Wise Blood Records Archives

King Volume Records on Facebook

1 Comment »

Faerie Ring Premiere “Silver Man in the Sky”; Weary Traveler Out April 14

Posted in audiObelisk on January 26th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Evansville, Indiana’s Faerie Ring will release their second album, Weary Traveler, on April 14 through cooperation between King Volume Records, Wise Blood Records and Kozmik Artifactz. The follow-up to 2019’s The Clearing (review here), the album is a six-song beast of mammoth fuzz and doomly celebration, presented across two three-song sides running 40 minutes with to-tape production by Alex Kercheval at Postal Recording Studio, dialed in for largesse from the outset on its leadoff title-track and “Silver Man in the Sky” (premiering below), moving between slowed-down ’80s-metal-at-night chug and lumbering still-kind-of-a-party doom, catchy all the while and setting out on the journey not so much weary as resolute.

“Weary Traveler” is the shortest song here at 5:05 — it bookends with closer “Motor Boss” at 5:37 — and though it’s among the more unabashedly massive, “Silver Man in the Sky” is emblematic of the accessibility of the album as a whole at 6:36 of fluidly unfolding plod, more intricate in its weaving together layers of Kyle Hulgus‘ and James Wallwork‘s guitars (the latter also handles vocals) atop the emergent roll and will to boogie that’s made to flow so well through Alex Wallwork‘s bass and Joey Rhew‘s drumming.

Whether it’s the turn of “Weary Traveler” to an almost bomb-tone nod filled out by swirling feedback later, the apparently-hammer-on-a-pan bangs mixed well into the rhythm of “Silver Man in the Sky,” the slowed-down The Sword twists in the second half of “Never Rains at Midnite,” or the noisy intro to the shoving “Lover” on side B after the nine-minute psych-doom outbound adventure of “Endless Color / Dope Purple,” the shimmering latter stretch of which reminds of some of King Buffalo‘s ambient flourish after so much by marching, or the harmonica-laced shuffle and swing of the speedier-but-still-thick “Motor Boss,” each piece on Weary Traveler offers something to distinguish it from the bunch while adding to the overarching scope of the album.

The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — has it that this is the result of the fact that, while the band recorded live, being in the studio with Kercheval for a week allowed them time to experiment and flesh out happy accidents during the recording, try new ideas and offbeat ways of doing things. Fair enough. That’s not something every act gets to do, and Weary Traveler is indeed stronger for the attention to detail, but the real story of the album is more about the growth in songwriting and the clarity of the band’s presentation even as they drop to noise before the finish in “Lover” or the fact that “Endless Color / Dope Purple” — which, yes, does have some organ on it — is able to move from its initial march into its long stretch of hypnotic drift with such organic seeming care.

So, attention to detail. Fine. But Weary Traveler has some funk to it too tucked in amidst the doom. The relatively uptempo beginning and bassy punch in “Never Rains at Midnite,” the blues-via-tonal-wash of “Motor Boss,” and even the direct transition from “Lover” that leads into it are emblematic of Weary Traveler functioning as a good time, daring to have and to be fun, and that doesn’t necessarily feel transgressive as much as it’s simply something not every band is willing to do. It makes the listening experience front to back on Weary Traveler easier to undertake — the record is not at all the slog its title might imply — and even in the construction of the tracklist, how they start side B with “Endless Color / Dope Purple” before the (relatively) speedier concluding one-two of “Lover” and “Motor Boss” demonstrates the care put into this particular execution of their craft; a significant step forward from where they were on The Clearing even as it expands on the ideas that first album put forth.

The pan, the piano in “Never Rains at Midnite,” the looping their sounds through an AM radio discussed below, these are nifty bits of nuance and though that sounds like I’m devaluing their effect on the record, I’m not. But without the underlying foundation that’s present here in the songs, Weary Traveler would simply fall flat instead of triumphing as it does.

Still, there’s something insular about these tracks, something dug into itself and its own making — the process as part of the outcome, maybe. And maybe hearing that in the music is what I get for reading the bio and the power of suggestion there, but still, even in the depth of tone between the guitars of Hulgus and Wallwork there’s evidence of just how purposeful each consideration on Weary Traveler is, and even if some ideas were birthed by off-the-cuff studio experiments — I’d also believe “Endless Color / Dope Purple” didn’t have a title before it was recorded, but I don’t know that — that shouldn’t be taken to mean Faerie Ring didn’t have their collective shit together going in to work with Kercheval. At their core, these songs have been ironed out and honed for maximum impact.

Their affect is modern — they sound big, they speak to classic metal early and more cosmic fare later on, and they blur the lines between different heavy styles in between, etc. — and their sound, crushing and spacious in kind, is still developing. After going from one extreme of recording in a basement to the other of working in a pro-shop studio, one might expect them to find a space in between for a crucial third album (unless they decided this is how they want to roll, which would also be understandable, considering the results), but wherever they end up, it seems likely the lessons they learn across Weary Traveler — how to be as much Red Fang as Electric Wizard while being neither, for example — will serve them well as they move forward. What matters more than that, though, is that Faerie Ring declare essential aspects of themselves here and present them to the listener in a spirit of mutual appreciation — because make no mistake, they’re into it too — and righteous, dug-in, weighted revelry.

“Silver Man in the Sky” premieres on the player below, followed by more from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Faerie Ring, “Silver Man in the Sky” track premiere

<a href="https://faeriering.bandcamp.com/album/weary-traveler">Weary Traveler by Faerie Ring</a>

Faerie Ring on “Silver Man in the Sky”:

“The main riff in Silver Man in the Sky was conjured within a dense weed fog mid-2019 at 3am. With it came images of mysterious blades, lightning, and an even more mystifying silver skinned man looming in the æther. If you have an ass, it’ll kick it. Our ode to the almighty Power Trip.

Our hearts might’ve said Power Trip, but our Caveman hands said Electric Wizard. This entire album was recorded live in studio straight to tape just how God intended. Two Sunn Model T’s roaring into infinity. Stacks of ’70s $50 solid state Peaveys were the icing on the cake that really set this track off. By the end of the session, our V’s were flying us.

This was our first foray into recording at a real studio. With that came the ability to experiment and try things outside the box. Objects that weren’t musical all the sudden became the key to unlocking a song. We needed a striking steel sound, therefore I found myself in the booth with a doobie hanging out of my mouth hitting an iron skillet with a hammer into a vintage $20,000 Telefunken Mic then cooking our dinner in it an hour later. What really blew our minds was the pan strike turned out to be in the same key that we were playing and slid in pitch perfect with the rest of the song. Lightning in a bottle kept getting captured over and over like that. I credit that to living at the studio for a week creating this album for your consumption. An undeniable banger for all banging’s sake! A monolithic celebration for all things volume.”

“Endless Color” Rainbow Splatter Variant: https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/album/weary-traveler

King Volume preorder: https://kingvolumerecords.limitedrun.com/bands/faerie-ring

Kozmik Artifactz preorder: http://shop.bilocationrecords.com/navi.php?suchausdruck=faerie+ring

Faerie Ring – Weary Traveler
Release Date: April 14, 2023
Labels: King Volume Records with Wise Blood Records and European distribution through Kozmik Artifactz

Faerie Ring, the hazy and gloomy stoner doom band from Evansville, Indiana, channels their love for bombastic riffs, soaring vocals, high fantasy, and science fiction into Weary Traveler, a mystical and weed-inspired romp recorded by Alex Kercheval (Coven) and set for release through King Volume Records on April 14, 2023.

Weary Traveler is a marked step forward in the band’s songwriting and recording processes. While their debut album (2019’s The Clearing) was an amalgam of massive riffs recorded in a friend’s basement, Weary Traveler delivers a coordinated and deliberate buffet of cohesive songs meticulously written by the band. Just as important, the album was professionally recorded at Postal Recording Studio in Indianapolis by Alex Kercheval, an essential part of the legendary rock band Coven. Under Kercheval’s guidance, the band recorded directly to tape and took numerous opportunities to experiment in the studio.

“Alex Kercheval is a genius,” says guitarist Kyle Hulgus. “In the beginning of ‘Lover,’ one of our singles, we have a section that sounds like it’s coming through a radio… Well, Alex did this by broadcasting the raw tape tracks over AM radio, then recorded the radio, dialed it in, then bounced that through a series of outboard pre-amps for about 15 seconds. It was amazing.”

Experimentation was a key part of the creative process in Weary Traveler. For “Silver Man In The Sky,” another single, the band wanted the sound of an anvil, so they took an iron skillet (which the band wound up cooking in a few hours later) into the recording booth and bashed it with a hammer in front of a $20,000 Telefunken microphone. As Kyle recalls: “There was a moment in the song where we were sending a signal from a Steinway piano worth more than my house through a Death By Audio Fuzz Delay into a Sunn Model-T. I felt like a mad scientist.”

Working in a professional studio also gave them access to professional equipment for the first time. From the Steinway piano to the Telefunken microphone, the band found the perfect complements to its arsenal of Sunn Model-T & Orange amplifiers and Big Muff & Turbo Rat pedals. With these components combined, the band created an album that is crisper and more focused—while still generating the same loud energy that made The Clearing so impressive. Incredibly, Alex Kercheval managed to capture the entire album in one go, which provided him and the rest of the band with multiple days to perfect the record’s sound.

Weary Traveler is punctuated by three distinctive, enthralling singles: “Silver Man In the Sky,” “Never Rains at Midnight,” and “Lover.” “Silver Man In the Sky” combines massive, Sleep-inspired riffs with Brant Bjork-styled flourishes, “Never Rains At Midnight” is a foot-stomping headbanger that displays traces of Trouble and The Obsessed, while “Lover” channels Fu Manchu energy through a gloomy Doom delivery. Overall, Weary Traveler is a six-pack of masterful riffage and stunning melodies.

Recording: Alex Kercheval & Morgan Satterfield at Postal Recording Studio
Mastering: Cauliflower Audio
Art: Jerry Hionis (@Wyrmwalk)
Logo: Daniel Porta (@thepitforge)

Band: James Wallwork (Guitar & Vocals), Kyle Hulgus (Guitar), Alex Wallwork (Bass), Joey Rhew (Drums)

Faerie Ring on Facebook

Faerie Ring on Instagram

Faerie Ring on Bandcamp

King Volume Records on Bandcamp

King Volume Records store

Kozmik Artifactz on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

Kozmik Artifactz on Instagram

Mother of Graves on Facebook

Quarterly Review: Jason Simon, Smoke, Rifle, Mother of Graves, Swarm, Baardvader, Love Gang, Astral Magic, Thank You Lord for Satan, Druid Stone

Posted in Reviews on January 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

Oh, hello. I didn’t see you come in. What’s going on? Not much. You? Well, you see, it’s just another 10 records for the Quarterly Review, you know how it goes. Yup, day seven. That’s up to 70 records, and it’ll keep going for the rest of this week. Have I mentioned yet I was thinking about adding an 11th day? What can I say, some cool stuff has come along this last week and a half since I’ve been doing this. Better now than in a couple months, maybe. Anyway, make yourself comfortable. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.

Winter 2023 Quarterly Review #61-70:

Jason Simon, Hindsight 2020

What this sweetly melodic and delicately arranged 2022 collection lacks in marketing — the title Hindsight 2020 is accurate in that that’s when it was mostly recorded, but ‘let’s remember an awful time’ is hardly a way to pitch an audience on a vinyl — but as Jason Simon (also Dead Meadow) languidly meanders through covers of Tom Petty (“Crawling Back to You” becomes ethereal post-rock), Jody Reynolds & Bobbie Gentry, The Gun Club, Jackson C. Frank, Bert Jansch and John Prine, the latter of whom passed away after contracting covid-19, without the lockdown from which this record probably wouldn’t exist as it does. Probably not a coincidence. On banjo for three peppered-in originals starting with a relaxed mood-setting intro, as well as guitar, vocals, Moog, bass, Juno-60, and mandolin throughout, Simon and a few companions dig into these folk roots, making them his own and creating a whole-album flow for what might in less capable hands be a hodgepodge of competing influences. As it stands, by the time the melancholy strum of “October” takes hold, Simon has long since succeeded in creating a vibe that rightly has “Ghosts Gather Now” as its centerpiece, pulling as it does from these spirits to make something of its own. 2020 sucked; nobody’s arguing. But at least in hindsight something beautiful can come out of it.

<a href="https://jasonsimon.bandcamp.com/album/hindsight-2020-2">Hindsight 2020 by Jason Simon</a>

Jason Simon on Bandcamp

Piaptk store

—

Smoke, Groupthink

Virginian trio Smoke cast an eye toward the trailblazing heavy psych of Sungrazer on “Temple” from their early 2022 debut album, guitarist Dalton handling the melodic vocals that will soon enough grow throatier in their passionate delivery, but even more than this, Groupthink sees the band — Dalton, guitarist Ben and drummer Alex; first names only — digging full-on into turn-of-the-century-style nodding heavy, shades of Man’s Ruin-era classics from the likes of Acid King, maybe even some of Sons of Otis‘ bombed-out largesse, showing themselves filtered through a next-generational execution, varied enough so as not to be single-minded in idolatry as “Davidian” picks up energy in its late solo, the 18-minute “One Eyed King” earns its lumbering payoff and lines of floating guitar, “The Supplication of Flame” arrives based around acoustic guitar forward in the mix ahead of the electrics (at least at first) and closer “Telah” basks in a righteous stomp that underscores the point. At 58 minutes, Groupthink isn’t a minor undertaking, but it is one of 2022’s most impressive debut albums and laced with potential for what may develop in their sound. It is stronger in craft than one might initially think, and has to be to hold up all that heft in its fuzz.

<a href="https://thecultofsmoke.bandcamp.com/album/groupthink">Groupthink by Smoke</a>

Smoke on Facebook

Smoke on Bandcamp

—

Rifle, Repossessed

Not so much ’70s-style retroism as tapping into a kind of raw, ’90s heavy rock vision — Nebula, Monster Magnet, as well as Peru and greater South America’s own storied history of fuzzmaking — Rifle‘s Repossessed is relatively rough in its production, but as in the best of cases, that becomes a part of its appeal as the Lima-based three-piece of guitarist/bassist/vocalist Alejandro Suni, guitarist Magno Mendoza and drummer Cesar Araujo ride their riffs down the highway and into a fog of tonal buzz, fervent, butt-sized low end and druggy, outsider vibes. “The Thrill is Back” struts coated in road dirt as it is, and that thrill is found likewise in the scorch-psych of “Demon Djinn” and the earlier blowout “Fiend” that follows opener “Seven Thousand Demons” and sets a bluesy lyrical foundation so that six-minute finale “Spirit Rise” seems to offer some sense of realization or, if not that, then at least acceptance of this well-baked way of life. As the band’s first release, this late-2022 seven-song/32-minute offering feels ready to be pressed up on vinyl by some discerning purveyor, if not for the underlying desert rock drive of “Madness” then surely for the swing in “Sonic Rage,” and it’s one of those records that isn’t going to speak to everyone, but is going to hit just right for some others, dug as it is into a niche between what’s come before and its own encapsulation of a red-eyed stoner future.

<a href="https://rifleheavytrip.bandcamp.com/album/repossessed">Repossessed by rifle</a>

Rifle on Instagram

Rifle on Bandcamp

—

Mother of Graves, Where the Shadows Adorn

If there should be any doubt that Indianapolis’ Mother of Graves are schooled in the sound they’re shooting for, let the fact that Dan Swanö (Katatonia, Opeth, on into infinity) mastered the recording/mix by the band’s own Ben Sandman make it clear where their particular angle on melancholic death-doom is coming from in its grim, wintry soul-dance. Where the Shadows Adorn follows 2020’s likewise-dead-on debut, In Somber Dreams (discussed here), but the stately, poised rollout of a song like “Rain” and the subdued sections before “Of Solitude and Stone” enters its last push, has all the hallmarks of forward growth in songwriting as well as in confidence on the part of the band. Front to back, Where the Shadows Adorn is deathly in its consumption, a fresh interpretation of a moment in history when the likes of Katatonia especially but also acts like My Dying Bride and others of the Peaceville ilk were considered on the extreme end of metal despite their sometimes-grueling tempos. The question remains whether this is where Mother of Graves will reside for the duration or if, like their influences, their depressive streak will grow more melodic with age. As it stands, adorned in shadow, their emotional and atmospheric weight is darkly majestic.

<a href="https://motherofgraves.bandcamp.com/album/where-the-shadows-adorn">Where the Shadows Adorn by Mother of Graves</a>

Wise Blood Records site

—

Swarm, Swarm

This self-titled four-songer is the first release from Helsinki, Finland’s Swarm, and though it’s billed as an EP, its 28 minutes are wrought with a substantial flow and unifying melodic complexity due both to the depth of vocal complementary arrangements between singer Hilja Vedenpää and guitarist Panu Willman, as well as the intertwining of Willman and Einari Toiviainen‘s guitars atop the rolling grooves of Leo Lehtonen‘s bass and Dani Paajanen‘s drumming; the whole band operating together with a sense of purpose that goes beyond the standard ‘riff out and see what happens’ beginning of so many bands. A line of rhythmic notes atop the riff in “Nevermore” around five minutes is emblematic of the flourish the band brings to the release, and one would note the grungier float in “There Again,” and the moodier acoustics of “Frail” and the more full-on duet in the verses of closer “We Should Know” — never mind the pre-fade chug that caps or the consuming heft offsetting those verses — as further distinguishing factors. Self-released in June 2022, Swarm‘s Swarm carries the air of a precursor, and though it’s not known yet to precisely what, the note to keep eyes and ears open is well received. To put it another way, they sound very much like they know what they want to be and to accomplish as a group. If they’re heading into a debut album next, they’re ready to take on the task.

<a href="https://swarmgaze.bandcamp.com/album/swarm">Swarm by Swarm</a>

Swarm on Facebook

918 Records on Facebook

—

Baardvader, Foolish Fires

The self-titled-era Alice in Chains-style vocals on Baardvader‘s second LP, Foolish Fires, make them a ready standout from the slew of up and coming European heavy rollers, but the Den Haag trio have a distinct blend of crunch in their tone and atmosphere surrounding that make a song such as “Understand” memorable for more than just the pleading repetitions of its title in the hook. Opener “Pray” sets a hard-hitting fluidity in motion and “Illuminate” answers back as it caps side A with (dat) bass and airy guitar in an open soundscape soon to be filled with a wall o’ fuzz and more dug-in grunge spirit. As they make their way toward the louder, vocally-layered, highlight-solo finish that the 10-minutes “Echoes” provides, there’s some trace of The Machine‘s noisier affinity in their tones on “Blinded Out,” including the solo, and “Prolong Eternity” culminates with intensity leading into the already-noted closer, but “Echoes” has the throatier shouts — like “Illuminate” before it — to back its case as the destination for where they’ve been headed all along, and works to send Foolish Fires out as a triumphant demonstration of Baardvader‘s appeal, which is relatively straightforward considering how much they nod along the way, their sound sharing grunge’s ability to be aggressive without being metal, heavy without being aggressive, and something of their own that still rings familiar. They’re just beginning to realize their potential, and this record is an important step in that process.

<a href="https://baardvader.bandcamp.com/album/foolish-fires">Foolish Fires by Baardvader</a>

Baardvader on Facebook

Baardvader on Bandcamp

—

Love Gang, Meanstreak

Rest easy, you’re in capable hands. And even if you didn’t hear Love Gang‘s 2020 debut, Dead Man’s Game (review here), the fact that the Denver four-piece went down to Austin, Texas, to record with Gian Ortiz of Amplified Heat producing tells you what you need to know about their boogie on Meanstreak. And what you need to know is largely that you want to hear it. As one might expect, ’70s vibes pervade the eight-tracker, which puts the guitars forward and de-emphasizes some of the organ and flute one might’ve encountered on their first LP, saving it for side B’s “Shake This Feelin’,” the six-minute stretchout “Headed Down to Mexico,” and the closing “Fade Away,” where it ties together with the thrust of earlier cuts like the circuitous “Blinded by Fear” (not an At the Gates cover, though that would be fun), or “Deathride” and the title-track, which shove shove shove as the opening pair so “Bad News” can complete the barnburning salvo. Tucked away before the finale is “Same Ol’ Blues,” a harmonica-laced acoustic cut dug out of your cool uncle’s record collection so that some day, if you’re lucky, some shitbird younger relation of yours may come along and find it here in your own record collection, thus perpetuating the cycle of boogie into perpetuity. Humanity should be so lucky.

<a href="https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/love-gang-meanstreak">LOVE GANG – Meanstreak by HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Records</a>

Love Gang on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds store

—

Astral Magic, We Are Stardust

The first and probably not last Astral Magic release of 2023, We Are Stardust, finds project-spearhead Santtu Laakso — songwriting, synth, bass, vocals, mixing, cover art, etc. — working mostly in solo fashion. Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven/Øresund Space Collective adds guitar and violin (he also mastered the recording), and Samuli Sailo plays guitar on “Drop It,” but the 11-song/60-minute space rocker bears the hallmarks of Laakso‘s Hawkwindian craft, the songs rife with layers of synth and effects behind the forward vocals, programmed drums behind bolstering the krautrock feel. There’s a mellower jam like “Bottled Up Inside,” which puts the guitar solo where voice(s) might otherwise be, and “Out in the Cold” touches loosely on Pink Floyd without giving over entirely to that impulse or meandering too far from its central progression, letting the swirling “Lost Planet” and “Violet Sky” finish with a return to the kosmiche of the opening title-track and “The Simulacra,” which feels almost like a return to ground after the proto-New Wave-y “They Walk Among Us,” though “ground” should be considered on relative terms there because by most standards, Astral Magic start, end, and remain sonically in the farther far out.

<a href="https://astralmagic.bandcamp.com/album/we-are-stardust">We Are Stardust by Astral Magic</a>

Astral Magic on Facebook

Astral Magic on Bandcamp

—

Thank You Lord for Satan, Thank You Lord for Satan

Self-recorded exploratory songcraft is writ large across the Buh Records self-titled debut from Thank You Lord for Satan — the Lima, Peru, two-piece of Paloma La Hoz (ex-Mitad Humana) and Henry Gates (Resplandor) — and the effect throughout the born-during-pandemic-lockdown eight-song offering is a kind of poised intimacy, artsy and performative as La Hoz handles most of but not all the lead vocals with Gates joining in, as on the moody shoegazer “Wet Morning” ahead of the pointedly Badalamenti-esque “Before EQ1.” Opener “A Million Songs Ago” is a rocker, and “Wet Morning” too in at least its including drums, but that’s only a piece of what Thank You Lord for Satan are digging into, as “Isolation” feels duly empty and religious and “Conversations al Amanecer” and “When We Dance” has a kind of electronic-inflected pop-psych at its core, willfully contrasting the folkish “Sad Song” (with Gates‘ lead vocal) and “Devine Destiny,” a side B counterpart to “Isolation” that reveals the hidden structure beneath all this go-wherever-ism, or at very least ends the album on a suitably contemplative note, some electronic snare-ish sound there rising in the mix before being cast off into the ether with the rest of everything.

<a href="https://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/thank-you-lord-for-satan">Thank You Lord For Satan by Thank You Lord For Satan</a>

Thank You Lord for Satan on Facebook

Buh Records on Bandcamp

—

Druid Stone, The Corpse Vanishes

Consider this less a review of The Corpse Vanishes, which is but a single Dec. 2022 three-songer among a glut of releases — including at least one more recent — from Herndon, Virginia’s Druid Stone available through their Bandcamp. The ethic of the band, as led by guitarist Demeter Capsalis, would seem to be as bootleg as possible. Shows are recorded and presented barebones. Rehearsal room demos like “The Corpse Vanishes” and “Night of the Living Dead” — which jams its way into “What Child is This” — here are as raw as raw gets, and in the 20-minute included jam on Electric Wizard‘s “Mother of Serpents,” which was recorded live on Dec. 2 and issued four days later, the power goes out for about three of the first five minutes and Capsalis, who has already explained that most of the band had other stuff to do and that’s why he’s jamming with two friends for the full set, has to keep it going on stage banter alone. Most bands would never release that kind of thing. I respect the shit out of it. Not just because I dig bootlegs — though I do — but because in this age of infinite everything, why not release everything? Don’t you know the fucking planet’s dying? Why the hell would you keep secrets? Who has time for that? Fuck it. Put it all out there. Absolutely. Whether you dig into The Corpse Vanishes or any other of the slew, you might just find that whatever you listen to afterward seems unnecessarily polished. And maybe it is.

<a href="https://doomhippies.bandcamp.com/album/the-corpse-vanishes">THE CORPSE VANISHES by Druid Stone</a>

Druid Stone on Facebook

Druid Stone on Bandcamp

—

https://www.facebook.com/motherofgravesband
https://motherofgraves.bandcamp.com/

Mother of Graves to Release Where the Shadows Adorn Oct. 14

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 8th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Simple motivations here. I dug the last Mother of Graves album, In Somber Dreams (discussed here), and so want to keep an eye out for the next one from the Indianapolis-based death-doomers. What follows isn’t really a release announcement for Where the Shadows Adorn, the band’s impending second outing through Wise Blood Records, so the details are fairly light, but I’ll take an artwork-reveal as a heads up that the record is happening, even without the corresponding info that might otherwise accompany such a thing.

Especially since the art rules. I didn’t have anything against the last album’s cover, but this is definitely an upgrade. Album’s out in October and preorders start Aug. 15, which is either this week or so far in the future my mind can’t comprehend it. I’m not sure which.

From the PR wire via Bandcamp, or the other way around:

Today we reveal the artwork for the upcoming Mother of Graves LP, “Where the Shadows Adorn.” This cover is just half of the amazing gatefold painting commissioned from the extraordinarily talented Paolo Girardi. You have seen his work on the cover of Power Trip’s “Nightmare Logic.” I also love his covers for recent albums by Bewitcher, Runemagick, and Yatra. This artwork is a perfect glimpse into the mood and atmosphere of the coming record. We will share the first track and launch pre-orders in 2 weeks, on August 15th. “Where the Shadows Adorn” will emerge from the crypt on October 14th.

Vocalist Brandon Howe on the artwork:
“I had a bit on an existing idea when I first approached Paolo, but I didn’t want to strain his creativity and not let him express himself in his own manner. First I had sent him a couple of the songs with lyrics attached as a mood setter. I had found a cool, random piece of abstract art online while surfing that was exactly that and nothing more. It gave me a vision in the way it was done. It reminded me of some sort of really distorted waterfall that had shadow figures in it, almost as if they blended in and were a part of the descending stream. He added his wildly surreal and dreamy touch to it, and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! The deep blue colors, the mood, all top notch and perfectly fitting for this record.”

https://www.facebook.com/wisebloodrecs/
https://www.instagram.com/wisebloodrecords
https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.wisebloodrecords.com/

Mother of Graves, In Somber Dreams (2021)

<a href="https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/album/in-somber-dreams">In Somber Dreams by Mother of Graves</a>

https://www.facebook.com/milquetoastpunk
https://milquetoastpunk.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wisebloodrecs/
https://www.instagram.com/wisebloodrecords
https://wisebloodrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.wisebloodrecords.com/

Milquetoast Premiere “Step Off”; Caterwaul Due out Jan. 7

Posted in audiObelisk, Whathaveyou on December 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Indiana shenanigans-cannon heavy punks Milquetoast release their debut album, Caterwaul, on Jan. 28 through Wise Blood Records. And like much of what surrounds on songs such as “Space Force” or “Fake News” or even the earlier punk-into-sludge pummeler “Recognition,” the lead single “Step Off” is not without its purpose of statement. As frenetic as the Indianapolis trio’s fuzz might get — Andy Bowerman‘s bass is wielded as a weapon of mass destruction — from the moment their intro gives way to “Dead Inside,” their swaggering rawness is underscored by a hold-my-beer sense of chaos and an expressive mission in kind. They’re in and out of Caterwaul in just under 35 minutes, and in “Matapacos” and “Stoner Safari” it’s a blast of a party that ensues, their post-modern approach being to take the hell we’re all living in and make it dance.

They’re as heavy as they are punk, maybe a little bit of metal thrown in there on the thrashier end, and really, if you need a disclaimer about the social context of lyrics at this point — some kind of “they talk about politics but it’s okay” — grow up. I haven’t seen a lyric sheet or anything, but after the slow-motion decay that wraps “Stoner Safari,” the shift into the speedier push of “Step Off” — reportedly about unwanted physical contact — feels positively clearheaded without actually being so, and I don’t care where you were on Jan. 6, “Space Force” makes a better deathsludge tune than branch of the military, surfy solo included. Garage punk meets nodding noise riffery for “Fake News,” “The Wall” boasts the highlight line “Ignorance is bliss until you eat shit” while rocking in near-grunge mode, while closer “Forgotten Death” starts out like a goth sendup and spends its and the album’s final moments deconstructing itself around more rumbling bass and a winding progression of lead guitar leading to not-quite-last crashes in succession. Brutal, dudes.

They sound mean and all, but these guys would probably be friends with you and stuff if you wanted to hang out. Don’t take that as permission to grab or anything — “Step Off” is pretty straight-up on that point — but I’m just saying. Might be a good hang.

Album’s out next month, but you can dig “Step Off” right here and now, followed by the badass cover art and more info on the release courtesy of the PR wire.

Enjoy:

Milquetoast, “Step Off” track premiere

Pre-order link: https://milquetoastpunk.bandcamp.com/album/caterwaul

You only need a single unhinged howl from MILQUETOAST’s punked-up party sludge to get sucker-punched by the band name’s irony. The Indiana trio describe themselves as “Minutemen and Fu Manchu wearing Celtic Frost t-shirts,” or “a bunch of stoner doom metal nerds attempting to play punk.” From the deranged album art to the knockout mastering by Chris Fielding (of the mighty Conan), this is a singular barbaric yawp of fuzz and scuzz. Get loud and get weird with Milquetoast.

Mostly written during the pandemic and the last turbulent presidency, Caterwaul’s lyrical focus is a snapshot of political incompetence and social decay. Despite grim subjects ripped from the headlines, Milquetoast laugh through the absurdity. The cover art by Ellie Shvaiko captures that dichotomy of grimy heaviness and pastel-pink levity. The recording was tracked by band ally Tucker Thomasson of Throne of Iron in one insane day to achieve fast ‘n’ loose performances true to the band’s manic stage energy. Because at the end of the day, Milquetoast is first and foremost about the live spectacle.

Vocalist/guitarist Ty Winslow on “Step Off”:

“The lyrics were inspired by a Space Ghost Coast to Coast character, Brak. But the idea is pretty straightforward. I thought about anecdotes that I’ve heard from friends, mostly femmes and some masc, about unwanted and unwarranted touching from strangers. Like grabbing someone’s arm to look at their tattoos or touching the small of a woman’s back when walking by them. The music was inspired by modern garage rock, such as Ty Segall. Nick and Andy got involved with the outro and molded it from basically one riff into the manic clusterfuck it has become.”

“Our approach to live shows is all about having fun,” Winslow confirms. “Fans can expect over-the-top outfits, some light-hearted razzing of the other bands, and loud rock ‘n’ roll.”

Once Covid stops being such a menace, Milquetoast may troll a town near you. Until then, Wise Blood Records will release “Caterwaul” on January 28th, 2022. Get weird. Get wild. Get ready for Milquetoast.

1) Intro (00:00)
2) Dead Inside (00:32)
3) Recognition (03:07)
4) Matapacos (07:34)
5) Stoner Safari (10:15)
6) Step Off (15:06)
7) Space Force (18:44)
8) Fake News (23:10)
9: The Wall (26:29)
10) Forgotten Death (29:55)

Recorded and Mixed by Tucker Thomasson (Throne of Iron)
Mastered by Chris Fielding (Conan)
Album artwork by Ellie Shvaiko (illustrator of the Wise Blood logo)

Milquetoast is:
Ty Winslow – Vocals, Guitar
Andy Bowerman – Vocals, Bass
Nick James – Drums

Milquetoast, “Stoner Safari” live at Black Circle Brewing, Indianapolis, IN

Scarecrow Premiere “Blizzard” From II; Album Out Oct. 22 on Wise Blood Records

Posted in audiObelisk on September 7th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Russian proto-heavybringers Scarecrow will release their second album, II, on Oct. 22 through Wise Blood Records. The first-names-only four-piece of vocalist/flutist Artemis (also harmonica), guitarist Max, bassist Elijah and drummer Vadim — somebody’s playing keys too — will also issue their 2019 self-titled debut through the label, and there’s little mystery why upon listening. With its rockers up front and a generally longer, more progressive-vibing B-side whose tracks, “The Moors” (8:11), “The Mushroom Wizard” (4:15), the initially-acoustic “The Golden Times” (5:46) and finale “The Endless Ocean” (7:14), give a sense of narrative through their titles alone never mind the actual flow between them, the 43-minute eight-songer basks in its more grandiose aspects from orchestral intro/opener “The Endless Ocean Overture” (4:10) onward into the crashing “Blizzard” (premiering below) calling to mind then-via-now practitioners like Horisont or Sweden’s glammier Hällas, though Max‘s sweeping guitar and Artemis‘ ready-to-soar vocals stand them apart.

In setting up the broader reaches of II‘s second half (‘II point five?’), Scarecrow are likewise unafraid to actively engage either doom rock on “Blizzard” or to emerge from their lumbering crash and noise for a dual-layered, NWOBHM-gone-boogie guitar solo in the also-harmonica-laced 12-bar blueser “Magic Flower,” and though “Spirit Seducer” is the shortest cut on the record at 4:02, it unleashes a blend of ’70s rock and ’80s metal that’s denim-clad one way or the other, and even as they shift into “The Moors” (the riff structure in the first half of which I can’t help but hear and think of King Crimson‘s “Starless and Bible Black,” having just seen that band live, but you’d be no more wrong to say Sabbath), they keep their underlying propensity for speed, Vadim‘s drums punctuating a run in the back end of the track that serves as a bed for an echoing flute solo. The comparative strut of “The Mushroom Wizard” — everybody stepping out of the way this time for snare pops between measures — and the lead work in the midsection would seem to indicate that though the self-titled, 2019’s Nosferatu EP, and II have all featured different guitarists, Scarecrow have found their guy in Max. I don’t know who’s composing the foundations of the songs to allow for such consistency of intention across their offerings to this point — Elijah‘s basslines are a steady, welcome presence one way or the other — but yes, the dynamic between these players very much works, and it sounds like it’s been happening for longer than it apparently has.

They cap, as noted, with “The Endless Ocean,” in complementary fashion to “The Endless Ocean Overture” at the beginning, and even find room for a flourish of sax at the back end amid the meandering guitar and slow-fading boogie, which gives way gradually to bass and drums in a jam before a last big finish — quick — sends Scarecrow off and on their way to whatever adventures await them on those particular seas. The social perspective as described by Artemis in the quote under the “Blizzard” premiere below is interesting, though whether that persists through a song like “The Moors,” I’m not certain, having not seen a full lyric sheet. Nonetheless, like the progressive nuance that underlies the outward ’70s vibes of II as a whole, it’s another layer of complexity to what Scarecrow bring forth for those ready to dig deeper. If you’re going to vibe on it, understand that there’s more going on in arrangement and structure than shuffle and blues, though there’s definitely some of that too.

Track follows on the player below, quote’s after that.

Enjoy:

<a href="https://scarecrow-official.bandcamp.com/album/scarecrow-ii">Scarecrow II by Scarecrow</a>

Artemis on “Blizzard”:

A song about life in the conditions in which we live day by day. And it’s not only about weather conditions: severe winters, icy wind, snowy wastelands, frozen swamps, impenetrable snow-covered forests, and endless night.

All this metaphorically reflects what is happening in this country throughout our life: eternal stagnation, frozen minds, suffering that is not only considered a common human norm, but even culturally and socially encouraged, the absence of any confidence in tomorrow (and today, to be honest, too), ubiquitous corruption, bureaucracy, crime, the cultivation of monstrous, destructive stupidity and this eternal, ridiculous expectation of a “bright future” that will never come.

Preorder: https://scarecrow-official.bandcamp.com/album/scarecrow-ii

Scarecrow’s doom rock will lure you to the ocean when Wise Blood Records releases II digitally and on Digipak CD within the United States on October 22nd. Scarecrow’s debut will also finally be available in the states. Make time and listen to Scarecrow summon the sunset.

Scarecrow is:
Artemis – Vocals, Harmonica, Flute
Elijah – Bass Guitar
Vadim – Drums, Percussion
Max – Guitars

Scarecrow on Facebook

Scarecrow on Instagram

Scarecrow on Bandcamp

Lavaborne Premiere “The Heathen Church”; Black Winged Gods out Oct. 1

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on August 10th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Preorders for Lavaborne‘s debut album, Black Winged Gods, begin Aug. 13 ahead of an Oct. 1 release on Wise Blood Records. And as asserted by the PR wire below, the double-guitar Indianapolis five-piece do indeed bask in the traditionalist glories of classic metal — the victories of yore, and so on — however, this isn’t some post-Iron Maiden, clean-and-clear take on NWOBHM grandiosity. Lavaborne kick up a good amount of dirt — not to mention viscera on “Flesh, Blood & Bone” — on their way through Black Winged Gods‘ 10-song/43-minute run, and they’re by no means shy about getting themselves covered in it.

By the time “Call to Worship” shifts into chug of “The Heathen Church” (premiering below), the chug begins to betray three-fifths of the band’s roots in the sludgier Mask of Sanity, and they present their metallurgical analysis with a resilient current of grit throughout the procession that follows, guitars soaring and shredding in “Flesh, Blood & Bone” with double-kickdrum galloping behind even as the vocalist Chris Latta (ex-Spirit Division) brings a rawer Messiah Marcolin to mind. So maybe some grandstanding, some theatricality, but still down and dirty for that.

Later, the title-track signals a shift to longer-form craft, a quiet break in the middle edging toward Dio-era Sabbath considerations, but the edge returns, and though “Prove Your Worth” and “The Final Mystery” are both duly doomed, transcending or at least transposing some of the earlier thrashiness in “Mortal Pride” or “The Serpent Seed,” the sense that at any moment Lavaborne might break out into a full-bore shove never dissipates. Black Winged Gods is a less predictable, more satisfying debut for that.

Over its course, it establishes these extremes of meter and purpose, and then toys with them, finding a middle ground in “The Great Reward” after “Flesh, Blood & Bone” only to blow it away in “Mortal Pride,” or using “Master of Medusa” — there are guest vocals there; unfortunately I don’t know by whom — as a transition into the acoustic-inclusive title-track even as that song bridges to the already noted closing salvo of “Prove Your Worth” and “The Final Mystery.” And they’re not so filthy or raw that “Prove Your Worth” doesn’t provide ample payoff in its later surge, gang shouts and thuds and a big cymbal-wash finish on the way to “The Final Mystery” and its bass-led beginning, chugging-but-complex unfurling and defiantly metal-of-doom stance. I don’t know when they’re playing (okay, Sept. 8, Black Circle in Indy; fine), but in long songs or short, fast songs or slow, these tracks were made for the stage.

They are schooled in the metal they’re making, fans as well as artists, they’ve taken years to refine their approach, and that passion bleeds through the material. There is no contempt for the form here, and the progression from “Call to Worship” to “The Final Mystery” is thoughtful, linear and ably directed, turning rawness of presentation into an aesthetic strength and their unwillingness to compromise in their purpose into a steel that will neither bend nor break. Fucking a, headbangers. Hit it.

“The Heathen Church” is on the player below, followed by some words from Latta on the track and more info on Black Winged Gods.

Please enjoy:

<a href="https://lavaborne.bandcamp.com/album/black-winged-gods">Black Winged Gods by Lavaborne</a>

Chris Latta on “The Heathen Church”:

Anybody who’s heard the demo that we released in 2017 may recognize “The Heathen Church.” The way we play it now is a whole lot faster and more theatrical, which has made it the best opener for our shows as well as a no-brainer for kicking off the album. The lyrics tell the story of a cult that engineers the birth of the Antichrist Rosemary’s Baby-style, only for the resulting spawn to team up with his dear old dad and annihilate them. Think of it as a pro-choice anthem in Mercyful Fate clothing.

Indianapolis warriors Lavaborne forge their riffs in the magma of classic metal. Their Black Winged Gods debut is a searing and soaring introduction to the band’s epic power doom. Lavaborne are champions of metal’s unique ability to project danger and triumph. Harmonized guitars and sensational solos slither amongst serpents. Tales of rogues and mages are drenched in Candlemass heaviness. Like a true epic, Black Winged Gods has the scope of a grand adventure packed with NWOTHM charm and puffs of stoner doom. Lavaborne will gallop from the fire when Wise Blood Records releases Black Winged Gods on October 1st.

Lavaborne is:
Chris Latta – Lead Vocals (ex – Spirit Division)
Brandon Signorino – Guitar (Scorched Earth, ex – Steel Aggressor)
Brandon Davis – Bass (Mask of Sanity)
Freddie Rodriguez – Guitar (Mask of Sanity)
Max Barber – Drums (Charonyx, Mask of Sanity)

Lavaborne on Facebook

Lavaborne on Instagram

Lavaborne on Twitter

Lavaborne on Bandcamp

RidingEasy Records website

2 Comments »

Quarterly Review: Spelljammer, The Black Heart Death Cult, Shogun, Nadja, Shroud of Vulture, Towards Atlantis Lights, ASTRAL CONstruct, TarLung, Wizzerd & Merlin, Seum

Posted in Reviews on July 8th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

We proceed onward, into this ever-growing swath of typos, lineup corrections made after posting, and riffs — more riffs! — that is the Quarterly Review. Today is Day Four and I’m feeling good. Not to say there isn’t some manner of exhaustion, but the music has been killer — today is particularly awesome — and that makes life much, much, much better as I’ve already said. I hope you’ve found one or two or 10 records so far that you’ve really dug. I know I’ve added a few to my best of 2021 list, including stuff right here. So yeah, we roll on.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Spelljammer, Abyssal Trip

To envision an expanse, and to crush it. Stockholm three-piece Spelljammer return five years after Ancient of Days (review here), with an all-the-more-massive second long-player through RidingEasy, turning their front-cover astronaut around to face the audience head on and offering 43 minutes/six tracks of encompassing largesse, topping 10 minutes in the title-track and “Silent Rift,” both on side B with the interlude “Peregrine” between them, after the three side A rollers, “Bellwether,” “Lake” and “Among the Holy” have tripped out outward and downward into an atmospheric plunge that is a joy to take feeling specifically geared as an invite to the converted. We are here, come worship with us. Also get crushed. Spelljammer records may not happen all the time, but you won’t be through “Bellwether” before you’re saying it was worth the wait.

<a href="https://spelljammer.bandcamp.com/album/abyssal-trip">Abyssal Trip by Spelljammer</a>

Spelljammer on Facebook

—

The Black Heart Death Cult, Sonic Mantras

A deceptively graceful second LP from Melbourne’s The Black Heart Death Cult, Sonic Mantras pulls together an eight-song/45-minute run that unfolds bookended by “Goodbye Gatwick Blues” (8:59) and “Sonic Dhoom” (9:47) and in between ebbs and flows across shorter pieces that maximize their flow in whether shoegazing, heavygazing, blissing out, or whatever we’re calling it this week on “The Sun Inside” and “One Way Through,” or finding their way to a particularly deadened meadow on “Trees,” or tripping the light hypnotic on “Dark Waves” just ahead of the closer. “Cold Fields” churns urgently in its 2:28 but remains spacious, and everywhere The Black Heart Death Cult go, they remain liquefied in their sound, like a seemingly amorphous thing that nonetheless manages to hold its shape despite outside conditions. Whatever form they take, then, they are themselves, and Sonic Mantras emphasizes how yet-underappreciated they are in emerging from the ever-busy Aussie underground.

<a href="https://theblackheartdeathcult.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-mantras">Sonic Mantras by The Black Heart Death Cult</a>

The Black Heart Death Cult on Facebook

Kozmik Artifactz store

—

Shogun, Tetra

Tetra is the third long-player from Milwaukee’s Shogun, and in addition to the 10-minute “Delta,” which marries blues gargle with YOB slow-gallop before jamming out across its 10-minute span, it brings straight-shooter fuzz rockers like “Gravitas,” the someone-in-this-band-listened-to-Megadeth-in-the-’90s-and-that’s-okay beginnings of “Buddha’s Palm/Aviary” and likewise crunch of “Axiom” later, but also the quiet classic progressive rock of “Gone Forever,” and the more patient coming together of psychedelia and harder-hitting movement on closer “Maximum Ray.” Somewhat undercut by a not-raw-but-not-bursting-with-life production, pieces like “Buddha’s Palm/Aviary,” which gives over to a sweeter stretch of guitar in its second movement, and “Vertex/Universal Pain Center,” which in its back end brings around that YOB influence again and puts it to good use, are outwardly complex enough to put the lie to the evenhandedness of the recording. There’s more going on in Tetra than it first seems, and the more you listen, the more you find.

<a href="https://shogunwi.bandcamp.com/album/tetra">Tetra by SHOGUN</a>

Shogun on Facebook

Shogun on Bandcamp

—

Nadja, Luminous Rot

Keeping up with Nadja has proven nigh on impossible over the better part of the last two decades, as the Berlin-by-way-of-Toronto duo have issued over 25 albums in 19 years, plus splits and live offerings and digital singles and oh my goodness I do believe I have the vapors that’s a lot of Nadja. For those of us who flit in and out like the dilletantes we ultimately are, Luminous Rot‘s aligning Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff with Southern Lord makes it an easy landmark, but really most of what the six-cut/48-minute long-player does is offer a reminder of the vital experimentalism the lazy are missing in the first place. The consuming, swelling drone of “Cuts on Your Hands,” blown-out sub-industrialism of “Starres,” hook of the title-track and careful-what-you-wish-for anchor riff of “Fruiting Bodies” — these and the noisily churning closer “Dark Inclusions” are a fervent argument in Nadja‘s favor as being more than a sometimes-check-in kind of band, and for immediately digging into the 43-minute single-song album Seemannsgarn, which they released earlier this year. So much space and nothing to lose.

<a href="https://nadja.bandcamp.com/album/luminous-rot">Luminous Rot by Nadja</a>

Nadja on Facebook

Southern Lord Recordings website

—

Shroud of Vulture, Upon a Throne of Jackals

Welcome to punishment as a primary consideration. Indianapolis death-doom four-piece hold back the truly crawling fare until “Perverted Reflection,” which is track three of the total seven on their debut full-length, Upon a Throne of Jackals, but by then the extremity has already shown its unrepentant face across the buried-alive “Final Spasms of the Drowned” and the oldschool death metal of “The Altar.” Centerpiece “Invert Every Throne” calls to mind Conan in its nod, but Shroud of Vulture are more about rawness than sheer largesse in tone, and their prone-to-blasting style gives them an edge there and in “Halo of Tarnished Light,” which follows. The closing pair of “Concealing Rabid Laughter” and “Stone Coffin of Existence” both top seven minutes and offset grueling tension with grueling release, but it’s the stench of decay that so much defines Upon a Throne of Jackals, as though somebody rebuilt Sunlight Studio brick for brick in Hoosier Country. Compelling and filthy in kind.

<a href="https://shroudofvulture.bandcamp.com/album/upon-a-throne-of-jackals">Upon a Throne of Jackals by Shroud of Vulture</a>

Shroud of Vulture on Facebook

Transylvanian Tapes on Bandcamp

—

Towards Atlantis Lights, When the Ashes Devoured the Sun

Ultra-grueling, dramatic death-doom tragedies permeate the second full-length, When the Ashes Devoured the Sun, from UK-based four-piece Towards Atlantis Lights, with vocalist/keyboardist Kostas Panagiotou and guitarist Ivan Zara at the heart of the compositions while bassist Riccardo Veronese and drummer Ivano Olivieri assure the impact that coincides with the cavernous procession matches in scope. The follow-up to 2018’s Dust of Aeons (review here), this six-track collection fosters classicism and modern apocalyptic vibes alike, and whether raging or morose, its dirge atmosphere remains firm and uncompromised. Heavy lumber for heavy hearts. The kind of doom that doesn’t look up. That doesn’t mean it’s not massive in scope — it is, even more than the first record — just that nearly everything it sees is downward. If there’s hope, it is a vague thing, lost to periphery. So be it.

<a href="https://pantheistuk.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-ashes-devoured-the-sun">When the Ashes Devoured the Sun by Towards Atlantis Lights</a>

Towards Atlantis Lights on Facebook

Kostas Panagiotou on Bandcamp

—

ASTRAL CONstruct, Tales of Cosmic Journeys

It has been said on multiple occasions that “space is the place.” The curiously-capitalized Colorado outfit ASTRAL CONstruct would seem to live by this ethic on their debut album, Tales of Cosmic Journeys, unfurling as they do eight flowing progressions of instrumental slow-CGI-of-the-planets pieces that are more plotted in their course than jams, but feel built from jams just the same. Raw in its production and mix, and mastered by Kent Stump of Wo Fat, there’s enough atmosphere to let the lead guitar breathe, certainly, and to sustain life in general even on “Jettisoned Adrift in the Space Debris,” and the image evoked by “Hand Against the Solar Winds” feels particularly inspired given that song’s languid roll. The record starts and ends in cryogenic sleep, and if upon waking we’re transported to another place and another time, who knows what wonders we might see along the way. ASTRAL CONstruct‘s exploration would seem to be just beginning here, but their “Cosmos Perspective” is engaging just the same.

<a href="https://astralconstruct.bandcamp.com/album/tales-of-cosmic-journeys">Tales of Cosmic Journeys by ASTRAL CONstruct</a>

ASTRAL CONstruct on Instagram

ASTRAL CONstruct on Bandcamp

—

TarLung, Architect

Vienna-based sludgedrivers TarLung were last heard from with 2017’s Beyond the Black Pyramid (discussed here), and Architect continues the progression laid out there in melding vocal extremity and heavy-but-not-too-heavy-to-move riffing. It might seem like a fine line to draw, and it is, and that only makes songs like “Widow’s Bane” and “Horses of Plague” all the more nuanced as their deathly growls and severe atmospheres mesh with what in another context might just be stoner rock groove. Carcass circa the criminally undervalued Swansong, Six Feet Under. TarLung manage to find a place in stoner sludge that isn’t just Bongzilla worship, or Bongripper worship, or Bong worship. I’m not sure it’s worship at all, frankly, and I like that about it as the closing title-track slow-moshes my brain into goo.

<a href="https://tarlung.bandcamp.com/album/architect">Architect by TarLung</a>

TarLung on Facebook

TarLung on Bandcamp

—

Wizzerd & Merlin, Turned to Stone Chapter III

Somewhere in the great mystical expanse between Kalispell, Montana, and Kansas City, Missouri, two practicioners of the riffly dark arts meet on a field of battle. Wizzerd come packing the 19-minute acoustic-into-heavy-prog-into-sitar-laced-jam-out “We Are,” as if to encompass that declaration in all its scope, while Merlin answer back with the organ-led “Merlin’s Bizarre Adventure” (21:51), all chug and lumber until it’s time for weirdo progressive fusion reggae and an ensuing Purple-tinged psych expansion. Who wins? I don’t know. Ripple Music in releasing it in the first place, I guess. Continuing the label’s influential split series(es), Turned to Stone Chapter III pushes well over the top in the purposes of both acts involved, and in that, it’s maybe less of a battle than two purveyors joining forces to weave some kind of Meteo down on the heads of all who might take them on. If you’ve think you’ve got the gift, they seem only too ready to test that out.

<a href="https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/album/turned-to-stone-chapter-iii-wizzerd-vs-merlin">TURNED TO STONE Chapter III: Wizzerd vs. Merlin by Ripple Music</a>

Wizzerd on Facebook

Merlin on Facebook

Ripple Music website

—

Seum, Winterized

“Life Grinder” begins with a sample: “I don’t know if you need all that bass,” and the answer, “Oh, you need all that bass.” That’s already after “Sea Sick Six” has revealed the Montreal-based trio’s sans-guitar extremist sludge roll, and the three-piece seem only too happy to keep up the theme. Vocals are harsh, biting, grating, purposeful in their fuckall, and the whole 28-minute affair of Winterized is cathartic aural violence, except perhaps the interlude “666,” which is a quiet moment between “Broken Bones” and “Black Snail Volcano,” which finally seems to just explode in its outright aggression, nod notwithstanding. A slowed down Ramones cover — reinventing “Pet Sematary” as “Red Sematary” — has a layer of spoken chanting vocals layered in and closes out, but the skin has been peeled so far back by then and Seum have doused so much salt onto the wounds that even Bongzilla might cringe. The low-end-only approach only makes it more punishing and more punk rock at the same time. Fucking mean.

<a href="https://seumtheband.bandcamp.com/album/winterized">Winterized by Seum</a>

Seum on Facebook

Seum on Bandcamp

—