[PLEASE NOTE: These are not the results of the year-end poll, which ends in January. If you haven’t contributed your picks yet, please do so here.]

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Hi, and welcome to The Obelisk’s year in review for 2024. This is a thing that’s kind of developed over the 15-plus years the site’s been in operation, and it’s something that people sometimes tell me has been a help when it comes to finding new music. I know for myself as well, I’ve referred back to these lists a lot in subsequent years, to see where bands were and where my head was, and so on. Are best-of lists meaningful, at all, in any way? Probably to the person making them, and that’s me, so I’ll proceed.

I thought the format last year worked pretty well, so I’ve hijacked it for use here. Not something I expect anyone to notice, but I did want to mention it on the off-chance. I don’t have a best live album of the year, but there are a few worth talking about, surely.

It’s been a busy, fast year. The barrage of music is overwhelming — and as problems go, that’s among the best ones to have — but I do think we’re seeing some tapering off. Generational turnover is, in fact, a constant, but the 2020s are taking shape now with bands who started making their name around the mid-2010s shifting into headliner status, new bands coming up beneath, more diverse in sound and construction, and with new ideas. This isn’t universal, but it is the ideal vision of the thing. Circle of life and such.

But it’s a lot. Including the 50-releases-strong Quarterly Review last week, I’m well north of having reviewed 400 total different mostly-full-lengths since January. That’s insane. The math is obvious, but I’ll point out anyhow that you could buy an album for every day of the year and have enough for an extra month-plus afterward. An astonishing amount of music, and I’m by no means reviewing everything.

Which brings me to the inevitable last point. I haven’t reviewed everything. If you’re here wondering where Opeth and Blood Incantation are landing on my list, they aren’t. Nothing against either of them, I just haven’t dug into the records since I knew I wouldn’t be reviewing them. The regular standard of doing as much as I can, when I can, about as much as I can, applies.

Please if you disagree with some pick below or other — and if you do, that’s healthy — I kindly ask you to keep things civil in the comments. I’m not here to call people out on enjoying things I don’t — fascism aside — and I know it makes me sad when I break my ass for days to put this together and the first comment is, “NO [WHOEVER]. LIST SUCKS. NEVER READING THIS FILTH AGAIN,” etc. Before you comment, please take a second to read what you put back to yourself for kindness. That’s good for spelling too, not that I’d know.

That’s all the stalling I can do. Time to dive in. Happy holidays.

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The Top 60 Albums of 2024

**NOTE**: If you’re looking for something specific, try a text search.

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60-31

60. Psychlona, Warped Vision
59. Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, The Mind Like Fire Unbound
58. Massive Hassle, Unreal Damage
57. Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Apotheosis
56. Space Shepherds, Cycler
55. Abrams, Blue City
54. Castle Rat, Into the Realm
53. Heath, Isaak’s Marble
52. Weite, Oase
51. Cosmic Fall, Back Where the Fire Flows

50. Troy the Band, Cataclysm
49. Sunnata, Chasing Shadows
48. Skraeckoedlan, Vermillion Sky
47. Acid Mammoth, Supersonic Megafauna Collision
46. Deer Creek, The Hiraeth Pit
45. Big Scenic Nowhere, The Waydown
44. Grin, Hush
43. The Swell Fellas, Residuum Unknown
42. The Gates of Slumber, The Gates of Slumber
41. Coltaine, Forgotten Ways

40. Mountain of Misery, The Land
39. Mammoth Volume, Raised Up by Witches
38. Delving, All Paths Diverge
37. High on Fire, Cometh the Storm
36. Thou, Umbilical
35. The Giraffes, Cigarette
34. Fu Manchu, The Return of Tomorrow
33. Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors
32. Daevar, Amber Eyes
31. Causa Sui, From the Source

Notes:

Just in case you’re the type of person who’d say, “Oh how could you have a top 60? after a certain number it’s all the same,” I’ll admit that’s true, but 60 is apparently nowhere near the ‘certain number’ in question for me this year. I agonized over this part of the list. More than the top 30, and more than picking a best short release, best debut, or anything else. I wanted basically a second top 30, and I feel like if I saw this as that, as 30-1, I’d congratulate whoever submitted it on their taste. But maybe that’s just me agreeing with myself.

I like the mix of up and comers and established acts here. Sunnata and Skraeckoedlan, The Giraffes, of course High on Fire, Deer Creek and so on, mixing with up and comers like Full Earth, Daevar, Acid Mammoth, Trillion Ton Beryllium Ships, Heath, Troy the Band and Weite. I feel somewhat compelled to justify my High on Fire placement, especially looking at the results so far of the year-end poll. They’re amazing, they’re devastating, they’re a singular live act, but I just didn’t listen to the record that much. There. A big part of me feels like it should be top 10 just by virtue of who the band are, but if I did that for everybody who deserved it, I wouldn’t have room for anything new. All I can do is be honest to my own listening habits and opinions. I know High on Fire are really, really good. I know this album is really, really good. That’s why it’s on this list. Should it be higher? Probably. I’m doing my best.

Thank you for your kind attention in this matter. Also, listen to The Giraffes.

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30. Sundrifter, An Earlier Time

Released by Small Stone Records. Reviewed Jan. 29.

You won’t hear me say a downer word about An Earlier Time‘s quieter stretches, but it’s the sweeping moments like “Limitless” that find Boston’s Sundrifter making the most resonant impression. Their third full-length and the follow-up to 2018’s Visitations (review here), it was a strong declaration of who Sundrifter want to be as they continue to grow, and deserved more love than I saw that it got.

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29. Tranquonauts, 2

Released by Lay Bare Recordings and Blown Music. Reviewed Sept. 10.

Oh, look out for Mr. Blogosphere. He’s out here taking a real risk putting Tranquonauts on the year-end list, like the combining of forces between Melbourne, Australia, heavy psych blues rockers Seedy Jeezus and guitarist Isaiah Mitchell wasn’t gonna work the second time around? Wow, Mitchell‘s and Lex Waterreus‘ guitars sure do sound awesome together. Oh — it’s a hot-take! Better get your react videos ready. The internet is terrible. This album offers escape from it.

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28. Chat Pile, Cool World

Released by The Flenser. Reviewed Oct. 21.

At the risk of having to give back my Music-Journalism-Level membership to the Sycophant Society, I’ll dare to point out that Chat Pile are way, way hyped. That happens sometimes. It’s not like they’re out there being like, “Hey we’re the noise rock white dudes shifting paradigms for noise rock white dudes, best in a generation.” It’s people like me with all the hyperbole and comma splicing. I get that too. It’s a sound geared toward inciting a strong reaction, from the sneering sarcasm of the title down. By the way, am I the only one who looks at the title Cool World and thinks of the 1992 semi-animated film of the same name? I kind of hope so. See? Big feelings all around.

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27. Gnome, Vestiges of Verumex Visidrome

Released by Polderrecords. Reviewed Dec. 9.

Rest assured, I don’t, but if I had any friends, I’d be like, “Hey, you should check out this band Gnome from Belgium. They’ve got fun riffs and they beat you over the head with them until you remember them by heart.” And these ‘friends’ would be all, “Wow man, that sounds definitely like something I would ever want to introduce to the scope of my life experiences! Thank you! I’m so glad to be your friend and the world is definitely a better place with you in it.” And then everybody’s day is better, all because of sharing and the shenanigans-laced riff metal proffered by these three behatted miscreants from Antwerpen.

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26. Brant Bjork Trio, Once Upon a Time in the Desert

Released by Duna Records. Reviewed Sept. 18.

Brant Bjork‘s solo band begat Stöner, and Stöner begat Brant Bjork Trio as Bjork, drummer Ryan Güt and bassist Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, Yawning Man, etc.). I’ll cop to being a nerd for Brant Bjork‘s output generally — it’s a kind of cool so definitively Californian, my NJ-ass self can’t help but admire it — but the chemistry in Once Upon a Time in the Desert is on point to an undeniable degree, and the songs are a reminder of how the back catalog got so strong in the first place. What else could you want?

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25. Sergeant Thunderhoof, The Ghost of Badon Hill

Released by Pale Wizard Records. Reviewed Dec. 12.

Five albums in, a post-arrival Sergeant Thunderhoof stand ready. They know who they are, what they want their songs to do, why and how to make it happen. The Ghost of Badon Hill gives a conceptual focus to unite material intentionally sprawling, and lets listeners immerse in a narrative all the more easily for the quality of its songcraft. Self-recorded, it is masterful in performance and assured of its execution, pored over but not overworked; the happy accidents might have been left in on purpose, but they still sound like accidents. And Sergeant Thunderhoof still sound like a band driving themselves toward the unknown.

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24. Early Moods, A Sinner’s Past

Released by RidingEasy Records. Reviewed March 29.

Doom metal is lucky to have Early Moods laying out a template for the next generation to hopefully follow. The Los Angeles five-piece’s second full-length, A Sinner’s Past, refined the lurch of their 2022 self-titled (review here), and the combination of hard touring and progressive craft continues to bode well as they look toward their next offering. They’ve put in their work, however swift their ascent to this point might feel, and they’re about one great record away from standing among the best doom of the 21st century. You could easily argue they’re already there. Every reason is accounted for on A Sinner’s Past.

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23. Morpholith, Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics

Released by Interstellar Smoke Records. Reviewed Oct. 22.

Iceland’s Morpholith enter the conversation with Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics, which has cosmic-doom breadth and bong-metal crush to spare in the first four minutes of “Psychophere” alone, never mind anything that surrounds. The band’s debut is a bombastic plodder, beating out the march to a futuristic — and cold — vision of the riff-filled land that may or may not be Reykjavik in the wintertime while simultaneously being both very much of weed and not outwardly about it, seeming to have much more than addled, Mid Atlantic Ridge-heavy riff worship because — look out! — they do. If cosmic doom is ever going to be more than a loose thread connecting YOB and Ufomammut, bands like Morpholith need to keep pushing it forward like this. “Dismalium.” I dare you.

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22. Lamp of the Universe Meets Dr. Space, Enters Your Somas

Released by Sound Effect Records. Reviewed May 24.

Lamp of the Universe is multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and vocalist Craig Williamson, based in New Zealand. Dr. Space is synthesist, keyboardist, producer, bootlegger and bandleader Scott Heller. The ‘meeting’ of these two expanded minds takes place over two extended tracks, one vinyl side per, of lush psychedelic and multi-tiered drones, absolutely perfect for the zone-out hypnosis you’ve been trying to put yourself in all day but for that pesky consciousness. I wish I could come up with some kind of ritual awesome enough for the keyboard textures in “Enters Your Somas” or the propulsive space rock thuddenchug of “Infiltrates Your Mind,” but some sounds are just too cool for the planet. Come see how the freaks get down.

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21. Dool, The Shape of Fluidity

Released by Prophecy Productions. Reviewed May 15.

I spent some significant time with Dool‘s The Shape of Fluidity this Spring, before and after seeing them at Roadburn (review here), which was another highlight of the year. The album’s triumph, in songwriting, in transcending genre bounds and in conveying its theme of breaking loose from the gender binary, gave my parent-of-a-trans-kid self a hopeful vision of a future beyond dark, hateful rhetoric or implied/real violence. It showed me a possible path to victory on what will be and already is a hard road. It was there when I needed it, which is a specific ideal of art providing care. I’ll never forget that.

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20. Buzzard, Doom Folk

Self-released. Reviewed May 13.

Granted the Western soundscaping at the outset of the eponymous “Buzzard” lays it on thick, but it’s supposed to! We’re talking fire-and-brimstone earthbound Americana folk with a doomly rhythmic cast, given the self-aware title of Doom Folk by the solo artist Buzzard, aka Christopher Thomas Elliott, laying it on thick is the point. Elliott has a follow-up out soon already. Thinking of Doom Folk as the beginning of a creative progression makes its nuance and individualist drive even more exciting, but the rawness of this debut, the straightforwardness of its structures and the resulting memorability are part of the appeal for sure.

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19. High Desert Queen, Palm Reader

Released by Ripple Music. Reviewed April 30.

Seven bangers. Not a dud in the bunch. Two nine-minute songs and you still couldn’t say a moment of High Desert Queen‘s rightly anticipated sophomore LP is wasted. Not when you’re building up to the roll of “Head Honcho,” certainly. The Texas outfit built on the good-time largesse and party-but-not-a-party-so-cool-you-don’t-feel-welcome vibing of 2021’s Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) and set themselves vociferously to the task of being the change in heavy rock that they wanted to hear. Palm Reader‘s infectiousness is a strength, both in terms of a catchy piece like “Ancient Aliens” or “Time Waster,” and also in the overarching positive-framed mood and heart so clearly put into the material.

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18. Ufomammut, Hidden

Released by Supernatural Cat and Neurot Recordings. Reviewed May 21.

Now a quarter-century on from their start, Italian trio Ufomammut have yet to put out a record that didn’t sound like a forward step from the one before it. And Hidden is their 10th album. The band are progenitors and refiners of a cosmic doom sound that is unto itself, and cuts like “Kismet” and “Leeched” manage to be both lumbering in their massive-tone grooves and sprawling with a synthy ambience that, though certainly influential, is immediately recognizable as Ufomammut. Hidden is part of a creative trajectory, to be sure, and the arc is ongoing, but there’s more than enough substance here to leave a crater behind in the listener’s brain.

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17. Iota, Pentasomnia

Released by Small Stone. Reviewed March 20.

In its arrangement as five separate dreams taking place over its component tracks, the only thing Pentasomnia doesn’t take into account is that another Iota LP was a dream all on its own even before music actually happened. A full 16 years after shaking the galaxy’s core with their 2008 debut, Tales (discussed here, and here), the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (Dwellers, Hibernaut), drummer/producer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, ex-SubRosa, etc.) and bassist Oz Yasri (ex-Bird Eater) making a comeback — let alone it actually being good — was nigh on unthinkable. Then you heard “The Intruder” and reality shifted just a bit. Pretty sweet.

16. Kanaan & Ævestaden, Langt, Langt Vekk

Released by Jansen Records. Reviewed Oct. 18.

Few albums in 2024 were as entrancing as Langt, Langt Vekk, the hopefully-not-a-one-off collaboration between Norwegian progressive heavy instrumentalists Kanaan and neofolk contemporaries Ævestaden. Both adventurous outfits in their own right, the combination of elements, from live drums and synth to traditional plucked strings and Norwegian-language vocal choruses, works stunningly well. That little bit of fuzz in “Habbor og Signe,” or the cymbal wash behind “Dalebu Jonsson” — the songs are full of these little nuances or flourishes waiting to be found, but even with the most superficial of listens, the achievement resounds, whether one approaches from a viewpoint of heavy rock, prog, folk or psychedelia.

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15. DVNE, Voidkind

Released by Metal Blade. Reviewed May 6.

You know, I’ve kind of dug DVNE records all along, and I can’t really call Voidkind a surprise after 2021’s Etemen Ænka (review here), but these songs — “Eleonora,” “Sarmatae,” “Abode of the Perfect Soul,” among others — hit me much harder than I had expected, and the more I listened to try to twist my head around “Reliquary,” the more the album as a whole revealed of its character and detail. I review a lot of stuff, and I hear more than I review, so I don’t always get pulled back by every record, but Voidkind kept calling for return visits.

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14. Orange Goblin, Science, Not Fiction

Released by Peaceville Records. Reviewed July 22.

Look. If you’re reading this, I know I don’t have to tell you about Orange Goblin. Even if you don’t already have a soft spot for the long-running UK doom rockers, they’re perfectly happy to pummel one into you with Science, Not Fiction, their first album since 2018 and a realignment toward a harder-edged heavy rock sound, where the last, say, two records had leaned more metal. I heard some griping about the production not helping, but I heard absolutely nothing to complain about here. The band are on fire and the recording shows it, the songs aren’t necessarily any great progressive leap but for sure they’re Orange Goblin songs, and for a band who owes nobody proof of anything, they set a high standard and deliver accordingly, like god damned professionals should.

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13. Spaceslug, Out of Water

Released by Electric Witch Mountain Recordings. Reviewed May 14.

What I didn’t get about Spaceslug until I finally saw them live at Desertfest New York (review here) was just how metal the impact of their songs can get. It’s not necessarily that they’ve grown more aggressive, unless you want to incorporate harsh vocals or shouting — “Tears of Antimatter” also has gently-delivered barely-there spoken word, so it depends on the story you want to tell — but the blend of melancholic doom, heavy psychedelia and melodic fluidity that has become Spaceslug‘s stylistic wheelhouse is not to be missed. Out of Water finds them at their broadest and least concerned with genre, and brings into relief how special a band they’ve become. Also it rocks.

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12. Craneium, Point of No Return

Released by The Sign Records. Reviewed April 1.

No secret how Craneium are doing it on Point of No Return; it’s right there in the songs. All of them. “One Thousand Sighs,” “The Sun,” “A Distant Shore,” “…Of Laughter and Cries,” “Things Have Changed” and “Search Eternal.” Texture and hooks, heft and scope and melody and crash and shove, classy progressive execution and swaggering conjurations. Most of all, songs that stay with you. Chances are, if you heard this record and gave it its due attention at some point in your time with it, you didn’t have to do much more than read the titles to have the tracks playing in your head. That’s not a coincidence. It’s craft. It’s a willful outreach on the part of the band and material. It’s what makes you want to sing along. And why would you not?

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11. Guhts, Regeneration

Released by Seeing Red Records and New Heavy Sounds. Reviewed Feb. 5.

More on it below, but for the moment, suffice it to say that the bludgeoning and/or scathe of Regeneration at its most intense and the depths its mix seemed to find, the debut full-length from New York post-metallers Guhts dared visceral emotionality in a way few records so heavy could or would hope to. The willing-to-break-her-voice-if-necessary performance of Amber Gardner and the weighted undulations surrounding from guitarist Scott Prater, bassist Daniel Martinez and drummer Brian Clemens, the open sway, unfettered crush, and quiet spaces offsetting all that bombast result in both a chaotic feel and an applicable world. Therefore it must be modern. Fine. It sounds like the future.

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10. Heavy Temple, Garden of Heathens

Released by Magnetic Eye. Reviewed April 11.

As to how Philadelphia’s Heavy Temple managed to fit so much swagger onto a single platter, you’d have to ask them, but their second album, Garden of Heathens, landed hard in tone and attitude alike. Songs like “Extreme Indifference to Life,” “House of Warship” and the galloping payoff of “Jesus Wept” ahead of the thrashy finale “Psychomanteum” affirmed what was set out in 2021’s Lupi Amoris (review here) and their earlier short releases while marking out and conquering decisively new territory in their sound. I know it was recorded two years ago or something like that, but it’s still a band beginning to realize their potential in craft and performance, and if a third LP happens sooner than later, so much the better.

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9. 1000mods, Cheat Death

Released by Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug and Ripple Music. Reviewed Nov. 11.

Whether one embraces Cheat Death because the songs kick ass or because 1000mods are so vivid and uncompromising in pushing themselves forward from release to release, I don’t think you’re wrong. The forerunners of their generation in Greek heavy rock remain among the finest Europe’s heavy underground have to offer, and the atmosphere they’re able to conjure alongside the straight-ahead Matt Bayles-produced punk-metal hooks of these songs is emblematic of why. Without ever giving up their foundation in heavy rock, 1000mods have consistently refined their processes and grown as songwriters. The joke of Cheat Death is how alive the material feels.

8. Ruff Majik, Moth Eater

Released by Sound of Liberation Records. Reviewed Oct. 3.

Faced with the considerable task of following up the to-date album of their career, Elektrik Ram (review here), just one year later, South African heavy rockers Ruff Majik did not flinch. Instead, Moth Eater takes the outright charge and sharpness-minded efficiency of its predecessor in a stated trilogy that began with 2020’s The Devil’s Cattle (review here) and sets it as the foundation for a confident, creative growth and sustainable expansion of sound. They’re a little more willing to dwell in parts, and they’re well aware of how catchy they can be, but also, they know the power of momentum and they’re fully in control of the narratives they’re telling. As Moth Eater readily demonstrates, it’s hard to know which of that it is that makes them most dangerous.

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7. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Nell’ Ora Blu

Released by Rise Above. Reviewed May 16.

It’s hard to overstate the accomplishment of Nell’ Ora Blu, and I’m well aware that the critical sphere is full of plenty who’ve spent the better part of 2024 trying. Reasonable. The completeness of the world Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats built in the work based around the concept of soundtracking a giallo film that didn’t exist was singularly evocative. With original dialogue recorded (in Italian) specifically for ‘movie’ ambience, Uncle Acid took what had always been an influence on the band’s sound within genre-cinema and its methods of storytelling, and flipped the process on its head by creating its own story. Their influence is already well spread throughout the heavy underground, for sure, but in bringing a vision to life, this might be the album Uncle Acid have been working toward all along.

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6. Vokonis, Transitions

Released by Majestic Mountain Records. Reviewed Oct. 29.

A forward-thinking masterwork from even before “Deadname” sneaks a layer of acoustic guitar under the mountain of distortion in the verse lines and “Arrival” and “Transitions” give evocative chronicle to the album’s trans-experiential theme — it is the band’s first since guitarist/vocalist Simona Ohlsson transitioned, and admirable for both its projected triumph and vulnerability around that — the fifth full-length from Vokonis continues the progressive path they have walked for the last decade-plus. A lineup change has brought some shift in dynamic, but a new strength of voice behind the material that makes “Phantom Carriage,” “Chrysalis,” and, suitably enough, “Arrival,” feel like a declarative pinnacle, and having something to say makes the raw impact of its heaviest moments all the more powerful.

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5. Greenleaf, The Head and the Habit

Released by Magnetic Eye Records. Reviewed July 3.

There’s little funnier to me about heavy rock as it exists in 2024 than the idea that Greenleaf would be a band people take for granted. “Oh, Tommi Holappa and Company putting out another collection of classic-heavy and blues-rocking bangers? Business as usual, I guess.” Until you listen to the album, maybe. Then you get the tumble of “Avalanche,” the hooks in “Breathe, Breathe Out,” and “A Wolf in My Mind,” the subdued-bluesy pair “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” to remind how you much this band has been able to grow since Arvid Hällagård made his first appearance with them a decade ago, the way they’re able to move through a jam and land in a groove as solid as “Oh Dandelion,” reminiscent of Clutch in its start-stop funk but defined by its own persona. Every Greenleaf record is a gift. If feeling that way means I’m not impartial, good. We understand each other.

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4. Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, Big Dumb Riffs

Released by Permanent Teeth Records. Reviewed March 19.

Promises made, promises kept. Austin-based crunch purveyors Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol stripped any and all excess out of their approach on Big Dumb Riffs, resulting in a quick-feeling collection of memorable, heavy tracks that, whether fast like “1800EATSHIT” or slow like “In a Jar,” are united in the album’s central stated purpose. Already an established brand of heavy revelry, the three-piece didn’t change anything radically in aesthetic terms, but the songs found their target one after the other, front to back, and were clever and well composed, however willfully lunkheaded the central riffery might have been. They’re headed to Europe in Spring, and I’m already hearing rumors of a next record, so keep an eye out in 2025.

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3. Slomosa, Tundra Rock

Released by Stickman Records and MNRK Heavy. Reviewed Sept. 9.

Slomosa‘s released-in-2020 self-titled debut (review here) was a salve to many in troubled times, representing a next-generation hope for underground heavy in energetically-delivered, classic-feeling songs. Tundra Rock, which gives a name to the band’s style seemingly in direct answer to anyone who might class them as ‘desert,’ confirms the Norwegian four-piece at the forefront of an up and coming cohort of younger acts beginning to find their expressive modus and step beyond their root influences. Tundra Rock finds Slomosa doing this while giving their dual-vocal live dynamic vibrant studio representation and growing their material in character and melody alike. Heavy rock and roll is Slomosa‘s for the taking.

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2. Brume, Marten

Released by Magnetic Eye. Reviewed April 29.

A record that didn’t need to be loud to be heavy, Brume‘s Marten is without question my most-listened-to album of 2024. That needs no qualifying. I had high expectations going into it after seeing the San Francisco band at Desertfest New York 2022 (review here), and Marten surpassed every hope I might’ve been able to harness for it and then some. The collective voice of the band incorporating multiple viewpoints from bassist/vocalist/keyboardist Susie McMullan, guitarist/vocalist Jamie McCathie, drummer Jordan Perkins Lewis, and in her first appearance as a full-on member of the band, cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz (Grayceon, Amber Asylum, etc.), resulted in a fluid but deeply divergent collection, comprised of songs that went where they wanted to go — or didn’t, thank you very much — according to their own whims and purposes. It is a landmark for Brume and, if any number of subgenres are lucky, a blueprint from which others will hopefully learn.

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2024 Album of the Year

1. Elephant Tree & Lowrider, The Long Forever

Released by Blues Funeral Recordings. Reviewed Oct. 25.

I acknowledge breaking my own rules here — splits are always, until and including this year, categorized as short releases in these lists — but when it came to it, the thought of putting Elephant Tree and Lowrider‘s The Long Forever anywhere else, considering it as anything else, seemed ridiculous. Especially if you count writing the liner notes for it, I’ve gone on at length about the release as an intersection of crucial moments for the respective bands, with Lowrider following their first album in 20 years, Refractions (review here), and Elephant Tree answering the progressive statement of their own second LP, Habits (review here), both released in 2020. The storyline gets deeper as Elephant Tree also look to reestablish themselves following a near-fatal accident suffered by guitarist/vocalist Jack Townley, melding rawness of tone with lush vocal harmonies, and Lowrider drag fuzz-rock traditionalism kicking and screaming into a reality of being both fun and intelligent. There ultimately was nothing else to call The Long Forever than the album of the year. If that comes with an asterisk because it’s a split, it doesn’t lessen the effect of hearing it at all. So yeah, I’m breaking the rules of the game. I’m inconsistent. Unprofessional. Biased. I don’t know what to tell you except love makes you do crazy things. In these songs themselves — do I even need to talk about the collaboration — and in the drive behind them, that’s what most resonates here.

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The Top 60 Albums of 2024: Honorable Mention

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If the 60 above wasn’t enough, here are more leads to chase down, alphabetical but in kind of a hyper-specific, ass-backwards-seeming way:

Acid Rooster, Alber Jupiter, Altareth, Alunah, Astrometer, Bismarck, Black Capricorn, Blasting Rod, BleakHeart, Blue Heron, Bongripper, Boozewa, Caffeine, Carpet, Castle, Cleen, Clouds Taste Satanic, Codex Serafini, Cold in Berlin, Cortez, The Cosmic Dead, Crypt Sermon, Daily Thompson, Deadpeach, Deaf Wolf, Demon Head, Destroyer of Light, Dopethrone, Duel, Earth Ship, Elephant Tree, Emu, Familiars, Bill Fisher, 40 Watt Sun, Ghost Frog, Goat Major, Guenna, Heath, High Reeper, Hijss, Horseburner, Ian Blurton’s Future Now, Insect Ark, Inter Arma, Kelley Juett, Juke Cove, Kalgon, Kandodo, Kant, Kariti, Kungens Män (x2), Kurokuma, Leather Lung, Legions of Doom, Lord Buffalo, Magic Fig, Magick Brother & Mystic Sister, Magick Potion, Magmakammer, Mammoth Caravan, Massive Hassle, MC MYASNOI, Merlin, Methadone Skies, Monkey3, Morag Tong, The Mountain King, Mount Hush, MR.BISON, My Dying Bride, Myriad’s Veil, No Man’s Valley, Norna, The Obsessed, Oryx, Pallbearer, Patriarchs in Black, Pia Isa, Planet of Zeus, Red Mesa, Rezn, Rifflord, Sacri Monti, Sandveiss, Satan’s Satyrs, Saturnalia Temple, Scorched Oak, Sheepfucker & Kraut, Slift, Slower, Slow Green Thing, SoftSun, The Sonic Dawn, SONS OF ZÖKU, Spacedrifter, Spiral Grave, Spirit Mother, Stonebride, Sun Blood Stories, Sunface, Sun Moon Holy Cult, Swallow the Sun, The Swell Fellas, Swell O, Temple Fang, 10,000 Years, Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans, Thunderbird Divine, Tigers on Opium, Traum, 24/7 Diva Heaven, Valley of the Sun, Vlimmer, Void Commander, Weather Systems, The Whims of the Great Magnet, Whispering Void, White Hills, Per Wiberg, Esben Willems, Worshipper, WyndRider…

Notes:

With the eternal caveat that I’ll be adding to the honorable mentions for the next few days as people drop names they remembered and I forgot, I’ll say I can live with the list as it is now. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m happy with it, but I’ll live. I felt like there was just too much good stuff in the 60-30, stuff that deserved a better look, and god damn, look at the honorable mentions. You’re gonna tell me Rezn wasn’t top 30 material? Or Inter Arma, or 10,000 Years (who I still need to review), or Kandodo or Cortez, or Bongripper, Blue Heron, Merlin, Slower? Mount Hush, Vlimmer, Destroyer of Light — I could do this all day. That Carpet record. That MR.BISON record. Valley of the Sun. I see these names and want to punch myself. Then I see the names in the top 30 and I go, “Well…” and kind of have to hold off. I guess that means it turned out to be a pretty fantastic year.

I know for a fact I didn’t hear everything that came out, and I’m willing to bet that any number of people who see this will have their own opinions on the best albums of 2024 from top to bottom. I celebrate this difference and look forward to being exposed to new sounds because of it. Let comments fly, please. Once again, my only ask is that you keep it kind as relates to my own list(s) and any other picks someone might offer. If I’ve got facts wrong, something was a Dec. 2023 release instead of Jan. 2024, whatever, by all means, let me know. But we’re all friends here and being a jerk about it solves nothing.

And yes, I’ll admit to projecting some self-criticism in the Elephant Tree/Lowrider selection for album of the year. All I can tell you is I stand by that pick. It’s that because when I was putting together the list, it couldn’t have been anywhere else. I don’t love breaking my own arbitrary rules nearly as much as I love imposing those arbitrary rules in the first place, but sometimes apparently one is forced from one’s comfort zone to their own general betterment. Who knew?

Of course we’re not done yet.

—

Debut Album of the Year 2024

Guhts, Regeneration

Other notable debuts (alphabetical):

Azutmaga, Offering
Buzzard, Doom Folk
Castle Rat, Into the Realm
Cleen, Excursion
Coltaine, Forgotten Ways
Full Earth, Cloud Sculptors
Goat Generator, Goat Generator
Goat Major, Ritual
Grave Speaker, Grave Speaker
Guenna, Peak of Jin’Arrah
Hashtronaut, No Return
Heath, Isaak’s Marble
Hijss, Stuck on Common Ground
Kalgon, Kalgon
Kant, Paranoia Pilgrimage
Kitsa, Dead by Dawn
Leather Lung, Graveside Grin
Legions of Doom, The Skull 3
Magic Fig, Magic Fig
Magick Potion, Magick Potion
Morpholith, Dystopian Distributions of Mass Produced Narcotics
Myriad’s Veil, Pendant
Neon Nightmare, Faded Dream
Plant, Cosmic Phytophthora
Rabid Children, Does the Heartbeat
Saltpig, Saltpig
Semuta, Glacial Erratic
SoftSun, Daylight in the Dark
Spacedrifter, When the Colors Fade
Sun Moon Holy Cult, Sun Moon Holy Cult
Ten Ton Slug, Colossal Oppressor
Tet, Tet
Tigers on Opium, Psychodrama
Tommy and the Teleboys, Gods Used in Great Condition
Troy the Band, Cataclysm
Weather Systems, Ocean Without a Shore
Esben Willems, Glowing Darkness
Young Acid, Murder at Maple Mountain

Notes:

First about Guhts: From the Andy Patterson recording and parts of the songs themselves, Guhts weren’t hiding influence from the likes of SubRosa or Julie Christmas, Made Out of Babies, etc., but what Regeneration did so well — and what I was trying to convey above — was take those recognizable elements and redirect them toward an expressive individuality. That album could be punishingly heavy or sweet and soothing and the fact that you never quite knew which was coming next was a major asset working in the band’s favor. There are a lot of killer debuts on this list, and plenty I’m sure that I’ve left off because, well, I’m inept, but Regeneration was so sure of what it was about and so crisp in making that real through sound that it’s still stunning.

A lot to celebrate on this list. Full Earth at the outset of a hopefully long-term progression. Tigers on Opium with attitude and craft. Castle Rat giving stage drama studio life. Weather Systems picking up where Anathema left off. Promising starts for Pontiac, Hashtronaut, Neon Nightmare, Cleen, Coltaine, Troy the Band, Buzzard, Magic Fig, Legions of Doom, and Heath, among others. If you’re worried about the state of underground heavy music, you don’t need to be. Granted the future of anything is unknowable even before you apply “uncertain times” caveats and all the rest, but bands are stepping up to carry the torch of established sounds and pushing themselves to realize new ideas — whether that’s Guhts and Magic Fig or Tigers on Opium, or Legions of Doom, Ten Ton Slug, Weather Systems and Monolord’s Esben Willems, new players or ones who’ve been around for decades.

If you want a top ten — and who doesn’t? — in addition to Guhts, make your way through Full Earth, Sun Moon Holy Cult, Morpholith, Guenna, Coltaine, Troy the Band, Young Acid, Emu, Buzzard and Kant to start, and you can dig deeper from there. That’s actually 11, but I don’t care. More new music won’t hurt you.

We press on.

—

Short Release of the Year 2024

Moura, Fume Santo de Loureiro

Other notable EPs, Splits, Demos, Singles, etc.

Aktopasa, Ultrawest
Alreckque, 6PM
Bog Wizard, Journey Through the Dying Lands
Conan, DIY Series Issue 1
Cortége, Under the Endless Sky
Cult of Dom Keller, Extinction EP
Michael Rudolph Cummings, Money EP
Deer Lord, Dark Matter Pt. 2
Eagle Twin & The Otolith, Legends of the Desert Vol. 4
Fuzznaut, Wind Doula
Fuzzter, Pandemonium EP
Geezer & Isaak, Interstellar Cosmic Blues and the Riffalicious Stoner Dudes
Harvestman, Triptych EP(s)
Hermano, When the Moon Was High
Hollow Leg, Dust & Echoes
Holy Fingers, Endless Light Infinite Presence
King Buffalo, Balrog
Lurcher, Breathe EP
Okkoto, All is Light
Ord Cannon, Foreshots EP
Orme, No Serpents No Saviours
Pelican, Adrift/Tending the Embers
Pontiac, Hard Knox EP
Rope Trick, Red Tide EP
Sacred Buzz, Radio Radiation
Smoke & Doomsday Profit, Split
Spiral Guru, Silenced Voices EP
Toad Venom, Jag har inga problen osv​.​.​.
Trigona & IO Audio Recordings, Split
Various Artists, International Space Station Vol. 2

Notes:

This category includes so much and can range so vastly between an EP that’s about 30 seconds short of being a full album to a standalone single released just for the hell of it to a band’s first rehearsal room demo. “Short releases” encompasses a lot, and as noted above, I’ve already broken my rules about where splits go. What about The Otolith and Eagle Twin? Geezer and Isaak? Smoke and Doomsday Profit? Trigona and IO Audio Recordings? The International Space Station four-wayer? If I’m crossing lines, don’t these also need to be considered as full-lengths?

You know what really sucks about it? This is an argument I’m going to have with myself for probably the next year. An existential crisis playing out in the back of my mind. More important? The Moura EP. The soundtracky textures the Spanish folk-informed progressive psychedelic rockers brought to the follow-up for their second album were both otherworldly and ground-born, and the material put emphasis on how much care and craft goes into their work while retaining the organic core against the threat of pretense. It was my most listened to short release of 2024, followed by Pelican, Holy Fingers, Pontiac, Toad Venom, Hollow Leg (x2), and Sacred Buzz. A new King Buffalo single was a late-year boon, that Hermano was worth it for the previously-unreleased studio track alone, and strong showings from Michael Rudolph Cummings, Deer Lord, Conan and Cortége, along with the aforementioned splits, assured that through the entire year, attention spans would receive consistent challenge in the movement from one thing to the next.

By way of a familiar confession, my list of short releases is nowhere near complete. It never is, and it never really could be. I’m sure there will be some I left out that I’ll add in for honorable mentions, etc., but I stand by the Moura pick for best short outing. They brought a soul to it that put the lie to the notion of EPs as between-album gap-fillers, and in a year that didn’t lack substance among its brevity-focused options, Fume Santo de Loureiro stood out in character, aesthetic and songwriting. Nobody else is making music quite like Moura.

If you have more to add here, by all means, please and thank you. Comments are below.

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Live Albums

Live Album of the Year 2024

Temple Fang, Live at Krach Am Bach

Castle, One Knight Stands: Live in NY
Danava, Live
Elder, Live at Maida Vale
Snail, Thou Art There
Stöner, Hittin’ the Bitchin’ Switch
Sula Bassana & Skyjoggers, Split
The Whims of the Great Magnet, Live at Bankastudios Maastricht 22​-​12​-​2023

Notes:

Fewer releases listed here than last year, but some killer ones for that. I put Temple Fang out there as live album of the year, and since we’re late in the post I’ll tell you honestly that it probably could be any of these on a given day. Danava’s live record crossed decades in badassery, the Sula/Skyjoggers split captured the vibe of a club night in Germany, the Whims of the Great Magnet’s live release made an excellent predecessor to their out-this-month studio album, Snail recorded theirs at a show I put on, Stöner capture the end of their two-album cycle with an awesome set, and Elder are Elder. The Maida Vale recording is short, and their songs are long, or you probably would’ve heard a lot more about that this year. If/when they do a proper live album, it will be a no-brainer.

But the Temple Fang has it all in molten progressivism, heavy tones, immersive psychedelia and outright soul, and of the bands I’ve managed to list here — if you want to add to the list, please do — there’s nobody who so much defines what they do by its live incarnation. Temple Fang’s music changes every night. They follow where it leads in a different way, and the ritualization of their performance comes through in Live at Krach Am Bach resoundingly. I’m not saying a bad word about their studio work to this point, but their heart manifests in a different way and at a different level onstage. They’re a great band and this shows a big part of why.

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Looking Ahead to 2025

Names, right? This one’s all about the names? Get to the names, jack? Okay, calm down.

With eternal appreciation to the folks of fine, upstanding moral character in the ‘The Obelisk Collective’ group on Facebook for the assistance, here’s a smattering of what one might look forward to in 2025:

Aawks, After Nations, All Them Witches, Amber Asylum, Author & Punisher, Bandshee, Black Spirit Crown, Bog Wizard, Bone Church, Borracho, Bronco, Buzzard, Dee Calhoun, Causa Sui, The Cimmerian, Clutch, Conan, Corrosion of Conformity, Daevar, Dead Meadow, Dead Shrine, Demons My Friends, Dream Unending, DUNDDW, Dunes, Flummox, Fuzz Sagrado, FVZZ POPVLI, Gaytheist, Gin Lady, Gnarled, Gnod & White Hills, Gods and Punks, Godzillionaire, Haze Mage, Kaiser, Kal-El, King Buffalo, Lamassu, Lo-Pan, Madmess, Mantar, Masters of Reality, Messa, Seán Mulrooney, Mouth., New Dawn Fades, Nightstalker, Øresund Space Collective, Pentagram, Pesta, Pothamus, Dax Riggs, Seedy Jeezus, Slomatics, Slow Wake, Stoned Jesus, Stone Machine Electric, Temple Fang, 3rd Ear Experience, Triptykon, Trouble, Turtle Skull, Warlung, Weedpecker, Yawning Balch, Year of the Cobra, YOB… and because it still hasn’t happened and someone invariably calls me out if they’re not listed: Om.

If you have names to add, “smash that comment button,” in the parlance of our times. Only don’t really smash it because you might hurt your hand or break your phone with your awesome strength.

—

THANK YOU

It was among my primary goals for this post that it should be shorter than last year’s, and it looks like I’ll achieve that with room to spare, so I’m glad. Sometimes I get carried away, I think I probably don’t need to tell you.

Before I let go of 2024 — actually I still want to review that The Whims of the Great Magnet studio release and I’ve got a Darsombra video premiere set before the end of the year, news to catch up on from like the last two weeks and a whole lot more to cover — I’d like to take a moment to thank you one more time for reading and for being part of this project this year and each year it’s been ongoing. Your support is absolutely what keeps this site going and it means more to me than I can ever hope to comprehend.

Thank you to The Patient Mrs., who in the course of a given week let alone year puts up with more of my bullshit than any human being should ever have to. “Yes, love, the world’s ending and we have no money and the house is falling down around us and the dog needs to pee, but I just need two or three hours to go sit and write about riffs — is that cool?” Or better, when I’m pissy about it. The “my wife is a saint” routine is pretty played out as far as dudely excuses for being selfish, lazy and/or dumb go, but well, I am all of those things on the extreme regular and she hasn’t booted my ass to the curb yet. I find this to be a reason to celebrate and a thing to appreciate. I am loved and cared for in ways I could never hope to earn.

Thank you to my family for their support, year in and year out. They’ve all got Obelisk shirts and they all wear them, and while I’m not sure they understand the true depths of egoistic depravity involved in this project, they’ve been on board with it since the start, and this includes my wife’s side of the family as well. I am incredibly lucky to have the life I have.

I’m going to keep listening to music, keep writing about it as much as I can. I’m not quite as generally panicked about it as I used to be — older, busier in different ways, over the FOMO, maybe a little more discerning in terms of taste? — and I’m significantly less likely to break my brain answering email, but I’m doing my best.

The Obelisk presses on into what will be a busy 2025. I’ve got trips slated to Planet Desert Rock Weekend in Las Vegas this January, Desertfest Oslo in May, Freak Valley in Germany in June, Bear Stone in Croatia in July, and Desertfest New York in September, with more hopefully to come. I look forward to these adventures and to doing the writing that will happen as part of them, and one more time, I thank you for your time and attention in reading, in the past, now, and in the future. I’m taking tomorrow off. All the way off. Back on Monday for more.

Much appreciated,
JJ Koczan

A question hanging over UK garage-doom progenitors Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats prior to the release of their latest album, Nell’ Ora Blu (review here), was how they would be able to progress and grow the band following 2018’s Wasteland (review here), which seemed to be at the precipice of some kind of change. Nell’ Ora Blu answered that question by digging in atmospherically as the band never have. Of course there are still songs on it as there would almost have to be, but the imagined soundtrack of an Italian film noir that never happened — including original dialogue by actors who might’ve featured in such a thing 50 years ago — surpassed expectations.

Is violence still a part of the stories the band are telling? Probably. Most of it’s in Italian, so I don’t have a front-to-back body count and I’m not sure I want one. In any case, I will not be surprised when I put the year-end poll up probably next month and it starts showing up on people’s lists (oh god, the title will be so butchered) despite the oddball form and shift in general approach. Turns out getting weirder really worked for Uncle Acid.

Victory laps of tour dates follow Europe and the US. These were announced while I was in Quarterly Review Land, and the European shows before that, but, you know, the tour isn’t for the better part of three months from now. What, you’re gonna tell me I’m late?

From social media:

Tickets on sale now at uncleacidband.com/tour

See you there!

JANUARY 2025
EUROPE
16TH ALHAMBRA, PARIS, FR
18TH PALCO 19, ASTI, IT
21ST SALA PETRASSI, ROME, IT
24TH HEIMATHAFEN, BERLIN, DE
25TH HEIMATHAFEN, BERLIN, DE
26TH MUZIEKGEBOUW, EINDHOVEN, NL
29TH VOORUIT – THEATER ZAAL, GHENT, BE
31ST ALEXANDRA PALACE THEATRE, LONDON,GB

FEBRUARY
NORTH AMERICA
SUPPORT JONATHAN HULTÉN
5TH THE FILLMORE- SILVER SPRING, MD
6TH THE TOWN HALL – NEW YORK CITY, NY
7TH SOMERVILLE THEATER – SOMERVILLE, MA
8TH MTELUS – MONTREAL, QC
9TH DANFORTH MUSIC HALL – TORONTO, ON
11TH MASONIC CATHEDRAL – DETROIT, MI
12TH THALIA HALL – CHICAGO, IL
13TH FITZGERALD THEATER – ST. PAUL, MN
15TH BOULDER THEATER – BOULDER, CO
18TH NEPTUNE THEATRE – SEATTLE, WA
19TH REVOLUTION HALL – PORTLAND, OR
21ST REGENCY BALLROOM – SAN FRANCISCO, CA
22ND THE PALACE THEATER – LOS ANGELES, CA

https://www.facebook.com/uncleacid/
https://www.instagram.com/uncleacidband/
https://www.uncleacidband.com

https://www.facebook.com/riseaboverecords/
https://www.instagram.com/riseaboverecords/
http://www.riseaboverecords.com/

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Nell’ Ora Blu (2024)

It is an age of plenty as regards the underground. Between bands being able to form with members on different continents, to being able to record basically anything anywhere anywhen, the barriers have never been lower. I heard an all-AI stoner rock record the other day. It wasn’t great, but did it need to be?

The point is there’s gotta be a reason so many people are doing the thing, and a reason it happens just about everywhere, more than just working/middle class disaffection and/or dadstalgia. There’s a lot of documentary research about bands, but so far I don’t think anyone’s done a study, book, bio-doc, whatever about the proliferation of heavy sounds across geographies and cultures. No, that won’t be me. “Face made for radio,” as the fellow once said, and little time to write a book. But perhaps some riff-loving anthropologist will get there one day — get everywhere, that is — and explore it with artists and fans. Maybe that’s you.

Happy Thursday.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Nell’ Ora Blu

My favorite part of the press release for Uncle Acid‘s Nell’ Ora Blu was when founding guitarist/vocalist and apparent-auteur Kevin Starrs said, “I know something like this might have limited appeal, but who cares?” Though it was initially billed as an instrumental record and in fact features Starrs‘ trademark creeper vocal melodies in a few of its 19 tracks, the early “Giustizia di Strada/Lavora Fino Alla Morte” and pretty-Uncle–Acidic-feeling “La Vipera,” and the later march of the seven-minute “Pomeriggio di Novembre Nel Parco – Occhi Che Osservano,” catchy and still obscure enough in its psychedelia to fit, and “Solo la Morte Ti Ammanetta,” though most of the words throughout are spoken — genre cinephiles will recognize the names Edwige French and Franco Nero; there’s a lot of talking on the phone, all in Italian — as Starrs pays homage to giallo stylization in soundtracking an imaginary film. It’s true to an extent about the limited appeal, but this isn’t the first time Uncle Acid have chosen against expanding their commercial reach either, and while I imagine the effect is somewhat different if you speak Italian, Starrs‘ songwriting has never been so open or multifaceted in mood. Nell’ Ora Blu isn’t the studio follow-up to 2018’s Wasteland (review here) one might have expected, but it takes some of those aspects and builds a whole world out of them. They should tour it and do a live soundtrack, but then I guess someone would also have to make the movie.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats on Facebook

Rise Above Records website

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Dopethrone, Broke Sabbath

If “fuck you” were a band, it might be Dopethrone. With six new tracks spread across a sample-laced (pretty sure Joe Don Baker is in there somewhere; maybe “Truckstop Warlock?”) and mostly-crushing-of-spirit-and-tone 39 minutes, the crusty Montreal trio of guitarist/vocalist Vince, bassist Vyk and drummer Shawn pound at the door of your wellness with their scum-sludge extremity, living up to their reputation in gnash and nastiness for the duration. The penultimate “Uniworse” brings in Weedeater‘s “Dixie” Dave Collins for a guest spot, but by the time they get there, the three-piece have already bludgeoned your bones with album-centerpiece “Shlaghammer” and loosed the grueling breadth of “Rock Slock,” so really, Collins is the gravy on the pill-based bottom-hitting binge. From opening single “Life Kills You” through the final punishing moments of “Sultans of Sins” — presumably a side B mirror in terms of heft to “Slaghammer” — and the choice Billy Madison sample that follows, Dopethrone offer a singular unkindness of purpose. I feel like I need a shower.

Dopethrone on Facebook

Totem Cat Records store

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Anandammide, Eura

Where even the melancholy progression of “Song of Greed” is marked by the gorgeousness of its dual-vocal melody and flowing arrangement of strings, guitar, and strings, Eura is the second full-length and Sulatron Records label-debut for Parisian psych-folkies Anandammide. At the core of the diverse arrangements is songwriter Michele Moschini (vocals, synth, organ, guitar, drums), who brings purposefully Canterburyian pastoralia together with prog rock tendencies on “Phantom Limb” and the title-track while maintaining the light-touch gentility of the start of “Carmilla,” the later flow between “Lullaby No. 2” and “Dream No. 1,” or the gracefully undrummed “I Am a Flower,” with synth and strings side-by-side. Though somewhat mournful in its subject matter, Eura is filled with life and longing, and the way the lyrics of “Phantom Limb” feel out of place in the world suits the aural anachronism and the escapist drive that seems to manifest in “The Orange Flood.” Patient, immersive, and lovely, it sees ruin and would give solace.

Anandammide on Facebook

Sulatron Records webstore

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Tigers on Opium, Psychodrama

An awaited first full-length from Portland, Oregon’s Tigers on Opium, the 10-song/44-minute Psychodrama builds on the semi-sleazed accomplishments of the four-piece’s prior EPs while presenting a refreshingly varied sound. The album begins as “Ride or Die” unfolds with Juan Carlos Caceres‘ vocals echoing in layers over quiet guitar — more of an intro, it is reprised to deliver the title line as a post-finale epilogue — and directly dives into garage-doom strut with “Black Mass” before a Styx reference worked into “Diabolique” makes for an immediate, plus-charm highlight. The parade doesn’t stop there. The Nirvana-ish beginning of “Retrovertigo” soft-boogies and drifts into Jerry Cantrell-style melody backed by handclaps, while Thin Lizzy leads show up in “Sky Below My Feet” and the more desert rocking “Paradise Lost” ahead of the farther-back, open swing and push of “Radioactive” giving over to “Wall of Silence”‘s ’70s singer-songwriterism, communing with the “Ride or Die” bookend but expanded in its arrangement; capper-caper “Separation of the Mind” paying it all off like Queens of the Stone Age finding the Big Riff and making it dance, too. On vocals, guitar and keys, Caceres is a big presence in the persona, but don’t let that undercut the contributions of guitarist Jeanot Lewis-Rolland, bassist Charles Hodge or drummer Nate Wright, all of whom also sing. As complex in intent as Psychodrama is, its underlying cohesion requires everybody to be on board, and as they are, the resulting songs supersede expectation and comprise one of 2024’s best debut albums.

Tigers on Opium on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Bill Fisher, How to Think Like a Billionaire

Self-identifying as “yacht doom,” How to Think Like a Billionaire is the third solo full-length from Church of the Cosmic Skull‘s Bill Fisher, and while “Consume the Heart” and “Yell of the Ringman” tinge toward darkness and, in the case of the latter, a pointedly doomly plog, what the “yacht” translates to is a swath of ’80s-pop keyboard sounds and piano rock accompanying Fisher‘s guitar, vocals, bass and drums, a song like “Xanadu” sending up tech-culture hubris after “Ride On, Unicorn” has given a faux-encouraging push in its chorus, rhyming “Ride on, unicorn” with “In the valley of Silicon.” Elsewhere, “Overview Effect” brings the cover to life in imagining the apocalypse from the comfort of a private spaceship, while “Lead Us Into Fire” idolizes a lack of accountability in self-harmonizing layers with the thud that complements “Intranaut” deeper in the mix and the sense that, if you were a big enough asshole and on enough cocaine, it might just be possible Fisher means it when he sings in praise of capitalist hyperexploitation. A satire much needed and a perspective to be valued, if likely not by venture capital.

Bill Fisher on Facebook

Bill Fisher website

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Ascia, The Wandering Warrior

While one could liken the echo-born space that coincides with the gallop of opening cut “Greenland” to any number of other outfits, and the concluding title-track branches out both in terms of tempo and melodic reach, Ascia‘s debut long-player, The Wandering Warrior follows on from the project’s demoes in counting earliest High on Fire as a defining influence. Fair enough, since the aforementioned two are both the most recent included here and the only songs not culled from the three prior demos issued by Fabrizio Monni (also Black Capricorn) under the Ascia name. With the languid fluidity and impact of “Mother of the Wendol” and the outright thrust of “Blood Bridge Battle,” “Ruins of War” and “Dhul Qarnayn” set next to the bombastic crash ‘n’ riff of “Serpent of Fire,” Monni has no trouble harnessing a flow from the repurposed, remastered material, and picking and choosing from among three shorter releases lets him portray Ascia‘s range in a new light. That may not be able to happen in the same way next time around (or it could), but for those who did or didn’t catch the demos, The Wandering Warrior summarizes well the band’s progression to this point and gives hope for more to come.

Ascia on Bandcamp

Perpetual Eclipse Productions store

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Cloud of Souls, A Constant State of Flux

Indianapolis-based solo-project Cloud of Souls — aka Chris Latta (ex-Spirit Division, Lavaborne, etc.) — diverges from the progressive metallurgy of 2023’s A Fate Decided (review here) in favor of a more generally subdued, contemplative presentation. Beginning with its title-track, the five-song/36-minute outing marks out the spaces it will occupy and seems to dwell there as the individual cuts play out, whether that’s “A Constant State of Flux” holding to its piano-and-voice, the melancholic procession of the nine-minute “Better Than I Was,” or the sax that accompanies the downerism of the penultimate “Love to Forgive Wish to Forget.” Each song brings something different either in instrumentation or vibe — “Homewrecker Blues” harmonizes en route to a momentary tempo pickup laced with organ, closer “Break Down the Door” offers hope in its later guitar and crash, etc. — but it can be a fine line when conveying monotony or low-key depressivism, and there are times where A Constant State of Flux feels stuck in its own verses, despite Latta‘s strength of craft and the band’s exploratory nature.

Cloud of Souls on Facebook

Cloud of Souls on Bandcamp

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Deaf Wolf, Not Today, Satan

Not Today, Satan, in either its 52-minute runtime or in the range of its songcraft around a central influence from Queens of the Stone Age circa 2002-2005, is not a minor undertaking. The ambitious debut full-length from Berlin trio Deaf Wolf — guitarist/vocalist Christian Rottstock (also theremin on “Silence is Golden”), bassist/vocalist Hagen Walther and Alexander Dümont on drums and other percussion — adds periodic lead-vocal tradeoffs between Rottstock and Walther to further broaden the scope of the material, with (I believe) the latter handling the declarations of “Survivor” and the gurgle-voice on “S.M.T.P.” and “Beast in Me,” which arrive in succession before “The End” closes with emphasis on self-awareness. The earlier “Sulphur” becomes a standout for its locked-in groove, fuzz tones and balanced mix, while “See You in Hell” finds its own direction and potential in strut and fullness of sound. There’s room to refine some of what’s being attempted, but Not Today, Satan sets Deaf Wolf off to an encouraging start.

Deaf Wolf on Facebook

Deaf Wolf on Bandcamp

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Alber Jupiter, Puis Vient la Nuit

Five years on from their also-newly-reissued 2019 debut, We Are Just Floating in Space, French instrumentalist heavy space rock two-piece Alber Jupiter — bassist Nicolas Terroitin, drummer Jonathan Sonney, and both of them on what would seem to be all the synth until Steven Michel guests in that regard on “Captain Captain” and the title-track — make a cosmic return with Puis Vient la Nuit, the bulk of which is unfurled through four cuts between seven and 10 minutes long after a droning buildup in “Intro.” If you’re waiting for the Slift comparison somewhat inevitable these days anywhere near the words “French” and “space,” keep waiting. There’s some shuffle in the groove of “Daddy’s Spaceship” and “Captain Captain” before it departs for a final minute-plus of residual cosmic background, sure, but the gradual way “Pas de Bol Pour Peter” hits its midpoint apex and the wash brought to fruition in “Daddy’s Spaceship” and “Puis Vient la Nuit” itself is digging in on a different kind of vibe, almost cinematic in its vocal-less drama, broad in dynamic and encompassing on headphones as it gracefully sweeps into the farther reaches of far out, slow in escape velocity but with depth in three dimensions. It is a journey not to be missed.

Alber Jupiter on Facebook

Foundrage Label on Bandcamp

Up in Her Room Records on Bandcamp

Araki Records on Bandcamp

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Cleen, Excursion

There’s something of a narrative happening in at least most of the 10 tracks of Cleen‘s impressive debut album, Excursion, as the character speaking in the lyrics drifts through space and eventually meets a perhaps gruesome end, but by the time they’re closing with “A Means to an End” (get it?), the Flint, Michigan, trio of guitarist/vocalist Patrick, bassist Cooley and drummer Jordan are content to leave it at, “I just wanna worship satan and go the fuck to sleep.” Not arguing. Their sound boasts an oozing cosmic ethereality that might remind a given listener of Rezn here and there, but in the post-grunge-meets-post-punk-oh-and-there’s-a-scream movement of “No One Remembers but You,” the punkier shove in the first half of “Year of the Reaper,” the dirt-fuzz jangle of “Aroya” and the sheer heft of “Menticidal Betrayal,” “Sultane of Sand” and “Fatal Blow,” Cleen blend elements in a manner that’s modern but well on its way to being their own in addition to being a nodding clarion for the converted.

Cleen on Facebook

Electric Desert Records website

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t

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will release the instrumental conceptual soundtrack LP Nell’ Ora Blu on May 10 through Rise Above Records. It’s their first studio LP of any sort since 2018’s Wasteland (review here) and manifests the threat made when the UK garage doom innovators released their live album, Slaughter on First Avenue (review here), in 2023.

It isn’t the band’s first foray into atmospheres inspired by vintage Italian cinema, but at least on paper it’s inarguably the deepest they’ve gone in exploring it. Described by the PR wire below as instrumental save for voiceovers by Edwige French (All the Colors of the Dark and scores of others) and Franco Nero (he was Django in that crucial series of westerns and has appeared in over 150 movies, among them Die Hard 2), it’s an immediate departure for a band whose harmonies and hooks have always been a huge part of their approach. No doubt that’s the idea.

I’ll expect not to expect what I’m expecting, then, and you might want to do likewise, but I don’t think Uncle Acid getting weird and cinematic is going to hurt consider that’s another huge part of what they’ve always done. Lean this way, lean that way. Six years after their last record, it feels like a big shift, but it makes its own kind of sense.

The PR wire has it like this:

UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS Announce New Album ‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ Out May 10th via Rise Above Records

Pre-Orders Available Soon!

Poised to stand out as the most radical album of UNCLE ACID & THE DEABEATS’ storied career, ‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ is a true tour-de-force of dramatic ingenuity. Inspired by the dark, mysterious, and often bloody Italian Giallo film scene, Kevin Starrs took a detour and created his own storyboard to play along with and the result is a beautiful and suspense-filled instrumental soundtrack…for a non-existent film.

Devoted fans will undoubtedly recognize the UNCLE ACID fingerprints here but this startling left-turn will also present a formidable challenge to even the most open-minded riff-heads. Like a tense and bewildering fever dream, ‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ is a vivid, lysergic excursion like no other.

“I know something like this might have limited appeal, but who cares?” says Starrs. “Most of what we do has a limited appeal anyway! It’s just a real mix of different styles that I like. There are no singles or ‘hits’. Instead, it all just flows along one thing into the next. You can think of it like blood seeping from a wound. It’s continuous. By the end of it, you’re left exhausted. It’s hard work for the listener. We don’t do easy listening!”

Unusual guest stars such as giants of the Italian film underground, Edwige Fenech and Franco Nero, present exclusive dialogue interspersed between tracks, contributing to a unique listening experience that throbs and shrieks with horrific intent.

Starrs explains: “It’s a tribute to 70s Italian cinema. It’s a story about people who decide to take the law into their own hands. Things get pretty dark straight away and of course, it doesn’t end well for anyone. It has elements of grimy poliziotteschi (Italian crime/action films) and classic Giallo (Italian cinema’s revered horror/sexploitation movement). Once I decided to do everything in Italian, I made a list of actors that I wanted. Franco Nero and Edwige Fenech were the first names I thought of. Two legends that had never been paired together before. I contacted their agents and both actors were interested in the idea, so we set it up from there.”

Having completed the project and been exhilarated by its creation, Starrs now has tentative plans to bring some of this incredible music to the morbid masses. What started as simply a new UNCLE ACID project, has evolved into a true project of passion bringing together the wonderful worlds of music and film in one dark, enthralling soundtrack for a film we can only wish to be actually watching.

‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ Track List:
1) Il Sole Sorge Sempre
2) Giustizia di Strada – Lavora Fino alla Morte
3) La Vipera
4) Vendetta (Tema)
5) La Bara Resterà Chiusa
6) Cocktail Party
7) Il Tesoro di Sardegna
8) Nell’ Ora Blu
9) Il Chiamante Silenzioso
10) Tortura al Telefono
11) Pomeriggio di Novembre Nel Parco – Occhi che Osservano
12) Il Retorno del Chiamante Silenzioso
13) Solo la Morte to Ammanetta
14) Il Gatto Morto
15) Guidando Veloce Verso la Campagna
16) L’Omicidio
17) Resti Umani
18) Sorge Anche il Sole
19) Ritorno All’Oscurità

‘Nell’ Ora Blu’ will be available on Vinyl as a double LP, CD, and for digital download on May 10, 2024, via Rise Above Records. Pre-orders will be available soon.

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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Dead Eyes of London”

It’s been quite a morning. Got up at five, went back to sleep until six, took the dog out, lazily poured myself a coffee — the smell is like wood bark and bitter mud, so yes, the dark roast — and got down to set up this Quarterly Review. Not rushed, not at all overwhelmed by press releases about new albums or the fact that I’ve got 50 records I’m writing about this week, or any of it. Didn’t last, that stress-free sit-down — one of the hazards of being perfectly willing to be distracted at a moment’s notice is that that might happen — but it was nice while it did. And hey, the Quarterly Review is set up and ready to roll with 50 records between now and Friday. Let’s do that.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue

Recorded over two nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis sandwiching the pandemic in 2019 and 2022, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ 14-song/85-minute live album, Slaughter on First Avenue, is about as clean as you’re ever likely to hear the band sound. And the Rise Above-issued 2LP spans the garage doom innovators’ career, from “Dead Eyes of London” from 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here) to “I See Through You” from 2018’s Wasteland (review here), with all the “Death’s Door” and “Thirteen Candles” and “Desert Ceremony” and “I’ll Cut You Down” you can handle, the addled and murderous bringers of melody and fuzz clear-eyed and methodical, professional, in their delivery. It sounds worked on, like, in the studio, the way oldschool live albums might’ve been. I don’t know that it was, don’t have a problem with that if it was, just noting that the sheer sound here is fantastic, whether it’s the separation between the two guitars and keys and each other, the distinction of the vocals, or the way even the snare drum seems to hit in kind with the vintage aspects of Uncle Acid‘s general production style. They clearly enjoy the crowd response to the older tunes like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” and well they should. Slaughter on First Avenue isn’t a new full-length, though they say one will eventually happen, but it’s a representation of their material in a new way for listeners, cleaner than their last two studio records, and a ceremony (or two) worth preserving.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats on Facebook

Rise Above Records website

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Graveyard, 6

Swedish retro soul rock forerunners Graveyard are on their way to being legends if they aren’t legends yet. Headliners at the absolute least, and the influence they had in the heavy ’10s on classic heavy as a style and boogie rock in particular can’t be discounted. Comprised of nine cuts, 6 is Graveyard‘s first offering of this decade, following behind 2018’s Peace (review here), and it continues their dual-trajectory in pairing together the slow, troubled-love woes emotionality of “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Sad Song” on which guitarist Joakim Nilsson relinquishes lead vocals, the early going of “Bright Lights,” and opener “Godnatt” — Swedish for “good night,” which the band tried to say in 2016 but it didn’t stick — setting up turns to shove in “Twice” and “Just a Drop” while “I Follow You,” closer “Rampant Fields” or the highlight “Just a Drop” finding some territory between the two ends. The bottom line here is it’s not the record I was hoping Graveyard would make, leaning slow and morose whereas when you could break out a groove like “Just a Drop” seemingly at will, why wouldn’t you? But that I even had those hopes tells you the caliber band they are, and whatever the tracks actually do, there’s no questioning them as songwriters. But the world could use some good times swagger, if only a half-hour of escapism, and Graveyard are perhaps too sincere to deliver. Fair enough.

Graveyard on Facebook

Nuclear Blast website

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Hexvessel, Polar Veil

The thing about Hexvessel that has been revealed over time is that each record is its own context. Grown out from the black metal history of UK-born/Helsinki-residing songwriter Mat “Kvohst” McNerney, the band returns to that fertile ground somewhat on the eight-song Polar Veil, applying veteran confidence to post-blackened genre transgressions. Songs like “A Cabin in Montana” and “Older Than the Gods” have some less-warlike Primordial vibes between the epic melodies and tremolo echoes, but in both the speedy intensity of “Eternal Meadow” and the later ethereally-doomed gruel of “Ring,” Hexvessel are distinctly themselves doing this thing. That is, they’re not changing who they are to suit the style they want to play — even the per-song stylistic shifts of 2016’s When We Are Death (review here) were their own, so that’s not necessarily new — but a departure from the dark progressive folk of 2020’s Kindred as McNerney, bassist Ville Hakonen, drummer Jukka Rämänen and pianist/keyboardist Kimmo Helén (also strings) welcome a curated-seeming selection of a few guest appearances spread across the release, always keeping mindful of ambience and mood however raging the tempest around them might be.

Hexvessel on Facebook

Svart Records website

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Godsground, A Bewildered Mind

Bookended by its two longest songs in “Drink Some More” (8:44) and closer “Letter Full of Wine” (9:17), Munich-based troupe Godsground offer seven songs with their 47-minute third long-player, working quickly to bask in post-Alice in Chains melodies surrounded by a warmth of tone that could just as easily be derived from hometown heroes in Colour Haze as the likes of Sungrazer or anyone else, but there’s more happening in the sound than just that. The melodies reach out and the songs develop on paths so that “Balance” is a straight-up desert rocker where seven-minute centerpiece “Into the Butter” sounds readier to get weird. They are well at home in longer forms, flashing a bit of metal in teh later solo of the penultimate “Non Reflecting Mirror,” but the overarching focus on vocal melody grounds the material in its lyrics, and that helps stabilize some of the more out-there aspects. With the roller fuzz of “A Game of Light” and side B’s flow-into-push “Flood” finding space between all-out go and the longer songs’ willingness to dwell in parts, Godsground emerge from the collection with a varied style around a genre center that’s maybe delighted not to pick a side when it comes to playing toward this or that niche. There’s some undercurrent of doom — though I’ll admit the artwork had me looking for it — but Godsground are more coherent than bewildered, and their material unfolds with intent to immerse rather than commiserate.

Godsground Linktr.ee

Godsground on Bandcamp

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Sleep Maps, Reclaim Chaos

Ambition abounds on Sleep Maps‘ Reclaim Chaos, as the once-NYC-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan and vocalist David Kegg — finds somebody that writes you riffs like “Second Generation” and scream your ass off for them — bring textures of progressive metal, death metal, metal metal to the proceedings with their established post-whathaveyou modus. Would it be a surprise if I said it made them a less predictable band? I hope not. With attention to detail bolstered my a mix from Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.), the open spaces of “The Good Engineer” resonate in their layered vocals and drone, while “You Want What I Cannot Give” pummels, “In the Sun, In the Moon” brings the wash forward and capper “Kill the World” is duly still in conveying an apparent aftermath rather than the actual slaughter of the planet, which of course happened over a longer timeframe. All of this, and a good deal more, make Reclaim Chaos a heady feast — and that’s before you get to the ’00-era electronica of “Double Blind” — but in their reclamation, Sleep Maps execute with care and make a point about the malleability of style as much as about their own progression, though it seems to be the latter fueling them. Self-motivated, willful artistic progression is not often so starkly recognizable.

Sleep Maps website

Lost Future Records website

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Dread Spire, Endless Empire

A reminder of the glories amid the horrors of our age: Dread Spire‘s Endless Empire — am I the only one who finds it a little awkward when band and release names rhyme? — probably wouldn’t exist without the democratization of recording processes that’s happened over the last 15-20 years. It’s a demo, essentially, from the bass/drum — that’s Richie Rehal and Erol Kavvas — Cali-set instrumentalist two-piece, and with about 13 minutes of sans BS riffing, they make a case via a linear procession of crunch riffing and uptempo, semi-metal precision. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — holds that they got together during the pandemic, and the raw form and clearly-manifest catharsis in the material is all the backing they need. More barebones than complex, this first offering wants nothing for audio fidelity and gives Rehal and Kavvas a beginning from which to build in any and all directions they might choose. The joy of collaboration and the need to find an expressive outlet are the best motivations one could ask, and that’s very obviously what’s at work here.

Dread Spire on Instagram

Dread Spire on Bandcamp

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Mairu, Sol Cultus

A roiling post-metallic churn abides the slow tempos of “Torch Bearer” at the outset of Mairu‘s debut full-length, Sol Cultus, and it is but one ingredient of the Liverpool-based outfit’s atmospheric plunge. Across eight tracks and 49 minutes, the double-guitar four-piece of Alan Caulton and Ant Hurlock (both guitar/vocals), Dan Hunt (bass/vocals) and Ben Davis (drums/synth) — working apparently pretty closely over a period of apparently four years with Tom Dring, who produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and contributed saxophone, ebow, piano and additional synth — remind in their spaciousness of that time Red Sparowes taught the world, instrumentally, to sing. But with harsh and melodic vocals mixed, bouts of thrashier riffing dealt with prejudice, and the barely-there ambience of “Inter Alia” and “Per Alia” to persuade the listener toward headphones, the very-sludged finish of “Wild Darkened Eyes” and the 10-minute sprawl of “Rite of Embers” lumbering to its distorted gut-clench of a crescendo chug ahead of the album’s comedown finish, there’s depth and personality to the material even as Mairu look outside of verse/chorus confines to make their statement. Their second outing behind a 2019 EP, and again, apparently in the works on some level since then, it’s explorational, but less in the sense of the band figuring out who they want to be than as a stylistic tenet they’ve internalized as their own.

Mairu on Facebook

Trepanation Recordings on Bandcamp

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Throe, O Enterro das Marés

At first in “Hope Shines in the Autumn Light,” Brazilian instrumentalist heavy post-rockers Throe remind of nothing so much as the robots-with-feelings mechanized-but-resonant plod of Justin K. Broadrick‘s Jesu, but as the 14-minute leadoff from the apparently-mostly-solo-project’s three-song EP, O Enterro das Marés (one assumes the title is some derivation of being ‘buried at sea’), plays through, it shifts into a more massive galaxial nod and then shortly before the nine-minute mark to a stretch of hypnotic beat-less melody before resolving itself somewhere in the middle. This three-part structure gives over to the Godfleshier “Bleed Alike” (6:33), which nods accordingly until unveiling its caustic end about 30 seconds before the song is done, and “Renascente” (7:59), in which keys/synth and wistful guitar lead a single linear build together as the band gradually and with admirable patience move from their initial drone to the introduction of the ‘drums’ and through the layers of melody that emerge and are more the point of the thing itself than the actual swell of volume taking place at the same time. When it opens at about five minutes in, “Renascente” is legitimately beautiful, an echoing waterfall of tonality that seems to dance to the gravity pulling it down. The guitar is last to go, which tells you something about how the songs are written, but with three songs and three different intentions, Throe make a varied statement uniform most of all in how complete each piece of it feels.

Throe on Instagram

Abraxas Produtora on Instagram

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Blind River, Bones for the Skeleton Thief

Well guess what? They called the first track “Punkstarter,” and so it is. Starts off the album with a bit of punk. Blind River‘s third LP, Bones for the Skeleton Thief corrals 10 tracks from the UK traditionalist heavy rock outfit, who even on the likewise insistent “Primal Urges” maintain some sense of control. Vocalist Harry Armstrong (ex-Hangnail, now also bassist of Orange Goblin) belts out “Second Hand Soul” like he’s giving John Garcia a run for his pounds sterling, and is still able to rein it in enough to not seem out of place on the more subdued verses of “Skeleton Thief,” while the boogie of “Unwind” is its own party. Wherever they go, be it the barroom punkabilly of “Snake Oil” or the Southern-tinged twang of closer “Bad God,” the five-piece — Armstrong, guitarist Chris Charles and Dan Edwards, bassist William Hughes and drummer Mark Sharpless — hold to a central ethic of straight-ahead drive, and where clearly the intended message is that Blind River know what the fuck they’re doing and that if you end up at a show you might get your ass handed to you, turns out that’s exactly the message received. Showed up, kicked ass, done in under 40 minutes. If that’s not a high enough standard for you in a band recording live, that’s not Blind River‘s fault.

Blind River on Facebook

Blind River on Bandcamp

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Rifftree, Noise Worship

Rifftree of life. Rifftree‘s fuzz is so righteously dense, I want to get seeds from it — because let’s face it, riffs are deciduous and hibernate in winter — and plant a forest in my backyard. The band formed half a decade ago and Noise Worship is the bass-and-drums duo’s second EP, but whatever. In six songs and 26 minutes, they work hard on living up to the title they gave the release, and their schooling in the genre is obvious in Sleepery of “Amplifier Pyramid” or the low-rumbling sludge of “Brown Flower,” the subsequent “Farewell” growing like fungus out of its quieter start and “Brakeless” not needing them because it was slow enough anyhow. “Fuzzed” — another standard met — ups the pace and complements with spacey grunge mumbles and harshes out later, and that gives the three-minute titular closer “Noise Worship” all the lead-in it needs for its showcase of feedback and amplifier noise. Look. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be some stylistic revolution in the making, look at the friggin’ cover. Listen to the songs. This isn’t innovation, it’s celebration, and Rifftree‘s complete lack of pretense is what makes Noise Worship the utter fucking joy that it is. Stoner. Rock. Stick that in your microgenre rolodex.

Rifftree on Facebook

Rifftree on Bandcamp

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Pretty stoked on the idea of an Uncle Acid live record. That’s all well and good. I’ve been lucky enough to see the band a couple times — not in a while, admittedly — and they’ve always been an experience. I wonder how the songs will come across without the surrounding darkness, the low-to-absent lighting, staticky tvs behind, and the air of the audience’s anticipation for each individual riff, never mind entire songs. Slaughter on First Avenue comes from two shows in the same place in Minneapolis, recorded on either side of the pandemic, in 2019 and 2022.

And I bet it’s great. What, a band like Uncle Acid is gonna put out a live record if it’s a dud? Not likely. They’re not at a level where things like this happen by accident — that is, they’re not just throwing a thing on Bandcamp just to do it; there’s time and money involved — and reading through the copious narrative below that came courtesy of the PR wire, I’m of course drawn to the last paragraph where it says a new studio album, will happen and will see release without warning. Fair enough. Not like they need the hype. I’m glad it’s a thing they’re saying is going to happen, not the least because it’s the inevitable first question here, even though the answer doesn’t actually do much to change the marker’s position from ‘could happen at some point maybe’ when it comes down to it.

For now you can revel in the live version of “Dead Eyes of London” from their very first LP, 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here), and sit tight for about a month till Slaughter on First Avenue arrives. You’ll make it.

Onward, to more words!

UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS Announce New Live Album, ‘Slaughter on First Avenue’ Out 7/28 on Rise Above Records

Share New Single “Dead Eyes of London”

UNCLE ACID’s reputation as one of the most devastating and authentically psychedelic live bands on the planet became impossible to dispute, not least when they found themselves supporting the immortal Black Sabbath on 16 dates of their sold out reunion tour in 2013. Until now, however, the band’s unique and mind-melting live show has never been captured for posterity.

‘Slaughter On First Avenue’, the first official UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS live record, is a furious and righteous document of Kevin Starrs and his henchmen at the height of their unearthly powers. With performances taken from two separate shows at the same venue – First Avenue, Minneapolis – in 2019 and 2022, it’s an 86-minute career retrospective that crackles with malicious intent.

14 songs deep and proudly devoid of gimmicks or distractions, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ is a riveting and raw account of UNCLE ACID in full flight. From early classics like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door” (both from ‘Blood Lust’), to more recent works of lysergic aggro like “Shockwave City” (from ‘Wasteland’) and sinister epic “Slow Death” (from ‘The Night Creeper’), this amalgamation of two fiery and unforgettable live shows has a mesmerising momentum all of its own. As Kevin Starrs explains, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ is a purposefully rough-hewn snapshot of two moments in time.

“People have been asking for a live record, and sometimes it’s nice to give people what they want. Especially if you follow it up with something they definitely don’t want! Overall it’s a very raw sounding recording, and that’s just how it was on the night. There was no specific reason for choosing the first show, other than some guy just turned up and offered to record it, so we let him! It’s a proper live record with all the mistakes kept in.”

“Tonight you will be subjected to an all-out audio assault that will begin here shortly. There will be no respite from this until we release you. The group will show no mercy, and will likely not communicate with you. There will be no dynamics and a complete disregard for expectation. It will all sound the same. Do you understand?”

The greatest bands exist out of necessity and UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS fit that description to a cobwebbed tee. Led by singer/guitarist Kevin Starrs, the Cambridge-born masters of occult doom and psychedelic brutality have carved their own singular furrow since 2009. If they didn’t exist, we would have to invent them.

Defiantly dwelling in their own curious corner of the heaviness spectrum, UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS have conjured a series of grimly spellbinding albums, starting with 2010’s ‘Volume 1’ debut and its spiky, shadowy successor ‘Blood Lust’, which marked the start of the band’s close relationship with Rise Above Records. Critically lauded masterworks ‘Mind Control’ and ‘The Night Creeper’ emerged in 2013 and 2015 respectively, and their most recent opus, the bleakly macabre ‘Wasteland’, garnered much effusive praise in 2018.

“I think one of our strengths is that most of what we do live is the exact opposite of what’s expected at a rock show,” says Kevin Starrs. “There’s no warm chit-chat, no rehearsed anecdotes, no pleasantries, no running around. It’s so dark you can’t see our faces, and sometimes we play with our backs turned. It shouldn’t work, but it does. We just lock into the music and feed off the crowd. Some people still want all that old-time stage banter stuff and want to feel loved, which is fine, but I think a cold relentless hammer attack on the senses works better for a band like us.”

“The second show had a few different songs so it made sense to add those in,” he adds. “The first show was better, though. I remember the crowd was pretty wild that night. The second show was more subdued and a bit looser. That was just as gigs started happening again, so I think people were still a bit cautious. Either that or all the wild ones had died!”

A throwback to the days when live albums were magical things, rather than cynical stopgaps, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ is a jolting dose of dark electricity and psychedelic terror. Swollen with the greatest of riffs and performed with grit, power and haughty disdain, it loudly confirms that UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS have the raw, fuzzed-out power to drag everybody into their bewildering, bewitched vortex of doom. A dazzling, devilish squall to mark the beginning of a new chapter, ‘Slaughter On First Avenue’ also clears the decks for this band’s next malevolent move. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

“Yes, There will be another record which will hopefully appear at some point without warning or explanation,” Kevin Starrs avows. “It will be completely different to anything else we’ve done. You can think of it as a late night detour. Its appeal will be extremely limited but that’s OK… ‘When you’re slapped, you’ll take it and like it!’”

‘Slaughter on First Avenue’ Track List:
1. I See Through You
2. Waiting for Blood
3. Death’s Door
4. Shockwave City
5. Thirteen Candles
6. Dead Eyes of London
7. Pusher Man
8. Ritual Knife
9. Slow Death
10. Crystal Spiders
11. Blood Runner
12. Desert Ceremony
13. I’ll Cut You Down
14. No Return

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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Dead Eyes of London”

A certain portion of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ ultimate impact on underground and/or heavy rock will forever be tied to their second album, 2011’s landmark Blood Lust (discussed here, also here), but as the UK outfit mark the 10th anniversary of that LP’s follow-up, 2013’s Mind Control (review here), a revisit seems warranted. Or, at least one would if I’d been able at any point in the last 10 years to get some of these songs out of my head.

By the time Uncle Acid — fronted and steered by guitarist/vocalist Kevin R. Starrs (anyone remember finding out who it was?), the band just off a May tour that made headlining stops at Desertfest in London and Berlin and Soulstone Gathering in Poland — got around to releasing the nine-track/50-minute Mind Control, the secret was out. Even I knew about them by then, having put off listening due to annoyance at the hype in 2011. Stupid, but true. I don’t know how many pressings of Blood Lust LPs burned through the Rise Above Records offices (which in my head are Barad Dûr in Mordor but probably are just part of Lee Dorrian‘s house) between 2011 and 2013, but I’m sure it was plenty. They were immediately at the forefront of underground consciousness. It was stunning. They’d put out Vol. 1 (reissue review here) in 2010 in an edition of something like 30 CDRs — and yes I’d love one, thanks for asking — but once heavy-heads got wind of “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” they were everywhere. All of a sudden, a whole lot of bands wanted to sound like a Hammer Horror VHS that’d been buried in a moist basement for 20-25 years, but somehow also watched religiously.

Can’t blame them. It’s not often a genre based at least in some part on sounding like the past gets a genuinely fresh take, and Uncle Acid were that. Mind Control came out April 15, 2013, again through Rise Above — which was distributed/licensed/whatever in the States through Metal Blade at the time — and as much as Blood Lust set the path that many have since attempted to walk, I’ll argue every time for Mind Control as the better record.

Even its ‘lesser’ tracks in the middle third, “Desert Ceremony,” “Evil Love” and “Death Valley Blues” — which arrive after the holy-shit-this-is-for-real opening salvo of “Mt. Abraxas,” “Mind Crawler” and “Poison Apple,” and before the far-out hallucinogenic decay of the longer last three cuts, “Follow the Leader,” “Valley of the Dolls” and “Devil’s Work” — it’s a landmark in terms of aesthetic and craft. It is among the most recognizable heavy rock albums of the last 20 years, with a fullness of production that nothing the band did before or has done since — that’s 2015’s The Night Creeper (review here) and 2018’s Wasteland (review here) — has attempted to match. Even in their discography, it stands out.

The work itself is incredible. “Mt. Abraxas” laying it on the table right at the start, the strutting hellchild of The Beatles and Sabbath. Here’s this riff, eat it. Then boogie cuz it’s “Mind Crawler” next. It is emblematic of the level of songwriter Starrs is that the band can so gleefully buy in on and roundly endorse even vague heinous shit and be both psychologically affecting and catchy as hell. They get in your head, these songs, which is the point. And “Poison Apple,” swinging into its own chorus like it’s alt-reality 1969 — a fair enough preface for “Devil’s Work”‘s Manson Family-based lyrics later — and holding that swagger in the solo. Shit.

“Evil Love” is all about the careening push. It’s like you’re falling through the verse and then falling again through the chorus. Dude sounds like he’s nodding off to sleep and it’s brilliant. The chug, and that lyric, “You are dear to our purpose.” The swing in the drums and the way the song seems to sneak around its own hook. Beautiful and sinister. All this shit you’d think would never work, very much working. And the sweep into “Death Valley Blues.” The way the song stops and redirects through that clumsy part and straightens itself out in the bridge. I love that clumsy part. Uncle Acid weren’t the first to approach the concept of SabBeatles — Type O Negative did it pretty well that one time — but they owned it on this record. I feel like it was either Uncle Acid or Ghost who were really bound to hit the mainstream and I’m glad this band didn’t become that one. It would have been a shame to lose an act so willing to revel in dirt to the demands of actually-commercial production.

But speaking of sleepy which I think I was at some point back there, look at “Follow the Leader” tapping classic psych hypnosis through repetition. Or gaze at it and feel your eyelids grow heavy and your breathing relax. By the fade, those strums are echoes of themselves and they just go on and then there’s an acoustic in there and feedback and it’s like it’s still there when it’s over. And I will be forever god damned if “Valley of the Dolls” isn’t one of the best heavy riffs of all time. I mean it. I don’t care if you’re putting it next to “Into the Void” or “South of Heaven” or “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” or “Gardenia,” it’s on that list.

And that bassline. And the mellotron. And you think the verse is the march but fuck that they’ve still got “Devil’s Work” up their sleeve. Layered solo respectful of the riff, but making its own place. Then it’s the even more sneering change in the lyric into “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” — which was not a good, but admirably bad, movie — on the way to oblivion crash hits that were probably a pain in the ass to record, which, faster, is also how “Devil’s Work” starts. Also where it dwells in the brain, barely stopping as that chug does during the song at all if you follow the bass, which you should. They hold to it, dum-dum-dum-dum, until the song just kind of sees itself out in slow motion, some guitar picking up for a watery last word before the noise/drone and whatever-else-it-is-I-think-I-knew-at-one-point takes hold and it’s over.

Look, don’t get me wrong, I’m really, really glad Uncle Acid on the last record kinda-sorta pivoted away from writing songs about killing women and I very much hope they continue in that direction. I’m not fucking stupid. I know it’s horror culture worn as aesthetic, murder as sex, and that doesn’t mean it’s not misogynist. If knowing that and also still being astounded by this album puts me in a lower moral standing — and it probably does, if we’re being honest — then, as with every now and again really wanting to eat a hamburger, it’s a hyper-low-stakes moral compromise I’m apparently willing to make. But in the last decade the times have changed a bit and maybe that’s not a terrible thing. I’d call it kind of unfortunate that another part of Uncle Acid’s legacy and influence is tied to that, but those records are still monumentally good.

And golly shucks I hope they do another at some point.

Thanks for reading.

—

So, uh, I’m going to Freak Valley next week. Next week. I find myself feeling neither mentally nor physically fit enough for that kind of travel. I will limp, on multiple levels, into Netphen on Thursday, hopefully after a short nap. It seems like a good idea. I feel a little nuts. But sometimes you need to go and I’m booked for it, so anxious or sad-dad-bad-had as I am, I’m going. I also threw my back out yesterday, but that only hurts when I move, so should be fine. I’m 41 years old. I’ll confess I feel a bit silly.

But I think I need it more than I realize. A few showless months — just owing to the way my life is arranged right now; I acknowledge it won’t always be how it is — and I don’t feel right. Couple that with meds that I don’t think are doing me any good — but that I nonetheless just stopped writing to send a refill request for, because I do what I’m told — and being in kind of a wretched place in my own head. I have an announcement going up on (I think) Monday for Ruff Majik that I wrote the top part of on Wednesday and it’s so raw I’m not even sure I can use it. And you know I’m not shy about that kind of thing. But it’s been like that. I’m disappointed in myself as a parent, as a husband, as a person. I don’t really have anywhere in my life that I feel good right now, anywhere I can let my guard down a bit, and I’m hoping a couple days of traveling abroad will help reframe my perspective. Because it could use it, trainwreck of a human being as I am. Then maybe some therapy.

And then, in like another week and a half, Maryland Doom Fest. Not even going to try to see every band playing that. But am going to try to see plenty of them.

So that’s the story of it. I don’t know how much travel-type writing I want to do, and I’ve got other projects — bios, PostWax liner notes — eating at my brain, and maybe being stuck on an aircraft will allow me to focus enough to do some of that. Or maybe I’ll get lucky and fall asleep.

Things to pack: Advil, earplugs, camera, Salonpas, more Advil.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. It’s starting to get hot out there, don’t forget to hydrate. Watch your head, have fun, do the thing. I’ll be back on Monday with more of this kind of thing. It’ll be a hoot.

FRM.

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This is always an exciting time of year, when the next Spring’s festival season in Europe begins to take shape. Between Desertfest Berlin and the same festival brand’s London edition, you can tell a good bit about who’s going to be on tour, and in the case of an act like Church of Misery coming from Japan, maybe even glean some idea of when their album is coming out just by the fact that they’re making the trip.

I have to wonder too if Uncle Acid won’t have their next record out by then — as I recall they were gearing up for a release more than two years ago — and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if King Buffalo managed to put together at least an EP to take over for the merch booth. Dozer as well will have a record coming if not out by then, and if that doesn’t make you feel warm inside, then I have absolutely nothing for you.

My big question is with whom Ecstatic Vision will be on tour, since there’s some serious potential for package runs. So you see it’s exciting to think of these festivals as the anchors they’ve become — you’ll notice Desertfest Berlin has a new venue to call home — for the touring season. Precisely my kind of fun to see who’s headed where and why, and I hope you share my nerdy enthusiasm as the announcements continue to roll in.

Weekend tickets go on sale Friday. From the fest’s social media:

FIRST BANDS ANNOUNCED FOR 2023 EDITION ⚡️NEW VENUE COLUMBIAHALLE ⚡️ WEEKEND TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 28th AT 12PM CET

DESERTFEST BERLIN has announced the first names for its 2023 edition, and is happy to welcome UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS, THE OBSESSED, KING BUFFALO, CHURCH OF MISERY, DOZER, BLOOD CEREMONY, L.A. WITCH, SOMALI YACHT CLUB, GNOD, ECSTATIC VISION, DAILY THOMPSON, GAUPA and PSYCHLONA, with many more acts to be announced soon!

Taking place between May 19 – 21, 2023 will see a venue change from the Arena to Columbiahalle and Columbia Theater, with additional outdoor space & stage.

Weekend tickets for DESERTFEST BERLIN 2023 will be on sale this Friday, October 28th at 12PM CET via www.desertfest.de

Address: Columbiadamm 13-21, 10965 Berlin.

Artwork by @callumrooneyart

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Lowrider, “Pipe Rider” live at Desertfest Berlin 2022