Following up their 2022 debut, Ache and Impulse (review here), Salt Lake City atmospheric sludge metallers Harvest of Ash return in March with Castaway. The second LP is self-released from what I can tell, where the first album was out through Horror Pain Gore Death, and is led off by its title-track, which also serves as the first single, introducing the sense of lumber that comes through in the low end to give the entire nigh-on-seven-minute procession a doomlier cast. With Pepper Glass‘ gutturalisms over top, the downer idolatry resonates, but there’s more happening in “Castaway” than defeat as well as it leads into the rest of the album.

And I’m just first-blush in terms of listening, admittedly, but things don’t seem to get any less monstrous after “Castaway” from what I can tell. I’ll hope to have more to come around the release, but March 7 is the date if you’re looking to mark your calendar, and the PR wire brought info and audio to put in your brain:

HARVEST OF ASH: Salt Lake City’s doom trio set to release sophomore LP on March 7th, 2025

The writing and recording of Salt Lake City’s Harvest of Ash second full length album was a dark time for the band. Lineup changes and injuries stopped the band for months at a time. Yet, they took all of this calamity and channeled it into a new album about confronting and overcoming chaos. What they produced is a new album, titled Castaway.

In Castaway, Harvest of Ash has excavated the crevasses of calamity and emerged with an uncompromisingly filthy and punishing, yet skillfully crafted, work.

Lyrically, it charts a journey from self-criticism and feelings of rejection to being happy with who you are and what you have become as a person. A main theme of the work is the idea of amor fati, or love of fate. This is the notion of living life in an authentic way, embracing every decision and path taken – good and bad – as uniquely your own, that you would do everything the same way again. This makes Castaway a deeply personal statement about when you feel the bottom has dropped out of your life, and reclaiming value in yourself during these times.

Salt Lake City’s geography is a study of contrasts. Towering mountains, expressing power and grandeur, meet with desert emptiness – a completely flat limitlessness where barely a shrub is able to grow. Enormous and overwhelming, three-piece doom band Harvest of Ash conjures both the magnificence of mountain ranges and the desolation of barren deserts.

Tracklisting:
1. Castaway
2. Embracing
3. Shine
4. Constellation
5. Of beloved flame

Recorded and mixed by Wes Johnson at Archive Recordings,
Salt Lake City, Utah, February & May 2024
Mastered by Stephan Hawkes in North Hollywood, CA

Harvest of Ash:
Pepper Glass: guitar/vocals
Mike DiTullio: drums/percussion
Ben Dodds: bass

https://facebook.com/harvestofash/
http://instagram.com/HarvestofAsh
https://harvestofash.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/harvestofash

Harvest of Ash, Castaway (2025)

Bit of a note to myself on this one, as Salt Lake City doom rockers Moon Wizard released their third full-length, Sirens, early this year and I missed it. Now signed to Hammerheart Records — which makes them labelmates to Castle, Trouble and a broad swath of others — the four-piece will issue Sirens as their label-debut early in 2025, giving those like me a year-later chance to get on board with the bluesy melody and metal-rooted grooves, riff worship and engaging procession across songs like “Mothership” and “Desert Procession,” the band playing to style but not without a corresponding individuality in their persona. If you haven’t heard Sirens yet either — how fortunate for us that music doesn’t have an expiration date — you’ll find the stream at the bottom of this post, following the announcement from Hammerheart as snagged from social media.

There’s a lot here to dig, and I’m not about to hold you up from it. Or myself, for that matter. Let’s dive in:

Moon Wizard sign to Hammerheart Records for their debut album “Sirens” on CD and LP in january!

Praise the Almighty Riff! Triumphant, gorgeous, heavy and powerful Stoner Metal.

Moon Wizard’s “Sirens” has triumphant, gorgeous and powerful Stoner Metal vocals and instrumental hooks that’re anthemic and addicting and totally worth every minute. Just melodic, heavy Stoner Metal goodness and overall, a sweet atmosphere. Makes sense this album is titled “Sirens” as they’re known to have alluring voices.

Moon Wizard, formed by longtime friends Aaron, Joe, and Ashton, emerged from their Black and Death Metal roots to craft a unique blend of Doom and Stoner metal. After debuting with their self-titled album in 2018, the band added Chicago vocalist Sami Wolf in 2020, bringing a new dimension to their sound. “Sirens” is showcasing their continued evolution and setting the stage for what’s next.

https://www.facebook.com/MoonWizardBand/
https://www.instagram.com/moonwizardofficial/
https://moonwizard.bandcamp.com/
https://moonwizardofficial.wixsite.com/

https://www.facebook.com/hammerheartrecords/
https://www.instagram.com/hammerheartrecords666/
https://www.hammerheart.com/

Moon Wizard, Sirens (2024)

[Click play above to stream Legends of the Desert Vol. 4 by Eagle Twin and The Otolith in its entirety. The split LP is out this Friday, Sept. 20, on Desert Records.]

With two different visions of ‘heavy’ meeting an expanded definition of ‘desert’ on Legends of the Desert Vol. 4, the ongoing Desert Records split series is something of a heady affair in concept, but once you put it on, I promise you none of that matters. Instead, where the listener’s focus is likely to be is on the tense, roiling crush of Eagle Twin‘s “Horn vs. Halo,” the first of just four tracks on the 39-minute LP shared with fellow Salt Lake City denizens The Otolith.

Each band presents two songs — one on either side of 11 minutes and one between eight and nine; neither is a stranger to working in longer forms — and the arrangement of them has it that the 11:39 “Horn vs. Halo” (both longest inclusion and opener; immediate points) and The Otolith‘s “Phosphene Dream” (10:49) both bookend the proceedings and provide the bulk of the outing itself, though that’s not to say either Eagle Twin‘s “Qasida of the Dark Dove” (8:28) or The Otolith‘s “Crossway” (8:53) is somehow lacking in presence or impact. Indeed, “Qasida of the Dark Dove” in its second half ends up in a twisting, writhing solo section that seems to be trying to pull itself free as it splits into angles and crash, guitarist Gentry Densley departing the central nod set to march by drummer Tyler Smith only to return with another gutted-out verse after, engrossing in volume and tone.

Eagle Twin‘s mountainous doom blues and The Otolith‘s violin-laced post-metallic expanses make a resounding pair. For the duo, it’s their first studio offering since 2018’s third full-length, The Thundering Heard (Songs of Hoof and Horn) (review here), while The Otolith — the lineup of vocalist/violinist Sarah Pendleton, violinist/vocalist Kim Cordray, guitarist/vocalist Levi Hanna, bassist/vocalist Matt Brotherton and drummer Andy Patterson, the latter of whom also recorded both bands at his The Boar’s Nest studio in SLC — arrive to the Legends series on the heels of their stunning 2022 debut LP, Folium Limina (review here), having emerged in 2019 following the breakup of members’ former outfit, SubRosa.

As a result of the fact that both bands recorded in the same place with the same producer, again, Patterson, the stark, vocal-topped crashes near the beginning of “Phosphene Dream,” given texture through the violins wistful, evocative melodies echoing out, feel kin to Eagle Twin in the setting of the split here, and though there marked differences between the guitar/drums duo and the string-inclusive five-piece, they share a penchant for massive underlying groove, and Legends of the Desert Vol. 4 takes shape around that center. As much as the differences in aesthetic and playing style between The Otolith and Eagle Twin are highlighted in the material, there’s a sense of joint intention throughout that would seem to be rare given that most splits don’t happen between acts from the same place or working in the same studio.

This only makes Legends of the Desert Vol. 4 more fluid as “Qasida of the Dark Dove” lumbers to its finish of low riffs and full-sounding crash and The Otolith‘s “Crossway” picks up with an initial shove before unfolding its rolling verse likewise leant flow and tension by the bowed strings as it moves through its early verses. The five-piece are well in their element as they move steadily through a quieter midsection and later explosive return, arranging melodic vocals from Pendleton and Cordray against the growls of Hanna and/or Brotherton, stately and consuming, somewhat in contrast to the rawer burl of Eagle Twin, but again, drawn together by the production and the general will toward aural heft. That is to say, each band is given a showcase for their craft and though they share some aspects, they also each make their own impression on the listener, whether that’s through arrangement or atmosphere.

Hearing it front to back — and it’s 2024, I think we can admit that while vinyl may be a dominant physical media, most people’s actual-listening happens digitally; if that’s saying the quiet part loud, fine — Eagle Twin and The Otolith complement each other more than they juxtapose, as the latter take ambience born out of Densely and Smith‘s guttural undulations and expand upon as though surfacing from underground and taking flight. Eagle Twin, then, are dug in, and their tracks offer the audience a chance to position themselves likewise, righteous stops and thuds in “Horn vs. Halo” topped by Densely‘s characteristically throaty vocals and wrought to a self-aware effect en route to a nod and stop at 5:15 from which the song resumes in furious fashion.

For their just-two-dudes makeup and the comparatively minimal guitar and drums in “Horn vs. Halo” and “Qasida of the Dark Dove,” their dynamic resonates through changes in volume and tempo, and the linear course they follow is a further parallel to The Otolith. As “Phosphene Dream” rises from its rumbling beginning of synth and bass or guitar (whichever it is) before the violins enter ahead of the first drum crashes, it too makes a stop in the middle, holding for a stretch of minimalist standalone guitar and backing wisps behind harmonized vocals. That this moment’s pause is (a:) not actually a pause, (b:) gorgeous and (c:) sad, won’t be a surprise to anyone who took on Folium Limina — if that’s not you, it’s not too late to do so — but the weight thrown in the crescendo, growls included, precedes the melancholic string-led finish with a grace that one can only hope foreshadows further progression to come as The Otolith continue their path and distinguish themselves from members’ previous work together as they inevitably will and already are.

So what do we learn? One might take comfort in finding out that six years after their last album, Eagle Twin have lost none of the force behind their take, and that two years on from their debut, The Otolith remain vivid and forward-thinking in their approach to steamrolling their listenership. There’s an entire separate essay to be (probably not) written as to the interplay of gender happening across the two sides, but these are welcome lessons, and Legends of the Desert Vol. 4 is not only a striking entry into the series that has already featured the likes of desert rock progenitors Fatso Jetson as well as Lord Buffalo, Dali’s Llama and others, but a new level for it in terms of conceptualism and profile, writing a new and increasingly complex legend and ultimately broadening what ‘desert’ means in a sonic context.

Eagle Twin website

Eagle Twin on Facebook

Eagle Twin on Instagram

The Otolith on Facebook

The Otolith on Instagram

The Otolith on Bandcamp

Desert Records on Facebook

Desert Records on Instagram

Desert Records on Bandcamp

Desert Records webstore

Desert Records Linktr.ee

Desert Records comes back strong with the next installment of its ongoing Legends of the Desert split series, going high-desert with the mountainous sounds of The Otolith and Eagle Twin, both based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The pairing, well, rules. Eagle Twin‘s last album, The Thundering Heard (Songs of Hoof and Horn) (review here), came out in 2018, while The Otolith‘s debut, Folium Limina (review here), showed up in 2022, through Southern Lord and Blues Funeral, respectively. But neither is an album-a-year-type outfit, so the fact that they’ve joined forces for Legends of the Desert Vol. 4 is pretty special even before you get to the music. Not the kind of thing that would happen every day, is what I’m saying.

Preorders will run through Kickstarter starting on Friday (July 26), and while there’s no audio yet, the release date of Sept. 20 has been set. Glad to have an excuse to revisit records from both Eagle Twin and The Otolith today (see the bottom of the post) in the meantime, and looking forward to what’s coming.

The text and images are courtesy of Desert Records:

LEGENDS of the DESERT: Volume 4 Featuring EAGLE TWIN and THE OTOLITH

We couldn’t be more honored and excited to announce that our flagship split series is back 🌵This time with two of Utah’s heavyweights!

🏜️On Friday, July 26th the Kickstarter campaign begins.

PRE-SAVE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/desertrecords/legends-of-the-desert-vol-4

Eagle Twin is an American metal band formed in Salt Lake City, Utah by singer/guitarist Gentry Densley and drummer Tyler Smith. Eagle Twin’s music could be broadly classified as doom metal or sludge metal, but also touches on progressive rock, blues rock, jazz fusion and psychedelic rock, featuring lengthy instrumental passages and Densley’s gruff, half-chanted vocals, which occasionally veer into overtone singing.

When celebrated Salt Lake City band SubRosa announced its breakup in 2019, the heavy music community felt the loss of their uniquely elegant and intensely heavy atmospheric doom devotionals. Rather than wonder what velvet darkness might still await, however, four of SubRosa’s members swiftly emerged as a new entity called The Otolith. Following the same muse of cataclysmic melancholy, The Otolith is here to encircle you in the fire of their passion for heavy music.

Album Art and Layout by Joshua Mathus @joshuamathusart
Eagle Twin photo by Russel Albert Daniels
The Otolith photo by the band

Eagle Twin – Side A
“Horn Vs. Halo” (11:39)
“Qasida of the Dark Dove” (8:28)

The Otolith – Side B
“Crossway” (8:53)
“Phosphene Dream” (10:49)

LIMITED EDITION VINYL LPs
100 Copper Nugget
100 Side A / Side B Orange and Baby Blue
100 Jade Green

20 Test Pressings
30 12×12 Screen Prints
50 Limited Edition CD’s
10 ZLATOROG: The Golden Horn Fuzz “Gentry Densley Signature” from Black Harbor Sounds. Built by Fowl Sounds.

Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Andy Patterson at The Boar’s Nest Studio, Salt Lake City, UT

EAGLE TWIN:
Gentry Densley – guitar/vocals
Tyler Smith – drums

THE OTOLITH:
Kim Cordray – Violin, Vocals
Levi Hanna – Guitar, Vocals
Andy Patterson – Drums, Percussion
Matt Brotherton – Bass Guitar, Vocals
Sarah Pendleton – Violin, Lead Vocals

https://eagletwin.com
https://www.facebook.com/eagletwinmusic
https://www.instagram.com/eagletwinmusic

https://www.facebook.com/otolithic/
https://www.instagram.com/theotolithband/
https://theotolith.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/desertrecordslabel/
https://www.instagram.com/desertrecords/
https://desertrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://desertrecords.bigcartel.com/
https://linktr.ee/desertrecords

Eagle Twin, The Thundering Heard (Songs of Hoof and Horn) (2018)

The Otolith, Folium Limina (2022)

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Joey Toscano of Iota

—

How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

In order of priority, I live a life and then I write songs about it. Art comes out of living, so I don’t put music above everything else, or try to live by some fixed identity like, “I’m a musician”. I observe my own living and mindstream within this absurd world — experiencing the suffering and the joy just like everyone else — doing my best to fully experience, equally, the mundane and the extraordinary, though I don’t claim to be exceptionally good at that part. And then out of that, at the very bottom of the funnel, there just happens to be a preference for communicating and sharing it via music/sound. It’s all play and pretend.

I’ve come to it in different ways between 10yo, 20yo, and so on. Very recently, I’ve come to do what I’m doing now because a friend asked me to play the leads on a record he wrote. I wasn’t very active at that point, but found motivation in wanting to help a friend realize his musical vision. That in turn lead me to being inspired to finish an album that’d been sitting on the shelf for a few years. Then that lead to inspiration for writing another album. Interconnectivity and an infinite web of new starting
points.

Describe your first musical memory.

Probably about 5 years old, I’d pretend our vacuum cleaner was a microphone—singing along to mom’s Journey and Michael Jackson records. I’d also spend hours just flipping through the records, soaking in the cover art. Lots of CCR, Beatles, Elton John, Neil Young. That’s what I remember being in her collection.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

I’ll go with the first record I ever connected with on a level that had me obsessed with listening to it all day, every day. That moment when you’re a kid and you get your first Walkman. Just completely absorbed in the music and your own emotional world. Pissing off your parents because you can’t hear anything they’re saying. That seems to be where everything has sprung from.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

Great question. I’d say it’s usually when I put my head on the pillow at night. Not every night, but that’s the typical scenario. It’s when the realization hits hardest that something I was clinging to or arguing about so intensely doesn’t really matter at all. All the plans I was making, all the mundane things I thought I wanted to align myself with. All of it just vapor. I used to firmly believe that life is just a straight line, but over the last 10 years or so, I’ve experienced some things that have shaken that belief and I realize now that it’s something much different than that. I have faith that most of our beliefs are bullshit.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Well, if done with the right intention, I think perhaps enlightenment? Or at least towards a clearer, more positive understanding of one’s perceived self and their place in the world. An understanding of how your chosen craft can be of benefit to others is critical. I like that Japanese term, Shokunin. Such a great concept for artist progression. Whether you’re a mechanic, electrician, chef, writer, accountant or musician. You have a responsibility to master your craft. And in turn, you benefit someone else with that mastery. I could be misinterpreting it, but that’s how I understand it. If you put the mastery of your craft into that perspective, then the ego will eventually dissipate.

How do you define success?

A relative state of being where one has stabilized in genuine peace of mind and happiness, regardless of their situation.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Seeing my dog get run over.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I fantasize about doing movie soundtracks, though everyone I know who’s done it tells me it’s usually an excruciating process.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

Essential function is to teach us about ourselves. That doesn’t make the artist the teacher, though. How we perceive art says more about us than it does the creator. If something disgusts us, we should ask ourselves why. Same goes for when something elates us. This is why the same piece of art can have so many different meanings.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

It will sound really boring but I look forward to doing absolutely nothing and being completely content about it

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

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https://www.instagram.com/smallstonerecords
https://smallstone.bandcamp.com/
https://smallstone.com

Iota, Pentasomnia (2024)

[Click play above to stream Iota’s Pentasomnia in full. It’s out this Friday, March 22, through Small Stone Records.]

Behold the album of five sleeps. Positioning themselves at the junction between the conscious and unconscious feels fair enough for Salt Lake City trio Iota, whose five-track Pentasomnia LP marks a return from the ether some 16 years after their debut, Tales (discussed here, also here, and I wrote the bio for the reissue), appeared via Small Stone Records and heralded a new generation’s take on what turn-of-the-century heavy rock had accomplished, blowing it out with purposefully epic jamming and putting cosmic-minded heavy, blues and intense desert thrust together to create something immediately of its own from it. I could go on about it — which is obvious if you click those links — but the bottom line is Iota tapped into something special and the 32-minute Pentasomnia is arrives not as the follow-up Tales never got, but as a new realization of self formed from the same components.

Founded in 2002 by guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (also synth), who would put out two albums with the more pointedly bluesy Dwellers in 2012’s Good Morning Harakiri (review here) and 2014’s Pagan Fruit (discussed here, review here), Iota solidified as the trio of Toscano, bassist Oz Yosri (who’d later join Xur and Bird Eater) and drummer/engineer Andy Patterson, who had already joined SubRosa by the time Tales was released, would play with that band for the rest of their time and is now in The Otolith and sundry other projects in addition to helming recordings at his studio, Boar’s Nest. That’s where Pentasomnia was assembled and recorded, at least partly live, between late 2018 and early 2019, to be mixed at some point in the last half-decade by Eric Hoegemeyer, mastered by Chris Goosman and issued now through Small Stone.

Those who caught onto Iota and made the jump to Dwellers will recognize elements of his approach in Pentasomnia, particularly in the vocals. Where much of Tales was topped by a reverb-laced Pepper Keenan-esque shout, Pentasomnia brings a more patient take, melodic layers weaving into and out of harmony on closer “The Great Dissolver,” which loses none of its guitar’s shimmering resonance for being just three and a half minutes long and which, like much of what precedes it from the immediately-into-the-verse-maybe-because-it’s-been-long-enough smokey blues of leadoff “The Intruder” onward, feels suited to the dream-state being conveyed. “The Intruder” soon enough fills the space in the mix left open in that verse with rolling distortion and a solo overhead, building through the chorus, exhales and inhales again during the bridge (instrumentally speaking) and shifts into a cascading gallop before the riff and vocals come back ahead of the final comedown. Toscano‘s delivery complements both languid sway and Pentasomnia‘s most active moments, lending character and emotional depth to the songs as a defining feature.

One of the two longer inclusions at 8:14 — the other is centerpiece “The Returner” at 9:15 — “The Intruder” is perhaps named for that willful post-midpoint flow disruption, but the work that the opener does in aligning the listener to where Iota are circa 2024 (or were circa 2019, as it were) is pivotal. It tells you in clear terms that at no point on Pentasomnia are Iota trying to dream it’s 2008, but back then you could hear them pushing themselves creatively and you can hear it now too.

Amid the Soundgardeny thrust of “The Timekeeper,” the vocal reach at the end preserves the moment where breath gives out, and the way the three of them dig into the angular-but-fluid rhythm of “The Witness,” meeting a riff that wouldn’t be out of place in progressive metal with an organic nod and distinctly grunge-tinged vocal harmonies, likewise comes across as a manifestation of personal growth. If you are or think you are the same person now you were 16 years ago, well, you might want to have a hard look at that. By not aping what they did on the debut, by not trying to rebottle that particular lightning, Iota allow themselves to emphasize the sonic adventurousness was so much a part of the band’s appeal in the first place. Pentasomnia doesn’t take you to the same places as Tales, and it’s not supposed to. This is a new journey.

I suppose all of this is in some way an attempt to prepare those who got on board with Tales for the differences in aesthetic and intensity wrought through Pentasomnia, but honestly, I’m not sure it’s that big a deal. It’s the same players, even if Yosri is credited as Oz Inglorious, and the new collection is unquestionably a richer listening experience that accounts for Iota as its own entity in its creative drive, atmosphere and groove — Yosri‘s basswork being the very opposite of his nom de plume — while sharing its predecessor’s lack of pretense and bent toward individual expression in an updated way. I was a big fan of Tales. Hell, I had it on yesterday ahead of writing this review. It holds up. Pentasomnia says and does more than Iota could have during their first run, codifying elements of their style that they never had the chance to reaffirm as their own in Toscano‘s sleek riffs and transcendental soloing and Patterson‘s stately flow on drums — both the motor behind “The Witness” and the sunny hilltop on which the pastoralia early in “The Returner” takes place — and a range in songcraft that makes them all the more identifiably themselves.

The inevitable next question is to what, if anything, it will lead. A threat of live shows has been issued, but would Iota come back after 16 years, put out an album and do ‘select appearances’ in the manner of, say, Lowrider? I don’t know. Further, if these songs started coming together in 2018 and are landing now, what does that mean for their future? Could they not already have another LP ready to go when they need it, and is it any more or less likely that Pentasomnia will land, hit hard with those it’s going to hit hard with, and the band will re-recede in the face of other priorities in music and life, possibly either for good or some other extended period of time? I don’t know that either. And like the shifts in sound, those kinds of considerations become secondary to the actual listening experience. Part of what allowed Iota‘s music to endure over the course of their long absence was the cohesion they found bringing disparate ideas together. Pentasomnia feels a little more like a fourth LP than a second in how it’s grown, but if you’d hold that against it, you’re making the choice to miss out.

I find that, as regards bottom lines, I’m just really glad Pentasomnia exists. Again, I’m a fan. It’s personal for me, and I’m not going to try to speak to anyone else’s experience. I’d heard rumblings of Iota activity circa the end of the 2010s, but can’t say I ever realistically expected anything else from them, and even if I had, I likely wouldn’t have imagined the kind of progression they have on offer. Whatever is to come or isn’t, the dreams they’re having are real and vivid. This is worth appreciating now before we all wake up and everything disappears.

Iota, “The Timekeeper” official video

Iota on Facebook

Iota on Instagram

Iota website

Small Stone Records on Facebook

Small Stone Records on Instagram

Small Stone Records on Bandcamp

Small Stone Records website

If you were hanging around these parts earlier this month, you already knew Iota would return this year with their first album since 2008’s epic-and-I-don’t-always-call-things-epic debut, Tales (discussed here and here). That’s news to me, I don’t know about you. Good news. If you dug what guitarist Joey Toscano brought to the two Dwellers full-lengths on Small Stone in terms of melody and emotion, that melds gorgeously on Pentasomnia with a style of bluesy desertism that even Tales, broad as it was, only half defined.

Yeah, I’ve heard the record. The bio I wrote for it, which is what’s linked above, also came in with the PR wire confirmation of the March 22 release for Pentasomnia and the track stream for “The Returner.” Which you should hear. Here, let me stop talking so you can get on that.

Go go go listen listen listen and then probably preorder or something:

IOTA: Salt Lake City Cult Psychedelic Rock Trio To Release Pentasomnia Full-Length March 22nd On Small Stone Recordings; New Track Streaming + Preorders Available

Cult psychedelic heavy rock trio IOTA will release their long-awaited Pentasomnia full-length on March 22nd via Small Stone Recordings!

It’s been nearly sixteen years since Salt Lake City’s IOTA carved a place for themselves in the heavy underground with their debut album, Tales. Released by Small Stone Recordings, it was recorded by drummer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, ex-SubRosa), with founding guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (who’d form Dwellers later), and bassist Oz Inglorious (ex-Bird Eater, Suffocater) and drew heavy rock impulses across space in a way that was innovative and engrossing. Marked by the twenty-minute “Dimensional Orbiter” that was the first song the band ever wrote, it showed huge potential for IOTA, who moved onto other outfits while the cult of those in the know steadily grew.

Pentasomnia, an album of five dreams, marks a return for a project begun by Toscano circa 2001, a band that has been intermittently lived with, shelved, pushed, pulled, stretched, and twisted, but whose sound shimmers with atmosphere and the resonant, bluesy emotionalism of Toscano’s vocals. Rather than some slapdash decade-and-a-half-later follow-up to a record on its way to being a niche-classic, Pentasomnia is cohesive, and as much an unexpected step forward as an unexpected return. IOTA — Toscano, Inglorious, and Patterson — revel in the groove and sway of these five songs, from the boozy head-hang of opener “The Intruder” into the ambient push of “The Returner,” which feels like a manifestation of the meld between cosmic and desert rock that was so much the heart of the band during their first run; the very essence of what they do, given new life and perspective.

“Pentasomnia is an amalgamation,” says Toscano, “roughly translating to ‘five dreams.’ Each song is told from the perspective of a different mental state. Challenging the ideas of traditional norms about identity and our place within the world; questioning the very idea of a self. A cathartic acknowledgement of our infinitesimally small place in a vast musical landscape. Live shows will unveil the album’s essence, offering glimpses into our musical journey’s dark comedy and complexity. Enjoy these songs as snapshots of a fever dream.”

IOTA’s sophomore full-length was written and recorded live over a series of sessions between 2018 and 2019 and completed in the tumultuous years after with family health emergencies, other projects and recordings, the pandemic, work, and all the stuff of life happening all at once. And yet somehow, in and perhaps from all of that, the three-piece have managed to come back together, find each other and renew their sound, and to let the intervening time underscore how crucial their collaboration genuinely is. There are going to be a lot of heavy rock records released in 2024. You sleep on IOTA at your own risk.

In advance of the release, today the band debuts first single, “The Returner.” Toscano further notes, “Pentasomnia, is centered around dreams. With each song narrating a first-person account of an acute mind state, ‘The Returner’ — the album’s third track — attempts to describe the character’s experience of waking from the dream of life, encountering their now unrestrained hallucinations in the in-between, and then returning to yet another dream. Interpretation, divine.”

Stream IOTA’s “The Returner” at THIS LOCATION.

Pentasomnia will be released on CD, LP, and limited-edition vinyl. Find preorders at the Small Stone Bandamp page HERE: https://smallstone.bandcamp.com/album/pentasomnia

Pentasomnia Track Listing:
1. The Intruder
2. The Witness
3. The Returner
4. The Timekeeper
5. The Great Dissolver

IOTA:
Joey Toscano – guitars, synths, vocals
Oz Inglorious – bass
Andy Patterson – drums

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Iota, Pentasomnia (2024)

Iota, Tales (2008)

In March, Iota will release their second album. If that doesn’t ring like an event to you, take about an hour of your life, go back and listen to their 2008 debut, Tales (discussed here and here). It’s at the bottom of this post. You don’t have to go far.

The three-piece of founding guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano, who’d go on to found Dwellers after Iota and put out two records on Small Stone with that project, bassist Oz Yasri (who joined Bird Eater after) and drummer/producer Andy Patterson (SubRosa, The Otolith, Insect Ark for a minute there, tons of others) will officially announce the release of their sophomore full-length, Pentasomnia, next week. It’ll be the full usual deal — artwork, track premiere, album details, a bio I wrote and all that. I don’t think I’m doing the premiere, but it’ll be somewhere on the internet and for sure I’ll post about it too. Next week.

But I was asked to do the bio for the record, and since I dig this band a lot, still dig Tales and its newcomer counterpart, I asked if I could take the bio I wrote — that’s below — and use it as kind of a soft-launch announcement for the record to come. So yes, look for all that other stuff next week. But now you already know that’s coming, and way to be ahead of the game.

Here’s that bio, with more to follow next week with the official announcement:

It’s been nearly 16 years since Salt Lake City’s Iota carved a place for themselves in the heavy underground with their debut album, Tales. Released by Small Stone Records, recorded by drummer Andy Patterson (The Otolith, ex-SubRosa, etc.), with founding guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano (who’d form Dwellers after) and bassist Oz Yasri (later of Bird Eater) drawing heavy rock impulses across space in a way that was innovative and engrossing. Marked by the 20-minute “Dimensional Orbiter” that was the first song the band ever wrote, it showed huge potential for Iota, who moved onto other outfits while the cult of those in the know steadily grew.

Pentasomnia, an album of five dreams, marks a return for a project begun by Toscano circa 2001, a band that has been intermittently lived with, shelved, pushed, pulled, stretched and twisted, but whose sound shimmers with atmosphere and the resonant, bluesy emotionalism of Toscano’s vocals. Rather than some slapdash decade-and-a-half-later follow-up to a record on its way to being a niche-classic, Pentasomnia is cohesive, and as much an unexpected step forward as an unexpected return. Iota — Toscano, Yasri, Patterson — revel in the groove and sway of these five songs, from the boozy head-hang of opener “The Intruder” into the ambient push of “The Returner,” which feels like a manifestation of the meld between cosmic and desert rocks that was so much the heart of the band during their first run; the very essence of what they do, given new life and perspective.

“Pentasomnia is an amalgamation,” says Toscano, “roughly translating to ‘five dreams’. Each song is told from the perspective of a different mental state. Challenging the ideas of traditional norms about identity and our place within the world; questioning the very idea of a self. A cathartic acknowledgement of our infinitesimally small place in a vast musical landscape. Live shows will unveil the album’s essence, offering glimpses into our musical journey’s dark comedy and complexity. Enjoy these songs as snapshots of a fever dream.”

Iota’s awaited sophomore full-length was written and recorded live over a series of sessions between 2018 and 2019 and completed in the tumultuous years after, family health emergencies, other projects and recordings, the odd pandemic, work, all the stuff of life happening all at once as ever. And somehow, in and perhaps from all of that, the three-piece have managed to come back together, find each other and renew their sound, and to let the intervening time underscore how crucial their collaboration genuinely is. There are going to be a lot of heavy rock records released in 2024. You sleep on Iota at your own risk.

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Iota, Tales (2008)