experimentalist winding guitar. It goes like that. Vocals are intermittent enough to not necessarily be expected, but not entirely absent through the midsection of “Hell is a City,” “Somnambulist” and “Maximum Hemingway,” and if there’s traditionalism at play anywhere, it might be in “They Have Won” and “The Happiness Machine,” which, toward the back end of the album, bring a sax-laden melancholy vibe and a straightforward heavy rock feel, respectively, ahead of the closer “Nothing out There,” which ties them together, somehow accounting for the 1:34 “On Fathers Day” as well in its sweetness. Don’t go into The Blue Bird asking it to make sense on any level other than its own and you should be fine. It’s not a minor undertaking at 50 minutes, and not without its indulgences, but even the briefest of pieces helps develop the character of the whole, which of course is essential to any good story.
Austin bringers of hard-boogie Greenbeard reportedly issued the three-song Onward, Pillager as a precursor to their next full-length — even the name hints toward it being something of a stopgap — but its tracks stand well on their own, whether it’s the keyboard-laced “Contact High II,” which is presumably a sequel to another track on the forthcoming record, or the chunkier roll of “WCCQ” and the catchy finisher “Kill to Love Yourself,” with its overlaid guitar solo adding to a dramatic ending. It hasn’t been that long since 2017’s Lödarödböl (review here), but clearly these guys are committed to moving forward in neo-stoner rock fashion, and their emergence as songwriters is highlighted particularly throughout “WCCQ” and “Kill to Love Yourself,” while “Contact High II” is more of an intro or a would-be interlude on the full-length. It may only be pieces of a larger, to-be-revealed picture, but Onward, Pillager shows three different sides of what Greenbeard have on offer, and the promise of more to come is one that will hopefully be kept sooner rather than later.
Each of the three songs on Mount Soma‘s densely-weighted, live-recorded self-released Nirodha EP makes some mention of suffering in its lyrics, and indeed, that seems to be the theme drawing together “Dark Sun Destroyer” (7:40), “Emerge the Wolf” (5:50) and “Resurfacing” (9:14): a quest for transcendence perhaps in part due to the volume of the music and the act itself of creating it. Whatever gets them there, the trajectory of Nirodha is such that by the time they hit into the YOB-style galloping toward the end of “Resurfacing,” the gruff shouts of “rebirth!” feel more celebratory than ambitious. Based in Dublin, the four-piece bring a fair sense of space to their otherwise crush-minded approach, and though the EP is rough — it is their second short release following 2016’s Origins — they seem to have found a way to tie together outer and inner cosmos with an earthbound sense of gravity and heft, and with the more intense shove of “Emerge the Wolf” between the two longer tracks, they prove themselves capable of bringing a noisy charge amid all that roar and crash. They did the first EP live as well. I wonder if they’d do the same for a full-length.
One might get lost in the unmanageable 64-minute wash of Nibiru‘s fifth full-length (first for Ritual Productions), Salbrox, but the opaque nature of the proceedings is part of the point. The Italian ritualists bring forth a chaotic depth of noise and harsh semi-spoken rasps of vocals reportedly in the Enochian language, and from 14-minute opener “EHNB” — also the longest track (immediate points) — through the morass that follows in “Exarp,” “Hcoma,” “Nanta” and so on, the album is a willful slog that challenges the listener on nearly every level. This is par for the course for Nibiru, whose last outing was 2017’s Qaal Babalon (review here), and they seem to revel in the slow-churning gruel of their distortion, turning from it only to break to minimalism in the second half of the album with “Abalpt” and “Bitom” before 13-minute closer “Rziorn” storms in like a tsunami of spiritually desolate plunge. It is vicious and difficult to hear, and again, that is exactly what it’s intended to be.
The gift of Cable was to take typically raw Northeastern disaffection and channel it into a noise rock that wasn’t quite as post-this-or-that as Isis, but still had a cerebral edge that more primitive fare lacked. They were methodical, and 10 years after their last record, the Hartford, Connecticut, outfit return with the nine-song/30-minute Take the Stairs to Hell (on Translation Loss), which brings them back into the modern sphere with a sound that is no less relevant than it was bouncing between This Dark Reign, Hydra Head and Translation Loss between 2001 and 2004. They were underrated then and may continue to be now, but the combination of melody and bite in “Black Medicine” and the gutty crunch of “Eyes Rolled Back,” the post-Southern heavy of the title-track and the lumbering pummel of “Rivers of Old” before it remind of how much of a standout Cable was in the past, reinforcing that not only were they ahead of their time then, but that they still have plenty to offer going forward. They may continue to be underrated as they always were, but their return is significant and welcome.
Originally released in 2003, the self-titled debut from Lima, Peru’s Reino Ermitaño was a beacon and landmark in Latin American doom, with a sound derived from the genre’s traditions — Sabbath, Trouble, etc. — and melded with not only Spanish-language lyrics, but elements of South American folk and stylizations. Reissued on vinyl some 16 years later, it maintains its power through the outside-time level of its craft, sliding into that unplaceable realm of doom that could be from any point from about 1985 onward, while the melodies in the guitar of Henry Guevara and the vocals of Tania Duarte hold sway over the central groove of bassist Marcos Coifman and drummer Julio “Ñaka” Almeida. Those who were turned onto the band at the time will likely know they’ve released five LPs to-date, with the latest one from 2014, but the Necio Records version marks the first time the debut has been pressed to vinyl, and so is of extra interest apart from the standard putting-it-out-there-again reissue. Collectors and a new generation of doomers alike would be well advised on an educational level, and of course the appeal of the album itself far exceeds that.
Though one hails from Helsinki, Finland, and the other from Adelaide, Australia, Cardinals Folly and Lucifer’s Fall could hardly be better suited to share the six-song Cruz Del Sur split LP that they do, which checks in at 35 minutes of trad doom riffing and dirtier fare. The former is provided by Cardinals Folly, who bring a Reverend Bizarre-style stateliness to “Spiritual North” and “Walvater Proclaimed!” before betraying their extreme metal roots on “Sworn Through Odin’s and Satan’s Blood,” while the Oz contingent throw down Saint Vitus-esque punk-born fuckall through “Die Witch Die,” the crawling “Call of the Wild” and the particularly brash and speedier “The Gates of Hell.” The uniting thread of course is homage to doom itself, but each band brings enough of their own take to complement each other without either contradicting or making one or the other of them feel redundant, and rather, the split works out to be a rampaging, deeply-drunk, pagan-feeling celebration of what doom is and how it has been internalized by each of these groups. Doom over the world? Yeah, something like that.
Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Temple of the Fuzz Witch
A strong current of Electric Wizard runs through the self-titled debut full-length from Detroit’s Temple of the Fuzz Witch (on Seeing Red Records), but even to that, the outfit led by guitarist/vocalist Noah Bruner bring a nascent measure of individuality, droning into and through “Death Hails” after opening with “Bathsheba” and ahead of unveiling a harmonized vocal on “The Glowing of Satan” that suits the low end distortion surprisingly well. They continue to offer surprises throughout, whether it’s the spaciousness of centerpiece “329” and “Infidel,” which follows, or the offsetting of minimalism and crush on “The Fuzz Witch” and the creeper noise in the ending of “Servants of the Sun,” and though there are certainly familiar elements at play, Temple of the Fuzz Witch come across with an intent to take what’s been done before and make it theirs. In that regard, they would seem to be on the right track, and in their 41 minutes, they find footing in a murky aesthetic and are able to convey a sense of songwriting without sounding heavy-handed. There’s nothing else I’d ask of their first album.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 15th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
I feel like the conjoined logos of the tour poster tell a lot of the story here. Tons and Deadsmoke might be considered outliers of the packed Heavy Psych Sounds label roster, but they definitely have some commonality between them. Namely, they crush. Deadsmoke might be the nastiest band on the imprint, and Tons aren’t far behind in that regard, so yeah, pairing them up for a tour makes sense in that they’ll be able to share gear if they want and just absolutely break everything that belongs to everybody that way. Both bands will feature at all three nights of the road-show Heavy Psych Sounds fest in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands alongside Black Rainbows and others, and they’ll stomp their way as well through their native Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Looks like a heavy time. Details from the PR wire:
DEADSMOKE AND TONS TEAM UP FOR EUROPEAN TOUR THIS MARCH!
Down-tuned monolithic guitar riffs scraping the soil down to the core of the earth; slow, hypnotic and dissonant cadences recall the eternal need for isolation and the atavistic fear of nothingness. Your soul will be burned, and smoke is what remains after a memorable show on this exciting tour: HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS RECORDS & BOOKING is proud to get heavy weights DEADSMOKE on the road this March! Kicking off on March 20th in Italy with dates in Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, the Italian power Doom and Sludge foursome has teamed up with no one less than label mates, Turin-based Doom masters TONS.
„Tons and Deadsmoke can’t wait to hit the road again, this time together as a monolithic combo touring the most noisy smoky buried venues of Europe and taking their deafening spaghetti Doom to the big audience. A blaspheme haze of corrosion is flowing up north, spreading curses, illness and tons of smoke.“ the bands are excited to hit the road together soon.
The atmosphere around both groups is not only so devilish, mesmerizing and noisey, but will take the entire crowd on a ride through the heaviest soundwalls in psychedelic doom landscapes. Make sure to catch this heavy touring package live at the following dates this March:
22.02.19 UK London | HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ** 23.02.19 BE Brussel | HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ** 24.02.19 NL Deventer | HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST ** 20.03.19 IT Bologna | Freakout Club ** 21.03.19 IT Torino | Blah Blah ** 22.03.19 CH Kreuzlingen | Horst Klub 23.03.19 DE Mannheim | 7er Club 24.03.19 NL Utrecht | Db’s 26.03.19 DE Berlin | Toast Hawaii 27.03.19 DE Leipzig | Zoro 28.03.19 DE Dresden | Chemiefabrik 29.03.19 AT Salzburg | Rockhouse 30.03.19 CH Basel | Hirscheneck ** Deadsmoke only
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.
there’s an almost latter-day Enslaved feel to parts, but ultimately the band are on their own trip.
