DROMOS are from North London, started back in 2019. This is their first full album after a couple of tracks they put out on Dry Cough last year. Coming out May 15th on Argonauta. Some of the guys have been in Grave Miasma and other underground bands, so they know what they’re doing with heavy […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring Solar Mantra’s State of Joyful Lightness
Rome-based, started off more instrumental, now fully locked into a stoner rock framework with vocals, but that description already sounds more stable than the record actually feels. What they’re doing still sits in stoner rock world, but it’s not the comfortable, nostalgic kind. There’s a rougher edge here, sometimes leaning into grunge weight, sometimes drifting […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring REPETITA IUVANT’s 3+2
3+2 is one of those albums where nothing really jumps at you at first. It just starts and keeps going, and you kind of realize later you’ve been listening for a while. REPETITA IUVANT plays instrumental post-rock, but not the dramatic kind with big build-ups. More like repeating guitar ideas that slowly change while they’re […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring AZKEN AUZI’s Infernua
Azken Auzi hit harder this time. Right away, DEEP HELL crushes you. Thick guitars, bass and drums all locked together. You can feel the weight. Ludo’s voice crawls out of the mix, low, strained. Feels like the shadows of the debut are here, but twisted somehow. SK comes next. Weird, tense. Post-metal kind of feel. […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring OWLS OVER OAKS’ O.O.O.
OWLS OVER OAKS’ debut, O.O.O., hits like a slow-motion avalanche. Three tracks. No guitars. Just dual bass, deliberate drumming, and a darkness that hangs in the air long after the music stops. This is not for casual listening. You can’t put this on in the background. You don’t. You sit. You endure. From the first […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring TARLUNG’s Axis Mundi
I didn’t expect to get into a sludge album this year, but Axis Mundi really hit me. It’s slow, heavy, and feels like it’s pressing down on you. After five years, TARLUNG could have played it safe. Instead, the riffs are thick and jagged, the drums mostly slow but sometimes exploding out of nowhere. The […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring MOURN THE LIGHT’s Sorrow Feeds the Silence
I’ve been trying to describe what this album feels like, not what it “is,” because what it “is” depends on the day. First spin, I thought it was their most straightforward thing yet. Second spin, nope, it’s actually looser than the debut. Third spin, I stopped trying to categorize it at all. Maybe that’s the […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring GOATFATHER’s House of the Rising Smoke
I don’t know what’s in the water down there, but GOATFATHER sounds like they’ve been breathing exhaust fumes for breakfast again. Their third album, House of the Rising Smoke, comes out this October and, to be honest, it’s probably their most “them” record yet. If you’ve heard Monster Truck you’ll get the idea, but this […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring SOLAR SONS’ Altitude
There’s a point where riffs stop sounding like you’re trying and start sounding like you just are. Solar Sons hit that somewhere along the line. You can hear it all over Altitude, their sixth record, tracked fast in some cold room called Nameless City Sound. Eight days. Probably smelled of coffee and warm valve amps. […]
Witching Chronicles: Exploring BREATH’s Brahman
You can tell right away BREATH aren’t trying to make “songs”. Brahman sounds like they’re summoning something – slow, old, and not entirely friendly, but not evil either. It’s that big middle space between calm and collapse. Everything feels stretched out and deliberate, like they’re chasing the space inside the sound, not the sound itself. […]