Swedish heavy psychedelic/progressive rockers Maha Sohona will release their third album, A Dark Place, next week (Nov. 21) as their first offering through Bonebag Records and the awaited follow-up to 2021’s Endless Searcher (review here). That album was the band’s first since a 2014 self-titled debut and was well-received across the international heavy underground for its depth of tone and melodic, heavy psych-style warmth. A Dark Place, then, represents the quickest turnaround to-date from the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Johan Bernhardtson, bassist Thomas Hedlund and drummer Erik Andersson, in addition to being a moment of arrival stylistically and in terms of the songs themselves. It is both the clearest and least reliant on effects they’ve yet sounded, and the most confident they’ve yet been in their stylistic purpose. The opening track, “Liquid Motion Medicine,” premieres below.

In representing A Dark Place, it offers sprawl, and Maha Sohona aren’t shy about filling the reaches they create. This happens in the shifting tempos and lumber of the opener, and most starkly perhaps in the closing pair of “Ostera” and the 10-and-a-half-minute finale “The Long Way Home,” which emphasize direct, effective loud/quiet tradeoffs rather than gradual and linear builds. What you get is that “Ostera” broods and explores a subdued, repetitive march with flourish here and there until at 4:35 someone throws Erik Andersson‘s drums down the stairs and Johan Bernhardtson‘s guitar and Thomas Hedlund‘s bass abandon their intimate exploration for full tonal and spacious nod. The progression there is most post-metallic, more martial somehow, and more doomed than in “The Long Way Home,” but pull itself back down to finish quietly ahead of the closer’s own procession.

Bernhardtson‘s vocals are more of a focal point (yes, to answer your question, I did originally type “vocal point” there; thanks for reading) for the recording certainly than they were in Endless Searcher, such that as they make their way into “The Long Way Home” — home is where the Heavy is, as my grandmother always said — the verses engage with emotion and melody, are able to turn with the mood and Alice in Chains lean in the guitar circa four minutes in, but still well away from the actual takeoff. Like much of A Dark Place, “The Long Way Home” feels born of a jam, and I’m not going to say it’s not without its element of meander, but that makes it all the more sweeping when at 7:44 the guitar clicks into the heavier nod that pays the song off, slower than “Ostera” before, still committed to melody, and cognizant of structure in the bookending quiet stretch that caps the album.

But in many situations, it’s languidity that holds sway, and that’s true of second cut “Visions,” as well as the stays-quiet, almost pop-ish “Uddh” that closes side A, the shortest inclusion by far at four minutes. Different songs working toward different goals, united in tone and intermittently cosmic bent. But there’s a plan at work throughout A Dark Place, and “Uddh” remains immersive in its alt-rock wander, and in starting side B, “Voyagers” is no less rich melodically on its way to one of the record’s heaviest stretches. In this way, Maha Sohona bring ambience into the core of their purpose, since no matter what a given song is doing at the time, they don’t depart from the sense of digging in. “Liquid Motion Medicine,” almost industrial-sounding in its midsection crunch (but for the soaring vocals), is vibrant in its heft, given presence through the dry vocal treatment, and they’ve never sounded heavier or more progressive than they do on the album that follows.

A crucial third album that very clearly has learned lessons from its predecessors, A Dark Place feels like the work of a band who’ve formed an idea of who they are musically, and it brings that to life with the promise of continued growth to come. We as listeners should be so lucky.

“Liquid Motion Medicine” premieres below. Thanks for reading and thanks to the band for letting me host the song.

Maha Sohona, “Liquid Motion Medicine” track premiere

Preorder link: https://bonebagrecords.com/collections/maha-sohona

Across six immersive tracks, A Dark Place channels northern melancholy, desert heaviness, and celestial calm into a sonic journey that will resonate with fans of Elder, Tool, and Alice In Chains. The record finds Maha Sohona expanding their signature blend of stoner, space rock, and heavy psych into bold new territories, merging crushing riffs with hypnotic grooves and vast melodic horizons.

From the northern lights of Umeå, Sweden, Maha Sohona crafts heavy, organic rock laced with psychedelic undertones and cinematic depth and ‘Liquid Motion Medicine’ encapsulates this evolution. A track both weighty and refined, drenched in cosmic atmosphere and guided by haunting clarity. It marks a new chapter for the Umeå-based trio, whose sound continues to bridge the earthly and the otherworldly.

Known for their dynamic live performances and atmospheric soundscapes, the trio blurs the line between fuzz-driven power and meditative calm. Originally formed in 2012, their self-titled debut was released in 2014 (Nasoni Records) and quietly helped them build a global cult following – particularly following the release of the song ‘Asteroids’, which to date has amassed over half a million Spotify streams.

After a seven-year hiatus, they resurfaced in 2021 with Endless Searcher (Made Of Stone Recordings), which was celebrated for its melodic depth and expansive scope. Since then, the band has completed two European tours, a Greek tour, and made appearances at major festivals including Krökbacken (Sweden) and DesertFest (London).

Pre-order here: https://bonebagrecords.com/collections/maha-sohona

A Dark Place
1. Liquid Motion Medicine 8:26
2. Visions 9:32
3. Uddh 4:09
4. Voyagers 7:49
5. Ostera 8:38
6. The Long Way Home 10:33

Maha Sohona:
Guitar, Vocals: Johan Bernhardtson
Bass: Thomas Hedlund
Drums: Erik Andersson

Maha Sohona, A Dark Place (2025)

Maha Sohona on Bandcamp

Maha Sohona on Instagram

Maha Sohona on Facebook

Bonebag Records website

Bonebag Records on Instagram

Bonebag Records on Facebook

I’ve been looking forward to the announcement of the next Maha Sohona LP for a bit, as the band have been dropping hints toward its release throughout much of this year, and last week, they put out word of signing with fellow Swedes Bonebag Records to put it out. Nov. 21 is the release date for A Dark Place, which will be the heavy psych trio’s righteous 2021 LP, Endless Searcher (review here), and the first single from it is called “Visions.” You’ll find its nine-and-a-half-minute sprawl at the bottom of this post, and it just might be enough to make your day better. If you’re waiting for the heavy part, stick around, it’s coming.

The good news here is that you only have to wait like a month for A Dark Place to come out. The bad news is that’s still a month away. I’ll hope to have more to come on the record before we get there, but there’s the announcement and the song, from socials and Bandcamp:

Umeå, Sweden’s Maha Sohona returns with A Dark Place, a hypnotic journey where heavy, organic riffs collide with airy, cinematic melodies. Released via Bonebag Records, the album captures a live-in-the-room energy—warm, dynamic, and deeply human. Lyrically and thematically, A Dark Place explores solitude, cycles of darkness and light, and the pull between earthly weight and cosmic escape. Standout tracks “Visions”, “Ostera”, and “The Long Way Home” showcase the band’s range, from cathedral-sized fuzz walls to slow-burning, instrumental passages.

We are very proud to present ”Visions”, the first single of the upcoming album A Dark Place due for release the 21st of November.

Pre-orders are also open for A Dark Place, there’s 2 vinyl variants to choose from. The Bubble Vision Edition and the Marble Voyager Edition. Hurry up, they are going very fast.

A Dark Place
1. Liquid Motion Medicine
2. Visions
3. Uddh
4. Voyagers
5. Ostera
6. The Long Way Home

Maha Sohona:
Guitar, Vocals: Johan Bernhardtson
Bass: Thomas Hedlund
Drums: Erik Andersson

https://mahasohona.bandcamp.com/
https://instagram.com/mahasohonaband
https://facebook.com/mahasohonaband

https://bonebagrecords.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bonebagrecords/
https://www.facebook.com/bonebagrecords/

Maha Sohona, A Dark Place (2025)

Day two. Normally this is time for hubristic gibberish about how easy the QR will be, the overconfidence of one whose trees rarely appear as forests. But we persist anyhow, and today looks pretty good from where I’m sitting now, so despite the ‘Day 2 on a Monday’ weirdness, which I’m pretty sure makes no one other than myself even raise an eyebrow, things are rolling and one hopes will continue to be fluid. I wouldn’t say Day 1 came together easily, since it took me like two and a half days to get done, but neither was out unpleasant. Hoping for more of the same here, plus efficiency.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Queens of the Stone Age, Alive in the Catacombs

Something of an identity crisis in Queens of the Stone Age perhaps that sees the long-running highest commercial export of desert rock shift from the cloying pop of their last two albums to a comparatively stripped down live recording in — you guessed it — catacombs, where apparently the acoustics are pretty sweet. Anybody remember when Tenacious D went into ‘the cave’ on the Tribute EP? No? Didn’t think so. Frontman Josh Homme, who carries the minimal arrangements on vocals largely with ease, and his ever-ace band filmed the whole thing; it’s all sepia, all very artsy, and they do “Kalopsia” and dip back 20 years to finish with “I Never Came” after “Suture Up Your Future,” which is the second inclusion by then from 2007’s Era Vulgaris. All told it’s five songs and 27 minutes, and whether you hear it as a cringe hyperindulgence of unaware self-parody or as an expression of human artistry in organic form surrounded by memento mori probably depends on how deep you run with the band. But they’re not hurting anybody either way.

Queens of the Stone Age website

Matador Records website

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Breath, Brahman

Between recording and then remixing/remastering their 2021 debut Primeval Transmissions (review here) and signing to Argonauta Records, Portland meditative duo Breath, comprised of Ian Caton and Steven O’Kelly, expanded the lineup with Lauren Hatch on keys and their second album, Brahman, brings Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain) into the fold on guitar as well as helming the recording. The sense across the eight songs/42 minutes is still of exploring the reaches of consciousness, very post-Om in the foundational basslines and dry vocals, but having Wrong rip out a solo in each break of “Awen” sure doesn’t hurt, and hearing the full band come together around the culmination of “Hy-Brasil,” keys, guitar, bass, drums all-in tonally, is emblematic of their expanding horizons. As for those, “Sages” pushes toward its own vision of psych rock in conversation with the opener, and “Cedars of Lebanon” demonstrates malleability and balance that one hopes portend more to come as the band continues to grow and gel.

Breath Linktr.ee

Argonauta Records website

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Johan Langquist The Castle, Johan Langquist The Castle

Kind of an awkward moniker grammatically for the solo-band fronted by original/once-again/maybe-erstwhile Candlemass vocalist Johan Langquist. Is it possessive? Is he The Castle? I don’t quite understand, but from the operatic complement of Emelie Lindquist‘s backing vocals on opener “Eye of Death” through the litany of compiled singles Johan Langquist The Castle dropped over the course of 2024, there’s no mistaking the classic nature of the doom. “Castle of My Dreams” flows keyboardier on balance, while “Where Are the Heroes” gives riffers shelter in its chug, while “Raw Energy” and “Revolution” toy with the balance between the two sides, with “Freedom” as a classic-metal epic and “Bird of Sadness” as the comedown epilogue. Langquist, absent decades between fronting the first Candlemass LP in 1986 and rejoining the band circa 2011, would seem to be making up for lost time, and the ideas he’s exploring here warrant the investigation. I’m curious where this leads, which I think I’m supposed to be, so right on.

Johan Langquist The Castle on Instagram

I Hate Records website

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Maliciouz, Tortoise

From Joshua Tree, California, Maliciouz is the solo-outfit of Michael Muckow, who handles guitar, bass and drums for the molasses-thick instrumentalist proceedings. Tortoise arrives beating you over the head with its tone and metaphor alike; eight songs and 58 minutes of lumbering density wrought with dug-in purpose, harnessing heaviness-of-place as riffs and often melancholic drone metal crash. It’s an art project, but without pretense of being anything other than it is, and Muckow — who makes a point of noting his age (67) in the press material — composes for flow and immersion as each slow march gives way to the next, culminating in the semi-acoustic “The End,” which is no less on-the-nose than calling the album Tortoise to start with. No grand reflections, no sweeping statement. Tortoise lets the riffs do the talking and they say plenty about the grit and expanse Muckow is trying to conjure. Be careful out there. He makes it easy to get lost.

Maliciouz on Bandcamp

Maliciouz on Instagram

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Steve Von Till, Alone in a World of Wounds

The former co-guitarist/vocalist of Neurosis has come a long way since his guy-and-guitar beginnings as a solo artist, and Alone in a World of Wounds reaps the textural fruit of Steve Von Till‘s willful artistic progression in a piece like the leadoff “The Corpse Road” or “Distance,” which caps side A fluidly with the only use of drums on the record, reminiscent of The Keening‘s awareness of sonic weight and atmospheric sidestep. The cello, synth and field recordings build out what would be minimalist arrangements without them and remain early-morning quiet, the piano on the spoken-word-topped “The Dawning of the Day (Insomnia)” and flirtations with lushness on “Horizons Undone” softly shaping the album’s world with the electronics of “Old Bent Pine” ahead of the guitar-based “River of No Return,” which closes with what feels like an updated take on Von Till‘s earlier woodsfolk craft, reminding that ‘heavy’ is just as much existential as it is aural.

Steve Von Till website

Neurot Recordings store

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Mrs Frighthouse, Solitude Over Control

Solitude Over Control is as much a confrontation as an album, and that’s very clearly the intention behind Glasgow’s Mrs Frighthouse for their Lay Bare-issued debut LP, Solitude Over Control. Its 11 songs foster a bleak gamut of industrial sounds, portraying dark and inflicted sexual violence as part of the band’s expression. Slaying rapists, then, and fair enough. Intertwining layers of vocals and experimentalist pieces like “Seagulls (Part 1)” give an avant-garde air to the crush of “DIY Exorcism” and the lurching, abrasive finish of “White Plaster Roses,” soprano vocals and electronic noise externalizing the unsettled in a way that can only really be thought of as ‘extreme’ in a musical sense. “My body has never been mine,” confess the lyrics of “Our Culture Without Autonomy” with horror-style keyboard behind them; there’s a show being put on here, but it’s visceral just the same, and the later “My Body is a Crime Scene” turns the accusation direct: “My body is a crime scene/He did this to me/My body is a crime scene/You did this to me” in a moment that lands powerfully unless you’re a fucking sociopath.

Mrs Frighthouse Linktr.ee

Lay Bare Recordings website

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Droid & I Am Low, Eroded Forms/Inertia

A joint release between Majestic Mountain and Copper Feast Records, Eroded Forms/Inertia presents as a double-EP split release between Melbourne, Australia, melodic heavy post-metallic rockers Droid, who dare toward aggression on “Reverence” and the sludgier shouts of “Ruin” after leading off with “Khaki” without giving away the plot such that the blastbeats of “Resonance” still hit as a surprise, and Sweden’s I Am Low, who answer the fullness of tone with careening on “Sweet M16” before the grunge melody of “Greed” makes that song a highlight, “Waves” flows with less emotional baggage and a subtle hook, and “Inertia” wraps as a landing point with duly vibrant crash. Grunge and a hairy kind of fuzz are shared between the bands, but each has their own purpose. I don’t know if it’s a release of convenience to make it a split, but it makes for an engaging showcase, and if you’ve never come across either of them, the best arguments for digging in are right there in the songs.

Droid Linktr.ee

I Am Low on Bandcamp

Copper Feast Records website

Majestic Mountain Records store

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Tar Pit, Scrying the Angel Gate

Portland five-piece doomly flamekeepers Tar Pit begin their second full-length (on Transylvanian) with the 10-minute three-parter “Dagon, Dark Lord Dwelling Beneath,” the longest inclusion (immediate points) at 10:15 and bookended with the title-cut at the record’s end. Between, from the more rocking aspects of “Coven Vespers” to the downtrodden roll of “Blessed King of Longing,” the five-piece remind of doom at the turn of the century, when ‘traditionalism’ in doom metal was something of a defiance against modernity instead of an aesthetic unto itself. More than 20 years, The Gates of Slumber, Reverend Bizarre, and what was then the Church of True Doom would seem to have evolved into Tar Pit‘s Eldritch Doom Syndicate, and that’s nothing to complain about as “Blue Light Cemetery” accounts for Candlemass and Cathedral after the dim-blues of “Jubilee” secures the band’s place in the heavy morose. If you were just getting into doom, this kind of thing might make you want to start a band, and yes, that’s a compliment.

Tar Pit website

Transylvanian Recordings on Bandcamp

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GRGL, Horror-Bloated Ouroboros

Dirt-coated riffing leads the way on GRGL‘s Horror-Bloated Ouroboros six-song EP, as Jake‘s guitar, Hal‘s bass and Nick‘s drumming in the first-names-only Salt Lake City trio align around a chug in the opening “Horror-Bloated Ouroboros (An Overview),” that, despite the dry-throated barks that top it, remains among the more accessible moments of the churning sludge-doom outfit’s 23-minute outing. To wit, “Born Again” and the even more gurgley (hey wait a minute!) “My Skeleton” takes roughly the same elemental formula and slows it the frick down, thereby becoming immediately more tortured. The overarching impression is unipolar — raw, heavy, miserable — and the vocals are part of that, but the dynamic between those first two songs is answered for in the uptick of pace that arrives with “My Pie Hole” and the angularity of the shorter instrumental “Absorption/Secretion,” while the plodding reprise “Born Again (Again)” closes so as to make sure everybody ultimately gets where they need to be, i.e., hammered into the ground. Eat dust shit sludge. Hard to get away from thinking of this as the true sound of our times. Maybe it’s the title.

GRGL on Bandcamp

GRGL on Instagram

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Grusom, III

It’s a clear and classic style across Grusom‘s aptly-titled third album, III, which arrives some seven years after they were last heard from with 2018’s II (review here), the band who’ve become a low-key staple of the Kozmik Artifactz roster demonstrating in no uncertain terms what’s gotten them there. Vintage-heavy heads will find plenty to dig in the organ-laced flow of “Shadow Crawler,” “Hell Maker,” the later “Fatal Romance” and the more open finale “Mortal Desire,” and while “Le Voyage” has many of the same aspects at work, it shows the Danish six-piece as flexible enough in their approach to convey a range of emotions, ditto the wistful Graveyard-y “Memories” and the interlude “Euphoria,” making sure that among the places III might take a given listener, there’s nothing to remove them from the procession carried along by the band.

Grusom website

Kozmik Artifactz store

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Especially at the outset, the new single “Turs” from Swedish four-piece Skogskult gives a markedly sludgier impression than the rocking “Pakten,” a video for which premiered here back in February. Not a thing to hold against the band — having range, that is — but the slower tempo, air of disaffection and shift between screams and cleaner vocals are something of a departure from the uptempo shove of the earlier track. Oh no, a band doing more than one thing with riffs! Who will save us now?

If you said nobody, you got it. At the bottom of this post, you’ll find both videos for your perusal, with the newer one (that’s “Turs”; keep up) an out-in-the-woods chugger that ends like Blair Witch Project, highlighting some of the cultism discussed below and probably fair enough since it’s in the band’s name as well.

As to what the rest of their due-Dec.-5 self-titled Bonebag Records debut might hold, I have less of an idea now than I might’ve yesterday, and yeah, I like that. Here’s to continued complexity of idea and execution:

Nordic Doom Ascends: SKOGSKULT Unveil Occult-Drenched Video and Album on BONEBAG RECORDS

Skinwalkers, rituals, and mysterious gatherings… the Umeå-based quartet’s riff-filled debut arrives this December on Bonebag Records

Skogskult’s self-titled debut will be released on 5th December 2025 | Watch the video for ‘Turs’

Taking cues from classic doom bands like Sleep, Acid King, and Electric Wizard, as well as contemporary acts like Monolord and Telekinetic Yeti, Bonebag Records is thrilled to announce the debut album from rising stars, Skogskult.

Formed in 2022 in Umeå and featuring members of underground bands Från Mars, Scitalis, and Never Recover, the Swedish doom quartet mark their path toward the album with new single ‘Turs’. Produced by Cavern Deep and Bonebag Record’s own Max Malmer, ‘Turs’ is the second of three singles – following ‘Pakten’ earlier this year – that delves deep into Nordic mythology and arcane mystery. The track tells the story of beings rising from their slumber, bringing destruction as forests fall and mountains bleed. With Swedish lyrics and heavy, fuzz-driven guitars, ‘Turs’ continues to build the atmosphere that defines Skogskult’s sound.

Drawing on imagery of Skinwalkers, Norse burial rituals, and occult gatherings, Skogskult channel the dark traditions of doom and stoner rock into a fuzz-filled vision of darker days to come.

“I had the fortune of catching one of their first shows and signed them on the spot,” explains Malmer. “It was so great to see that there were young, local musicians getting into the stoner doom genre. Since discovering them we’ve produced an entire album together. Hopefully this new single will give everyone a sense of what they’re all about.”

Skogskult’s self-titled debut will be released on 5th December 2025 via Bonebag Records. Watch the video for ‘Turs’ here.

Tracklisting:
1. Lyktans Låga
2. Turs
3. Jag Ger Mig Av
4. Pakten
5. Sol
6. Snöblind

Skogskult:
Samuel Nordström – Guitar
Albin Kroon – Bass
Simon Rosengrim – Vocals
Alexander Söderlund – Drums

https://skogskult.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/skogskult/
https://www.facebook.com/p/Skogskult-100090515294538/

https://bonebagrecords.com/
https://www.instagram.com/bonebagrecords/
https://www.facebook.com/bonebagrecords/

Skogskult, “Turs” official video

Skogskult, “Pakten” official video

Swedish conceptualist atmospheric doomers Cavern Deep push deeper with their third full-length, Part III – The Bodiless, out this week through Majestic Mountain Records and their own Bonebag Records. The plot thread is somewhat obscure, which will happen when you get into cave-goth ambience and start weaving storylines and themes across successive releases. To wit, 2023’s Part II – Breach (review here) took the listener to depths only hinted at by the band’s 2021 self-titled debut (review here), so of course they begin by soaring with “The Bodiless” to draw the audience into the procession of these six tracks of slow-churning, consuming, claustrophobic darkness.

Marty Harvey, drummer/vocalist of Northern Irish crushers Slomatics, cuts through the low tonality of Cavern Deep‘s slog to guest on lead voice early in “The Bodiless,” thereby introducing the central character of the album, who seems to undergo a sort of transformative obliteration that, well, sounds pretty lovely if fraught in the making. Monsters of Lovecraftian proportion and purpose are met and overcome — “Queen Womb,” “Putrid Sentry” — but rebirth means death first. Intended as the final installment of what at some point in the last four years became a trilogy, Part III – The Bodiless feels every bit like the culmination it’s supposed to be, while at the same time demonstrating just how much Cavern Deep have carved an identity for themselves in its 38-minute span, whether that’s guitarist Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg and bassist Max Malmer (I think he’s a bass vocally as well) — I think maybe drummer Dennis Sjödin gets in on the action too — creating character and drama through the vocal arrangement of “Queen Womb,” or the solo topping the plodding culmination of the penultimate “Galaxies Collide.”

The keyboard of Johannes Behndig (Sarcophagus Now), who was a guest player on Part II and is now a member of the band, plays an accordingly larger role in setting the scope, as the backdrop for the Martin Ludl saxophone solo in “Mosktraumen” showcases, but if all the plunge and bleakness and slow-big-metal-gears-grinding of Part III – The Bodiless is leading to something — and, good news, it is — it’s to closer “Full Circle.” This not only represents the moment of rebirth for the record’s sans-body protagonist, but is a densely-weighted outbound march that underscores the grim psychedelic cast of Cavern Deep‘s brand of doom; ethereal like swirling smoke but poisonous to breathe. Granted they’ve been writing songs about monsters hiding in dark underground spaces for circa half a decade at this point, but Part III – The Bodiless does not overplay its hand in horror. It doesn’t need to.

Being able to tell a story in impressions is something else Cavern Deep have been working toward all along, but it’s been a strength from the first album on, and the then-trio-now-four-piece have always had a willful-seeming push toward individualism. They’re not just heavy, they’re their kind of heavy, and the difference is one of playing to genre or using elements thereof to shape something more your own. Cavern Deep continue to refine their songwriting processes in the latter methodology, and they’ve grown accordingly more spacious and broader in their reach for that. And no, I don’t just mean in terms of adding keys. The vocal arrangements are bolder and more confident here than they’ve ever been, and with two prior LP’s (plus other short releases, videos, etc.), Cavern Deep sound more sure of the plan they’re following than they ever have, and aspects of their sound that felt exploratory before feel internalized in this material. They’ve learned from what they’ve done up to now, in other words.

All of this ideal in terms of Cavern Deep realizing their project — the stated trilogy — even if it leaves one curious as to what whims they might follow next. Suitably enough, “Full Circle” ends the tale back where it started, with one archeologist and 49 miners headed below the surface to begin the whole cycle, as at the start of the self-titled. Literally and figuratively, Cavern Deep are a different band than they were when they made that first album, and if they are in fact leaving this storyline behind — plans can and do change — they do so with purpose and a sense of continued growth and artistic progression. This is why, whatever horrors might unfold from here, their trilogy as manifest is such a triumph.

Part III – The Bodiless streams in full below. Please enjoy:

Swedish doom/psych explorers Cavern Deep return with the final chapter of their epic concept album trilogy. Titled “Part III – The Bodiless”, the album is set for release on May 9, 2025 via Bonebag Records and Majestic Mountain Records, marking the conclusion of a story that has taken listeners on a dark and otherworldly journey since the band’s self-titled debut in 2021.

Formed in 2019 by members of Zonaria and Gudars Skymning, Cavern Deep has built a reputation for crafting captivating, atmospheric doom soundscapes, blending crushing heaviness with eerie psychedelia. Their debut album, released via Interstellar Smoke Records, introduced a unique storytelling approach that continued with “Part II – Breach”, a critically acclaimed release on their own Bonebag Records.

Now, with “Part III – The Bodiless”, Cavern Deep brings the saga to a dramatic and haunting close, pushing their sonic boundaries further into the abyss. The album is expected to deliver the band’s signature slow, hypnotic riffs and cavernous atmospheres, while weaving a final chapter that explores themes of transcendence, transformation, and the unknown. It features Marty Harvey from Slomatics as the vocalist of the title-track “The Bodiless”, and Martin Ludl on saxophone playing on the track “Moskstraumen.”

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The concept synopsis is as follows:

1. The Bodiless

The transformation is complete. It enters the ungodly realm through the pulse, now without physical form. A shimmering image of nerves, energy, and vibrant rage moves through starless space. The bodiless is greeted by the never-ending hordes of shapeless beings, awoken for the sole purpose of ending its journey. They will all perish.

2. Queen Womb

Traveling between nodes of passage, covering the vast distances of void, the queen rises. Its children disintegrated, now itself decaying. Facing the bodiless with the desperation of a grieving mother, it unleashes a spewing tidal wave of pure hatred. It is futile. The struggle is short. All that remains is an empty husk. A floating dead mass.

3. Putrid Sentry

Enter the looming watcher of the outer rims, the putrid one. Bestower of unfathomable grief. The commander of a million shapeless minions now gone. It spreads its dark, suffocating energy across the vastness, like a mighty bellow. It wants to consume all. The bodiless seeps into its veins like a lethal promise, soon rendering its deadly cloak pierced and useless, shattered throughout dead space.

4. Moskstraumen

The bodiless slowly drifts into the maw of the maelstrom. Almost depleted. Nearly spent. Soon its purpose is fulfilled. This is the cradle of prime evil. As the ancient swirling mass begins to gnaw away at every ethereal nerve ending of the bodiless, its final offering is released in its full glory: the last light. Burning. Consuming. The grip on the entire realm withers away as the great whirlpool bellows in dying agony.

5. Galaxies Collide

As oozing wounds of ungodly matter bleed out and fade, space itself starts to crumble. Violently colliding with itself, tearing rifts in the very fabric of existence. The bodiless is pulled towards the dead black center of it all. The eye of the storm. Drifting to sleep. In peace. Flickering like a dying lantern.

6. Full Circle

The fail-safe. The curse. The testament. The bodiless is sucked into the deep at the center of the chaotic collapsing reality surrounding it. It is trying to draw breath. It is becoming. Images are rushing back like an unstoppable flood. There is flesh… One archaeologist and 49 brave men stand at the gates, staring down into the bowels of the mountain. It is time to begin the descent.

Line-up:
Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg – Guitars & Vocals
Max Malmer – Bass & Vocals
Dennis Sjödin – Drums & Backup Vocals
Johannes Behndig – Keys

Cavern Deep on Facebook

Cavern Deep on Instagram

Cavern Deep on Bandcamp

Cavern Deep website

Majestic Mountain Records store

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Bonebag Records on Facebook

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Bonebag Records website

An exact date and the title remain elusive, but at some relevant point in the coming however long, Umeå, Sweden’s Skogskult will make their full-length debut through Bonebag Records. “Pakten,” as you can read under the video premiering below, is one of a trilogy of singles advancing the record, which was produced by Max Malmer, who also plays in narrative doomers Cavern Deep and runs the label. If you decide to take on the video, and I hope you do, you’ll find a first impression in spacious but raw tonality, Samuel Nordström’s standalone guitar echoing out with plenty of room for the bass to sneak in before the actual crash. They’re riffing soon enough, mid-paced, sludgy swing, Alexander Söderlund‘s drums ready when the breakout comes to Priest riffage and bassy chug from Albin Kroon.

The story grows more complex with the arrival of Simon Rosengrim‘s vocals. The standalone frontman has plenty of echo/reverb on his voice, but is nonetheless dry-throated in style, a singer pushing through above the tongue to get a kind of harsher, Lemmy-ish edge of roughness. It’s not quite a shout — he’s singing, but singing out. Backed with cleaner and at least in this case water-treated vocals by Kroon in the chorus, Rosengrim lends a punkish root to the biker chug of “Pakten” riff, hinting toward proto-metal, but residing in a niche that lets the band explore ideas around atmosphere and texture. The hook gives way to a solo, they bring it back around smoothly, and even as someone completely ignorant of the Swedish language (the title translates to ‘the pact’), the straightforward structure lands well.

Heads up on something cool that doesn’t sound like everybody else. Further heads up that this isn’t the first time Bonebag Records has me saying that. As the bands continue to progress and the label continues to develop on its own side, a reliable outlet is taking shape. That’s not a thing to ignore.

Enjoy the clip. PR wire info follows below. More on the record when I hear it.

Thanks:

Skogskult, “Pakten” video premiere

Taking cues from classic doom bands like Sleep, Acid King, and Electric Wizard, as well as contemporary acts like Monolord and Telekinetic Yeti, Bonebag Records is thrilled to announce the signing of rising stars Skogskult, and the release of their debut later this year.

Formed in 2022 in the city of Umeå and featuring members of underground bands Från Mars, Scitalis, and Never Recover, the Swedish doom quartet herald the release of their debut with new single ‘Pakten’, with the official video premiering now.

Produced by Cavern Deep and Bonebag Record’s own Max Malmer, ‘Pakten’ is the first of three singles that delves deep into Nordic mythology and arcane mystery. Skinwalkers, Norse burial rituals, mysterious gatherings, like so many great, occult-obsessed rock bands it offers a fuzz-filled glimpse of darker days to come for Sweden’s rising subterranean stoners.

“I had the fortune of catching one of their first shows and signed them on the spot,” explains Malmer. “It was so great to see that there were young, local musicians getting into the stoner doom genre. Since discovering them we’ve produced an entire album together. Hopefully this new single will give everyone a sense of what they’re all about.”

Skogskult:
Samuel Nordström – Guitar
Albin Kroon – Bass
Simon Rosengrim – Vocals
Alexander Söderlund – Drums

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Destroy, Erase, Improve pretty much did what it set out to do. It took heavy metal, specifically the burly metallithrash that Umeå, Sweden’s Meshuggah offered on their first LP, Contradictions Collapse, broke it down, wiped it away, and made it better. The band’s second album, issued through Nuclear Blast in 1995 — a 30th anniversary that will almost certainly be celebrated in some way next year — is among the most landmark releases in metal, regardless of subgenre. Hell, it’s its own subgenre. They only called it “djent” because to say “that thing Meshuggah does where the time signatures bend reality” would both be too on the nose and take too long to say. Certainly it’s implied, and for good reason.

At 46 minutes, Destroy, Erase, Improve is shorter than a lot of what was happening at the time deep in the peak of the CD era, and that relative brevity continues to serve how intense it feels when it hits the ear. The band comprised of vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal (lead, also synth) and Mårten Hagström (rhythm), bassist Peter Nordin and drummer Tomas Haake (also responsible for most of the lyrics) found a niche in an intricacy of rhythm and timing that simply hadn’t been done before in an aggressive-music context.

They didn’t invent playing in ‘odd’ time signatures by any means, but they did something genuinely new with it. That it would go on to basically be the cornerstone of a subgenre unto itself — I’d add 1998’s Chaosphere (discussed here) to that list, and some of the band’s later work — but as much as Neurosis‘ style became the basis for post-metal, Meshuggah informed metalcore in the aughts, as every breakdown was really just trying to be ‘the Meshuggah part’ and everyone knew it, and their influence still resonates in modern metal more broadly. Not only did they create their own style for others to emulate as invariably would happen, but they affected multiple microgenres under the ‘heavy music’ umbrella.

The album’s no secret, of course. It’s one of the most celebrated releases of its generation, and I seriously doubt that anything I say about it will either never have been said before or provide some new insight as to how Meshuggah took on the direction they did, but from where I sit, comfortably on the couch that used to belong to my wife’s grandmother, the heat on for a chilly November morning, in socks, the lesson of Destroy, Erase, Improve feels an awful lot like it’s teaching the value of finding your place.

In this case, it’s an angry place. Destroy, Erase, Improve is immediate in its violent intention — ‘destroy’ comes first — and “Future Breed Machine” readily displays the characteristic temporal twists that would come to define the band’s impact, along with a kind of jangly gallop that offsets those undulations. Like any decent literature, Destroy, Erase, Improve teaches you how to read it as it unfolds. I don’t necessarily mean that the average person hearing it is going to start counting measures. Maybe you latch onto those parts as a life raft amid the tumult surrounding of tones that would only grow more tectonic with passing years finding their preface in the mighty chug of “Soul Burn.” Or maybe you follow Kidman‘s vocals, or Haake‘s drums — the hi-hat or the snare can assist if you’re looking to nod, see “Beneath” or the penultimate highlight “Suffer in Truth”  — or maybe you just let go and it unfolds in a wash over you. Maybe that’s your zen. I’m jealous if so.

But whatever route they take to get there, Meshuggah‘s vision of progressivism — because that’s kind of what any search for sonic/stylistic individualism is going to lead to, isn’t it?; a chase toward an ideal centered around deeper consideration of one’s work? — remains singular in its impact. There’s very little in the world that sounds both as intelligent and devastating. Destroy, Erase, Improve is this at its rawest, and “Future Breed Machine,” “Inside What’s Within Behind,” “Suffer in Truth” and others here are heralds for the path the band were putting themselves on through the material. Even in the three-minute ambient interlude “Acrid Placidity” — prescient of some of what Thordendal would do in his solo work — the album never lets its audience get fully away from the sense of things being off-kilter, weird in untraceable ways, and undeniably distinctive.

That Meshuggah went on to become one of metal’s most singularly crushing bands — their latest album, Immutable, came out in 2022; they’ve slowed down a little and that’s just fine by me because I like slow heavy metal music thank you very much — is immaterial to Destroy, Erase, Improve in the face of the risk the band were taking at the time. And to be sure, it was a few years before what was being heard was processed into an influence and Meshuggah really got ‘their due’ — recall there was no mobile social media at the time; fandom didn’t happen instantaneously as it can now — but not only are these 10 songs executed with precision, they’re poised even as they hit their hardest or explore the far reaches of where metal had previously been.

Those reaches turned out to be the place for themselves that the band were finding. They’ve dwelled there since, to largely undeniable results — they have enough fans that individual records are debated, but speaking broadly there’s no getting past their impact — and continued to refine and reshape what they do while retaining the inhuman superposition Destroy, Erase, Improve lays out. I know this kind of thing isn’t what’s always covered around here, and I know not everybody gets into harder and more extreme sounds, but you should know that I’m not trying to gatekeep. If you’ve never heard this record at all, I’d say put it on just for the experience of being able to say you heard it. If you know it, it’s its own excuse. For me, it’s unto itself, which 29 years later still very much feels like what they were going for at the time.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

6:49AM now. I woke up at 5:30 with the alarm. Actually, I woke up at 1, then at 3, then at 5:30 with the alarm. I guess. It was a stupid kind of sleep. I’d been setting the alarm for a luxurious 6:30AM, because since The Pecan is in school, I have more time during the day to write, but since the time change a couple weeks ago — the ‘fall back’ in the US’ ridiculous ‘spring ahead, fall back’ like we can’t just fucking leave it alone? really? — she’s been getting up at around 6:20 where that had been an hour later. The time differential wasn’t a ton, but 40 minutes to an hour of conscious, focused, low-distraction writing time isn’t nothing to me.

So the experiment this morning was to see what my effect on her waking up was. As I’m banging around half-conscious through my morning routine, making coffee and tea and taking the dog out, etc., if it’s 6:30, is she at a point close enough to awake anyway that I’m tipping her over? She’s always been up with daylight, which can be brutal. That she’s already slept until nearly seven, and that it’s nearly fully light out, tells me that maybe I am part of what’s been getting her up. It’s kind of academic, I guess, but I’m home a lot these days and I guess that’s where you end up.

If you clicked that Chaosphere link above and read any of that post, or maybe you remember which I’m willing to believe two people do one of whom is my wife, the US political situation is a factor in my choice this week. It was in 2020 as well. I’ve been thinking about some of the differences between now and then, and mostly it works out to it’s sadder this time. In 2016, it was easy to be angry. There were protests in the streets, a million women getting out in the cold to proclaim themselves against an acknowledged sex offender being made president. This time everything just feels numb.

The absurd cabinet picks, the impossible-to-ignore parade of hateful bullshit. Yeah, I get sad thinking people actually voted for this, because it’s not like nobody knew what was coming. The country has been through this before, and people collectively decided that yeah, we need more of that as a nation. I wasn’t a huge fan of Harris either, or Biden, or Obama once he started drone-bombing civilians in foreign lands, but at least they held the country together. And even if you’re for anarchy, for letting it all go off the rails running up Don Jr.’s nose, how on earth can this be the vision of anarchy that speaks to people?

So yeah, sad. People voting away the rights of others, environmental protections and functional institutions (no, I’m not talking about Congress, but the lower-level bureaucracies of American government function just fine and employ tens of thousands) just to be mean. That is fucking sad. I should be moving on from that, to righteous anger or whatever impotent-ass stage of grief is next, but no.

Needless to say, the news yesterday that The Onion bought InfoWars was a bright light in all that encompassing dark. It’s been a lot of weed and Zelda in my downtime. Escapism. Fine. Give me a few more weeks to get my feet back under me in this already-was-awful–and-is-about-to-get-worse reality. And if you voted Republican and your still reading this because it thinks it makes you civil or some self-affirming garbage, when they take away my daughter’s right to exist and persecute your LBGT friends, neighbors and family — because everyone’s got ’em — remember it was all worth it to own the libs like a spiteful 12-year-old shithead.

A little anger peeking through, maybe. See? It’s a process. But should you require any extra leftist tears to sate whatever self-indulgent nazi — vote for a fascist you’re a fascist; disagree and be wrong — dopamine chase you’re on, I’ve got plenty.

To the rest, a great and safe weekend. May your blinders hold up as it all continues to unravel, and may you get through the day without having to hang your head at the realization of the moment in history you occupy. Don’t forget to hydrate!

FRM.

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As they’ve now established their own label in Bonebag Records and overseen the release of last year’s sophomore LP, Part II – Breach (review here), as well as an outing from Troy the Band and one impending from Terra Black — the news of which I haven’t even had a second to post here yet — it likely won’t be super-duper long before Swedish conceptualist epic doomers Cavern Deep start the gears grinding to issue their next album. Since their 2021 self-titled debut (review here), they have shown a creative urgency well-suited to the increasingly DIY ethos with which they operate.

Nonetheless, whatever shape their next record takes — and the reason I’m even talking about such a thing is because they finished recording it a month ago — in continuing the creepy, dark and engrossing narrative, there’s a decent chance it could be out before the end of 2024. You wouldn’t hear me complain. Likely recorded during those same recent album-three sessions, “The Peeler” arrives as a standalone single with an accompanying stop-motion animated video by Bob in Dope — might be like a stoner-doom Flat Stanley, if you have any idea what that is? — and is duly unsettling in its vibe. Stately in the manner of traditional doom, Cavern Deep‘s sound resonates an exploratory feel all the more as the band introduces Johannes Behndig (Sarcophagus Now) as their now-full-time synthesist.

You can certainly hear Behndig adding to the drama as “The Peeler” culminates, finding new breadth in the grim surroundings of the atmosphere cast around it, pushing deeper into the subsurface-horror narrative that has threaded through Cavern Deep‘s work to-date (a couple of covers notwithstanding). Behndig played on Part II – Breach as well, but it seems reasonable to expect him to become more of a presence in the songs by virtue of, you know, he’s actually in the band now rather than doing a guest spot. Being in the room when the song is written makes a difference.

I wouldn’t call myself early on posting it by any stretch, but if you haven’t seen it out there yet on the big wide internet, enjoy the “The Peeler” clip below. PR wire info follows after:

Cavern Deep, “The Peeler” official video

Swedish Doomsters CAVERN DEEP Hunt Monsters on Gripping New Single ‘THE PEELER’

Hailing from Umeå in Northern Sweden, the trio have carved out a name for themselves in recent years with hulking doom that has got the underground listening… ‘The Peeler’, the brand-new single from Cavern Deep is out now via Bonebag Records

Founded in 2019 by Max Malmer and former members of Swedish death metallers, Zonaria, and retro rockers, Gudars Skymning; Sweden’s Cavern Deep has established itself as one of the Scandinavia’s finest new doom metal bands.

Having released their first album in 2021 on the Polish label Interstellar Smoke Records, the band has since formed and issued music under their own Bonebag Records imprint, most recently releasing their latest record, Part II – Breach, to critical acclaim across Europe.

Returning this month for a one-off release, new single ‘The Peeler’ was originally intended to be a bonus track on the band’s forthcoming album. But while all good things come to those who wait, some things are too awesome to not share immediately. For those impatient souls itching for new material from the Umeå trio, this sleeping giant of a track focuses its attention on a lost mythical monster who resides in the deep cavernous realms of a long-lost civilisation. A hideous beast that hypnotises and oozes slime from its jaws, peeling skin from its still-stirring victims, and feeding off them piece by piece.

Towering guitars and drums soundtrack the ensuing chaos and seek to capture the creature using stark riffs and crushing strokes of colossal doom metal. Coupled with fantastic stop motion footage – assembled, and animated by artist, “Bob” – for the single’s visualiser video, ‘The Peeler’ is out now via Bonebag Records – bonebagrecords.com

Cavern Deep is:
Kenny-Oswald Duvfenberg – Guitars and Vocals
Max Malmer – Bass and Vocals
Dennis Sjödin – Drums, Backup Vocals and Keys
Johannes Behndig – Synth

Cavern Deep, “The Peeler” (2024)

Cavern Deep, Part II – Breach (2023)

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