Posted in Whathaveyou on March 18th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
The riff-crunching fuckall-purveying gentlemen of Richmond, Thunderchief, are will embark on a couple quick get-out-of-town rounds of shows next month, keeping company with Texas three-piece Temptress. Five people in two bands? Low-personnel has its advantages. Less disagreement, presumably. Less cost for travel, food. Plus the songs hit rawer, when you want them to.
Note the culmination here happening at Grim Reefer Fest in Baltimore. I was lucky enough to be at the Ottobar for that in 2023, and it was a killer time. I’d be there this year but for scheduling conflict, but in addition to Rezn and Vosh — and obviously Temptress, for whom it’s part of a larger Spring tour — Spellbook, Haze Mage, Knub, Sorge, Temple of the Fuzz Witch and others will feature. With 10 bands, it’s for sure a full all-dayer, but the vibe is mellow, the people are cool and you can step out to get some air and hit the food truck if you find yourself lagging. Just a heads up if you have the day and will to be mangled.
While you’re noting, note also that Thunderchief are sharing the stage with a bunch of rad bands, from The Magpie in Chapel Hill to New Dawn Fades in Philly. This is a band who make friends the hard way, by showing up:
HERE WE GO….our first run of the year will be with our brother & sisters in TEMPTRESS @temptressofficial , one of Texas’ finest trios and some of our favoritest people. We’ll be sharing 6 shows with them (Temptress will continue on to Canada & NE U.S. without us), ending at the mighty GRIM REEFER FEST @grimreeferfest in Baltimore, MD!
TEMPTRESS w/ THUNDERCHIEF 4/3 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 w/ The Magpie @themagpienc @local506 4/4 Staunton, VA @ Bricks w/ Heemeyer @heemeyer_doom 4/5 Pittsburgh, PA @ Squirrel Hill Sports Bar, Descendants of Crom rRITUAL w/ Funerals, Axioma @blackseedservices 4/6 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop w/ Slow Wake @thegrogshop @slowwakeband 4/18 Philadelphia, PA @ Keystone State Cycles w/ New Dawn Fades, St. Brigid @newdawnfadesforever @stbrigidphilly 4/19 Baltimore, MD @ GRIM REEFER FEST w/ Rezn, Vosh, many more @grimreeferfest @theottobar
See yous there!
Thunderchief are: Rik Surly – Guitar/vocals Erik Larson – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 17th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Richmond, Virginia, murk-doom stalwarts Windhand have announced a return to UK and European shores this June. They’ll begin the stretch with a night at London’s famed The Black Heart — the kind of venue analogous to New York’s Saint Vitus Bar in my mind, but I think it’s been around longer; no babies allowed as I found out first-hand that one time — which if it’s not already sold out surely will be by the time June gets here, and including stops at Download, Freak Valley, Graspop and Hellfest on the way. At nine shows in nine days, it by no means stands as the most expansive stint Windhand have ever undertaken, but the efficiency of the thing isn’t to be understated.
Last I saw Windhand was at Desertfest New York in 2023 (review here), where they stepped in as a late addition to the lineup and flattened the assembled masses as one would anticipate and hope. They had a reissue of their 2012 self-titled debut (review here; discussed here) out at the time. Their most recent new studio album remains 2018’s Eternal Return(review here), which was their second collaboration with producer Jack Endino, leaning into the grunge and psychedelic side of the band’s sound while retaining the heft and doomed ethereality that’s in no small part defined their course to-date. The band and bassist Parker Chandler parted ways last year, so I’m not sure who’s filling that role as they head out in June, if anyone, but the dates were posted as follows on socials and that’s what I’ve got so here it is:
Happy to announce our upcoming European tour in June.
12.06 London, England The Black Heart 13.06 Donington, England Download Festival 14.06 Bristol, England Rough Trade 16.06 Nijmegen, Netherlands Merleyn 17.06 Hamburg, Germany Nochtspeicher 18.06 Berlin, Germany Kantine 19.06 Netphen, Germany Freak Valley Festival 20.06 Dessel, Belgium Graspop 21.06 Clisson, France Hellfest
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 20th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
This is old news at this point. Don’t care. I kind of like that. Nobody out there on the internet is going, “hey everybody, here’s some shit from last week.” I’ll be that guy. It’s not like the tour has started. It’s May and June.
Tell you how up on my metal I am, I just assumed that Virginia’s Inter Arma were headlining this tour. I’m sure Rivers of Nihil are great, that’s a name I’ve seen before in press releases, but neither them nor Holy Fawn can I say I’ve ever really dug into. Glacial Tomb I’ve heard, so I’m not completely ignorant here.
Wherever they are on the bill — and mind you, they could do a headlining tour too, and they could just as easy be playing with stoner or psych bands as purveyors of more extreme and aggressive fare; part of their thing is malleability — Inter Arma sally forth heralding 2024’s New Heaven (review here), which is the kind of record dudes are gonna spend years picking apart and still find shit to steal decades from now. A cause worth putting in people’s faces, and the band are devastating on stage. They don’t need me to sell it, so I won’t.
From the PR wire, again, like a week ago at this point:
INTER ARMA ANNOUNCE MAY/JUNE NORTH AMERICA TOUR WITH RIVERS OF NIHIL AND HOLY FAWN
NEW HEAVEN FULL-LENGTH OUT NOW
INTER ARMA announce their first tour of 2025 supporting Rivers of Nihil & Holy Fawn throughout North America in May/June! The tour comes on the heels of INTER ARMA releasing the New Heaven full-length in 2024 + touring throughout the US & EU.
“To say we’re really fucking hyped to head out on this North American voyage with Rivers of Nihil, Holy Fawn and Glacial Tomb is an understatement. We’re chomping at the bit to hit the road and bring New Heaven (and some classic heaters) to all of you beautiful lunatics, familiar faces and new converts. We hope to see y’all out there!”
5/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts 5/23 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium 5/24 – Buffalo, NY @ Rec Room 5/25 – Columbus, OH @ The King of Clubs 5/27 – Pontiac, MI @ Pike Room at Crofoot 5/28 – Chicago, IL @ Reggies 5/29 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Cabooze 5/30 – Lincoln, NE @ Bourbon Theater 5/31 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater 6/01 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall 6/03 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre 6/04 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon 6/05 – Portland, OR @ Dante’s 6/06 – Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post 6/07 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom 6/08 – San Diego, CA @ Brick By Brick 6/10 – Mesa, AZ @ Nile 6/11 – Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad 6/12 – Lubbock, TX @ Jake’s 6/13 – Ft. Worth, TX @ The Rail 6/14 – Austin, TX @ Come and Take It Live 6/15 – Houston, TX @ Scout Bar 6/17 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East 6/18 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy 6/19 – Richmond, VA @ The Canal Club 6/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Meadows 6/21 – Montreal, QC @ Fairmount Theatre 6/22 – Toronto, ON @ Lees Palace
Inter Arma is: T.J. Childers – Drums, Percussion, guitars, lap steel, piano, noise Trey Dalton – Guitar, synthesizers, mellotron, vocals Joel Moore – Bass, synthesizers, tape loops, samples, and noise Mike Paparo – Vocals Steven Russell – Guitars
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 15th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Following on from the release this past Fall of After Dark (review here), their return after a six-year studio absence, Sabbathian-loyalist boogie rockers Satan’s Satyrs are set to make it real with a month-plus of touring on the road in Europe starting in early February. They’ll be out supporting Unto Others and cult rocking headliners Green Lung, as well as supporting the album, and the Tee Pee Records denizens have put word out that handling drums for the upcoming tour is Erik Larson.
A figure whose jib-cut might be familiar to those who’ve been around these parts a while, whether that’s through his solo work or participation in an entire festival lineup’s worth of bands, from Alabama Thunderpussy, Avail and The Mighty Nimbus to Sun Years, Thunderchief and Omen Stones, with scores of others throughout like Kilara, Axehandle, relatively shortlived sludgy supergroups like Birds of Prey, and Hail!Hornet and so on, and plenty besides.
When I saw Satan’s Satyrs this past Fall at the opening party for Desertfest New York (review here), they had Sean Saley (ex-Pentagram, among others) bashing away, and no question Larson is likewise suited to the task. If you recall the propulsion he brought to the skins in Backwoods Payback, whether this is a ‘permanent’ position or not, it’s a thing to be excited about. Hopefully someone on the European continent gets video for the rest of us.
From socials:
Greetings! We’d like to introduce our drummer for this upcoming European run, Erik Larson! Our tour with @untootherspdx and @greenlungband is approaching fast, so grab a ticket and say hi to us at the merch table. We’ve got some new shirts coming and we’ll have our latest LP ‘After Dark’ out on @teepeerecords .
Satan’s Satyrs w/ Green Lung & Unto Others: 06.02.2025 – SE, Gothenburg – Pustervik 07.02.2025 – NO, Oslo – John Dee 08.02.2025 – SE, Stockholm – Debaser Strand 10.02.2025 – FI, Tampere – Olympia-Kortteli 11.02.2025 – FI, Helsinki – Korjaamo 13.02.2025 – DK, Copenhagen – Amager Bio 14.02.2025 – DE, Hamburg – Gruenspan 15.02.2025 – BE, Antwerp – Zappa 17.02.2025 – UK, Bristol – Marble Factory 18.02.2025 – IE, Dublin – The Academy 20.02.2025 – UK, Glasgow – The Garage 21.02.2025 – UK, Manchester – O2 Ritz 22.02.2025 – UK, London – O2 Forum Kentish Town 23.02.2025 – NL, Utrecht – Tivoli Vredenburg-Pandora 24.02.2025 – LU, Esch-Sur-Alzette – Rockhal 25.02.2025 – FR, Paris – Trabendo 26.02.2025 – FR, Toulouse – Rex 28.02.2025 – PT, Lisboa – LAV – Lisboa ao Vivo 01.03.2025 – ES, Madrid – Sala Copernico 02.03.2025 – ES, Barcelona – Razzmatazz 2 04.03.2025 – IT, Milan – Legend Club Milano 05.03.2025 – AT, Vienna – Flex 06.03.2025 – DE, Munich – Backstage 07.03.2025 – DE, Berlin – LIDO 08.03.2025 – DE, Bochum – Matrix
SATAN’S SATYRS: Erik Larson – Drums Morgan McDaniel – Guitar Clayton Burgess – Bass, Vocals Jarrett Nettnin – Guitar
Posted in Reviews on October 31st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Everybody wins. As Smoke from Richmond, Virginia, and Doomsday Profit from Durham, North Carolina, join forces for a six-song split LP under the banner of Olde Magick Records, neither misses the opportunity to showcase a distinctive voice within the sphere of Southern heavy and sludge metal. Taken as a whole, the split runs 35 minutes, and so is fairly concise, but that is plenty of time enough for both four-pieces to establish an atmosphere and give listeners a look at where they’re at in terms of sound and what they’re bringing to the style. In the case of Smoke, the bluesier swamp-psych of eight-minute opening track (also the longest; immediate points) “Appalachian Black Magic” — one’s brain wants to add a ‘k’ there too, but no, it’s just the regular ol’ magic-y kind of magic — creates an immediate sense of space in the mix, building up fluidly as a rolling haze might, setting the tone for the arrival of the vocals, which are effects-treated but not nearly as blown-out as they get.
Guitarist/vocalist Dalton Huskin (also Sun Years), who did the cover art for both sides, has a steady presence in the song, and without tipping into hey-whoa-mama-yeah cliché or chestbeating hyper-dudery, he, lead guitarist Ben Gold, bassist Stephen Tyree and drummer Alex Thurston branch off from the the sometimes noisy take the band has presented to date on their 2022 debut full-length, Groupthink (review here), which, no worries, is well represented here as “Scavenger” and “Hellish Rebuke” follow the expansive and lumbering slowdown finish of “Appalachian Black Magic” with a harder-hitting and rawer-feeling scathe. “Scavenger” in particular brings to mind a swinging interpretation of Unsane‘s ’90s-era assault, but tonally, in the impact of Thurston‘s kick and the punch of Tyree‘s bass that seems to be brought even further forward in “Hellish Rebuke,” the mini-set builds on the dynamic that the album laid out and, nasty or vibing, sounds like the work of a band actively engaged in their own growth. Recorded at Fainting Goat Studios and by Scotty Sandwich at The Sandwich Shoppe, mixed by Ben McLeod (All Them Witches) and mastered like both sides of the release by the esteemed Mikey Allred at Dark Art Audio, theirs is one of two strong showings here.
The other, of course, is from Doomsday Profit, who answer Smoke‘s next-gen stylizations with their own complementary take in “No Salvation,” “I Am Your God” and “Void Ritual.” While not a stated trilogy so far as I know, the three seem to set up a linear narrative across the split’s shorter half, running on either side of five minutes apiece and seeming to hold in reserve a particular vitriol for the closer. Fair enough for the bludgeoning. Last heard from with 2021’s In Idle Orbit (review here), Doomsday Profit drop the plague-horseman noms de guerre they used at the time in favor of presenting the lineup as guitarist/vocalist Bryan Reed, lead guitarist/vocalist Kevin See, bassist/vocalist Ryan Sweeney and drummer Tradd Yancey, who also recorded (and mixed) at The Sandwich Shoppe, and the straightforwardness of that shift in mindset does nothing to lessen either the pestilential extremity they wield in their sound or the outright lumber of their growl-topped riffing, as the early nod in “No Salvation” makes clear from the start.
In Doomsday Profit too, though, one can hear the affect of fresh ideas being brought to long-tenured genre parameters. Doomsday Profit are neither entirely doom, nor sludge metal, and though “I Am Your God” wants nothing for an overarching sense of bite as it unfurls grueling, chug-offset nod, the shift the band undertakes to a more meditative sound from the initial pummeling wrought is not to be discounted either in the smoothness of its transition or the hurdling of imaginary barriers it makes. Amid about 15 minutes of music — outside of it being a single extended piece, which isn’t what’s happening; these are individual songs that tie well together — it can be difficult to harness a sense of linearity, but by the time Doomsday Profit arrive at “Void Ritual,” the gnashing going on under the more open-feeling riffing creates an atmosphere that feels earned by the breadth of the two cuts prior; the languid malevolence and weighted chug in the last moments of “I Am Your God” before the concluding cymbal wash feel like a step along the path to where the finale goes. Just because it’s brutal doesn’t mean it can’t be spacious, and vice versa.
Again, the entirety of the split is still on the shorter end of full-length, and nothing contained within is so overblown as to feel needlessly grandiose — Doomsday Profit‘s lurch requires a certain stateliness of posture, and if you’re going to declare to someone, “I am your god,” over and over, you probably want to sound serious — and while they’re in pursuit of different aesthetic goals, Smoke and Doomsday Profit both show themselves to be groups continuing to discover who they are and just how far their reach can go in songwriting. I’ll spare you genre-type hyperbole about remaking Southern metal in their image, both because who cares and because it feels premature, but each of these two acts brings a distinct creative voice (and no, I’m not just talking about vocals) to the proceedings in commanding style, and each seems to have a better idea of who they are and want to be as a group than they had a couple years ago. They are growing bands. They have grown and will hopefully continue to do so.
At the same time, there’s more substance to this release than the potential of those who’ve made it, by which I mean that whatever Doomsday Profit and Smoke may or may not do over the next few years of their respective tenures, their contributions here are significant and not to be ignored in the face of resounding statements to come. They are not necessarily alone in expanding the scope of what a term like ‘Southern heavy’ can encompass, but this shared release highlights those efforts in ways that are undeniably righteous, in addition to being forward-thinking.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Starting Friday, Richmond, Virginia’s Sun Years will take to the road on the second round of touring they’ve done this year behind a stint in Spring. The four-piece whose 2022 demo (review here) is beginning to beg for a follow-up feature members of Smoke and Alabama Thunderpussy (among others), and while I don’t know much about Sketchy Shed, which is the Frederick, Maryland, venue where the run will start on Nov. 1, I have no doubt it will be a memorable experience regardless of how literal the name of the place actually is. Would be a true Spinal Tap moment if they rolled up ready to kick off 16 nights of 16 shows and it was an actual shed. The band would deliver regardless, and probably make some new friends along the way. That’s the twist ending.
After the November stint, you’ll notice four additional shows in December. That’s basically a long regional weekender, but if you happen to be in their path, there or wherever yours and theirs might intersect down the line, these are shows to see. And I don’t have the full who’s-on-what, but in addition to DIY touring, Sun Years have a habit of playing with killer acts while making the rounds. Check local listings, is what I’m telling you.
Dates from the PR wire:
We wanted to thank those who lent a hand in helping put this together. November – December dates as follows. See you soon!
Sun Years 11/1/24- Frederick MD- Sketchy Shed 11/2/24- Pittsburgh PA- Poetry Lounge 11/3/24- Detroit MI- Small’s 11/4/24- Cincinnati OH- Feel It Records 11/5/24- Lexington KY- The Green Lantern 11/6/24- Louisville KY- Portal 11/7/24- Chicago IL- The Burlington Bar 11/8/24- Milwaukee WI- Sabbatic 11/9/24- Dayton OH- Blind Rage Records 11/10/24- Huntington WV- Truckin’ Cheesy 11/11/24- Johnson City TN- The Hideaway 11/12/24- Knoxville TN- Preservation Pub 11/13/24- Atlanta GA- The Catacombs (ADDED SHOW!) 11/14/24- Wilmington NC- Reggie’s 11/15/24- Raliegh NC- Chapel of Bones 11/16/24- Richmond VA- The Fuzzy Cactus 12/12/24- Blacksburg VA- The Milk Parlor 12/13/24- Johnson City TN- The Hideaway 12/14/24- Athens GA- Flicker 12/15/24- Charlotte NC- The Milestone
Sun Years: Asechiah Bogdan – Guitar Ed Fierro – Bass Dalton Huskin – Guitar / Vocals Erik Larson – Drums
Posted in Reviews on October 9th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I have to stop and think about what day it is, so we must be at least ankle-deep in the Quarterly Review. After a couple days, it all starts to bleed together. Wednesday and Thursday just become Tenrecordsperday and every day is Tenrecordsperday. I got to relax for about an hour yesterday though, and that doesn’t always happen during a Quarterly Review week. I barely knew where to put myself. I took a shower, which was the right call.
As to whether I’ll have capacity for basic grooming and/or other food/water-type needs-meeting while busting out these reviews, it’s time to find out.
Quarterly Review #21-30:
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Vibravoid, We Cannot Awake
Of course, the 20-minute title-track head rock epic “We Cannot Awake” is going to be a focal point, but even as it veers into the far-out reaches of candy-colored space rock, Vibravoid‘s extended B-side still doesn’t encompass everything offered by the album that shares its name. Early cuts “Get to You” and “On Empty Streets” and “The End of the Game” seem to regard the world with cynicism that’s well enough earned on the world’s part, but if Vibravoid are a band out of time and should’ve been going in the 1960s, they’ve made a pretty decent run of it despite their somewhat anachronistic existence. “We Cannot Awake” is for sure an epic, and the five shorter tracks on side A are a reminder of the distinguished songwriting of Vibravoid more than 30 years on from their start, and as it’s a little less explicitly garage-rooted than their turn-of-the-century work, it further demonstrates just how much the band have brought to the form over time, with ‘form’ being relative there for a style that’s so molten. Some day this band will get their due. They were there ahead of the stoners, the vintage rockers, the neopsych freaks, and they’ll probably still be there after, acid-coating dystopia as, oh wait, they already are.
Taking influence from the earlier-Mastodon style of twist-and-gallop riffing, adding in vocal harmonies and their own progressive twists, West Virginia’s Horseburner declare themselves with their third album, Voice of Storms, establishing a sound based on immediacy and impact alike, but that gives the listener respite in the series of interludes begun by the building intro “Summer’s Bride” — there’s also the initially-acoustic-based “The Fawn,” which delivers the album’s title-line before basking in Alice in Chains-circa Jar of Flies vibes, and the dream-into-crunch of the penultimate “Silver Arrow,” which is how you kill Ganon — that have the effect of spacing out some of the more dizzying fare like “Hidden Bridges” and “Heaven’s Eye” or letting “Diana” and closer “Widow” each have some breathing room to as to not overwhelm the audience in the record’s later plunge. Because once they get going, as “The Gift” picks up from “Summer’s Bride” and sets them at speed, the trio dare you to keep pace if you can.
Some pressure on Dune-themed Montreal heavy rockers Sons of Arrakis as they follow-up their well-received 20222 debut, Volume I (review here) with the 10-track/33-minute Volume II. The metal-rooted riff rockers have tightened the songwriting and expanded the progressive reach and variety of the material, a song like “High Handed Enemy” drawing from an Elder-style shimmer and setting it to a pop-minded structure. Smooth in production and rife with melody, Volume II isn’t without its edge as shown early on by “Beyond the Screen of Illusion,” and after the thoughtful melodicism of “Metamorphosis,” the burst of energy in “Blood for Blood” prefaces the blowout in “Burn Into Blaze” before the outro “Caladan” closes on an atmospheric note. No want of dynamic or purpose whatsoever. I’ve seen less hype on the interwebs about Volume II than I did its predecessor, and that’s just one of the very many things to enjoy about it.
Classic heavy metal is fortunate to have the likes of Crypt Sermon flying its flag. The Philadelphia-based outfit continue on The Stygian Rose to stake their claim somewhere between NWOBHM and doom in terms of style — there are parts of the album that feel specifically Hellhound Records, the likes of “Down in the Hollow” is more modern, at least in its ending — but five years on from their second LP, 2019’s The Ruins of Fading Light (review here), the band come across with all the more of a grasp of their sound, so that when “Heavy is the Crown of Bone” lays out its riff, everybody knows what they’re going for is Candlemass circa ’86, but that becomes the basis from which they build out, and from thrash to ’80s-style keyboard dramaturge in “Scrying Orb” ahead of the sweeping 11-minute closing title-track, which is so endearingly full-on in its later roll that it’s hard to keep from headbanging as I type. Alas.
The kind of undulating riffy largesse Eyes of the Oak proffer on their second full-length, Neolithic Flint Dagger, puts them in line with Swedish countrymen like Domkraft and Cities of Mars, but the former are more noise rock and the latter aren’t a band anymore, so actually it’s a pretty decent niche to be in. The Sörmland four-piece use the room in their mix to veer between more straight-ahead vocal command and layered chants like those in the nine-minute “Offering to the Gods,” the chorus of which is quietly reprised in the 35-second closing title-track. Not to be understated is the work the immediate chug of “Cold Alchemy” and the marching nodder “Way Home” do in setting the tone for a nuanced sound, so that the pockets of sound that will come to be filled by another layer of vocals, or a guitar lead, or an effect or whatever it is are laid out and then the band proceeds to dance around that central point and find more and more room for flourish as they go. Bonus points for the soul in “The Burning of Rome,” but they honestly don’t need bonus points.
A kind of artful post-hardcore that’s outright combustible in “Concrete,” Mast Year‘s sound still has room to grow as they offer their first long-player in the 25-minute Point of View on respected Marylander imprint Grimoire Records, but part of that impression comes from how open the songs feel generally. That’s not to say the nine-minute “Figure of Speech” doesn’t have its crushing side to account for or that “Teignmouth Electron” before it isn’t gnashing in its later moments, but it’s the band’s willingness to go where the material is leading that seems to get them to places like the foreboding drone of “Love Note” and deconstructing intensity of “Erocide,” just as they’re able to lean between math metal and sludge, which is like the opposite of math, Mast Year cover a lot of ground in their extremes. The minor in creeper noisemaking — “Love Note,” closer “Timelessness” — shouldn’t be neglected for adding to the mood. Mast Year have plenty of ways to pummel, though, and an apparent interest in pushing their own limits.
In the span of about 20 minutes, Wizard Tattoo‘s Living Just for Dying EP, which finds project-founder Bram the Bard once again working mostly solo, save for guest vocals by Djinnifer on “The Wizard Who Loved Me” and Fausto Aurelias, who complements the extreme metal surge and charred-rock verse of “Tomorrow Dies” with a suitably guttural take; think Satyricon more than Mayhem, maybe some Darkthrone. Considering the four-tracker opens with the acoustic “Living Just for Dying” and caps with similar balladeering in “Sanity’s Eclipse,” the EP pretty efficiently conveys Wizard Tattoo‘s go-anywhereism and genre-line transgression at least in terms of the ethic of playing to different sounds and seeing how they rest alongside each other. To that end, detailed transitions between “The Wizard Who Loved Me” and “Tomorrow Dies,” between “Tomorrow Dies” and “Sanity’s Ecilpse,” etc., make for a carefully guided listening process, which feels short and complete and like a form that suits Bram the Bard well.
Virginian trio Üga Büga — guitarist/vocalist Calloway Jones, bassist/backing vocalist Niko Cvetanovich and drummer/backing vocalist Jimmy Czywczynski — don’t have to go far to find despondent sludgy grooves, but they range nonetheless as their debut full-length, Year of the Hog unfolds, “Skingrafter” marrying a crooning vocal in contrast to some of the surrounding rasp and burl to a build of crunching heavy riff. The album is bombastic as a defining feature — songs like “Change My Name” and “Rape of the Poor” come to mind — but there’s a perspective being cast in the material as well, a point of view to the lyrics, that comes through as clearly as the thrashy plunder of “Supreme Truth” later on, and I’m not sure what’s being said, but I am pretty sure “Mockingbird” knows it’s doing Phantom of the Opera, and that’s not nothing. They round out Year of the Hog with its eight-minute title-track, and finish with a duly metallic push, leaning into the aggressive aspects that have been malleably balanced all along.
Ultimately, The Moon is Flat‘s methodology on their third album, A Distant Point of Light, isn’t so radically different from how their second LP, All the Pretty Colors, worked in 2021, with longer-form jamming interspliced with structured craft, songs that may or may not open up to broader reaches, but that are definitively songs rather than open-ended or whittled-down jams (nothing against that approach either, mind you). The difference between the two is that A Distant Point of Light‘s six tracks and 52 minutes feel like they’ve learned much from the prior outing, so “Sound the Alarm” starts off bringing the two sides together before “Awestruck” departs into dream-QOTSA and progadelic vibery, and “I Saw Something” and its five-minute counterpart, closer “Where All Ends Meet” sandwich the 11-minutes each “Meanwhile” and “A Distant Point of Light,” The Moon is Flat digging in dynamically through mostly languid tempos and fluid, progressive builds of volume. But when they go, they go. Watch out for that title-track.
Chronicle II: Hypergenesis continues the thread that London instrumentalists began with their debut 2020’s Chronicle I: The Truthseseker and continued on the prequel EP, 2021’s Chronicle: Prologue, exploring heavy progressive conceptualism in evocative post-heavy pieces like opener “Daybreak,” which resolves in a riotous breakdown, or “The Archivist,” which is more angular when it wants to be but feels like a next-generation’s celebration of riffy chicanery in a way that I can only think of as encouraging for how seriously it seems not to take itself. The post-rocking side of what they do is well reinforced throughout — so is the crush — whether it’s “Dead Language” or “Into the Hazel Woods,” but there’s nothing on Chronicle II: Hypergenesis more consuming than the crescendo of the closing “Hypergenesis,” and the band very clearly know it; it’s a part so good even the band with no singer has to put some voice to it. That last groove is defining, but much of Chronicle II: Hypergenesis actively works against that sort of genre rigidity, and much to the album’s greater benefit.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 23rd, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I haven’t yet had the pleasure of hearing the upcoming split LP between Virginia’s Smoke and North Carolina’s Doomsday Profit in its entirety, but each band has a track streaming now as a complement to the release announcement, and oof, they’re heavy. The release is out Oct. 25 through Olde Magick Records, and both acts carry a next-generational interpretation of Southern-style heft, feeling pointedly vicious in respective cuts “Scavenger” and “No Salvation” in what if we’re lucky will prove telling of a theme for the release as a whole.
Something of a note to myself to look forward to a thing here, but if you’ve caught onto what either of these bands — both of whom I’d list as up-and-coming in terms of listener attention and realizing potential — are doing over the last few years, you might also find yourself anticipating the release. If not, stream those tracks and be ready to heed the I-should-preorder-this impulse after; there are only 270 copies of the vinyl to be had.
As the PR wire tells it:
Southern doom and heavy psych dealers Smoke (VA) & Doomsday Profit (NC) have joined forces for a Split LP, out Oct. 25 via Olde Magick Records.
Both Smoke and Doomsday Profit have earned accolades for their previous efforts, but are taking big leaps on this split. Drawing from deep wells of Southern sludge and dark psychedelia, the split release builds upon the promise of both bands’ early efforts with an increasingly exploratory approach to doom, sludge, and heavy psych — both heavier and spacier than the releases that preceded it. The strains of doom, stoner-rock, sludge, heavy psych and Southern metal that course through the split should appeal to fans of acts as disparate as All Them Witches and Buzzov-en.
Vinyl edition limited to 270 copies worldwide. Pressed on blue and pink swirl vinyl.
Tracklisting: 1. Smoke – Appalachian Black Magic 2. Smoke – Scavenger 3. Smoke – Hellish Rebuke 4. Doomsday Profit – No Salvation 5. Doomsday Profit – I Am Your God 6. Doomsday Profit – Void Ritual
DOOMSDAY PROFIT: Kevin See (lead guitar, vocals) Ryan Sweeney (bass, vocals) Bryan Reed (rhythm guitar, vocals) Tradd Yancey (drums, percussion)
