If you keep up with Sunnata on social media, I’m not sure how much of this info will be new to you, as the Polish prog-heavy ritualists have been talking about their new album, Chasing Shadows, for a while now and posted “Saviours Raft” as a first single from it. But the May 10 release date is an occasion I want to mark, and between that and the finalized (as much as these things ever are) tour dates, opening cut “Chimera” as the second single, and the details about the LP, I figure fair enough to post. Truth be told, I’ve heard the record at this point and this is information I’ll want later to review. As to the thing itself, I’m just getting to know it, so I’m not going to dig into absolutes or pretend I’m ready to have something substantive to offer as far as an opinion, but if you’ve been looking forward to it, I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

More to come, then. Same as ever for release announcements. Fine. As you take on “Chimera,” understand it’s the beginning of a larger unfolding, and if you can put your body someplace where Sunnata are going to be, I recommend you do that. Either way you go, immersed is where you’re headed.

Onward:

Polish doom band Sunnata announce new album Chasing Shadows; release haunting new single

Single ‘Chimera’ streaming now

Band are touring Europe / UK from May

Feral wilderness prophets Sunnata, (sanskr. noun emptiness, voidness) have announced their fifth full-length album Chasing Shadows will be self-released on 10th May. Ahead of the album, the band have released their beguiling new single ‘Chimera’ with accompanying music visualiser.

Pre-order Chasing Shadows here: https://sunnataofficial.bandcamp.com/album/chasing-shadows

Sunnata commented on the new single: “‘Chimera’, the opening track from Chasing Shadows, manifests the presence of duality across the entire universe. Just like a mythical hybrid creature, the song is a bizarre mix of different genres and ideas, glued together into a compelling passage. From a blast beat and Pattonesque vocals, through a ceremonial trance-inducing build-up to a heavy, rock n rolling riffage, ‘Chimera’ proves to be an amalgamation, binding those pieces together to form a single entity.

“The song’s lyrics bind many paradoxes together, posing them as something inherent to reality. Dreamy recall of hinduistic Maya sets the tone of the piece – an ever-evolving appearance, an ever-changing shape. The cycle of life – the one who comes from the horizon and goes away – is prevalent like an imperative. Those who try to deny it and shape the world to their individual needs are fighting for the cause that is unreachable.

“The evolution binds units together, but also sets them apart. Paradoxes are part of us. Only the one, who is born and dead at the same time, prevails.”

The four piece Warsaw-based doom metal magi have been paving their own way to higher metal skies since their 2014 debut Climbing The Colossus. Their spellbinding sophomore album Zorya (2016) made the band gather even more momentum with regard to the European alternative heavy scene. Third album Outlands (2018) brilliantly brought out even more character, confidently crossing the frontier of progressive doom to land in even more melancholic and mind-expanding alleys. Fourth release Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021) was their most transcendent, melding together all the heaviness, intensity and tenderness into a graceful, cross-pollinating form, to create something incredible that grabbed the attention of fans and press worldwide, demanding attention and respect.

Chasing Shadows sees Sunnata expanding their sonic spectrum with their most complex record to date. Exploring both the most extreme aspects and subtle incarnations of their essence, Chasing Shadows is a mind-altering doomscape painted with everlasting, captivating stories. Hitting high notes in the eyes of fans and journalists, from here Sunnata are free to roam wherever.

Commenting on the album: “The fifth album for a band like ours is no joke. We are extremely proud on one hand, but also exhausted on the other as the creative process pushed us to the current limits. It’s the most complex and longest Sunnata record to date. Filled with nuances, genre blends and confident expansion of the band’s sound spectrum. Anyone familiar with our discography can easily tell that both change and experimentation are part of our nature, but at the same time – the constant need to push ourselves outside of the comfort zone, go beyond – is what stretches one’s limits. Maybe this is why we liked the title so much – we are chasing the uncatchable – shadows, illusions, visions and try to frame them with our musical language.”

Known for their expressive and atmospheric live performances, Sunnata have already taken part in various international festivals and been invited to open for Mastodon, Paradise Lost, Entombed AD, Rotting Christ, Sleep, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and The Sword. To celebrate the album release Sunnata will hit the road this summer on the following dates.

May 10: (PL) Warsaw – Hybrydy – Release Party
May 13: (CZ) Brno, Kabinet Muz
May 14: (HU) Budapest, Robot
May 15: (AT) Salzburg, Rockhouse
May 16: (DE) Jena, Klub Kuba
May 17: (BE) Liege, La Zone
May 18: (UK) London, Desertfest
May 20: (FR) Lille, La Bulle Cafe
May 21: (BE) Brussels, Le Lac
May 22: (NL) Nijmegen, Merelyn
May 23: (DE) Dresden, Ostpol
May 24: (PL) Poznan, 2Progi
May 25: (PL) Cracow, Studio
May 31: (DK) Esbjerg, Fuzztival Esbjerg
Aug 17: (UK) ArcTanGent

Tickets available at: https://www.atonal.agency/tickets

Sunnata are:
Szymon Ewertowski – guitar, vocals
Adrian Gadomski – guitar, vocals
Michal Dobrzanski – bass guitar/synth
Robert Ruszczyk – drums, percussion

https://www.facebook.com/sunnataofficial
https://www.instagram.com/sunnataofficial/
http://sunnataofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sunnataofficial/videos

Sunnata, “Chimera”

Sunnata, Chasing Shadows (2024)

It takes a fair amount these days to even tempt me to engage with Spotify, but I’ll tell you in all honesty I’ve spent the last eight minutes hooked into my personal least favorite streaming service — all of the strengths of YouTube, by which I mean obnoxious ads, with none of Bandcamp’s band-benefit sales tie-in, mostly lazy curation and an intrusive app — to hear Sunnata‘s new single “Saviour’s Raft.” The song comes from their hotly anticipated fifth full-length, the title of which is newly revealed as Chasing Shadows, ahead of further delving into the record itself next week, when “Saviour’s Raft” will pull into harbor at the aforementioned Bandcamp, along with preorders, probably some cool shirts, this and that. You know the drill.

But the song itself — oof that’s good. Post-metallic intensity met with their established meditative psych modus: it’s a blend that works so fluidly from Sunnata that I’ve heard nobody else come close to, however many shades of post-metal might be out there by now. In any case, they’re among the forerunners of Polish heavy, and like their countrymen in Dopelord, Spaceslug, and so on, Sunnata have an identity keyed into a style without necessarily being subjected to its restrictive aspects. They’ve only ever grown to this point. I haven’t heard the full album yet, but “Saviour’s Raft” bodes well for continuing that streak.

From the internet:

SUNNATA – AT LAST! FIRST SINGLE IS OUT NOW!

Listen it here: open.spotify.com/track/10UXYQZeRWiARJrSFi1uyW?si=UyzIamxHRFeWOtG3eRsg8A

We are delighted to share the first song “Saviour’s Raft” from the upcoming 5th album “Chasing Shadows”. Inspired by “The Raft of The Medusa” painting, it’s a sonic exploration of its meaning and a complex, 8 minute long story.

It will appear on Bandcamp together with album and merch preorder next week.

Stream it now on Spotify!

SUNNATA live:
13.05 Brno CZ Kabinet Muz
14.05 Budapest HU Robot
15.05 Salzburg AT Rockhouse
16.05 Jena DE Klub Kuba
17.05 Liege BE La Zone
18.05 London UK Desertfest London 2024
20.0 Lille FR La Bulle Cafe
21.05 Brussels BE Le Lac
22.05 Nijmegen NL Merleyn
23.05 Dresden DE Ostpol

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: https://www.atonal.agency/tickets

SUNNATA ARE:
Szymon Ewertowski – guitar, vocals
Adrian Gadomski – guitar, vocals
Michal Dobrzanski – bass guitar
Robert Ruszczyk – drums, percussion

Photo by The Buried Herald.

https://www.facebook.com/sunnataofficial
https://twitter.com/followsunnata
http://sunnataofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sunnataofficial/videos

As of earlier this week, Polish ritualized progressive heavy rockers Sunnata had completed the tracking of their next full-length and set down to mix. That can take an afternoon or it can take six weeks, but when it’s done, they’ll be off to mastering and in light of what they say below about it in announcing this initial batch of tour dates, they’re looking toward a Spring release.

So be it. One looks forward to the next step from the group after 2021’s Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (review here) continued their outward-facing, inward-looking trajectory of meditative heftcraft. They’ll be 10 years removed from their debut under the Sunnata moniker, 2014’s Climbing the Colossus (discussed here), and their work since then has shown a crucially willful progress. They are a band who want to keep growing, in other words. They’ve got their sound and their tonality, but they’ve yet to present an album that didn’t put some kind of new spin on that, and it doesn’t feel like a reach to expect that to apply to their next work as well. They set a high standard, and at this point one should be comfortable they’ll hit it on their way to the next marker.

And if you’re still reading and you haven’t seen them live, you’re not late. They’ll be at Desertfest London (I don’t know about Berlin, but it’s definitely possible) along with the following:

We slowly reveal plans for 2024.

Following the release of our not-yet-officially-announced album, we will tour Europe. More dates in May will be uncovered soon. Tickets are on sale so get’em now – it really helps us get the things going. Link in the comments! 💥

Meanwhile, we start mixing of you-know-what.

13.05 Brno CZ Kabinet Muz
14.05 Budapest HU Robot
15.05 Salzburg AT Rockhouse
16.05 Jena DE Klub Kuba
17.05 Liege BE La Zone
18.05 London UK Desertfest London 2024
21.05 Brussels BE Le Lac

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE: https://www.atonal.agency/tickets

SUNNATA ARE:
Szymon Ewertowski – guitar, vocals
Adrian Gadomski – guitar, vocals
Michal Dobrzanski – bass guitar
Robert Ruszczyk – drums, percussion

https://www.facebook.com/sunnataofficial
https://twitter.com/followsunnata
http://sunnataofficial.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/sunnataofficial/videos

Sunnata, Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (2021)

[Full disclosure: this release originally appeared as part of Postwax Vol. II, for which I wrote the liner notes and was compensated. I’m reviewing anyway. If you want to call it a conflict of interest, feel free to sue me in the Open Court of Stoner Rock™ sometime. Or maybe just relax.]

The fifth full-length from Warsaw’s Dopelord, Songs for Satan is a masterpiece of devil-worshiping stoner doom metal. The ideal version of itself. Released through Blues Funeral Recordings, the seven-track (six plus an intro) offering sees the band — guitarist/vocalist Paweł Mioduchowski, bassist/vocalist Piotr Zin, guitarist Grzegorz Pawłowski and drummer Piotr Ochociński — in complete control of their approach on every level, from craft through the intricacies of tone and performance to the headphone-worthy atmospheres that come through material that is pointedly, intentionally, efficiently constructed. Each song is a monument to its own volume, and even the eerie quiet stretches are a call to listeners to join the band in their ceremonial cause.

It strikes an impeccable balance between melody and rhythm, with huge grooves through side A’s “Night of the Witch” — a landmark hook and one of 2023’s strongest singles; it emerges from the nighttime forest noise of “Intro,” comes back around (plus Mellotron!) for the two-minute epilogue/sequel “Return of the Night of the Witch” to wrap side B, becoming something of a root sonic theme for the record’s course — “The Chosen One” and “One Billion Skulls” through the corresponding maddeningly catchy love song “Evil Spell” mirroring “Night of the Witch” while being something else and the de facto capper “Worms” pushing into more extreme sludge ahead of the aforementioned outro, all with an overarching flow and an abiding lack of pretense that says if you came here for riffs and weed and Satan, Dopelord have your number.

There are myriad arguments for and against Satanism in rock and metal. It’s certainly been done before, if that matters (I’d argue less in-genre then generally). It’s an inherent validation of christianity, since even in mockery it acknowledges the dogma as a cultural force. It can be a crutch lyrically for some acts, but that’s not what’s happening across Songs for Satan, which was written lyrically as a political response to catholic cultural oppression in Poland and the hard move toward conservatism the Polish church has made since the ‘end’ of the Cold War. Amid basslines fat enough to keep you warm in a Warsaw winter and a guttural shout that acts as preface for the screams of “Worms” to come, “One Billion Skulls” repeats the lines, “Standing on the edge of time/I’m spitting in the face of god,” as its arrival point, and even the first verse of “Night of the Witch” is an exultation to those alienated by the militant faithful:

Each time they laugh into your face
With each stone they throw
You lose belief in who you are
And cave inside
Hear us calling from the dark
Through the cold of the night
Now your time has finally come
To find your way…

A crow caws, the plod starts with fuzz of deceptive warmth and consuming largesse, and Dopelord guide the listener through Songs for Satan with cleverness, righteousness, and skill. To wit, the layering in the chorus of “Night of the Witch.” While consistent with the rest of the song-songs on Songs for Satan (not “Intro” or “Return of the Night of the Witch,” that is) in being circa seven minutes long, “Night of the Witch” stands out for how it’s built as well as its message and aural/stylistic appeal. Most of the album was recorded with Haldor Grunberg at Satanic Audio, who also mixed and mastered, while rhythm tracks, synth and vocals were done in Warsaw in Santa Studio and Silent Scream Studio.

Guitar solos were done separately, by Barszczi Kanada at Giorgio Mordo Studio, with the exception of “Worms,” which boasts guest shred by Midnight guitarist Vanik. This info is on Bandcamp and elsewhere, and is included here for future reference, but it demonstrates as well the process by which Songs for Satan was shaped and for a process that included four different studios at various points, there is not a part on the record, not a song, a verse, or the airy solo held out under the last rolling chorus of “Evil Spell” — that chorus, “What do I have to become for you to love me?/A wizard?/What will you become if you love me back?/A witch?,” imprinting itself upon the brain, perhaps permanently — that is wasted.

Everything on Songs for Satan aligns to the mission at hand. Dopelord are focused, detail-oriented as shown in the low-mixed growl adding weight to the chorus in “Night of the Witch” and throughout “The Chosen One” or the sort of tectonic shimmy as the title-line is delivered in “One Billion Skulls,” they present the most realized vision to-date of themselves. They’ve been at the forefront of Poland’s underground for a while — a rich and varied scene with the likes of Spaceslug, Belzebong, Tortuga, Sunnata, Weedpecker and scores of others — and reaffirm that position handily throughout as they crash and bash across the record’s 38 component minutes with cold grace, taking familiar elements of genre and putting them to specific, admittedly somewhat reactionary, purpose.

Despite being completely over the top in terms of volume and the basic hugeness of its sound, Songs for Satan doesn’t feel like it’s doing too much or too little; the burst-to-riff two minutes into “One Billion Skulls” and the derived-from-’60s-psych manner in which the keys (maybe Mellotron) play out the melody of “Night of the Witch” to conclude with “Return of the Night of the Witch” before they drop back to forest-night noise at the very finish underscores the level of consideration at hand. This is not lazy, nothing-to-say, haphazard, throw-riffs-together songwriting.

Rather, Songs for Satan — which in the PostWax edition included the extra track “Satan’s Call” — revels in its sense of completion. It is professional. Crisp. Sharp. Listenable. Accessible, at least if you’re already a capital-‘h’ Heavy convert. And it sounds massive enough to pull a gravity field. Front to back — and I mean that — Songs for Satan delivers on the promise of Dopelord‘s early output and draws strength from the unified perspective of the lyrics, while staying committed to the stoner-doom at their core, giving intricacies their due alongside the flattening effect of their tonality. Anger as successful motivator? Probably in part, but in these songs of defiance and Satanic praise, Dopelord build as many altars as they tear down. Easily among 2023’s most accomplished albums, and a defining moment for the band.

There will be those who write it off immediately thinking it’s cliché or who will otherwise miss the point. I would encourage you heartily to not be one of them.

Dopelord, Songs for Satan (2023)

Dopelord on Facebook

Dopelord on Instagram

Dopelord on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings on Instagram

Blues Funeral Recordings on Bandcamp

Blues Funeral Recordings website

The second full-length from Polish heavy psych rockers Wodorost, titled From the Depths, arrives with a direct intent toward immersion. Following on from the Warsaw-based three-piece’s hotly-tipped 2021 self-titled debut, the band — guitarist/vocalist Bartłomiej Głowiński, bassist Jan Witusiński and drummer Anna Żukowska, teamed with returning producer Jacek Stasiak at Kongo Studio — offer a linear experience across two sides of engaging songwriting and what sounds like moments of expressive, fun improvisation on what has been positioned by the band as, “A concept work symbolizing a resurfacing from the abyss, a metaphorical journey through inner exploration and recovery from depression.” The theme can also, of course, be seen on the cover art by M & P Ferenc and Bartłomiej Głowiński.

And sure, one can hear hope in the newschool space boogie of “Whirl,” or in the warm, Colour Hazey tones that go exploring in “Temple” early on, or in the subsequent “Visions,” which is a funky raga wakeup jam with a sans-vocal chorus that returns to end after the song shifts through a Kyuss-style desert riff, but one has to be in it to hear it. That is to say, Wodorost have put it all in front of the listener, but the listener has to pick it up. If you’re not careful, if you don’t give From the Depths its own due time to unfold and reveal its structure in its own way, the eight songs and 45 minutes could wash over you beginning with the intro “Submerged,” which fades slowly in from silence on an atmospheric undersea drone, spooky, loosely threatening, but resonant just the same as the drums begin the march into “Depths.”

Maybe not such a surprise that the post-intro leadoff on a record does a lot of the work in telling the audience about the album, but in tone and purpose, “Depths” is a herald for what Wodorost will do throughout the LP with which the song shares part of its title, while at the same time an excellently placed divergence, since nearly all of what follows is almost completely instrumental. There are two spoken parts — Michał Ferenc (of the art?) contributes voice, Witusiński and Żukowska the words — on “Beyond the Blue” and “Reflections,” but other than that, “Depths” is the only cut on From the Depths that has vocals, and it is the only cut that has singing, which is handled by Głowiński with lyrics once again courtesy of the rhythm section.

This has an effect on the listener almost like a secondary introduction. Wodorost have taken the time to carefully bring you to this place and now they’re going to tell you about it, even if that’s not what the words are actually about. The sound is rawer on the hole, and more cosmically commanding, but the drums hold the procession through the finish and by the time “Depths” is done, Wodorost have completed the welcoming portion of the collection. You could say they did that with “Submerged” but as “Temple” begins its own subdued introduction, the patience and the sense of exploration feel distinct from “Depths,” which thanks to splitting “Submerged” off as the album intro, stood on its own. When the “Temple” riff begins, it’s the kind of next-generation interpretation of heavy psychedelic tenets that made Sungrazer such a draw over a decade ago, only now it’s a new generation again.

But the depth, scope and jam-prone foundations of the style remain firm, and Wodorost use them through the instrumental “Temple” and “Visions” to let parts and entire songs breathe as they seem to want to, and where a lot of bands will tell you they’re chasing creative energies distinct from themselves through the universe, “Beyond the Blue” is particularly organic in its change right around 5:30 when the subtle circling around the band have been doing clicks on the big-sound pedals and they ride that crescendo and its offset chug through the end of the song. Volume, warmth, flow. The spoken part gives a human presence ahead of the danceable “Whirl,” which turns improv-sounding before the guitar shreds in midair, while “Reflections” fades in on wispy runs of memorable lead notes — flicks of melody, almost — and builds on its light bluesy feel, setting itself on a trip that pays off noisy but doesn’t leave the comedown hanging as might be a misstep on an album that feels so otherwise complete.

That notion extends to “Dry Out” as well, which like stretches in “Whirl” and “Reflections,” in that From the Depths is effective in balancing composition and improvisation, and for someone new to the band like myself, the capping nod and entrancing instrumental course of the closer reinforces the potential Wodorost have displayed, whether a given song was more straightforward, set itself to wandering, or brought together both in a dynamic that one hopes will only prove so malleable over a longer term as they move forward. As it builds to its head right near the album’s completion, “Dry Out” still seems to be revealing places Wodorost might go and what they might ultimately bring to a genre that, for all its molten sound, is rarely so able to transcend its own methodologies.

Wodorost, From the Depths (2023)

Wodorost on Facebook

Wodorost on Instagram

Wodorost on Bandcamp

Wodorost on YouTube

The subscribers to the PostWax series from Blues Funeral Recordings got their Bandcamp download codes over the weekend — I know because I got mine; I’m not just the dork doing the liner notes, I’m also a client! — and I expect by now most if not all who’ve received them have dug into the new Dopelord album, Songs for Satan. Doing so will, perhaps, be revelatory for some.

As the first single, “Night of the Witch,” heralds, Songs for Satan is the broadest range of melody the Warsaw stoner-doom outfit have harnessed to-date in their decade-plus tenure, and if the single doesn’t get stuck in your head, listen again and pay closer attention. That hook is a defining feature of the record from which it comes, and along with the spaciousness of the vocals and the band’s characteristic weight of tone, it’s a can’t-miss for those who’d follow where a rolling riff might lead. Lumbering but not slow-for-show or staid in any way, “Night of the Witch” and Songs for Satan as a whole are landmarks the Polish heavy forerunners, who’ll support the Oct. 6 release on an extensive, previously announced tour.

Despite having, as alluded above, written the liner notes for this release, I’ll probably still try to review this one if I can. There’s a lot to say about what’s happening here, conceptually as well as with sound. We’ll get there.

From the PR wire:

Polish doom metal giants DOPELORD to release new album “Songs for Satan” on Blues Funeral Recordings; first single and preorder available!

Warsaw doom metal heavyweights DOPELORD have announced the release of their fifth studio album “Songs for Satan” to be issued on October 6th as part of Blues Funeral Recordings’ deluxe PostWax series. Dive into this gigantic new album with the debut single “Night Of The Witch” streaming on all platforms now!

“Hear you laughing from the dark/As they pray to their god/Now their time has finally come/To reap what they’ve sown.” – Dopelord, 2023

Stream Dopelord’s new single “Night of the Witch” at this location: https://lnkfi.re/dopelordnotw

Having paved the way for Polish doom metal for over a decade by sticking to their strictly DIY ethos and hard work, mighty foursome DOPELORD is about to open a new chapter of its history by joining the coveted ranks of US label Blues Funeral Recordings (Acid King, Dozer, Lowrider, Dead Meadow).

Their fifth full-length “Songs for Satan” is a moment of critical mass for Dopelord. A blast of devil worship in the riffing realms is nothing new, and while they aren’t the first band to openly embrace the motif, their amplified heresy is uniquely triumphant, their fuzz-drenched apostasy genuine and glorious.

Not only does “Songs for Satan” showcase the band’s equal mastery of lumbering plod and silvery hooks, but it also more importantly mines Polish Catholicism’s decades of oppression for lyrical fuel. Tracks like “Satan’s Call,” “The Chosen One,” “One Billion Skulls” and “Worms” are pointed in their defiance of the church’s cultural dominance, even while managing to be contagiously singable at the same time. Maybe the extremity of their position will lead a few listeners to question their own beliefs and examine the church’s role, religion’s role (whether in Polish society or elsewhere) like a strong push to open a door. The voice of rebellion is crucial, and Dopelord’s shout is unmistakable.

Calling to mind Electric Wizard, Windhand, Belzebong and Acid King, “Songs for Satan” is Dopelord’s apex, an iconoclastic milestone for stoner doom that rumbles the earth and shakes our figurative foundations. It will be available on October 6th in various vinyl editions, limited digipack CD and digital. The ultra-limited deluxe vinyl edition will be shipped a few weeks prior to PostWax subscribers.

New album “Songs for Satan”
Out October 6th on Blues Funeral Recordings
Preorder:

Blues Funeral website: https://www.bluesfuneral.com/search?q=dopelord

Bandcamp:https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/album/songs-for-satan

EU store: https://en.bluesfuneral.spkr.media/

TRACKLIST:
1. Intro
2. Night Of The Witch
3. The Chosen One
4. One Billion Skulls
5. Evil Spell
7. Worms
8. Return To The Night Of The Witch

Derailed from their aggressive live schedule for two years, DOPELORD blasted out the “Reality Dagger” EP in 2021 before setting to work on their boldest statement yet. On October 6th, 2023, their fifth album “Songs for Satan” will induct the mighty foursome as one of Europe’s heaviest and most faithful doom purveyors of the new era, crushing everything on their path under the Blues Funeral Recordings banner.

Dopelord on tour:
Oct 12 Prague Modra Vopice
Oct 13 Cottbus Muggefug
Oct 14 Jena KuBa
Oct 15 Braunschweig B58
Oct 16 Hamburg Hafenklang
Oct 17 Malmö Plan B
Oct 18 Copenhagen Loppen
Oct 19 Kiel Schaubude
Oct 20 Groningen Café de Walrus
Oct 21 Nijmegen Doornroosje
Oct 22 Antwerpen Trix DesertFest Belgium
Oct 23 Lille La Bulle Café
Oct 24 Osnabrück Bastard Club
Oct 25 Düdingen Bad Bonn
Oct 26 Düsseldorf Pitcher
Oct 27 Berlin Lido Heavy Psych Sounds Fest
Oct 28 Dresden Chemiefabrik Heavy Psych Sounds Fest

DOPELORD is
Paweł Mioduchowski – Guitars and Vocals
Piotr Ochociński – Drums
Grzegorz Pawłowski – Guitars
Piotr Zin – Bass, Vocals and Mellotron

https://www.facebook.com/Dopelord666
https://www.instagram.com/dopelord_666/
https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bluesfuneral/
https://www.instagram.com/blues.funeral/
https://bluesfuneralrecordings.bandcamp.com/
bluesfuneral.com

Dopelord, Songs for Satan (2023)

A couple things here. First and foremost, the name of Dopelord’s upcoming Fall tour — the ‘Tour for Satan’ — will make more sense generally in the context of the title of their next full-length, which I don’t think has yet been made public so I’m not going to say. But if you’re scratching your head on why it would be a tour with the devil as its purpose, that’s why. It’s a fitting name in light of that, and I’m sure the album announcement will be along the PR wire sooner or later. Probably five minutes after this post goes live, making me automatically behind as I perpetually seem to be. No, I don’t think that’s about me, and I don’t take it personally. This is doom. Leave your ego in the car.

Second and somehow-also-foremost, the album rules. The Warsaw-based outfit — who’ll hit Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp and Heavy Psych Sounds Festival in Germany (x2) on this run — have outdone themselves in melody and riffcraft and purpose in the impending batch of songs, and I say that as I’m in progress on liner notes for the PostWax edition of the release. Gotta get on that. Behind, as ever.

They mention below that the record will be out before they hit the road, which in addition to meaning I need to get on my shit as regards those liner notes, is also the closest thing to an official announcement I’ve seen of the release (since they got added to PostWax in 2021, anyhow), and apparently that’s well close enough for me to talk about it. The bottom line is whether or not you catch them on these dates, keep an eye for more about the record. Including, eventually, the name of it.

For now, the shows from Doomstar Bookings and the hint of the album’s coming dropped by the band on socials:

DOPELORD – Tour for Satan

Doomstar Bookings present Dopelord’s ‘Tour For Satan’ 2023 across Europe in October! See the confirmed dates below and the bandmark your calendar!

Says the band: “(#128481#)(#128128#)(#128481#) Attention! Tour For Satan will take place this October, shortly after the release of our next full album, thanks to Doomstar Bookings. FB events and tickets are live. (#128481#)(#128128#)(#128481#)”

Confimed dates:
12.10.23 – Prague (CZ) – Modra Vopice
13.10.23 – Cottbus (DE) – Muggefug
14.10.23 – Jena (DE) – KuBa
15.10.23 – Braunschweig (DE) – B58
16.10.23 – Hamburg (DE) – Hafenklang
17.10.23 – Malmö (SE) – Plan B
18.10.23 – Copenhagen (DK) – Loppen
19.10.23 – Kiel (DE) – Schaubude
20.10.23 – Groningen (NL) – Café de Walrus
21.10.23 – Nijmegen (NL) – Doornroosje w/ Bismut & Acid Rooster
22.10.23 – Antwerpen (BE) – Desertfest
23.10.23 – Lille (FR) – La Bulle Café
24.10.23 – Osnabrück (DE) – Bastard Club
25.10.23 – Düdingen (CH) – Bad Bonn
26.10.23 – Düsseldorf (DE) – Pitcher
27.10.23 – Berlin (DE) – Heavy Psych Sounds Festival
28.10.23 – Dresden (DE) – Heavy Psych Sounds Festival

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https://dopelord.bandcamp.com/

Dopelord, Reality Dagger (2021)

It’s been about a decade since the Warsaw-based heavy rockers Satellite Beaver revamped their name and the concept of their band to become Sunnata, having made their full-length debut with 2009’s Trip Outside Your Mind (review here) and followed it with the 2012 EP, The Last Bow (review here). And if the kind of ritual metal, heavy psych and meditative spirit of Sunnata‘s work was the vision they were chasing all along, unquestionably that moniker swap was the right choice — it was on a few levels, actually. With the continued lineup of guitarist/vocalist Szymon “SZY” Ewertowski, guitarist Adrian “GAD” Gadomski, bassist Michał “DOB” Dobrzański and drummer Robert “ROB” Ruszczyk, the aesthetic turn was made manifest when Sunnata released Climbing the Colossus in March 2014. Here’s what the band had to say about the change at the time:

“Many things have changed since our start in 2008. After three short-length releases and numerous shows we all (finally) agreed to make a step closer to become premium pop-stars. However, the new band name doesn’t imply any lineup or makeup changes. It simply suits our approach to the music, which has become way heavier and trippy in comparison to what we played back in 2008. So here it is. SUNNATA is a soundscape, where noise crossfades clearness – where walls of fuzz, delay and reverb confront the monolith of absolute silence.”

As it turns out, they’d be confronting all kinds of monoliths as Sunnata, be it loud, quiet, in between or existential, and the “heavier and trippy” direction manifests clearheaded in Climbing the Colossus‘ 49-minute run across as series of short-growing-longer tracks the trail through which is marked by a series of aurally diverse interludes, be it the 40-second “I” which opens the record and leads into the horror-slash intensity of the guitar and the massive roll that typifies “Orcan,” repetition becoming ritual, the eight-second echo wisp “II” that swirls into the start of the subsequent “Asteroid,” a fuzzed but sharply executed thrust finding its apex after a series of start-stops in its second half, the shortest of the ‘song-songs’ at 3:39, or the almost-a-minute churn-noise and feedback of “V” that closes the record following the nine-minute “Fomalhaut,” which crescendos the aggression on display throughout Climbing the Colossus without letting go of the atmosphere that’s so much a part of the album’s overarching impression.

On a straight-through listen, as opposed to, say, hearing it on vinyl, the atmospherics become part of the songs. They are transitional intros/outros that flow from one piece to another, not in between every track, but something to move the listener along with the material so that the crushing low-end that rises to such unsullied crush in “Seven” after the end of “Asteroid” — a rolling movement that becomes elephantine as the song, which runs an appropriate 7:07, shifts into its back half, becoming likewise psychedelic and monstrous and massive; a watershed moment — gives over to the jingling and drone of “III” smoothly and with purpose, adding character to tracks that don’t necessarily want for it but that are richer for its being there. A key stretch arrives on what for the LP is the beginning of side B, with “Path” (7:48), “Stalagmites” (7:09) and “Monolith” (6:38) in a row.

There’s a pattern, you see: Interlude, one song, interlude, two songs, interlude, three songs, interlude, song, interlude (and if you want to replace the first and last “interlude” there with “intro” and “outro” I won’t stop you; I use “interlude” to show the consistency of purpose in deepening the ambience), and the intention even nine years after the fact still feels like Sunnata are pulling you deeper into this world as they go. Thus “Path” into “Stalagmites” and “Monolith,” even though each one gets subsequently shorter, is the stretch in which the listener is most immersed. “Path” has a hook and is as aggro in its vocals and chugging low end as it is spacious in the guitar later on — a kind of cosmic metal that in hindsight is very much Sunnata‘s own — and crashes to a stop for a few seconds of that “absolute silence” before “Stalagmites” begins to stir with a few nudges of echoing guitar before the proggy bassline starts that probably could’ve been their own interlude.

Nonetheless, once “Stalagmites” (which come up from the ground; ‘stalactites hold on tight, stalagmites might poke you in the butt’) kicks in from its buildup, it maintains its weight for the duration, and though “Monolith” has a quieter break as part of its procession, the muted stops in the second half are an early example of the band making the studio an instrument — ‘studio’ being a relative term since the drums were done at Demontazownia Studio while guitar, vocals and presumably bass were handled via home recording, ‘edited’ by Dobrzański while Jan Galbas had the difficult task of mixing and mastering to find balance amidst the purposefully conjured chaos — and pummeling in their own right, another call out to the metal of the mid-to-late ’90s. A moment to process in “IV” and then “Fomalhaut” feedbacks into immediate destruction. It is a summary as much conceptual as practical, sound-wise, has a mellow bridge and a languid lead that’s almost stoner rock as it moves to the halfway point, but makes that jangly chug transcend and become something bigger, a march that gets topped with a clean, low-register verse like cosmic spiritual swagger, growing more feverish as it goes before a resolute twist finishes, some residual feedback smoothing the way into the postscript grey psychedelia of “V,” which fades quickly on its way out.

It’s not just that Sunnata pulled off an aesthetic turn with Climbing the Colossus. They did, to be sure. But this record also set in motion a stylistic growth that continues to this day, with the same lineup behind it. That they’ve together undertaken the journey from Climbing the Colossus to 2016’s Zorya (review here), 2018’s Outlands (review here) and 2021’s Burning in Heaven, Melting on Earth (review here) isn’t to be understated, as they’ve managed to consistently move forward with a sense of progression while reveling in the enduring atmospheric elements of their approach. In the varied realms of Polish heavy, they’re part of a generation of players emergent over the last decade who stand astride the 2020s as still-evolving veterans, and even as one looks back at the beginning steps of that process here, robes and harem pants and all, it’s almost impossible not to look forward to what they might do next.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

5:19AM at present. I woke up this morning at about 2:30, spent the next hour-plus tossing and turning, drifting to sleep and waking up again about every 20 minutes, until at 3:40 I gave up and decided I was just awake and that was it. That’s been a fairly steady pattern the last couple weeks. Yesterday, I think it was, I made it until the alarm went off at 4, and I felt like I had slept late.

So anyway, coffee.

Okay. Last weekend was The Patient Mrs.’ birthday. Happy birthday. All was good. We had my family over for dinner Saturday, and Sunday went to brunch in Brooklyn with friends of hers (who have three kids) who live there. After that, because The Pecan said it was his only goal for this year to see a dragon dance (he is a special kind of kid), we went to the Chinese New Year parade. It was overwhelming on the whole, but I was glad there wasn’t a mass shooting, which pretty much anytime you put humans in a place together these days in America becomes a concern; I’m standing there with the kid on my shoulders (he’s getting big for that), scanning the crowd for people who look like me except particularly distraught. Glad to see there weren’t any and nobody got killed. Mark it a win.

Except for the fact that The Patient Mrs. starting on Tuesday was violently ill. Not covid, she tested, but a stomach thing she and the friends’ kids seemed to share. Neither The Pecan nor I picked it up, which feels like a great, great victory, having seen her go through Tuesday and Wednesday, especially, without being able to eat or even really drink water without unfortunate consequences, but she was miserable and mostly in bed for that time, so probably not the post-birthday week she was hoping to have. I don’t understand how anyone who lives in a human body can believe it was made in the image of an almighty deity. Yeah, I hear god also projectile vomits when he eats some funky strawberries. Totally legit.

She seems like she’s on the other end of it now — or at least she managed to hold onto the white rice and scrambled egg she ate for dinner last night — but that kind of defined the week. The Pecan, meanwhile, had his first and second Tae Kwon Do classes with other kids. He likes it, seems to like it a lot, but is sort of transient by nature so we’ll see if he wants to stick with it after a couple more lessons. He likes things that are new, tires eventually and moves onto the next thing.

When I was a kid, the messaging that went along with that was that you needed to dedicate yourself to something, to “stick with it.” Having already seen him ice skate, play soccer, do tee-ball, track and field — he’s five, remember — I don’t necessarily believe he needs to “stick with” something that’s going to make him unhappy and think that his time might be better spent exploring new things until he finds what fits. I stuck with a bunch of shit in my time, including Tae Kwon Do, well past the point where I was enjoying any of it, and all I feel like I got for that was an obsessive personality and a constant feeling of failure. So yeah, when and if he’s ready to move on, that’s fine.

I need to remind myself of this because at this point it’s my nature to dig into a thing entirely regardless of enduring pleasure or displeasure. You might say it’s how and why The Obelisk exists and persists. Part of it, anyway. I consider myself fortunate that when I put on a record like the new Sandrider or REZN, or an older one like the Sunnata above, that I can still enjoy hearing it. Music has been the most consistent source of joy in my life. Worth waking up for.

This weekend, more family time. I was thinking of inviting my mother and sister and that crew for dinner tomorrow, but we might actually just mellow it out — can it be both? not entirely sure — and take a break for a day since on Sunday into the holiday Monday, The Patient Mrs.’ sister, her own two kids and two dogs are coming to stay, having not been able to make the trip down from Connecticut for her actual birthday. So you see how those afternoon hours on Saturday, which surely will drag without some ‘event’ scheduled, might be a bit of restorative boredom worth undertaking.

Whatever you’re up to, I hope it’s great and that you enjoy. Today at 5PM is a new ‘The Obelisk Show’ on Gimme Metal. Please listen. The music’s good and the support is appreciated. Plus it’s free on their app or site: http://gimmemetal.com

5:54 now and The Pecan just opened his door, which means it’s the start of the morning shift. It’ll be Sesame Street in no time. I hope you have a great and safe weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate all that stuff. Next week is jammed front to back — premieres for Slumbering Sun, Dead Shrine, an Enslaved review, etc. — so that’ll all start to unfurl on Monday. Hope to see you then, and thanks for reading, as always.

FRM.

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