Posted in Whathaveyou on September 2nd, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Zagreb-based sludge metal four-piece A Gram Trip have set a Nov. 20 release for their second album, Bud Ends and Glass Bottoms. The title immediately gives a sense of the point of view under which the album is working — that is to say, negative — and the lead single/lead track “Flesh and Wires” is streaming now. I’d say it hits like an elbow to the side of the head, but honestly, it’s thicker than that, so really it’s more like a knee, though one hesitates to think of sludgers as jumping up to kick skulls like something out of Mortal Kombat. Either way, you might to duck. Or not.
Note the album art here, an oil on glass piece by Croatian artist Ivan Vecenaj. Is it weird, dark, oddly fitting with the downer chug of “Flesh and Wires.” I was lucky enough to see these guys play at Bear Stone Festival 2024 (review here), and the vibe was obviously different in the sun by the Croatian riverside, but even there they were heavy as hell, and I’m glad to hear that translate to the new track too.
I’ll hope to have more to come on this one, but here’s the announce for now:
A Gram Trip announce new album titled “Bud Ends And Glass Bottoms”, first single out now!
A Gram Trip is a four-piece stoner metal band from Zagreb, Croatia. Founded in 2019, they released their debut album titled “Long Overdue” in 2023, followed up by a three song EP titled “If We Leaf Tomorrow” in 2024.
This year, they are putting out their second album titled “Bud Ends And Glass Bottoms”, set to release on Vinyl on November 20th. The album was recorded in Studio Depth, Zagreb over a three-day weekend at the end of May 2025. Mixing and mastering was done by Filip Sertic.
“From the early days of the band there was always an idea to have Croatian Naive art to grace an album cover. Luckily, we stumbled upon Ivan Vecenaj and his work. We jumped in a car and went to his museum. Getting to talk to his son Mladen, and getting to know his life and work, we realised there is a lot we have in common! He was self-taught with a diy mindset. ”
Ivan Vecenaj (1920-2013) was a Croatian Naive painter, writer and poet born in Gola. His painting “Our Future”, which graces the cover of this album, was created in 1975 using oil paints to glass.
The first single from the album titled “Flesh and Wires” is available now via Youtube and on all major streaming platforms. You can pre order the full album on 12” black or turquoise vinyl via the band’s Bandcamp:https://agramtrip.bandcamp.com/album/bud-ends-and-glass-bottoms
Tracklisting: 1. Flesh And Wires 2. Dope Palace 3. Morphine 4. Next Station: Devastation 5. Pepeliaris 6. Drunk On A Camel 7. Via Dolorosa
Posted in Reviews on December 13th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
It’s been almost too easy, this week. Like, I was running a little later yesterday than I had the day before and I’m pretty sure it was only a big deal because — well, I was busy and distracted, to be fair — but mostly because the rest of the week to compare it against has been so gosh darn smooth. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is the last day. The music’s awesome. Barring actual disaster, like a car accident between now and then or some such, I’ll finish this one with minimal loss of breath.
Set against the last two Quarterly Reviews, one of which went 10 days, the other one 11, this five-dayer has been mellow and fun. As always, good music helps with that, and as has been the case since Monday, there’s plenty of it here. Not one day has gone by that I didn’t add something from the batch of 50 releases to my year-end list, which, again, barring disaster, should be out next week.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
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Cosmic Fall, Back Where the Fire Flows
After setting a high standard of prolific releases across 2017 and 2018 to much celebration and social media ballyhooing, Berlin jammers Cosmic Fall issued their single “Lackland” (review here) in mid-2019, and Back Where the Fire Flows is their first offering since. The apparently-reinvigorated lineup of the band includes bassist Klaus Friedrich and drummer Daniel Sax alongside new guitarist Leonardo Caprioli, and if there was any concern they might’ve lost the floating resonance that typified their earlier material, 13-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “Lucid Skies Above Mars” allays it fluidly. The more straightforwardly riffed “Magma Rising” (4:31) and the tense shuffler “Under the Influence of Gravity” (4:38) follow that leadoff, with a blowout and feedback finish for the latter that eases the shift back into spacious-jammy mode for “Chant of the Lizards” (12:26) — perhaps titled in honor of the likeness the central guitar figure carries to The Doors — with “Drive the Kraut” (10:34) closing with the plotted sensibility of Earthless by building to a fervent head and crashing out quick as they might, and one hopes will, on stage. A welcome return and hopefully a preface to more.
It doesn’t seem inappropriate to think of Weather Systems as a successor to Anathema, which until they broke up in 2020 was multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Daniel Cavanagh‘s main outlet of 30 years’ standing. Teamed here with Anathema drummer/producer Daniel Cardoso and producer Tony Doogan, who helmed Anathema‘s 2017 album, The Optimist (review here), Cavanagh is for sure in conversation with his former outfit. There are nuances like the glitchy synth in “Ocean Without a Shore” or the post-punk urgency in the rush of highlight cut “Ghost in the Machine,” and for those who felt the Anathema story was incomplete, “Are You There? Pt. 2” and “Untouchable Pt. 3” are direct sequels to songs from that band, so the messaging of Weather Systems picking up where Anathema left of is clear, and Cavanagh unsurprisingly sounds at home in such a context. Performing most of the instruments himself and welcoming a few guests on vocals, he leads the project to a place where listening can feel like an act of emotional labor, but with songs that undeniably sooth and offer space for comfort, which is their stated intention. Curious to hear how Weather Systems develops.
Assembled by bassist Ron Holzner and his The Skull bandmate, guitarist Lothar Keller, Legions of Doom are something of a doom metal supergroup with Henry Vasquez (Saint Vitus, Blood of the Sun) on drums, Scott Little (Leadfoot) on guitar alongside Keller, and vocalists Scott Reagers (Saint Vitus) and Karl Agell (Leadfoot, Lie Heavy, C.O.C.‘s Blind LP) sharing frontman duties. Perhaps the best compliment one can give The Skull 3 — which sources its material in part from the final The Skull session prior to the death of vocalist Eric Wagner — is that it lives up to the pedigree of those who made it. No great shocker the music is in the style of The Skull since that’s the point. The question is how the band build on songs like “All Good Things” and “Between Darkness and Dawn” and the ripping “Insectiside” (sic), but this initial look proves the concept and is ready and willing to school the listener across its eight tracks on how classic doom got to be that way.
The first offering from Netherlands mellow psych-folk two-piece Myriad’s Veil brims with sweet melody and a subtly expansive atmosphere, bringing together Utrecht singer-songwriter Ismena, who has several albums out as a solo artist, and guitarist Ivy van der Meer, also of Amsterdam cosmic rockers Temple Fang for a collection of eight songs running 44 minutes of patiently-crafted, thoughtfully melodic and graceful performance. Ismena is no stranger to melancholia and the layers of “When the Leaves Start Falling” with the backing line of classical guitar and Mellotron give a neo-Canterbury impression without losing their own expressive edge. Most pieces stand between five and six minutes each, which is enough time for atmospheres to blossom and flourish for a while, and though the arrangements vary, the songs are united around acoustic guitar and voice, and so the underpinning is traditional no matter where Pendant goes. The foundation is a strength rather than a hindrance, and Ismena and van der Meer greet listeners with serenity and a lush but organic character of sound.
Never short on attitude, “I Only Play 4 Money” — “If you take my picture/Your camera’s smashed/You write me fan mail/I don’t write back,” etc. — leads off Michael Rudolph Cummings‘ latest solo EP, the four-track Money with a fleshed out arrangement not unlike one might’ve found on 2022’s You Know How I Get (review here), released by Ripple Music. From there, the erstwhile Backwoods Payback frontman, Boozewa anti-frontman and grown-up punk/grunge troubadour embarks on the more stripped down, guy-and-guitar strums and contemplations of “Deny the World” and “Easier to Leave,” the latter with more than a hint of Americana, and “Denver,” which returns to the full band, classic-style lead guitar flourish, layered vocals and drums, and perhaps even more crucially, bass. It’s somewhere around 13 minutes of music, all told, but that’s more than enough time for Cummings to showcase mastery in multiple forms of his craft and the engaging nature of what’s gradually becoming his “solo sound.”
Basking in a heavygaze float with the lead guitar while the markedly-terrestrial riff chugs and echoes out below, Moon Destroy‘s “The Nearness of June” is three and a half minutes long and the first single the Atlanta outfit founded by guitarist Juan Montoya (MonstrO, ex-Torche, etc.) and drummer Evan Diprima (also bass and synth, ex-Royal Thunder) have had since guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Charlie Suárez joined the band. Set across a forward linear build that quickly gets intense behind Suárez‘s chanting intertwining vocal lines, delivered mellow with a low-in-mouth melody, it’s a tension that slams into a slowdown in the second half of the song but holds over into the solo and fadeout march of the second half as well as it builds back up, the three-piece giving a quick glimpse of what a debut full-length might hopefully bring in terms of aural largesse, depth of mix and atmospheric soundscaping. I have no idea when, where or how such a thing would or will arrive, but that album will be a thing to look forward to.
Billed as Coltaine‘s debut LP — the history of the band is a bit more complex if I recall — Forgotten Ways is nonetheless a point of arrival for the Karlsruhe, Germany, four-piece. It is genuinely post-metallic in the spirit of being over genre completely, and as Julia Frasch makes the first harsh/clean vocal switch late in opener “Mogila,” with drummer Amin Bouzeghaia, bassist Benedikt Berg and guitarist Moritz Berg building the procession behind the soar, the band use their longest/opening track (immediate points) to establish the world in which the songs that follow take place. The cinematic drone of “Himmelwärts” and echoing goth metal of “Dans un Nouveau Monde” follow, leading the way into the wind-and-vocal minimalism of “Cloud Forest” at the presumed end of side A only to renew the opener’s crush in the side B leadoff title-track. Also the centerpiece of the album, “Cloud Forest” has room to touch on German-language folk before resuming its Obituary-meets-Amenra roll, and does not get less expansive from that initial two minutes or so. As striking as the two longest pieces are, Forgotten Ways is bolstered by the guitar ambience of “Ableben,” which leads into the pair of “Grace” and “Tales of Southern Lands,” both of which move from quieter outsets into explosive heft, each with their own path, the latter in half the time, and the riff-and-thud-then-go 77 seconds of “Aren” caps because why the hell not at that point. With a Jan Oberg mix adding to the breadth, Coltaine‘s declared-first LP brims with scope and progressive purpose. It is among the best debuts I’ve heard in 2024, easily.
Zagreb-based veteran heavy rockers Stonebride — the four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Siniša Krneta, bassist/vocalist Matija Ljevar, guitarist Tješimir Mendaš and drummer Stjepan Kolobarić — give a strong argument for maturity of songwriting from the outset of Smiles Revolutionary, their fourth long-player. The ease with which they let the melody carry “In Presence,” knowing that the song doesn’t need to be as heavy as possible at all times since it still has presence, or the way the organ laces into the mix in the instrumental rush that brings the subsequent “Turn Back” to a finish before the early-QOTSA/bangin’-on-stuff crunch of “Closing Distance” tops old desert tones with harmonies worthy of Alice in Chains leading, inexorably, to a massive, lumbering nod of a payoff — they’re not written to be anything other than what they are, and in part because of that they stand testament to the long-standing progression of Stonebride. “Shine Hard” starts with a mosh riff given its due in crash early and late with a less-shove-minded jam between, part noise rock, answered by the progressive start-stop build of “March on the Heart” and closer “Time and Tide,” which dares a little funk in its outreach and leaves off with a nodding crescendo and smooth comedown, having come in and ultimately going out on a swell of vocals. Not particularly long, but substantial.
Toad Venom will acknowledge their new mini-album, Jag Har Inga Problen Osv…, was mixed and mastered by Kalle Lilja of Welfare Sounds studio and label, but beyond that, the Swedish weirdo joy psych rock transcendentalists offer no clue as to who’s actually involved in the band. By the time they get down to “Dogs!” doing a reverse-POV of The Stooges‘ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” in classic soul style, they’ve already celebrated in the rushing bliss and Beatles-y Mellotron break of opener “Jag har verkligen inga problem (så det måste vara du),” taken “One Day You Will Be Perfect” from manic boogie to sunny Californian psych/folk rock, underscoring its chorus with a riff that could easily otherwise be black metal, dwelled in the organ and keyboard dramaturge amid the rolling “Mon Amour” — the keys win the day in the end and are classy about it afterward, but it’s guitar that ends it — and found a post-punk gothy shuffle for “Time Lapse,” poppish but not without the threat of bite. So yes, half an album, as they state it, but quite a half if you’re going by scope and aesthetic. I don’t know how much of a ‘band’ Toad Venom set out to be, but they’ve hit on a sound that draws from sources as familiar as 1960s psychedelia and manages to create a fresh approach from it. To me, that speaks of their being onto something special in these songs. Can’t help but wonder what’s in store for the second half.
Following up on the organ-and-fuzz molten flow of “Radio Radiation” with the more emotive, Rolling Stones-y-until-it-gets-heavy storytelling of “Antihero,” Berlin’s Sacred Buzz carve out their own niche in weighted garage rock, taking in elements of psychedelia without ever pushing entirely over into something shroomy sounding — to wit, the proto-punk tension of quirky delivery of “Revolution” — staying grounded in structure and honoring dirt-coated traditionalism with dynamic performances, “No Wings” coming off sleazy in its groove without actually being sleaze, “Make it Go Wrong” revealing a proggy shimmer that turns careening and twists to a finish led by the keys and guitar, and “Rebel Machine” blowing it out at the end because, yeah, I mean, duh. Radio Radiation is Sacred Buzz‘s first EP (it’s more if you get the bonus track), and it seems to effortlessly buck the expectations of genre without sounding like it’s trying to push those same limits. Maybe attitude and the punk-born casual cool that overrides it all has something to do with that impression — a swagger that’s earned by the time they’re done, to be sure — but the songs are right there to back that up. The short format suits them, and they make it flow like an album. A strong initial showing.
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Bookended by harmonies from guitarist Siniša Krneta and bassist Matija Ljevar, the heavy psych and stoner rocking “Time and Tide” appeared on the 2024 album Smiles Revolutionary from long-running Zagreb four-piece Stonebride. The band have a new video up for the song, which since I didn’t get to hear the album (yet! no expiry date for music; the player’s below) I’m glad to have come down the PR wire as an opportunity to get caught up.
It’s been six years since the band released their Animals on Display EP, and the track is an immediate reminder of how much there is to dig in their sound, putting microgenres next to each other in complementary ways while forging an individual impression therefrom. They’re a bit between styles, but as they bring together ethereal and grounded intentions, they also make the groove easy and a pleasure to follow.
I’m sure you didn’t miss the album, because you’re better at this than me, but it’s at the bottom in case you want a refresher after the video, as well as for my own getting on board. The “Time and Tide” video is down there as well, obviously.
Enjoy:
STONEBRIDE: Croatia’s Leading Heavy Rock Destroyers Share New Video for ‘TIME AND TIDE’
Croatian quartet share their first ever music video for searing new single, taken from their fifth studio album, Smiles Revolutionary…
Since their formation in Zagreb in 2005, Stonebride have blazed a trail across Europe, racking up countless headline tours, festival appearances and support shows with the likes of Monster Magnet, Karma to Burn, Yawning Man, Elder, Mos Generator and more.
Hand in hand with their impressive live reputation, Croatia’s leading heavy rock destroyers have also developed a habit over the past two decades of putting out some of the genre’s most promising records. Since the release of 2008’s Inner Seasons the quartet has nurtured a sound weighted somewhere between ’90s alt rock and dark psychedelia, while cultivating riffs from the vast, verdant realms of stoner, sludge, and doom.
This month the band will release their first ever official music video for fan-favourite and closing epic on their latest and perhaps finest album – Smiles Revolutionary – which was released in May on PDV Records. Produced and directed by close friend Tvrtko (aka Vidokk) and starring Mario Dobrić, the video for ‘Time and Tide’ finally shines a light on the band and presents a visual story to the deep and meaningful themes behind their music.
“Our new single ‘Time and Tide’ is about the transience of time, soul and spirit searching, and dealing with personal loss and mental health,” explains drummer, Stjepan Kolobarić. “The modern age is one of madness and technology; chaos, war horrors, life challenges and imposed societal norms. It feels like we’re increasingly losing touch with ourselves and the energy that motivates us all so this song champions individuality. It’s about that desire for creative expression and, above all else, enthusiasm, which fuels us and make us feel alive.”
Released just this past February, Prokletije II is, as the title hints, the follow-up to Prokletije I, which Croatian neo-folk-influenced atmospheric progressive metallers Nemeček issued late in 2021. It is the trio’s third album overall — they made their self-titled debut in 2018 — and the second installment of a purported trilogy with the final chapter to come. Maybe something of a between-moment, then. It has been my introduction to the Zagreb-based three-piece whose sound is distinguished by the use of Balkan tambura from Vedran Živković (also lead vocals) and the keys and synth of Leo Beslać (also backing vocals, some electric guitar they charmingly call “hidden”), and the driving rhythms of drummer Borna Maksan (also backing vocals, keys, tambura, other percussion), the latter of whom also recorded, mixed and mastered the album.
In what can be an ideal depending on the context and might have been in this case, my first exposure to Nemeček was seeing them onstage a month ago at Bear Stone Festival (review here), tucked away in the riverside woods outside of Slunj in their home country. Their aesthetic as portrayed on Prokletije II is abundantly dark, and the sun was blinding when they played — all three members of the band seated, though Beslać was prone to standing in more excited parts — and to be sure, that is some of what’s etched into my memory of the experience, but the cavernous echo on the vocals speaks to something older and darker in mood, and the places Prokletije II explores across its 10 component tracks, which features a titular series of four “Prokletije 2” interludes — calling them that is complicated by the fact that “Prokletije 2.2” (4:51) is longer than opener “Os Svijeta” (3:59), but fluidity of purpose suits the ambience of the record as well — that shift and broaden the already-significant scope of the outing in terms of style.
These inclusions vary: from “Prokletije 2.1” (1:13) with its drone and far-off percussion echoes contrasting the insistent tambura strum and snare snaps of “Os Svijeta”; to the aforementioned “Prokletije 2.2” building a more vivid synth landscape diverging from the motorik throb of “Na Kraju Svega (Beograd)” (5:20) just prior, somewhat dystopian sci-fi, but conjuring images in muted colors just the same; to the backward swirls and semi-industrial noise experimentation of “Prokletije 2.3” (1:41) giving a sense of severity without taking away from the standout prog keyboard melody and fuzzier tone as well as a standout vocal in the preceding “Mirila” (5:35) that feels like a grounding moment after the mostly-instrumental sprawl of “Olovni” (9:32) proves so patient and immersive on the way to its more intense, still-building crescendo; to the penultimate “Prokletije 2.4” (2:01) ringing a purposefully-synthesized-sounding bell answered by ghostly swells of notes and drone, ceremonial but vague and admirably not playing to cultism but flowing gracefully into the concluding “Mirëdita” (6:14), which is soon to pick up with strum and snare march that answers back to “Os Svijeta” but demonstrates the journey Nemeček have undertaken to get from one end of the album to another. And if that far-too-long sentence you (maybe) just read tells you anything, it should be that the shifts undertaken throughout Prokletije II are executed with a grace that speaks to the band’s foundations in prog as well as Eastern European folk music. They are as accessible and easy to follow as they are complex in how the material is built; if you can put the record on and keep a fairly open mind, the band are more than ready to bring you along for the already noted front-to-back voyage, whether you’re able to understand the Croatian-language lyrics or not.
For what it’s worth, I’m not. And I’m expert neither in the history of Balkan folk, nor prog rock, post-punk, noise, neofolk or anything else that’s arguably at work here, but there’s a resonance in Prokletije II that goes beyond even the finer details of the audio — that guitar that might be hidden in the mountainside rush of “Kuvet” (5:22) or the distorted roll that’s evoked by “Mirila,” the chime sounds tucked away at the end of “Mirëdita,” the abiding nuance of melody throughout, and so on — to the greater affect of the whole. As a listening experience, i.e. ‘hearing the thing,’ one might be as prone to calling it lush as minimalist, but the more complicated truth is that the songs — both those built around the “Prokletije” theme and the others — can be both, and the spaces created and conjured are dynamic in range as well as volume. “Os Svijeta” builds gently into its procession, and is able to call to mind both Eastern European black metal and synthy prog, where “Na Kraju Svega (Beograd)” comes across initially like a translation of punk rock methodologies into something else entirely, but in addition to being cohesive in production and gorgeously mixed, the sense of purpose extends in each direction a given track might or might not go.
As might be expected after three years and with the change from an external to an in-house producer, Prokletije II outshines its predecessor in terms of growth on Nemeček‘s part, while keeping in league stylistically enough to be a believable second chapter of the same series. I do now know the band’s timing on the third installment of the stated trilogy, but if it’s a few years again, it will be interesting to hear how they continue to develop and how that carries into that now-hypothetical work. To wit, Prokletije I had distinct trades between longer-form songs and its own “Prokletije 1.1,” “Prokletije 1.2,” etc., though there was a malleability there as well that has been pushed to a new degree across Prokletije II along with the balance between immediacy and breadth, and if you told me that having Maksan double as engineer allowed the band to dig further into the mixing process, the minutiae of what a given moment is conveying and how, there are any number of instances supporting the claim to be heard in the songs themselves.
I don’t expect it to be for everyone, but the impression left from seeing Nemeček has been bouncing around in my head for a month now, and I’m glad to have been able to take on hearing Prokletije II in the aftermath of that. Sometimes you learn a thing and it stays with you.
It’s Bandcamp up top, which is my general preference, but if you’d rather stream it some other way, they’ve got a whole whatnot set up here: https://album.link/PROKLETIJEII
Thanks for reading. As always, I hope you enjoy.
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This has been my last full week in Hungary. After hitting the Brant Bjork show Monday night, tonight I’ll go see Stoned Jesus and Dopelord (plus two other bands) at a place called Dürer Kert. Look for a review of that show Monday. I’ve also got a video premiere/album announce slated for Monday, and a premiere/announce slated for Wednesday, but in general don’t expect too much in terms of posts. Tomorrow (Saturday) I’m going to visit a farm where some crew or other from the Psychedelic Source Records collective are going to record. Might have a piece up on that for Tuesday.
Sunday we’re driving up to Miskolc, where the small village my family emigrated from is located, and Monday we’re going to the Balaton, which is a big lake where Hungary does its summering. Tuesday morning I have my final in-country language lesson in the morning, and then I think most of the day will be packing, maybe with some final sightseeing in there if there’s time — we have a we’ve-been-here-for-a-month’s worth of shit to shove into our luggage, plus the Legos and various other things we’ve bought while here; yes I have one at home, but I’m a little sad at the thought of leaving the food processor, not the least after making American-style chicken salad in it last night for dinner — and then we head to the airport overnight Tuesday (3:30AM departure, I believe), fly out of Budapest, back through Schiphol in the Netherlands, then on to JFK to sit in however much traffic back to New Jersey. The same fraught process that brought us to Zagreb the better part of five weeks ago, in reverse.
Some crucial learning has happened this summer, mostly I think for The Patient Mrs. and I about who The Pecan is as her own person and what the shape of our family looks like. The first two weeks of this trip were really, really hard. The Southwest trip we did before we came here — also really, really hard. In ways that feel new or at least manifest aspects of The Pecan’s personality in new ways. After we get home, there’s only about three weeks until school starts. I’m curious at this point to see how that goes and how or if we’re called in for meetings as she makes the transition into first grade. Sadly, I don’t think they do astrophysics yet, but being able to multiply numbers in her six-year-old head should help somewhat, at least until she’s asked to “show her work.”
The point is there’s a lot coming up. As usual, I thank you for reading and being a part of this weird project that The Obelisk has become in my life. Dealing with the out-of-my-comfort-zone aspects of travel to new places over the last month-plus, it’s been a bedrock for me in ways I can hardly express. It probably wouldn’t be here if no one but me ever read it, so I owe you for that.
I hope you have a great and safe weekend. It’s hot out there. Don’t forget to hydrate.
Posted in Reviews on October 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s been quite a morning. Got up at five, went back to sleep until six, took the dog out, lazily poured myself a coffee — the smell is like wood bark and bitter mud, so yes, the dark roast — and got down to set up this Quarterly Review. Not rushed, not at all overwhelmed by press releases about new albums or the fact that I’ve got 50 records I’m writing about this week, or any of it. Didn’t last, that stress-free sit-down — one of the hazards of being perfectly willing to be distracted at a moment’s notice is that that might happen — but it was nice while it did. And hey, the Quarterly Review is set up and ready to roll with 50 records between now and Friday. Let’s do that.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
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Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Slaughter on First Avenue
Recorded over two nights at First Avenue in Minneapolis sandwiching the pandemic in 2019 and 2022, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ 14-song/85-minute live album, Slaughter on First Avenue, is about as clean as you’re ever likely to hear the band sound. And the Rise Above-issued 2LP spans the garage doom innovators’ career, from “Dead Eyes of London” from 2010’s Vol. 1 (reissue review here) to “I See Through You” from 2018’s Wasteland (review here), with all the “Death’s Door” and “Thirteen Candles” and “Desert Ceremony” and “I’ll Cut You Down” you can handle, the addled and murderous bringers of melody and fuzz clear-eyed and methodical, professional, in their delivery. It sounds worked on, like, in the studio, the way oldschool live albums might’ve been. I don’t know that it was, don’t have a problem with that if it was, just noting that the sheer sound here is fantastic, whether it’s the separation between the two guitars and keys and each other, the distinction of the vocals, or the way even the snare drum seems to hit in kind with the vintage aspects of Uncle Acid‘s general production style. They clearly enjoy the crowd response to the older tunes like “I’ll Cut You Down” and “Death’s Door,” and well they should. Slaughter on First Avenue isn’t a new full-length, though they say one will eventually happen, but it’s a representation of their material in a new way for listeners, cleaner than their last two studio records, and a ceremony (or two) worth preserving.
Swedish retro soul rock forerunners Graveyard are on their way to being legends if they aren’t legends yet. Headliners at the absolute least, and the influence they had in the heavy ’10s on classic heavy as a style and boogie rock in particular can’t be discounted. Comprised of nine cuts, 6 is Graveyard‘s first offering of this decade, following behind 2018’s Peace (review here), and it continues their dual-trajectory in pairing together the slow, troubled-love woes emotionality of “Breathe In, Breathe Out,” “Sad Song” on which guitarist Joakim Nilsson relinquishes lead vocals, the early going of “Bright Lights,” and opener “Godnatt” — Swedish for “good night,” which the band tried to say in 2016 but it didn’t stick — setting up turns to shove in “Twice” and “Just a Drop” while “I Follow You,” closer “Rampant Fields” or the highlight “Just a Drop” finding some territory between the two ends. The bottom line here is it’s not the record I was hoping Graveyard would make, leaning slow and morose whereas when you could break out a groove like “Just a Drop” seemingly at will, why wouldn’t you? But that I even had those hopes tells you the caliber band they are, and whatever the tracks actually do, there’s no questioning them as songwriters. But the world could use some good times swagger, if only a half-hour of escapism, and Graveyard are perhaps too sincere to deliver. Fair enough.
The thing about Hexvessel that has been revealed over time is that each record is its own context. Grown out from the black metal history of UK-born/Helsinki-residing songwriter Mat “Kvohst” McNerney, the band returns to that fertile ground somewhat on the eight-song Polar Veil, applying veteran confidence to post-blackened genre transgressions. Songs like “A Cabin in Montana” and “Older Than the Gods” have some less-warlike Primordial vibes between the epic melodies and tremolo echoes, but in both the speedy intensity of “Eternal Meadow” and the later ethereally-doomed gruel of “Ring,” Hexvessel are distinctly themselves doing this thing. That is, they’re not changing who they are to suit the style they want to play — even the per-song stylistic shifts of 2016’s When We Are Death (review here) were their own, so that’s not necessarily new — but a departure from the dark progressive folk of 2020’s Kindred as McNerney, bassist Ville Hakonen, drummer Jukka Rämänen and pianist/keyboardist Kimmo Helén (also strings) welcome a curated-seeming selection of a few guest appearances spread across the release, always keeping mindful of ambience and mood however raging the tempest around them might be.
Bookended by its two longest songs in “Drink Some More” (8:44) and closer “Letter Full of Wine” (9:17), Munich-based troupe Godsground offer seven songs with their 47-minute third long-player, working quickly to bask in post-Alice in Chains melodies surrounded by a warmth of tone that could just as easily be derived from hometown heroes in Colour Haze as the likes of Sungrazer or anyone else, but there’s more happening in the sound than just that. The melodies reach out and the songs develop on paths so that “Balance” is a straight-up desert rocker where seven-minute centerpiece “Into the Butter” sounds readier to get weird. They are well at home in longer forms, flashing a bit of metal in teh later solo of the penultimate “Non Reflecting Mirror,” but the overarching focus on vocal melody grounds the material in its lyrics, and that helps stabilize some of the more out-there aspects. With the roller fuzz of “A Game of Light” and side B’s flow-into-push “Flood” finding space between all-out go and the longer songs’ willingness to dwell in parts, Godsground emerge from the collection with a varied style around a genre center that’s maybe delighted not to pick a side when it comes to playing toward this or that niche. There’s some undercurrent of doom — though I’ll admit the artwork had me looking for it — but Godsground are more coherent than bewildered, and their material unfolds with intent to immerse rather than commiserate.
Ambition abounds on Sleep Maps‘ Reclaim Chaos, as the once-NYC-based duo of multi-instrumentalist Ben Kaplan and vocalist David Kegg — finds somebody that writes you riffs like “Second Generation” and scream your ass off for them — bring textures of progressive metal, death metal, metal metal to the proceedings with their established post-whathaveyou modus. Would it be a surprise if I said it made them a less predictable band? I hope not. With attention to detail bolstered my a mix from Matt Bayles (Isis, Sandrider, etc.), the open spaces of “The Good Engineer” resonate in their layered vocals and drone, while “You Want What I Cannot Give” pummels, “In the Sun, In the Moon” brings the wash forward and capper “Kill the World” is duly still in conveying an apparent aftermath rather than the actual slaughter of the planet, which of course happened over a longer timeframe. All of this, and a good deal more, make Reclaim Chaos a heady feast — and that’s before you get to the ’00-era electronica of “Double Blind” — but in their reclamation, Sleep Maps execute with care and make a point about the malleability of style as much as about their own progression, though it seems to be the latter fueling them. Self-motivated, willful artistic progression is not often so starkly recognizable.
A reminder of the glories amid the horrors of our age: Dread Spire‘s Endless Empire — am I the only one who finds it a little awkward when band and release names rhyme? — probably wouldn’t exist without the democratization of recording processes that’s happened over the last 15-20 years. It’s a demo, essentially, from the bass/drum — that’s Richie Rehal and Erol Kavvas — Cali-set instrumentalist two-piece, and with about 13 minutes of sans BS riffing, they make a case via a linear procession of crunch riffing and uptempo, semi-metal precision. The narrative — blessings and peace upon it — holds that they got together during the pandemic, and the raw form and clearly-manifest catharsis in the material is all the backing they need. More barebones than complex, this first offering wants nothing for audio fidelity and gives Rehal and Kavvas a beginning from which to build in any and all directions they might choose. The joy of collaboration and the need to find an expressive outlet are the best motivations one could ask, and that’s very obviously what’s at work here.
A roiling post-metallic churn abides the slow tempos of “Torch Bearer” at the outset of Mairu‘s debut full-length, Sol Cultus, and it is but one ingredient of the Liverpool-based outfit’s atmospheric plunge. Across eight tracks and 49 minutes, the double-guitar four-piece of Alan Caulton and Ant Hurlock (both guitar/vocals), Dan Hunt (bass/vocals) and Ben Davis (drums/synth) — working apparently pretty closely over a period of apparently four years with Tom Dring, who produced, engineered, mixed, mastered and contributed saxophone, ebow, piano and additional synth — remind in their spaciousness of that time Red Sparowes taught the world, instrumentally, to sing. But with harsh and melodic vocals mixed, bouts of thrashier riffing dealt with prejudice, and the barely-there ambience of “Inter Alia” and “Per Alia” to persuade the listener toward headphones, the very-sludged finish of “Wild Darkened Eyes” and the 10-minute sprawl of “Rite of Embers” lumbering to its distorted gut-clench of a crescendo chug ahead of the album’s comedown finish, there’s depth and personality to the material even as Mairu look outside of verse/chorus confines to make their statement. Their second outing behind a 2019 EP, and again, apparently in the works on some level since then, it’s explorational, but less in the sense of the band figuring out who they want to be than as a stylistic tenet they’ve internalized as their own.
At first in “Hope Shines in the Autumn Light,” Brazilian instrumentalist heavy post-rockers Throe remind of nothing so much as the robots-with-feelings mechanized-but-resonant plod of Justin K. Broadrick‘s Jesu, but as the 14-minute leadoff from the apparently-mostly-solo-project’s three-song EP, O Enterro das Marés (one assumes the title is some derivation of being ‘buried at sea’), plays through, it shifts into a more massive galaxial nod and then shortly before the nine-minute mark to a stretch of hypnotic beat-less melody before resolving itself somewhere in the middle. This three-part structure gives over to the Godfleshier “Bleed Alike” (6:33), which nods accordingly until unveiling its caustic end about 30 seconds before the song is done, and “Renascente” (7:59), in which keys/synth and wistful guitar lead a single linear build together as the band gradually and with admirable patience move from their initial drone to the introduction of the ‘drums’ and through the layers of melody that emerge and are more the point of the thing itself than the actual swell of volume taking place at the same time. When it opens at about five minutes in, “Renascente” is legitimately beautiful, an echoing waterfall of tonality that seems to dance to the gravity pulling it down. The guitar is last to go, which tells you something about how the songs are written, but with three songs and three different intentions, Throe make a varied statement uniform most of all in how complete each piece of it feels.
Well guess what? They called the first track “Punkstarter,” and so it is. Starts off the album with a bit of punk. Blind River‘s third LP, Bones for the Skeleton Thief corrals 10 tracks from the UK traditionalist heavy rock outfit, who even on the likewise insistent “Primal Urges” maintain some sense of control. Vocalist Harry Armstrong (ex-Hangnail, now also bassist of Orange Goblin) belts out “Second Hand Soul” like he’s giving John Garcia a run for his pounds sterling, and is still able to rein it in enough to not seem out of place on the more subdued verses of “Skeleton Thief,” while the boogie of “Unwind” is its own party. Wherever they go, be it the barroom punkabilly of “Snake Oil” or the Southern-tinged twang of closer “Bad God,” the five-piece — Armstrong, guitarist Chris Charles and Dan Edwards, bassist William Hughes and drummer Mark Sharpless — hold to a central ethic of straight-ahead drive, and where clearly the intended message is that Blind River know what the fuck they’re doing and that if you end up at a show you might get your ass handed to you, turns out that’s exactly the message received. Showed up, kicked ass, done in under 40 minutes. If that’s not a high enough standard for you in a band recording live, that’s not Blind River‘s fault.
Rifftree of life. Rifftree‘s fuzz is so righteously dense, I want to get seeds from it — because let’s face it, riffs are deciduous and hibernate in winter — and plant a forest in my backyard. The band formed half a decade ago and Noise Worship is the bass-and-drums duo’s second EP, but whatever. In six songs and 26 minutes, they work hard on living up to the title they gave the release, and their schooling in the genre is obvious in Sleepery of “Amplifier Pyramid” or the low-rumbling sludge of “Brown Flower,” the subsequent “Farewell” growing like fungus out of its quieter start and “Brakeless” not needing them because it was slow enough anyhow. “Fuzzed” — another standard met — ups the pace and complements with spacey grunge mumbles and harshes out later, and that gives the three-minute titular closer “Noise Worship” all the lead-in it needs for its showcase of feedback and amplifier noise. Look. If you’re thinking it’s gonna be some stylistic revolution in the making, look at the friggin’ cover. Listen to the songs. This isn’t innovation, it’s celebration, and Rifftree‘s complete lack of pretense is what makes Noise Worship the utter fucking joy that it is. Stoner. Rock. Stick that in your microgenre rolodex.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 11th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
The last offering from Croatian heavy rockers Stonebride arrived some four years ago in the form of the impressive — and impressively titled — full-length, Heavy Envelope (review here). Progressive as that outing was, it should be interesting to dig in and hear what the Zagreb four-piece has come up with for Animals on Display, which has been issued through PDV Records and is comprised of just four songs totaling 18 minutes in length. One track per year between releases? The PR wire makes the claim that Animals on Display is the band’s “most exhaustive” work yet. If each track was a year in the making, it might just be.
Details and the full EP stream came down the PR wire. Let’s all dig in together, shall we?
Indeed:
Stonebride’s new album ‘Animals on Display’ is out
Animals on Display a new mini album by heavy rock veterans Stonebride is out after 4 years since their last full length effort Heavy Envelope. These diversely influenced musicians are on the quest to set another benchmark in the further development of their sound. The album was released this March 15th through PDV Records and is available in CD/digital forms while the vinyl release is scheduled for the upcoming Autumn release.
Animals on Display consists of 4 tracks with running time little under 18 minutes. It is by far the band’s most exhaustive work which demands undivided attention of the listener.
Stonebride remains true to their musical roots but keep implementing both musical and personal experiences and pouring it into this record. On the verge of various (sub)genres like psych, prog, doom, blues, desert/stoner or giving nod to the 90’s grunge/alternative they’re constantly pushing the envelope with each new release. Keeping in mind the band has been together for almost 13 years (with the same line-up) just adds to their credibility as an ongoing creative force that shows no signs of stopping.
The concept is rounded with the artwork from the talented Krešimir ?uk aka VAST. A visual artist that combines digital collage and vector graphics. Visually inspired by crosshatching and thematically by surrealism, his work’s main premise is comparing subjective experience of the person with objectivity and erasing the boundaries between them. Animals on Display was recorded with several people behind the desk in couple of studios in Zagreb, Croatia from April to December 2017. It was produced by Siniša Krneta (band’s vocalist/guitarist), recorded by Luka Grubiši?, Vedran Kova?i?, Hrvoje Nikši?, Vedran Rao Brle?i? and Hrvoje Štefoti?, mixed by Vedran Rao Brle?i? and mastered by Carl Saff.
STONEBRIDE – Animals on Display tracklist: 1. Animal on Display 2. Embodiment 3. Early Bird 4. Half of Me
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 16th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Issued via cooperation between PDV Records and Setalight Records, Croatian heavy rockers Stonebride‘s third album, Heavy Envelope (review here), is out now on vinyl. Not technically a reissue since it’s the first pressing in the format, the album is a moody but progressive take on bruiser riffing, and offers more on repeat visits than it might the first time around. All the better that it’s up now for revisiting by anyone who missed it. You’d almost swear these things were planned out ahead of time.
Stonebride had posted in Aug. about planning out a European tour for March/April 2016, so when and if I hear more on that, I’ll post accordingly. Until then, the PR wire sent along the following on the album:
Stonebride’s ”Heavy Envelope” vinyl release!
It is a huge pleasure to announce that the sons of all things heavy , the band Stonebride have just released their latest critically acclaimed album Heavy Envelope in vinyl format! From now on you can treat your record player with two LP album versions (black & halloween orange edition). At the end of 2014. the band unleashed upon the world its’ 4th official release in CD/digital format. This came out via joint efforts from an independent label PDV records and Setalight records.
After a European tour last year, including some selected shows this year, Stonebride is ready for further conquering of all hearing senses. Their take on heavy rock, tied with alternative / psych / doom / prog voyages leaves none without awe. European tour for March/April 2016. is being booked at this moment, so keep an eye out when they roam through your city.
It’s also worth mentioning that in December band celebrates a 10th year jubilee of existing, sonic road bending, creating music and leaving their own mark in the oceans of the most finest art we call music.
Tracklist: 1 Movies, Movies 2 Lowest Supreme 3 Lay Low 4 Coloured Blue 5 Sokushinbutsu 6 Venomous
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 10th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Dutch heavy rockers The Machine and Croatian krautrock specialists Seven that Spells are teaming up to hit the road in November. The shows are only in Germany and Switzerland, so it’s not exactly full-coverage even as regards Western Europe, but it’s a week of dates anyway and better than nothing. Jeez, what’s the worst that happens, you fly to Germany and see a show? Live with it.
The Machine will be out supporting earlier-2015’s Offblast! (review here), their fifth outing and most accomplished work to-date, while Seven that Spells hit the road on the heels of a Sulatron Records reissue of their 2012 album, Superautobahn, their most recent studio release being last year’s The Death and Resurrection of Krautrock: IO (review here), the second installment of a to-be-concluded trilogy.
Tour is presented by Sound of Liberation and info is as follows:
When We Switch Our Amps On The Cities Go Dark Tour (THE MACHINE & SEVEN THAT SPELLS)
The Machine & Seven That Spells will be touring Germany (ok and Switzerland) for one week in November 2015.
ROCK AND ROLL 13.11 : Kulturbahnhof Jena // Jena GER 14.11 : Feierwerk // München GER 15.11 : Sedel Garage Luzern // Luzern CH 16.11 : Immerhin Würzburg // Würzburg GER 17.11 : Bassy Club // Berlin GER 18.11 : Kulturzentrum Faust // Hannover GER
SEVEN THAT SPELLS: Beyond. We are the dogs of the western Jazz society looking for dope. Modern, aggressive psychedelic wall of sound incorporating polymetrics and occasional Viking funeral rites; hailing from the 23rd century where rock is dead, Seven That Spells returned in time where its still possible to change the tragic course of the boring history.
THE MACHINE: THE MACHINE is a rock band from the Rotterdam area (NL). Through the years the band has been crafting its own (loud) brand of both hard-hitting tracks and instrumental takeoffs. Rooted in heavy rock, THE MACHINE refuses to be pigeonholed and prefers a modern experimental approach to the well known concepts of yesteryear.
