If the stink off your sweaty belly-button lint could be a sound, would it not be Vape Warlök? The must-be-this-stoned-to-ride Los Angeles sludge absurdity-worship outfit are gearing up for the April 20 release of their awaited full-length debut, …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. Comprised of five tracks that are no doubt correspondingly rife with Cimmerian-style declaratives and running a light-on-mercy 41 minutes, the album unfolds like the darkest, most lurching moments of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum if their arthouse fare had been tainted by not the drugs from real life, but the drugs from after school specials in the early 1990s, keeping one foot firmly in the ridiculous and the other on your throat, sonically speaking, forever.

Vocals are indecipherable save for the early going of 11-minute closer “Bongmaster General,” the nod is all-consuming, and nary a fuck is given when it’s time to throw open the doors for the synth solo in “Satanalingus: The Devil’s Tongue,” which opens side B. As a whole work, it is gloriously dumb — even more so on headphones — massive in its lurch, and misanthropic; not a gritty reboot of Electric Wizard, but a logical extrapolation of some of what that band’s nasty ’90s era brought to doom in the first place, which I guess is the sense that somebody very, very stoned is about to stab you.

I suppose that in stylistic terms, one might consider Vape Warlök bong metal for their over-the-top, all-in take on stoner tropes and skull-powdering tonal heft, but it matters less when “Satan’s Succubus” (video premiering below) moves on from its sampled classic-horror trailer setup into the chug itself. No, they’re not fucking subtle. “Satan’s Succubus” grows atmospheric in its first verse, introducing the rasp of guitarist/synthesist The Count — bassist The Duchess adds vocals as well, I’m not sure where, and drummer The Baron also contributes samples — which becomes a defining element of the album as a whole, and setting up the blend of ultra-low distortion and floatier synth that feels distinctive even in a world where Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard once roamed.

Vape Warlök have a not entirely dissimilar instrumental mindset, but the harshness of the vocals everywhere but in the aforementioned first verse of “Bongmaster General” is purposeful and an essential part of the character of the band.

That is, it’s not just screaming to cover for someone’s lack of confidence in their melodic range. It’s part of the world being built in the songs.

And that world is a place so dark it’s almost too hard to see for it to be ethereal. And who even knows what’s on the ground being scorched? The lumber turns into a slam on “…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong,” which is delightfully filthy and despite being set largely to a single slow-motion march has room for a max-yuckface metal breakdown later on and a guitar solo that seems to be making fun of itself even as it goes. Noise and blearly-eyed ritual ensues, which if Vape Warlök were going to put a sticker outside the LP, would be a candidate for a flag to fly.

The title-track starts heavy and gets heavier, and I’m pretty sure the bit about drugs at the start of “Meth Slave” — as opposed to the bit about drugs at the start of any of the other songs; by “bit” I mean sample, apparently — comes from The State, which, if true, would be enough on its own to put …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong on my dude-of-a-certain-age demographic radar, but charm isn’t in short supply elsewhere, coming through, not so much in spite of the filth surrounding, but like the gorilla flinging it at you, reveling in it and having a damn good time even if you need new clothes as a result.

Vape Warlök are superlatively heavy, and obviously the call not to take …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong too seriously is resonant from the skullbong blacklight poster artwork on through the murky psychedelia of the “Satan’s Succubus” video and the grueling chicanery that ensues from the opener onward. At the same time, Vape Warlök aren’t so easy to discount as being just-fuckery. That there would be an awareness of their place in the genre isn’t a surprise — they’re veteran players, just with fun nicknames — but while Vape Warlök prioritize the crushing and the caustic with a tectonic weight-of-riff, they’re still basically party metal.

I mean, don’t tell anybody, right? Don’t tell anybody where the party is, because there might be a human sacrifice later — no virgin, they canceled — and at the very least everybody’s gonna dump the little pilly bits out of the plastic capsules or just crush up their meds, mix it all in a bowl, snort it and see what happens, and they don’t want the cops to show up. Like Desert Sessions, but stunk like death-adjacence. Not saying it’s going to be a violent orgy, but definitely not not saying it either.

Debut album of the year? Debut album of the blegh.

Middle fingers up, kids. This is a good one. PR wire info follows the clip below. Please enjoy:

Vape Warlök, “Satan’s Succubus” video premiere

Preorder link: https://vapewarlok.bandcamp.com/album/and-his-skull-shall-make-my-bong

The lead-off track from VW’s first full-length “… And His Skull Shall Make My Bong”

Like a C.H.U.D. from the sewer, vile dumpster-doomsters Vape Warlök emerge under cover of darkness to spread their slime-slathered terror, violating the minds and hearts of all who dare listen to the infrasonic molasses-riffs oozing from the devil’s boom box speakers.

And so it is with “Satan’s Succubus,” the lead-off track and first single/video from the California trio’s forthcoming long-player …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. At 66.6 beats per minute, this unrelenting cauldon of primitive riffs and acrid demon-yowls is like RU-486 for your ears, purging all that is pure and good from your body and filling the husk that’s left with bongwater, sex juices, and sin.

Comprising members of Unida, High Priestess, and Circle of Sighs, Vape Warlök takes no solace in subtlety, complexity, or production values. These are dirt-stupid riffs tuned lower than imaginable, played slower than imaginable, and presented with the fidelity of a sewer main exploding during a mudslide. If you’ve come here for good taste, you’re in the wrong place. But if you like no bullshit Satan-coded stoner-sludge-doom that meets at the fork of the two Dopes (to wit …smoker and …throne) then this just might be your shit.

…And His Skull Shall Make My Bong. There is no hope, only doom.

Streaming, download, and physical media arrive on April 20, 2025.

VAPE WARLÖK IS
THE COUNT (Collyn McCoy) – Guitar, Vox, Synths
THE BARON (Phillip Rodriquez) – Drums, Samples
THE DUCHESS (Mariana Fiel) – Bass, Vox

Vape Warlök on Instagram

Vape Warlök on Soundcloud

Vape Warlök on Bandcamp

So I know folks out there are just lining up to call me out on reusing the above image from when Vape Warlök revealed their collective mortal form in their video for “Inhale Death” (posted here) last year, and hey, I get that. That’s not the kind of premium, value-added content this site’s come to not really be all that known for over the last 15 years. Nonetheless, looking at the artwork for the L.A. lobotomy sludgers’ debut album, …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong, I’ll note my only reason for using the same pic as last time is I don’t want to deal with being reported on social media. Does that make me a hack? Probably. A clown? Certainly. Lazy? Most of all.

“Inhale Death” was the title-track from 2022’s Inhale Death EP (review here), which was the first release from the band founded by Collyn McCoy, also of Circle of Sighs and a slew of other projects, plus bass in Unida. As regards the follow-up long-player, I have precious little information of substance to share. Not none! There’s a title. A could-be cover. Some titles, gloriously dumb, and a Q&A that seems to be between McCoy and himself. Fair enough. Did I mention this is a supergroup? No? Well, fuck it.

My skull should be so lucky:

Coming in 2024.

Vape Warlök = “… and His Skull Shall Make My Bong.”

Five songs, 40 minutes, putrid and unlistenable sludgy stoner-doom.

Track List
1. Satan’s Succubus
2. …and His Skull Shall Make My Bong
3. Meth Slave
4. Satanalingus: The Devil’s Tongue
5. Bongmaster General

Q: Will the production be any better this time around?
A: No, if anything it will be worse.

Q: Will I be able to make out any of the lyrics this time?
A: No.

Q: Will you hire a professional artist to render a real cover?
A: No, this is as good as it’s going to get.

Q: Will Kiki help out with the lyrics again?
A: Yes of course. If it’s about unicorns, rainbows, and kittens who have unicorn-type horns that shoot rainbows, Kiki wrote it. If it’s about weed, Satan, or murder… daddy wrote it.

Not that you’ll be able to make out any of the lyrics. Just know that they exist and are just as likely to be about something awful as something adorable. But you’ll never know which is which.

Q: Is this a joke band?
A: No more or less than any other band. Is CCR a joke band? Oasis? The Doobie Bros? Are you a joke band?

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090217025710
https://www.instagram.com/vapewarlok/
https://vapewarlok.bandcamp.com/

Vape Warlök, Inhale Death (2022)

Vape Warlök, “Inhale Death” official video

So I kinda wanted to hear some old shit alongside all the new shit, which I guess I feel okay about. I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like every second of every show has to be super-recent as much as possible to get word out about new bands again as much as possible — and again again as much as possible to the extent of whatever the audience for this show is; I honestly have no idea — but that’s not even close to being true in reality. I could play Death, no one would give a shit.

I should play Death. Next show if I remember, which I’m saying up front is like 70/30 no.

Anyway, so old High on Fire into new Dozer and Altered States’ recent “The Crossing” crossing with The Hidden Hand’s “The Crossing” from their brilliant 2004 opus, and JAAW feeding into Celtic Frost feeding into Vape Warlök. Fucking a. This show’s pretty good. I hope I don’t ruin it by, you know, talking.

A few albums here I’m looking forward to knowing better. Swanmay for sure, JAAW absolutely, and I might even say that of Dozer, perhaps into perpetuity or at very least until long after I’ve reviewed it and hailed it as one of the best albums of the year — which I don’t even feel shy in saying because it’s a fucking given — and Bongzilla, because they’re Bongzilla and I’m glad they’re putting out records. They’re a needed reminder of how even the heaviest things can be made to float.

Thanks if you listen to this show. If not, it happens, but thanks for reading anyhow. If you stumbled here and have no idea what I’m talking about, you might still consider checking out a band or two from the playlist and find something to make your day better.

The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at: http://gimmemetal.com.

Full playlist:

The Obelisk Show – 03.31.23 (VT = voice track)

The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is April 14 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.

Gimme Metal website

The Obelisk on Facebook

The rumor I hear is that Los Angeles-based, ultra-weed-worship extreme sludge lurch absurdists Vape Warlök are going to be a real band, at least for guitarist/vocalist Collyn McCoy, if not the lineup with which the dense-fog riffstompers played their first show early in February. Alongside McCoy — known as ringmaster for the avant-garde Circle of Sighs and the dark-techno experimentalists Night City, now also bass in the reignited Unida, ex-Aboleth, Trash Titan, The Ultra Electric Mega Galactic, on and on — for the gig were bassist Mariana Fiel (High Priestess) and drummer Rick Ferrante (ex-Sasquatch, The UEMG, etc.), and the set took place as part of a showcase held at the Suspirium warehouse art space that seems set to become a DIY epicenter for these players and their surrounding creative consortium.

A heartfelt ‘fucking a’ to that, and more generally to Vape Warlök, which made its debut last June with the Inhale Death EP (review here), collecting four songs of absolutely gross-sounding dankness, like if you were to scrape black mold off the walls of a musty tomb and say to yourself, “Oh yeah, I think this’ll go nicely with that bit of hash I have leftover.” Stoned rot righteousness. You will not hear me complaining about more of it should that manifest — one never knows with something so superlatively bombed-out — but I’m likewise glad to have a new video for the Inhale Death title-track, with footage from the aforementioned show run through a range of in-app effects and so on by Sean “Skillit” McEleny, whose praises I happened to be singing just the other day in an announcement for Circle of Sighs‘ upcoming live release (info here).

Now, before I turn you over to the YouTube player, let me put emphasis on just how perfect the method by which the video came about actually is. Not only does the resultant clip look completely over-the-top lysergic-goop wash to match the thickness of the tones, slow plod and indecipherable vocal gurgle — all of which rule, if it needs to be said — but the fact that you can see social media tags in some of it, the intentionally haphazard, tossoff hodgepodge fuckall with which it’s made could not possibly be more appropriate for what this band’s mission seems to be. If I lived in L.A., I would just keep showing up until they let me scream in my socks and sandals about how I want to get high to do the dishes, and that’s a fun little daydream in which to dwell for a moment, but more important is that you take the WTF-factor here as part of the artistry.

Thus far — and if there’s going to be more, we are at the beginning — Vape Warlök dwell in that place between genre satire and genre itself, and if you can’t watch the clip and see it as a show of love and oh-so-fitting tribute to the project and the ceremony, then I guess maybe we’ll have to work on that. And that’s fine. Rumor has it there will be more opportunities. I certainly hope so.

Enjoy the video:

Vape Warlök, “Inhale Death” official video

Vape Warlök “Inhale Death” video by Skillit

Please visit the VW bandcamp: https://vapewarlok.bandcamp.com/album/inhale-death

Created with live videos from friends phones and a loop of a close friend of ours childhood photo singing the baby shark song thanks to a sketchy iphone app. Much like the quick DIY nature of the VW EP this was done with effects from Instagram, Tik Tok, iMovie and Photoshop. It was a labor of love on the part of SkilliArt, that and cannabis (but not vaped!).

Live video from the Feb 4th Vape Warlök debut show at Suspirium featuring Collyn McCoy, Mariana Fiel and Rick Ferrante, music from the VW debut release.

Vape Warlök, Inhale Death (2022)

Vape Warlök on Facebook

Vape Warlök on Instagram

Vape Warlök on Soundcloud

Vape Warlök on Bandcamp

Based, according to them, in Greenland and proffering three ready-to-be-called-slabs tracks of crusty, sludgy stoner fuckall, Vape Warlök will release their debut EP, Inhale Death, tomorrow. The release tops 21 minutes of huge, willfully-ugly tonality, the bass and guitar finding only so much room to breathe as to cast a dank psychedelia, stoned to the nines in leadoff “Orbital Cube” while vocals gurgle beneath, more death metal than not, but not really death metal. There’s backward guitar, a sample here and there, but the primary factor is the resin-coated lumber of the riff itself, which makes no bones about its sense of ritual worship at altars weedian and distorted. It’s the only song on Inhale Death under seven minutes long, and you just nod the whole time and that’s all you need. One gets the sense the band are doing the same.

Samples and synth add breadth, but the overriding impression Vape Warlök make moves air with its raw-captured lumber, giving the EP a demo sensibility as “Orbital Cube” breaks down into silence before giving over to the sample at the start of the title-track, which proceeds (the weedian, Nazareth) into even nastier, harsher sludge, like some kind of mega-Bongzilla, unbridled in its density and unwilling to move off its central figure with a refusal that feels as righteous as it does stoned. There is another riff in “Inhale Death,” ultimately, but let’s not hold that against it. Something has to set up the gnashing-teeth shred solo that will eventually return to shred the song apart. That leads eventually to the sample at the start of “U.S.S. (Under Satan’s Spell),” which is both the most active and the most complex of the three tracks. That backwards guitar, the relatively speedier chug, and the descent into channel-swapping narcotic haze metal, synth, chanting and noise takes on an atmospheric purpose of its own, but in wrapping the EP, it brings a new degree to the brain-numbing effect of the bludgeoning riffery. This is extreme music.

Mind you I don’t know and won’t make suppositions about the lifestyles of any of the three members involved in the band, but for a group whose status goal was the “dankest, skunkiest, stickiest, stinkiest stoner metal around,” as they say, then they’re off to a good start. I’d take a tape of this any day of the week. The louder you listen, the more consuming it gets, but one way or the other, Vape Warlök harness brutality in the name of cannabinoid trance. This is their first EP, and it is indeed stank as all anything. May they continue to be as they move inexorably, probably crawlingly, forward.

The clip for “U.S.S. (Under Satan’s Spell)” would be a good projection for a live show.

Enjoy:

Vape Warlök, “U.S.S. (Under Satan’s Spell)” official video

Hello again! We are Vape Warlök. We love weed and Satan.

We told you last week about our EP, “Inhale Death,” which we’ll unleash like a suffocating cloud of apple-scented THC-smog on Friday, 3rd June, which is right around the corner.

But what we didn’t mention is that we also have a VIDEO for the song U.S.S. (Under Satan’s Spell) which you can view at the link below.

We are Vape Warlök. We love weed and Satan. And we hope you have a wonderful week.

“INHALE DEATH” releases 3rd June, 2022 on Bandcamp (Bandcamp Friday!) and all the usual DSPs. If you smoke weed make sure to do so immediately before listening, and listen loud on proper speakers or quality headphones! There is far too much low end on these recordings for cell phone speakers, your phone will explode and it won’t be our fault.

Our modus operandi with this project — our raison d’être — was to create the dankest, skunkiest, stickiest, stinkiest stoner metal around.

We honor the path blazed by our progenitors. We honor Electric Wizard, Iron Monkey, Bongzilla, Sons of Otis, and of course the alpha and omega — Black Sabbath and Sleep. We honor those before us who have dropped out of life, bong in hand, to follow the smoke to the riff-filled land.

Vape Warlök is:
“Baron” Georg von Traphaus – guitar, vocals
Alyster “Smoke” Kraken – bass, synthesizers
“Mad” Abdul Alhazred – drums, sampler

Vape Warlök on Soundcloud

Vape Warlök on Bandcamp