Douglas Sherman — one of the two founding guitarists of Gozu, bar/restauranteur and co-owner of The Hollows in Boston (if you go, make sure you order a The Obelisk Dark & Stormy), horror aficionado and all around wonderful guy — is currently on tour supporting his band’s new album, VI (review here). Their third full-length to see issue through Metal Blade Records imprint Blacklight Media, it is also their first LP in 13 years to be helmed by producer Benny Grotto at Mad Oak Studios.

I don’t know if ‘Gozu x Mad Oak‘ counts as a reunion, or a reboot or what, but their return to those hallowed halls of Boston underground rock comes after a succession of three albums — 2016’s Revival (review here), 2018’s Equilibrium (review here) and 2023’s Remedy (review here) — with Dean Baltulonis at Wild Arctic Studio in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who helped them bring out the sense of charge that typified their work during that time. Sherman, guitarist/vocalist/bringer-of-the-funk Marc Gaffney, bassist/roller-of-groove Joe Grotto and now-former drummer Seth Botos hitting Mad Oak is a noteworthy return, and the breadth of tone and overarching warmth throughout VI is a perfect demonstration of why the pairing worked so well on Gozu‘s first two LPs, 2010’s Locust Season (review here) and 2013’s The Fury of a Patient Man (review here).

Listening to the record, I was curious as to what prompted the return — spoiler alert: the operational convenience of not taking the band from Boston to Portsmouth was a factor — and as it had been a while, wanted to chat with Doug about its making and the band’s latest doings in general. Last year you might’ve seen them supporting Baroness or touring with The Obsessed and Howling Giant. In addition to the touring they’ll do throughout the second half of 2026, you might catch them next January at Planet Desert Rock Weekend VII in Las Vegas, as I also hope very much to do.

What follows was recorded just as the band was making ready to head out on the current run. Thanks for reading.

—

Gozu Interview with Douglas Sherman – May 22, 2026

How are you feeling about starting the work again of supporting a new record?

I feel great. I love the video. I love the new album. I’m pretty psyched about it. I think this is definitely, for me personally, one of my faves in terms of how it came about, in terms of what was going on in our lives to actually crank this out. It’s just a little bit more raw and aggressive, you know. Let’s say it again.

Tell me about that. What was going on?

Well, I think there’s a lot. Bands are are funny, funny organisms, and depending on what’s going on in everyone’s life is depends on what kind of album comes out. Nowadays, especially with everything outside of of our personal lives, how insane the world is, and just how everyone’s tried to navigate life in general, to try to find like little seeds of positivity to get through the day. At least on my end, it’s hard to get four people nowadays together — since Covid into this administration — to do something positive together, and those forces that are outside affect people that are in the band, and that affects what happens, when you try to write, or you try to do something creative, and we were just fortunate enough to kind of crank through all that.

We didn’t really overthink it too much, so I feel like it was a little bit easier than past, but also we just had a good, good crop of tunes, and I’m always writing, and Gaff is always writing, and so it wasn’t anything short of material, it was just what was, what was going to make sense for the, for this album in particular, to to showcase what was exactly going on, and then at that, at one point, while we were writing, I decided to, in this, in this economy, decided to become a partner in a restaurant, in a bar, and, and so, as I, yeah, so not only am I in a band that’s, not making money, I have a restaurant that’s, trying to make money right now, so it’s like two…

A litany of terrible fiscal decisions.

Yeah, so it’s it’s fun. So my whole life is pretty much I wake up and everything’s on fire and I’m trying to trying to figure out how to navigate it. But it is fun. I love jumping into this venture of owning a restaurant, but also it’s geared towards a lot of like stuff that we’re all into, like music, and so kind of like it coincides with everything, so just getting that rolling, and then getting the album together, was a lot of pressure. And then we, we went with Benny Grotto, who did, Locust Season, the first one, and I think half the second one, of Fury, and we wanted to get back to those roots, and to something familiar.

We weren’t going to something that was unknown. We just wanted everything to be comfortable when we went in there to record, and I think the product was good, also Seth, at that point, decided he was leaving the band on good terms. Everything was fine. It was personal stuff, and it’s tough being in a band. You know, it’s not easy. And so he was on his way out, but he wanted to do the album, which was awesome. And we love him to death. And it’s very commendable and honorable that, he did that and killed it. We had this limited timeline, a person leaving, personal stuff going on in my life, and Gaff’s life, and everyone else’s life, like anything.

And so, long story short, this is what came out of it, and I think it kind of represents everything. We still have those kind of like roots in desert rock/stoner rock stuff, but also we have a little bit more of a, I don’t know if it’s a harder edge, but just more, more aggressive, but also, focusing on melody, which is number one with us in choruses, and how to create courses, and like how to actually do that, because it’s hard, you know. We could sit around, just do whatever, and just kind of like come up with anything, but we’re still trying to figure out how to actually write a good pop tune, and it’s hard.

You mentioned starting being partner in a restaurant, starting The Hollows. I was going to ask if that’s going to change the being on tour for you, waking up and still having to put out those fires every day.

No, because I’m going partnered with my girlfriend and another partner, and so I’ll be connected to all of them, and plus I have security cameras where I can be yelling at bartenders over text: put that money back, stop drinking on the job, that kind of thing. But yeah, no, it’ll be the same. It’s a lot, and it’s a lot of work, that’s all I can say, and I have a lot of respect for people who do that kind of stuff, and now more than ever, but yeah, no, it’d be the same, and the beauty of technology is you can tour and work from the van, which is pretty much what everybody does right now. A lot of jobs are so easy, to have that luxury of getting in the van and during the day, do work, and then at night play and that’s kind of how it is.

What new songs are in the set?

Good question. We have six off the new one, so that “Corinthian Leatherface,” “They Did Know Karate,” “Midnight Express.” Fuck. The name situation is still — we’re still trying to remember the names, because they’ve changed so many times, and they’re all fucking all over the place. So, six of the newest ones, and then we have a bunch of old stuff, and it’s kind of cool, because I’m not used to at this point being like, oh shit, we’ve been doing this for a while now, but we have these kind of tunes that we haven’t played before that are cool but we’re not doing this time. I think the next run we’ll do a lot of like older stuff, and it’s kind of getting that weird point where it’s like, pull up the hits, or like, do stuff we haven’t done before and that kind of thing. So it’s kind of weird, but it’s an hour set we have geared for, so it kind of runs the gamut of everything, plus these new six songs. This will be the first time we’re touring and playing like the majority of the new album, so I’m really, really psyched about that, just to push it and stuff.

How did co-headlining with Restless Spirit come about?

I love them. I think this is a good pairing. When I was working at the Middle East bartending, I saw them play a bunch of times, and I’ve always talked to a them about potentially doing a tour, and like that kind of thing. It’s always been, yeah, we’ll get together, but their manager, if I remember correctly, is our manager as well. So it kind of lined up that they were putting out an album, and we were putting out an album literally at the same time. So I was like, hey, let’s do this, and it kind of worked out, and it’s a good fit, I think, and a good package, to run around the States, and make something happen.

Last year you were supporting The Obsessed. Is it a different mindset for you starting something like this than that? Do you think about these shows differently, as your shows?

Yeah, I mean, those tours are awesome. Every time we’ve headlined, it’s always been kind of weird, because we never really matched up too well with like an actual huge package tour, and so I think this one lines up well in terms of styles, and so it’s a lot easier. It also puts a lot of pressure on the band to do a lot of shit to make stuff happen, because when you’re supporting a band that’s legendary like The Obsessed or Baroness, it’s just easy to be like, yeah, we’ll run a set, and whatever happens, happens. Subconsciously it’s not on us. But when you’re in charge of it, or it falls on you, how the show goes, it puts a different mindset to it, and when you have a good band like Restless Spirit co-headlining, it makes it that much more stronger, and you feel confident about it. So, I feel confident about it, going into it. Whereas before, I would definitely be afraid, like, “Oh, is this going to happen?” Like, “How’s this going to end up?” and that kind of thing.

I was okay looking at the back of the record. What is “Holla if You Hear Me Records?”

Okay, it’s weird. Yeah, so this album, so confusing. The album’s out on Metal Blade/BlackLight Media, but we’re licensing it for the first time from Metal Blade, so we’re licensing the album from them.

What does that mean?

You’re paying for them to put it out. They’re letting us use the songs and we’re responsible for putting it out ourselves. That is the nutshell of it, and so, in order to do that, you have to kind of form your own little corporation to do it. That’s what that is. It’s weird. It was kind of thrown upon us. We didn’t really know how to navigate that. I’m still trying to figure it out, too. I’m not extremely well-versed in this area, but the short of it is, they’re still putting out the album and doing the big machine, press, and backing us on that end, but in terms of putting it out, they’re going to do digital, but we’re responsible for everything else, and if we wanted to do anything else, it’s on us. We’d have to buy it from them. So we buy the song, buy the licensing from them to do it.

That’s why we don’t have CDs right now, because, quite frankly, it’s fucking expensive. And so we choose between CDs and vinyl, you know? I just chose vinyl because I think vinyl is the way to go. It’s just more tangible, it has more of an appeal factor, and people that even don’t listen to vinyl will buy it. But also, a lot of people in our genre buy vinyl. That’s what they do. But a lot of people hit me up now for CDs, so it’s just this weird thing again, where I’m just trying to figure out, like, what a lot of people – it’s not even just like a couple people, it’s been a lot — and so we’re going to be doing that as well, just not right now. So it’s kind of.. it’s kind of piecemealing this out.

What that also means is distribution is kind of rough too, because now that we have the vinyl out, it’s like we’re our own company. Now we’re looking for distribution in Europe, right now, and some other places to get it out there, because right now we’re just primarily using Bandcamp to put the vinyl out, which has been fine. It’s been very interesting on that, and using Bandcamp is kind of our stable to put it out. It’s kind of a weird thing. It’s almost like we’re back to square one with a huge, company pushing the PR and everything else, behind us with full support.

From here, will you guys put out your own records? Is that the way you’re going?

I don’t know, I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. When it comes time, yeah, I’m definitely ready. We have to figure out what that’s going to look like. I mean, we could. It’s hard because the thing is, right now, what pushes albums, unfortunately, is the PR machine, the algorithm machine, getting it. How you get seen by a lot of people is word of mouth, and that word of mouth has to come from social media, and how do you make that happen? You know, and it’s just what it is. It’s like chasing the dragon to kind of push this out. So, yeah, we’ll figure it out, you know. We’ve done this for a while, so hopefully, I think we can navigate this one. And I mean, couple years from now, who the hell knows what the situation is going to be? You could literally — and I think I’ve seen other bands do this too — they just form their own record labels, and they just put them out themselves. You can do it, it’s easy. It’s just more about, do you have the time to put the back end together to do that work.

In addition to all the other work.

Exactly, exactly. I think that’s part of it too. Technology, as much as it is good, it can be hard, but for the positive end it can make musicians independent and successful at the same time.

Talk to me about being at Mad Oak. How much was that a homecoming for you?

Yeah, it’s great. And they just moved that studio to another right across the street into an awesome, awesome room the across the way. That we were one of the last bands to record at the previous one was awesome. It was good being there. It was just good vibes, and Benny’s super-talented, and he delivered. It just felt easy. You know, we went in there, we did our thing, we gave him the songs beforehand, and hearing, he knew what he was going to do, and so it was seamless at that point. But it’s just good vibes in general. We did record the basics at the new one, the new Mad Oak, and it’s awesome, super-sleek, homey, and super-fun, and got to see [Craig] Riggs [owner of Mad Oak, vocalist in Kind, Sasquatch drummer, etc.], of course, and just it was good to hang with homies and make it happen. Yeah, good mojo.

Was there was there something about the songs that made you want to do that, take that route with them?

No, I think was that thing where we were talking about before, about just everything kind of being hectic in life, and just the way everything is, and we just didn’t want to think too much in terms of traveling somewhere or doing something with somebody. We wanted something that was like a short hit and a sure thing, and just to be familiar in the family end of having Benny there, and being comfortable, making this happen without thinking about, is this guy going to get it right, what’s this guy’s work ethic, and that kind of thing.

He knocked it out of the park, and he was great, which psyched for him, he’s got amazing ears for that kind of stuff, and he’s also grown when we worked with him in 2009 or ’10. I mean, we’re in ’26 right now, so he’s also come into his own as an amazing engineer and super-talented. As we all know, and he’s done awesome albums for everybody in bands that we know in our genre. It just became a thing where it was just easy to make it all happen, and but also make it happen in a way that was super-fast and not laborious, so low drama. Yeah, no drama at all. So it was great.

What are your plans for the rest of the year? When are you going to Europe?

Yeah, it’s a good question. We’re looking for Europe right now, so hopefully we can, make that happen this year. I don’t know what the plans are for that yet, but hopefully something soon. If not the fall, hopefully the winter, we can make something happen, but no plans right now. I know we have this tour, and we have something coming up in January, and other than that, nothing yet after this on the books yet. I’m sure something will come up.

—

GOZU remaining tour dates w/ Restless Spirit:
6/11/2026 Knucklehead – Los Angeles, CA
6/16/2026 The Lost Well – Austin, TX
6/17/2026 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
6/18/2026 Eastside Bowl – Nashville, TN
6/19/2026 Bogg’s Social & Supply – Atlanta, GA
6/20/2026 New Brookland Tavern – West Columbia, SC
6/21/2026 Chapel Of Bones – Raleigh, NC
6/23/2026 The Camel – Richmond, VA
6/24/2026 Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD
6/25/2026 Gold Sounds – Brooklyn, NY
6/26/2026 Nikki Lopez – Philadelphia, PA
6/27/2026 Middle East Upstairs – Cambridge, MA

Gozu, VI (2026)

Gozu, “Banacek” official video

Gozu Linktr.ee

Gozu on Bandcamp

Gozu on Instagram

Gozu on Facebook

Blacklight Media website

Blacklight Media on Instagram

Blacklight Media on Facebook

On any level you’d like to consider, Gozu are a different band than they were 13 years ago when they last worked with Mad Oak Studios to produce an album. And 2013’s The Fury of a Patient Man (review here) was a monster, don’t get me wrong, but the Boston-based four-piece would go on to up the level of aggression and charge in their sound throughout the remainder of the 2010s and into the 2020s, with a succession of three rager LPs — just so they’re listed: 2016’s Revival (review here), 2018’s Equilibrium (review here) and 2023’s Remedy (review here) — all helmed by Dean Baltulonis. Not only that, but in that 13 years, the work of being a band they’ve done, the touring, the building of an identity in their sound, the refining of their craft, and in Gozu‘s case the solidification of their lineup with founding guitarists Marc Gaffney (also vocals) and Doug Sherman, bassist Joe Grotto (who joined after The Fury of a Patient Man was recorded) and drummer Seth Botos (who came aboard as the band reemerged from the pandemic four years ago).

That’s not to say change would or could never come to the band again, but that the Benny Grotto — yes, Joe‘s brother and a noted producer/engineer besides — recording job on VI finds Gozu utterly locked in and able to play to multiple sides of their sound like the veterans they’ve become. They know what they’re doing, in other words, and the eight-song/45-minute VI sets a high standard for itself immediately and lives up to it precisely through that diversity of approach. Gozu have never just done one thing or only been one kind of band — a genre tag like ‘heavy rock’ certainly applies, but hardly captures the totality of it or the soul in Gaffney‘s vocals — and VI celebrates the scope of their sound.

Benny Grotto and Mad Oak are known for tonal warmth and energy capture in performances. It’s what’s made the Craig Riggs-owned spot such a home for the Boston heavy underground over the years. VI benefits from both of these, of course, whether that’s happening in the spacious “Corner Lariot” or in the subsequent thrust of lead single “Banacek.” Gozu maintain a characteristic penchant for melody, and though it’s with a hearty dose of stank-fuzz on “Corinthian Leatherface” — get it? — that they lead off and begin to build the momentum that carries them through the bulk of side A, the vocal layering in the later hook, much like the more massive/slower-rolling “Midnight Express” that follows and builds to a crash-laden finish, demonstrate the band’s ongoing ability to embody different ideas at the same time.

Indeed, some 16 years after their acknowledged first full-length, 2010’s Small Stone-delivered Locust Season (discussed here; review here), their personality is defined by that ability, and it becomes the underpinning that draws the songs together and helps create the full-album flow in which one is immersed while listening. It’s not just about varying tempo, but that’s part of it, and Gozu revel in the back and forth with those first two tracks as a model for how much of VI converses with itself, how the songs interact. The chuggy charge of “Killer Khan” into the airier build of “Corner Lariot” — loaded with breadth and gorgeous — the payoff of which caps the first side of the LP, make for no less of a relevant example. It’s the pattern they set, and they set it like the professionals they are.

Side B continues the thread as the aforementioned “Banacek,” which to my ear is as fast as they get on VI, arrives paired with the 7:23 “They Did Know Karate,” which is denser and carries more weight accordingly than did “Corner Lariot,” but still slower and more spacious than direct, with a highlight wash in its chorus and later reaches. The gallop of “Banacek” and Botos‘ snare through that last chorus that pays off the start of the second half of the record don’t quite slam into a wall with the outset of “They Did Know Karate,” but it’s intended to be a stark moment and it is. Both are rich in terms of sound, and I suppose you could say the same of everything that surrounds them, but the two together emphasize what the band are trying to do at this stage, as well as their success at it.

It’s about being one thing while doing more. A unity through diversity, of charge, tempo, mood and melody. The album’s last couple breaks out of the pattern a bit, with “Gimme the Lute” picking up from the crescendo of “They Did Know Karate,” the residual rumble thereof, hitting fast and straight-ahead. It’s not as careening as “Banacek,” but feels like a piece that would’ve been totally alien to Gozu the last time they were at Mad Oak that now feels like a modus inherited from their last three records; evidence, therefore, of the growth in their style and approach over those years, not that such evidence was lacking.

The change comes as “Corvette Summer” (surely a golden memory for Mark Hamill) closes. It feels something like a bookend with “Corinthian Leatherface” for being midtempo and just over five minutes long, but its chugging central riff is entirely funkier and the way Gaffney meets that on vocals and Sherman‘s final twister solo make it a party and the roll from Grotto and Botos as they move scorchingly into the fadeout stand testament to the idea that the finale probably could’ve gone longer. One would not fault Gozu for efficiency when they’ve already got a couple longer tracks behind them; it’s a move you make with an editorial mindset, something emblematic of the band’s experience in the studio, and something that ultimately ends VI on a note of purpose.

I am a Gozu fan and have been for a long time, so I’m not going to pretend I wasn’t excited to hear where VI would take them, how it would relate to the five albums in their catalog before it and move forward from where they were on Remedy. The answer to that is that Gozu haven’t abandoned their on-the-beat force of delivery and for returning to Mad Oak as prodigal riffers, they unpretentiously let the grooves speak for themselves across the board. They’re not coming full circle, or not just doing so, anyhow, but continuing to find new avenues of expression and new ways of balancing the elements within their core approach. Six records deep, that feels pretty special to hear.

Gozu, VI (2026)

Gozu, “Banacek” official video

Gozu Linktr.ee

Gozu on Bandcamp

Gozu on Instagram

Gozu on Facebook

Blacklight Media website

Blacklight Media on Instagram

Blacklight Media on Facebook

Boston’s Gozu are set to take off in May on a month-long, coast-to-coast US tour to support ther new album, VI. They’ll be co-headlining with Restless Spirit as they make essentially a massive loop around the country. Restless Spirit also go supporting their new record, also out in May. So you might say it’s a good fit.

Last week, Gozu posted the video for “Banacek” as the first single from VI, as well as preorders and all that whatnot. If you haven’t checked out the song or watch the chicken have its sweet revenge for the proliferation of eating wings, or if you have, I can only recommend you partake down at the bottom of this post.

The announcement came down the PR wire:

GOZU To Join Restless Spirit For US Co-Headlining Tour; Tickets On Sale This Friday

Massachusetts stoner/fuzz rock outfit GOZU will join New York stoner/doom metallers Restless Spirit for a US co-headlining tour. The journey begins on May 24th in Providence, Rhode Island and runs through June 27th in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

GOZU vocalist/guitarist Marc Gaffney comments, “GOZU is incredibly excited to get back on the road and get it going. The new album [Gozu VI] will be prominent in the set, and we will be playing songs from all of our albums. So, get ready to shake your ass and top that glass. Eat a peach!”

Adds Restless Spirit vocalist/guitarist Paul Aloisio, “We are beyond excited to bring our new songs on the road after working so hard to create what we feel is our best album to date. [Restless Spirit is set for release May 8th]. We’ll be curating a setlist that will cater to fans of all eras of the band, both old and new. And by joining forces with GOZU, we know for a fact that there is going to be an abundance of heaviness each night. Don’t miss this tour!”

Tickets go on sale Friday, April 3rd at 10:00am local time. See all confirmed dates below.

GOZU w/ Restless Spirit:
5/24/2026 Alchemy – Providence, RI
5/26/2026 Photo City – Rochester, NY
5/27/2026 Centennial Hall – Erie, PA
5/29/2026 The Green Door – Lansing, MI
5/30/2026 Reggies Music Joint – Chicago, IL
5/31/2026 7th St Entry – Minneapolis, MN
6/02/2026 The Record Bar – Kansas City, MO
6/03/2026 HQ – Denver, CO
6/05/2026 The Shredder – Boise, ID
6/06/2026 The Funhouse – Seattle, WA
6/07/2026 High Water Mark – Portland, OR
6/09/2026 Cafe Colonial – Sacramento, CA
6/11/2026 Knucklehead – Los Angeles, CA
6/16/2026 The Lost Well – Austin, TX
6/17/2026 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
6/18/2026 Eastside Bowl – Nashville, TN
6/19/2026 Bogg’s Social & Supply – Atlanta, GA
6/20/2026 New Brookland Tavern – West Columbia, SC
6/21/2026 Chapel Of Bones – Raleigh, NC
6/23/2026 The Camel – Richmond, VA
6/24/2026 Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD
6/25/2026 Gold Sounds – Brooklyn, NY
6/26/2026 Nikki Lopez – Philadelphia, PA
6/27/2026 Middle East Upstairs – Cambridge, MA

GOZU will be touring in support of their forthcoming new full-length, Gozu VI, set for release on May 15th through Blacklight Media/Metal Blade Records. Gozu VI will be released digitally. Find preorders at: blacklightmediarecords.com/gozu.

Gozu VI Track Listing:
1. Corinthian Leatherface
2. Midnight Express
3. Killer Khan
4. Corner Lariot
5. Banacek!
6. They Did Know Karate
7. Gimme The Lute
8. Corvette Summer

GOZU is:
Marc Gaffney – guitar and vocals
Joe Grotto – bass
Doug Sherman – lead guitar
Seth Botos – drums

https://linktr.ee/gozu_boston
http://gozu.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/gozu666
https://www.facebook.com/GOZU666

http://www.blacklightmediarecords.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blacklightmediaofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/BlacklightMediaOfficial/

Gozu, VI (2026)

Gozu, “Banacek” official video

Any way you want to slice it, new Gozu is good news, but part of what I find exciting about the prospect of Gozu VI — indeed the Boston four-piece’s sixth LP since 2010’s Locust Season (discussed here; review here) — is it marks a return to Mad Oak Studio after three records in a row produced by Dean Baltulonis at Wild Arctic Studios in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. No question Baltulonis fostered some of their most brash, most aggressive material across 2016’s Revival (review here), 2018’s Equilibrium (review here) and 2023’s Remedy (review here), but as heard on Locust Season and its follow-up, 2013’s The Fury of a Patient Man (review here), producer Benny Grotto brings a different kind of warmth out of their sound.

Before we go anhy further, the video for first-single “Banacek” is at the bottom of this post. Heads up on brilliant shenanigans.

And not that I’ve heard Gozu VI or anything — wink wink nudge nudge — but that warmth is suited to songs that are more midtempo or, at least more midtempo on balance as the slow march of second cut “Midnight Express” builds in speed across its second half. Gozu have never been either all-charge or all-nod, and that remains a strength here as they foster intense stretches marked, as ever, by the soulful melodies of Marc Gaffney‘s vocals, but the atmospheric roll of “Corner Lariot” and the massive stride of later highlight “They Did Know Karate” feel full in their impact and the sharper corners and thrust of the subsequent “Gimme the Lute” (no lute that I could hear, not that I’ve heard the song) still carry through as a purposeful shift in intent before “Corvette Summer” (they’ve always loved a cult classic) finishes with due swagger. One could go on, but I guess that’s what a review is for, and we’ll get there.

For now, the PR wire brought album art and info thusly:

GOZU: Boston Stoner/Fuzz Rock Outfit To Release Gozu VI On May 15th Through Blacklight Media/Metal Blade Records; New Video/Single Now Streaming + Preorders Available

Preorder link: https://blacklightmediarecords.com/gozu

Boston stoner/fuzz rock outfit GOZU will release their long-awaited new full-length, Gozu VI, on May 15th through Blacklight Media/Metal Blade Records.

“We wanted something that really moved and hit a nerve,” says GOZU singer/guitarist Marc Gaffney on composing the band’s sixth studio album. “I was pretty roughed up emotionally while writing. I played guitar more in the past two years than ever before. I would work, go to the gym, come home, eat and then play guitar until I went to bed.”

The end result is eight action-packed tracks, produced and mixed by Benny Grotto at Boston’s Mad Oak Studios. Emotion is writ loud and large for the band that’s been praised for their “deep grooves, thick riff mechanics, soulful melodies,” and for creating a “musical stew that intoxicates the listener, sweeping them into another aural universe.”

Gaffney has spoken about the band’s, “maturity mixed with a childlike enthusiasm to play music,” and Gozu VI’s songs are proof positive. “I think this is more of a soulful, straight forward, guitar-driven album. Lyrically, this took on a whole different feel, and it wrote itself.”

“[Lead guitarist] Doug [Sherman] and I are always sending each other phone recordings,” the singer furthers. “So, we had a bunch in the mix when we all got together. It’s usually Doug and I meeting, then [drummer] Seth [Botos] and [bassist] Joseph [Grotto] hop on board and we all hammer it out. Lyrics for these tunes were written way ahead as I was going through some shit. I would write at night in this crappy apartment I was living in so I would not be indulging in cocktails,” Gaffney says. “Sometimes you must have your own therapy sessions, and I had a fuck ton!”

The singular band’s last album, 2023’s Remedy, was reviewed as an “utter triumph” and praised for being
“never too testosteroney, even when the songs are at their heaviest.” Of GOZU’s writing approach, The Obelisk wrote, “This has been GOZU‘s method for seven years now, to take the tones, grooves and – particularly in the vocals of guitarist Marc ‘Gaff’ Gaffney, the soul of heavy rock – and recontextualize them with a force of impact born of heavy metal.”

With Gozu VI, the lineup’s melding of intense, fuzzy ‘70s-inspired riffs, rich, catchy, grunge-esque vocal melodies, and a touch of oldschool stoner psychedelia has reached a zenith. Categorize them how you will. “We don’t mind if people think we’re stoner, doom, heavy, easy listening with a touch of cayenne pepper. I feel we’re just a heavy soulful band,” Gaff says. “We play music that people can shake their ass to and lyrics that are honest and deal with human nature.”

In advance of the record’s release, today GOZU presents their first single, “Banacek.” Comments Gaffney, “Iron Maiden is a huge favorite for all of us and we wanted a tune with that Steve Harris gallop. Jellyfish has always been a band that has crippled me with their amazing vocal harmonies so intrinsically that’s how the vocals arrived!”

Gozu VI will be released digitally. Find preorders at: blacklightmediarecords.com/gozu.

Gozu VI Track Listing:
1. Corinthian Leatherface
2. Midnight Express
3. Killer Khan
4. Corner Lariot
5. Banacek!
6. They Did Know Karate
7. Gimme The Lute
8. Corvette Summer

GOZU is:
Marc Gaffney – guitar and vocals
Joe Grotto – bass
Doug Sherman – lead guitar
Seth Botos – drums

https://linktr.ee/gozu_boston
http://gozu.bandcamp.com
instagram.com/gozu666
https://www.facebook.com/GOZU666

http://www.blacklightmediarecords.com/
https://www.instagram.com/blacklightmediaofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/BlacklightMediaOfficial/

Gozu, VI (2026)

Gozu, “Banacek” official video

Here we are in the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review. I have to hope and believe you know what this means by now. It’s been like eight years. To reiterate, 10 reviews a day for this week. I’ve also added next Monday to the mix because there’s just so, so, so much out there right now, so this Quarterly Review will total 60 albums covered. It could easily be more. And more. And more. You get the point.

So while we’re on the edge of this particular volcano, looking down into the molten center of the Quarterly Review itself, I’ll say thanks for reading if you do at any point, and I hope you find something to make doing so worth the effort.

Here we go.

Quarterly Review #1-10:

Spidergawd, VI

Like clockwork, Spidergawd released V (review here), in 2019, and amid the chaos of 2020, they announced they’d have a new record out in 2021 — already the longest pause between LPs of their career — for which they’d be touring. The Norwegian outfit — who aren’t so much saviors of rock as a reminder of why it doesn’t need saving in the first place — at last offer the nine songs and 41 minute straight-ahead drive of VI with their usual aplomb, energizing a classic heavy rock sound and reveling in the glorious hooks of “Prototype Design” and “Running Man” at the outset, throwing shoulders with the sheer swag of “Black Moon Rising,” and keeping the rush going all the way until “Morning Star” hints toward some of their prior psych-prog impulses. They’ve stripped those back here, and on the strength of their songwriting and the shining lights that seem to accompany their performance even on a studio recording, they remain incomparable in working to the high standard of their own setting.

Spidergawd on Facebook

Stickman Records website

Crispin Glover Records website

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Eight Bells, Legacy of Ruin

The first Eight Bells full-length for Prophecy Productions, Legacy of Ruin comes six years after their second LP, Landless (review here), and finds founding guitarist/vocalist Melynda Marie Jackson, bassist/guitarist/vocalist Matt Solis, drummer Brian Burke, a host of guests and producer Billy Anderson complicating perceptions of Pacific Northwestern US black metal. Across the six songs and in extended cuts like “The Well” and closer “Premonition,” Eight Bells remind of their readiness to put melodies where others fear tread, and to execute individualized cross-genre breadth that even in the shorter “Torpid Dreamer” remains extreme, whatever else one might call it in terms of style. “The Crone” and other moments remind of Enslaved, but seem to be writing a folklore all their own in that.

Eight Bells on Facebook

Prophecy Productions on Bandcamp

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Blue Rumble, Blue Rumble

Swiss four-piece Blue Rumble bring organically-produced, not-quite-vintage-but-retro-informed heavy psych blues boogie on their self-titled debut full-length, impressing with the sharp edges around which the grooves curve, the channel-spanning, shred-ready solo of the guitars, and the organ that add so much to where vocals might otherwise be. The five-minute stretch alone of second cut “Cosmopolitan Landscape,” which follows the garage urgency of opener “God Knows I Shoulda Been Gone,” runs from a mellow-blues exploration into a psych hypnosis and at last into a classic-prog freakout before, miraculously, returning, and that is by no means the total scope of the album, whether it’s the winding progressions in “Cup o’ Rosie (Just Another Groovy Thing),” the laid back midsection of “Sunset Fire Opal” or the hey-is-that-flute on the shorter pastoral interlude “Linda,” as if naming the song before that “Think for Yourself” wasn’t enough of a Beatles invocation. The strut continues unabated in “The Snake” and the grittier “Hangman,” and closer “Occhio e Croce” (‘eye and cross,” in Italian) shimmers with Mellotron fluidity atop its central build, leaving the raw vitality of the drums to lead into a big rock finish well earned. Heads up, heavy rock and rollers. This is hot shit.

Blue Rumble on Instagram

Blue Rumble on Bandcamp

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The Mountain King, WolloW

It’s palindrome time on Mainz, Germany’s The Mountain King‘s WolloW. Once the solo-project of guitarist/vocalist/programmer Eric McQueen, the experimentalist band here includes guitarist Frank Grimbarth and guest bassist Jack Cradock — you can really hear that bass on “II In Grium Imus Noctem Aram et Consumimur Igni” (hope you practiced your conjugations) and through five songs, they cross genres from the atmospheric heavygaze-meets-Warning of “I Bongnob” through the blackened crunch of the above-noted second cut to a gloriously dreamy and still morose title-track, and the driving expanse of “V DNA Sand.” Then they do it backwards, as “V DNA Sand” seems to flip halfway through. But they’re also doing it backwards at the same time as forward, so as The Mountain King work back toward album finale “bongnoB I,” what was reversed and what wasn’t has switched and the listener isn’t really sure what’s up or down, where they are or why. This, of course, is exactly the point. Take that, form and structure! Open your mind and let doom in!

The Mountain King on Facebook

Cursed Monk Records website

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Sheev, Mind Conductor

Berlin trio Sheev prove adept at skirting the line of outright aggression, and in fact crossing it, while maintaining control over their direction and execution. Mind Conductor is their debut album, and it works well to send signals of its complexity, samples and obscure sounds on “The Workshop” giving over the riffs of immediate impact on “Well Whined.” The channel-spanning guitar pulls on “Saltshifter,” the harmonies in the midsection of “All I Can,” the going-for-it-Danny–Carey-style drums on the penultimate “Baby Huey” (and bonus points for that reference) — all of these and so much more in the nine-song/53-minute span come together fluidly to create a portrait of the band’s depth of approach and the obvious consideration they put into what they do. Closer “Snakegosh” may offer assurance they don’t take themselves too seriously, but even that song’s initial rolling progression can’t help but wind its way through later angularities. It will be interesting to hear the direction they ultimately take over the course of multiple albums, but don’t let that draw focus from what they accomplish on this first one.

Sheev on Facebook

Sheev on Bandcamp

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Elk Witch, Beyond the Mountain

Dudes got riffs. From Medford, Oregon, Elk Witch draw more from the sphere of modern heavy rockers like earlier The Sword or Freedom Hawk than the uptempo post-Red Fang party jams for which much of the Pacific Northwest is known, but the groove is a good time just the same. The six tracks of Beyond the Mountain are born out of the trio’s 2021 debut EP — wait for it — The Mountain, but the four songs shared between the two offerings have been re-recorded here, repositioned and sandwiched between opener “Cape Foulweather” and closer “The Plight of Valus,” so the reworking feels consistent from front to back. And anyway, it’s only been a year, so ease up. Some light burl throughout, but the vocals on “Coyote and the Wind’s Daughters” remind me of Chritus in Goatess, so there’s some outright doom at work too, though “Greybeard Arsenal” might take the prize for its shimmering back-half slowdown either way, and “The Plight of Valus” starts out with a seeming wink at Kyuss‘ “El Rodeo,” so nothing is quite so simply traced. Raw, but they’ll continue to figure out where they’re headed, and the converted will nod knowingly. For what it’s worth, I dig it.

Elk Witch on Facebook

StoneFly Records store

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KYOTY, Isolation

If “evocative” is what New Hampshire post-metallic mostly-instrumentalists KYOTY were going for with their third full-length, could they possibly have picked something better to call it than Isolation? It’d be a challenge. And with opener “Quarantine,” songs like “Ventilate,” “Languish,” “Faith,” and “Rift,” “Respite” and closer “A Fog, A Future Like a Place Imagined,” the richly progressive unit working as the two-piece of Nick Filth and Nathaniel Parker Raymond weave poetic aural tapestries crushing and spacious in kind with the existential dread and vague flashes of hope in pandemic reality of the 2020s thus far. Still, they work in impressionist fashion, so that the rumbling crackle of “Onus” and the near-industrial slog of “Respite” represent place and idea while also standing apart as a not-quite-objective observer, the lighter float of the guitar in “Faith” becoming a wash before its resonant drone draws it to a close. At 70 minutes, there’s a lot to say for a band who doesn’t have lyrics, but spoken lines further the sense of verse, and remind of the humanity behind the programming of “Holter” or the especially pummeling “Rift.” An album deep enough you could listen to it for years and hear something new.

KYOTY on Facebook

Deafening Assembly on Bandcamp

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Red Eye, The Cycle

Andalusian storytellers Red Eye make it plain from the outset that their ambitions are significant, and the seven songs of their third full-length play out those ambitions across ultra-flowing shifts between serenity and heft, working as more than just volume trades and bringing an atmospheric sprawl that is intended to convey time as well as place. In 46 minutes, they do for doom and various other microgenres — post-metal, some more extreme moments in “Beorg” and the morse-code-inclusive closer “Æsce” — what earlier Opeth did for death metal, adding shifts into unbridled folk melody and sometimes minimalist reach. Clearly meant to be taken in its entirety, The Cycle functions beautifully across its stretch, and the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antonio Campos (also lyrics), guitarist/vocalist Pablo Terol, bassist Antonio Muriel and drummer Ángel Arcas, bear weight of tone and history in kind, self-aware that the chants in “Tempel” brim with purpose, but expressive in the before and after such that they wherever they will and make it a joy to follow.

Red Eye on Facebook

Alone Records store

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Stoned Horses, Stoned Horses

Originally recorded to come out in 2013, what would’ve been/is the Stoned Horses‘ self-titled debut full-length runs 12 tracks and swaps methodologies between instrumentalism and more verse/chorus-minded sludge rock. Riffs lead, in either case, and there’s a sense of worship that goes beyond Black Sabbath as the later “Scorpions Vitus” handily confirms. The semi-eponymous “A Stoned Horse” is memorable for its readiness to shout the hook at you repeatedly, and lest a band called Stoned Horses ever be accused of taking themselves too seriously, “My Horse is Faster Than Your Bike” is a sub-two-minute riffer that recalls late-’90s/early-’00s stoner rock fuckery, before everyone started getting progressive. Not short on charm, there’s plenty of substance behind it in “Le Calumet” like a northern Alabama Thunderpussy or the last cut, “The Legend of the Blue Pig,” which dares a bit more metal. Not groundbreaking, not trying to be, it’s a celebration of the tropes of genre given its own personality. I have nothing more to ask of it except what happened that it sat for nearly a decade without being released.

Stoned Horses on Facebook

From the Urn on Bandcamp

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Gnome, King

Antwerpen’s Gnome make it a hell of a lot of fun to trace their path across King, their second full-length, bringing in The Vintage Caravan‘s Óskar Logi early for “Your Empire” and finding a line between energetic, on-the-beat delivery and outright aggression, letting “Ambrosius” set the tone for what follows as they careen though cuts like the instrumental “Antibeast,” the swinging and catchy “Wencelas” and the crunching “Bulls of Bravik.” How do they do it? With the magic of shenanigans! As King (which “Wencelas” was) plays out, the suitably hatted trio get up to high grade nonsense on “Kraken Wanker” before “Stinth Thy Clep” and the 11-minute we-can-do-whatever-we-want-so-let’s-do-that-yes closer “Platypus Platoon” buries its later march amid a stream of ideas that, frankly, kind of sounds like it could just keep going. They are adventurous throughout the eight songs and 42 minutes, but have a solid foundation nonetheless of tone and consciousness, which are what save King from being a mess. It’s a hard balance to strike that they make sound easy.

Gnome on Facebook

Polderrecords website

—

 

Not the first round of tour dates for 2022 I’ve seen rescheduled, but I’m pretty sure it is the first batch that have been pushed back all the way 2023, which is both a distant dystopian future and somehow less than a year away, though the tour dates will be about a year delayed.

You don’t need me to tell you this, but that sucks. Let’s take a minute now to consider that the very first tours to have been canceled or postponed due to covid-19 were, in fact, announced in late 2019 to take place in Spring 2020. That means that by the time Spidergawd maybe go on this tour supporting their now-new album, VI, it will have been going on three years since the first cancelations/postponements of gigs and approaching four since the first ones to be called off were announced.

That is fucking brutal.

I like this band. They don’t get enough love in the States, in part I think because they’ve never been here, but they’ve got six records to their name now and a few other odds and ends — no live album, which is kind of surprising — and they consistently deliver. I’ll review that new album one of these days, but the gist of it is this is a better band than most people know.

Here are the new dates:

This is announced with a very heavy heart, but we are forced to postpone the european tour yet again to 2023.

Tickets are still valid.
Here the new updated show dates:

28.02.2023 DE Hamburg Knust
01.03.2023 DE Rostock Mau Club
02.03.2023 NL Groningen Vera
03.03.2023 NL Utrecht De Helling (>new venue)
04.03.2023 DE Essen Turock
05.03.2023 DE Köln Gebäude 9
06.03.2023 DE Wiesbaden Schlachthof
08.03.2023 FR Paris Backstage
10.03.2023 ES Bilbao Stage Live
11.03.2023 ES Madrid Sala Caracol
12.03.2023 ES Barcelona Sala Bóveda
14.03.2023 FR Lyon Rock’n Eat
15.03.2023 CH Winterthur Gaswerk
16.03.2023 DE Stuttgart Im Wizemann (>new venue)
17.03.2023 DE Nürnberg Hirsch
18.03.2023 DE München Backstage
19.03.2023 AT Vienna Szene
21.03.2023 DE Leipzig Naumanns
22.03.2023 DE Berlin Frannz Club
23.03.2023 DE Kiel Pumpe
24.03.2023 DK Kolding Godset
25.03.2023 DK Copenhagen Stengade

https://www.facebook.com/spidergawd/
https://www.instagram.com/spidergawdofficial/
http://www.spidergawd.no/
https://www.stickman-records.com/
http://www.crispingloverrecords.com/

Spidergawd, “Prototype Design” official video

[Slick play above to stream The Kings of Frog Island’s VI in full. Vinyl is out Nov. 9 on Kozmik Artifactz.]

It’s not as if The Kings of Frog Island have been absent. Granted, it’s been six years since the band released their fifth numerically-titled full-length, V (review here), in 2014, which brought the “Sunburn/Every turn” hook and a host of jammed-out, vinyl-flowing psychedelic delights, but still. In 2016, the band oversaw a vinyl issue for 2013’s IV (review here) as a first step in their alliance with Kozmik Artifactz, and in 2019, they completed a new single and video for every month of the year (posted here) — plus one to grow on — and in March, they re-recorded “The Watcher” from 2008’s II (discussed here) and posted another video to coincide. With the advent of VI, however, the longest LP drought of their career comes to an end, and a perhaps-overdue proper album arrives to find them with a somewhat shifted focus.

Comprised of 10 songs split evenly onto two vinyl sides and released again through Kozmik Artifactz, VI completes a second trilogy of offerings for The Kings of Frog Island, with founding members Mark Buteaux (vocals/guitar) and Roger “Doj” Watson (drums) as well as Gavin Searle, Lee Madel-Toner and Tony Heslop working at their own Amphibia Sound Studios IV in the groups native Leicester, UK, over a period from 2017-2020 to construct the material, bringing together the mellow psych explorations in which they’ve basked since IV with the more structured songwriting of the earlier work of what one might call their Elektrohasch era — their 2005 self-titled debut, the aforementioned II, and 2010’s III (review here). That third album would force an adjustment with the departure of guitarist/vocalist Mat Bethancourt (also of Josiah) to focus on the garage-y leanings of Cherry Choke, but The Kings of Frog Island flourished in cosmic drift and made a space for themselves both in terms of sound and the studio where they captured it. In short, they dug in. Across its 42-minute span, VI carries the feel of an emergence.

Or maybe a re-emergence would be more like it, but one way or the other, VI brings The Kings of Frog Island into alignment with all sides of their sound. The shimmering guitar in “Toxic Heart” seems to hint toward earlier days, while the immediately-prior “Bad Trip” is pure psychedelic in-studio experimentation, and the beginning that VI receives with the 1:37 ambient “Monotron” sets an atmospheric foundation that even the more straightforward chorus-making of the subsequent fuzz rocker “Ever and Forever” builds upon. Not only that, but the first two cuts also set up the back-and-forth sensibility that plays out on much of VI, with grounded riffs and progressions meeting head-on with spacier keyboard work sometimes even within a single track itself, as on “Pigs in Space,” perhaps named for the yawning sort of oink later in its proceedings.

And even as “Toxic Heart” picks up after “Bad Trip” — the two are presented as one song in the digital version of the album I have, but there’s a clear divide around five and a half minutes in — intertwining vocal lines, the already-noted airy guitar and even the generally languid pacing continue to harness the tripped-out feel, even if in less directly experimental fashion than on the song before. The Kings of Frog Island, then, are headed far out. They’re going. One way or the other, their goal is to get there, and they do precisely that with these songs. But it’s the level of interplay between structure and fluidity that makes VI a standout in their catalog and feel like a summation of their work not just over the three years they put into the record’s making, but the 15 years of their career to this point. That would be a lot to ask of a band whose approach and lineup has varied to the degree that The Kings of Frog Island‘s has over their time, but perhaps the patience that seems to come through in “Toxic Heart” or the side B opener “Sicario” is emblematic of the patience that went into making the record in the first place, and maybe that’s the ‘secret weapon’ here, such as it is. They took their time and made the album they wanted to make.

Easily said, harder done. “Sicario” has a moodier feel in its fuzzed lumber, slow, touching on doom but still maintaining enough lysergic tonality as it moves toward its final wash and shifts into “Brainless,” which is the shortest cut on VI apart from “Monotron.” In its 3:09, it builds up from a humming drone and ambient (amphibient?) noise to a quiet guitar line joined at 1:41 by a solo and soon thereafter by drums that continue the instrumental push by uncovering a funk that was there all along and had just gone unseen. Bell-ish sounds, forward and backward, consume the march at about 2:45 and there’s only ultra-soft resonance left over until Madel-Toner‘s vocals enter to begin “Murderer,” which seems to herald the arrival of a final movement of VI that stands apart from its two-sided configuration.

That is, the last three songs — “Murderer,” “I Am the Hurricane” and “Fine” — flow together particularly well, leaving an impression on the listener that underscores the ease of motion across the album as a whole. “Murderer” brings Monster Magnet-style riffing together with synthesizer breadth and multiple layers of vocals, while “I Am the Hurricane” shifts from its blown-out verses into repetitions of its title line over a jam that is about as much of a signature as The Kings of Frog Island‘s approach could ever ask for, and “Fine” closes with a fuzzgrunge shrug and playful tambourine bounce and a winding guitar line like the ’90s alt rock of some other, inevitably cooler, dimension. Even unto its elaborate cover art and we-have-a-logo-now logo, The Kings of Frog Island‘s VI speaks to a sense of creative purpose on the part of the band that, again, hasn’t necessarily been lost — they did put out 13 singles in 2019 — but that manifests here in a way that is engaging and only leaves one with the feeling that they have more to say. It might be another six years before they get to a seventh full-length and it might not, but a decade and a half on from their first release, The Kings of Frog Island keep exploring, keep experimenting and keep crafting a sound that is theirs alone.

The Kings of Frog Island on Thee Facebooks

The Kings of Frog Island on YouTube

The Kings of Frog Island on CDBaby

Kozmik Artifactz website

Kozmik Artifactz on Thee Facebooks

Stoked on the idea of Spidergawd hitting the road? Yeah, well you probably should be, whether you live in the path of their newly-announced March 2021 European touring or not, because it means that there’s going to be a new Spidergawd album to coincide with said tour. Yes, friends of a heavy-rocking persuasion, I speak of Spidergawd VI, begat by 2019’s Spidergawd V (review here), which was begat by 2017’s Spidergawd IV (review here), which was begat by 2016’s Spidergawd III (review here), which was begat by 2015’s Spidergawd II (review here), which, indeed, was begat by Spidergawd (review here) in 2014.

No concrete release date yet for the VIth installment in Spidergawd‘s ongoing series of kick-you-in-the-ass-and-ask-nothing-in-return albums, but one assumes the issuance will spring forth at the behest of Crispin Glover Records and Stickman Records, much as has been the case in the past. As the Norwegian troupe have continued to amass a discography of high-grade/high-class outings, their progressive bent and forays into psychedelia have not gone unnoticed, and whether or not VI works forward the thread of either, the safest bet you can possibly make as regards anything Spidergawd is that it’s going to be awesome.

To wit, the band’s re-recorded 2019 version of “Sanctuary” from the second album. It’s awesome. That’s how they do.

When and if I hear more about the album, I’ll let you know. Hopefully it’s sooner than later, but you know how 2020 plans have gone.

Dates:

SPIDERGAWD – March 2021

HELLO FUTURE!

We are happy to announce the european tour for Spidergawd VI!

Hope to see all of you in march 2021!

03.03. Knust Hamburg
04.03. Vera Groningen
05.03. Essen turock – disco, live-club and lounge
06.03. Cologne, Gebäude 9
07.03. Nijmegen, Doornroosje
09.03. Schlachthof Wiesbaden
10.03. The Backstage Paris
11.03. Stuttgart, Universum
12.03. Winterthur, Gaswerk
13.03. Nuremburg, Der Hirsch
14.03. Backstage München
16.03. ((szene)) Wien
18.03. NAUMANNs Leipzig
19.03. Berlin, Frannz Club
20.03. Copenhagen, Spillestedet Stengade

Tickets: https://www.seaside-touring.com/tours/#spidergawd

https://www.facebook.com/spidergawd/
https://www.instagram.com/spidergawdofficial/
http://www.spidergawd.no/
https://www.stickman-records.com/
http://www.crispingloverrecords.com/

Spidergawd, “Sanctuary (2019)”