And they’re not shy about it, either. Right from the start of “Appomattox,” the guitars of Todd “T.I.” Ingram and David Kowalski embark on a southbound journey of thickened metal. The groove is classic, the breath stank with beer, the stomp formidable in the bass of Floyd Walters III and Brooks‘ drumming, and amid layered acoustics, samples and swaggering leads, vocalist Dave Hammerly injects an early Danzig melodic cadence that only heightens the swampy vibe of the album.

In celebration of Dismal Hollow coming out on the band’s own Graveyard Hill Records in conjunction with The Path Less Traveled, I’m fortunate enough to be able to host not only a high-quality full stream of the record, and not only a few words from Kowalski about what went into making it, but also a giveaway for a vinyl/USB prize-pack that one lucky winner will be able to call their own! It’s like three posts in one. Here’s the stream:

And here’s the giveaway and Kowalski discussing the making of Dismal Hollow:

We made a conscious decision to just let the songwriting take its natural course. Anytime we tried to steer a song in a specific direction, it fell flat, and simply didn’t work.

With Southern Darkness, Todd Ingram came in towards the end to add his parts. So what he played was more reactionary to the music that was already there. With Dismal Hollow, we all wrote as a band, and consequently the lead parts blend more intricately with the rhythms and have more of a cohesive feel.

We spent a lot of time in pre-production, making sure that we all had our parts written before we went into the studio. We also recorded to 2” tape. There are places on the album where you can hear the tape hiss, but overall I feel that we achieved a really good organic sound. In the world of digital audio, it makes it really easy to not have to commit to takes, and to edit out every little sonic “imperfection.” But the imperfections are what gives an album character.

Southern Darkness was recorded over a long period of time with all of us recording our parts separately. Going into a studio this time around forced a time constraint on the band, and allowed all of us to be together while we were tracking, so there was definitely more of a camaraderie to the whole recording process.

PRIZE PACK:

A signed copy of Dismal Hollow in LP format, a King Giant patch for all you heshers out there, and so you can take your King Giant wherever you go, a copy of Southern Darkness AND Dismal Hollow on this badass USB drive from the fine folks at Power Tunes. That’s right you get a real deal Marshall KT66 power tube that has been modified into a USB drive. It even glows when you plug it in.

[NOTE: This giveaway is now over. Thanks to all who entered.]

To win, enter your name, email and address in the form above and click “Send.” One winner will be selected, and as always, your information stays private and is deleted after the contest is over. The winner will be chosen on Feb. 7 and entries will be accepted until then.

For more on King Giant, check out their Thee Facebooks page, the album on iTunes, or their Bandcamp site, where Dismal Hollow will be available shortly. Power Tunes USB drives are made by Will Sprague (The Crimson Electric) and available via Thee Facebooks here.

And Heavy Kingdom, which will be out on Exile on Mainstream Jan. 30 in Europe and March 13 in North America, captures the emotionality in both songwriters’ work. Most of its tracks are pretty bare-bones, however, so there’s an element of rawness that seems to convey the basic nature of the collaboration. They wrote them together, they play them together. Wino & Conny Ochs, as a unit, isn’t about showing off the prowess of one player or another, but about two artists who respect each other working in tandem to create something new and whole.

The album succeeds in that, and is at times almost embarrassingly honest. As a representation of the material as a whole, it’s fitting to unveil the title-track first, since it hones both that honesty and the rawness of approach that so much of Heavy Kingdom is built on. Like the collaboration itself, it deals in duality and effectively bridges seemingly disparate elements into something natural and engaging.

Please enjoy Wino & Conny Ochs‘ “Heavy Kingdom” on the player below:

Heavy Kingdom is due out Jan. 30 in Europe and March 13 in North America on Exile on Mainstream. Special thanks to Earsplit PR and Exile on Mainstream for letting me host the track. For more on the release, check out the label’s site here and Wino‘s official page. If you’d like to see a bigger version of the cover, click here. Happy Wino Wednesday.

Those who’ve smelled the flower of disease might recall Brokaw bassist G. Stuart Dahlquist from his tenure in Goatsnake, or perhaps Burning Witch before that, or Asva‘s ongoing run. Brokaw is certainly a departure from any of those bands’ aesthetics, but there’s something characteristic to Dahlquist‘s bass as it plays off the bombast of Rich Medic‘s drumming and Rick Troy‘s guitars. Vocalist Mike Henderson is part Iggy Pop and part Page Hamilton, both early; he recites his lines in various slurs and shouts that always seem to fit the music happening behind, whether it’s the bass-rumbling of “Politicians by the Pool” or the churning riffy groove of closer “You Didn’t Invent Sex.”

Good to Die was kind enough to give me permission to host Interiors in its entirety for your streaming pleasure, and you’ll find it below, followed by some PR wire-type info about the release. Please enjoy:

The word “Brokaw” stirs up all kinds of connotations. There’s the stern voice of reason held by news anchor Tom Brokaw, the expressive and colorful guitar playing of former Come/Codeine member Chris Brokaw… and now, the sound of one of the meatiest and meanest rock groups to emerge from Seattle, Washington.

But what makes the band so vital and so compelling how obviously they gel both on record and on stage. The members of Brokaw have been playing together “on and off for a very long time,” says Dahlquist. “I have been playing music with Rick for around 35 years, the two of us have worked with Mike since meeting at music school in 1984, Rich has been in and out of the picture for at least 10 years. We’ve been friends for a long time and have a great chemistry together, we all love playing music and it comes easily for us.”

You’ll hear right from the start of the band’s debut LP Interiors, to be released this fall on the new Seattle label Good To Die Records. Recorded with Greg Norman at Electrical Audio in Chicago, Illinois, Brokaw fed off the live current that runs through the band and the studio. Their hyperdriven barrage of sound pulls from the influences of the Amphetamine Reptile family, while acknowledging a wide variety of interests like the freeform ’70s work of Miles Davis and the swing of cheeky, literate Britpop band The Fall.

Live, on record, and in person, Brokaw put their backs, their hearts, and their balls into everything they do. They don’t ask you to do the same, just to pay your respects and enjoy every sweat-drenched minute of it.

As much as the summer belongs to fuzzy heavy psych in my mind, the winter belongs to doom. The slow march to frostbitten oblivion. Darker, shorter days and that feeling that there’s no way out of the cold. Fuck yeah.

Hailing from the frozen recesses of Uppsala, Sweden, the appropriately-monikered four-piece Anguish make their debut this week on Dark Descent Records with the full-length, Through the Archdemon‘s Head, a collection of traditionally-paced doom that brings in elements of cultish and blackened metal, most notably in a pronounced Celtic Frost vocal influence, but in the music as well. It’s dark, and morose, and hopeless. Perfect for January.

In fact, if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder, I’m gonna go ahead and recommend you don’t stream the track “Lair of the Gods” from Through the Archdemon’s Head using the player below, because by the time you get to the second or third grunt, it might just be enough to make you jump out that window you’ve been eying all afternoon. Everyone else, if you’ve got any hope left to lose, this is about as good a way to see it go as I can think of.

Check out “Lair of the Gods” from Anguish, and enjoy:

Anguish is J. Dee on vocals, David and Kribbe on guitar and Ralle on drums. Through the Archdemon’s Head is available now on Dark Descent Records. For more info, check out the band’s page on Thee Facebooks or the label’s site.

Interplay between bassist/vocalist Henrik W. Hald and guitarist/backing vocalist Jacob Krogholt is a central source of melody, the latter bolstering the rough, lower register of the former with harmonic shouting that fits well alongside the subtle complexity of the arrangements. Later track “Heir to Flames” works in Leviathan-esque acoustics, but by the time closer “Seven Riders” thunders its stop-start riff upside your skull, even the Torche-worthy chorus feels like one more tool serving to enhance the crushing sound.

Rounded out by Jacob Johansen‘s steady pulse on drums, Rising‘s first record is remarkably assured in its aesthetic, heavy as fuck and delivered with authority. Please feel free to find that out for yourself by streaming To Solemn Ash on the player below.

Introducing the band and the album, Hald says:

“Hello everyone! We are Rising, a heavy metal three-piece from Denmark. Back in October, we released our debut album To Solemn Ash in Europe via Exile On Mainstream. Now the time has come to make it available to the States. We are super excited about our album being released on another continent and hope to follow up with a tour one day. You can stream the entire album right here on The Obelisk. Enjoy and stay heavy on the heavy!”

Rising‘s To Solemn Ash is available now from Exile on Mainstream. For more info, check out the band’s site or the label’s store.

AKA “The One with Talking.”

Not that I think of my voice as some big draw or anything. I was in a band long enough to know it isn’t. But that’s me on there, and for the first time — possibly the last — I’m introducing tracks and talking about bands and their albums. I tried to keep it to a minimum, and was fairly successful in doing so. I hope you’ll bear with me; it was pretty fucking cold in my office this evening while I was recording my parts.

The theme of this month’s podcast is “The Best of Buried Treasure.” If you find yourself staring at that and wondering, “What the hell is ‘Buried Treasure’ supposed to mean?” then click here. It’s the category under which I post about record shopping, basically, and the places I buy stuff and whatever else might be related to that. I took tracks from releases I’ve posted about since starting this site and made a podcast out of them. Pretty simple.

A little while back, a comment was left somewhere on here that someone had never downloaded a podcast before because there was no speaking on them. It honestly never occurred to me that such a thing might have an appeal, and if it doesn’t to you, I apologize up front for my intrusion and assure you we’ll be back to normal next month. In the meantime, this. I said when I put up the first podcast that I reserved the right to speak over one in the future, so here we are.

To put my blathering aside for a minute, I actually think it’s a really cool mix of songs, and putting myself in, on the level of creating a flow, was an interesting challenge. That’s not to mention the technical concerns, which weren’t so much “a challenge” as “a pain in the ass.” Whatever. It’s done. I hope you enjoy. There’s some bootleg Sabbath and Kyuss, some Saturnalia Temple and Trouble and Fatso Jetson, and a bunch of other cool tracks. The advantage of having the podcast comprised of things I bought and was stoked to write about is that those two qualifications usually mean it’s pretty good.

Stream it using the player above, or download audiObelisk Transmission 023 by clicking the banner at the top of this post, or by clicking here. As always, the full tracklist is after the jump.

[PLEASE NOTE: Jumps in time occur where there's a spoken break.]

0:05-8:26 Ufomammut, “Odio” from Snailking (The Music Cartel, 2003)

8:26-12:31 Church of Misery, “War is Our Destiny” (Saint Vitus cover) from Born too Late split CD with Sheavy (Game Two, 1998)

12:31-16:30 Greenleaf, “Red Tab” from Revolution Rock (Molten Universe, 2001)

18:55-21:37 Los Natas, “El Ass de Espadas” (Motörhead cover) from split CD with Solodolor (Sony Argentina, 2010)

21:37-27:24 Astrosoniq, “Cold Hearted Guys, Like Us, Like it Loud!” from Speeder People (Suburban, 2006)

27:24-31:12 Fatso Jetson, “Flames for All” from Flames for All (Man’s Ruin, 1999)

31:12-35:19 Porn (The Men Of), “Porch Song” from American Style (Man’s Ruin, 1999)

35:19-38:17 Riff Cannon, “Into the Unknown” from Mercury Mountain (Self-released, 2009)

40:19-50:18 Saturnalia Temple, “Black Magic Metal” from Aion of Drakon (The Ajna Offensive, 2011)

50:18-55:01 Wovenhand, “Behind Your Breath” from The Threshingfloor (Sounds Familyre, 2010)

55:01-1:08:08 Toner Low, “V” from II (Roadkill, 2008)

1:08:08-1:15:36 High on Fire, “10,000 Years” from High on Fire (12th Records, 1999)

1:15:36-1:20:05 Weedeater, “Monkey Junction” from And Justice for Y’all (Game Two, 2001)

1:23:55-1:30:23 Black Sabbath, “Fairies Wear Boots” from War Pigs: Live in Paris 1970 (Great Dane, 1991)

1:30:23-1:34:53 Trouble, “The Wolf” from Trouble (Def American, 1990)

1:34:53-1:39:56 Reino Ermitaño, “Celda del Dolor” from Reino Ermitaño (Self-released, 2003)

1:39:56-1:43:41 The Obsessed, “Red Disaster” from The Obsessed (Hellhound, 1990)

1:43:45-1:55:26 Reverend Bizarre, “The Hour of Death” from In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend (Spikefarm, 2002/2004)

1:55:26-2:00:58 Slow Horse, “When are You Coming Home?” from Slow Horse (Freebird, 1999)

2:02:57-2:10:05 Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, “Death’s Door” from Blood Lust (Killer Candy, 2011)

2:10:05-2:14:23 Red Fang, “Whales and Leeches” from Red Fang (Sargent House, 2009)

2:14:23-2:21:46 Caltrop, “Bad Wolf Good Wolf” from World Class (Holidays for Quince, 2008)

2:21:46-2:24:34 Rotors to Rust, “All That’s Heavy” from All That’s Heavy (Weird Space, 1999)

2:24:34-2:30:07 Desert Sessions, “Cowards Way Out” from The Desert Sessions: Vol. I/Vol. II (Man’s Ruin, 1998)

2:32:29-2:36:15 Asteroid, “Strange Trip” from Asteroid (Fuzzorama, 2007)

2:36:15-2:40:50 Mr. Plow, “Telepathic Butterflies” from Asteroid 25399 (Self-released, 2006)

2:40:50-2:49:26 The Walruz, “Crack-Brained” from One Way Ticket (The Church Within, 2000/2007)

2:49:26-2:54:49 The Satellite Circle, “Slow Descent” from The Satellite Circle (Rage of Achilles, 2001)

2:54:49-3:03:13 Master Musicians of Bukkake, “Eaglewolf” from Totem One (Conspiracy, 2009)

3:10:00-3:19:04 Kyuss, “Whitewater” from October 30, 1994: The Opera House, Toronto, Canada (No label)

Click here to download audiObelisk Transmission 023

If you’re unfamiliar with Zebulon Pike, the prog-doom explorers formed in 2002 and are veterans of the old Emissions From the Monolith festival. A double-guitar four-piece, their sound hones in on elements of space rock, but the performances as captured on Space is the Corpse of Time aren’t loose in the way one might expect when thinking of modern instrumental heavy. Rather, songs like “Echoic Worlds” and the sprawling “Powers of the Living/Manifestations of the Dead” are always moving somewhere, however long they might rest on a single part or theme.

The music is evocative, and apart from the title track, long. Each of the other four cuts tops 10 minutes, and that’s par for the course for Zebulon Pike, who’ve been known to double that span on occasion. They use their time wisely, though, so that even as Tom Berg‘s bass rumbles in the final minutes of “Powers of the Living/Manifestations of the Dead,” it does so in a way that feels purposeful in creating an atmosphere and mood. Album opener “Spectrum Threshold” also boasts some effective doom chugging from guitarists Morgan Berkus and Erik Fratzke, and well-timed, adaptive drumming from Erik Bolen, so right away, the band lets you know you’re in more than capable hands.

So again, you don’t have to tell me, because I know Space is the Corpse of Time has been out for a while now. I just thought it was worth hosting the record for anyone who hasn’t yet had the chance to hear it, and if that’s you (and I suppose even if you’ve heard it and you’re listening again), I hope you enjoy:

Zebulon Pike‘s Space is the Corpse of Time is available now. For more info, check out the band’s website or find them on Thee Facebooks here.

Drummer Clay Neely and bassist Gein have since regrouped under the Black Pyramid moniker and found venerable riffer Darryl Shepard (he of Milligram, Hackman and Blackwolfgoat, among others) to fill the vacated guitarist/vocalist role, and already they’ve begun to demo and record new material — it helps in that regard that Neely is also an engineer. But the songs on II still show the promise and the progress of the original trio, whose sound had become more melodically aware and sonically expansive. Their epic battle metal aesthetic will be familiar to anyone who heard the first album, but when they made II, Black Pyramid had grown within it and through it into something even more formidable than they were when they started out.

It’s exciting to wonder what the new trio might come up with — and knowing how prolific the band has been in the past, it probably won’t be long until we find out — but in the meantime, II documents a lineup hitting what might have been their peak, and whatever may have happened to bring about an end to this era of the band, it’s great to know a new one has begun. Today I’m fortunate enough to be able to stream the track “Night Queen,” which I think sums up both the maturity and the heaviness of Beresky-fronted Black Pyramid.

You’ll find it on the player below, followed immediately by some PR wire details about the album’s release. Please enjoy:

New England doom rock trio Black Pyramid will release its long awaited sophomore album Black Pyramid II on January 31, 2012 via MeteorCity. Recorded “in the foothills of the Berkshires” at Black Coffee Sound (Elks, Elder) and mixed by Justin Pizzoferrato (Sonic Youth, Witch, Dinosaur Jr.), the record features nine tracks of the band’s self-titled “galloping war metal.” Black Pyramid II was mastered by Matt Washburn (Mastodon) and is “at times a bit more death metal and black metal influenced” than the band’s previous material.

“We’re incredibly proud of the sonic landscapes we were able to achieve with the new album,” said Black Pyramid drummer Clay Neely. ”It’s a clear successor to the debut album and we allowed ourselves to further expand into some uncharted territories. The recording of the record was an incredibly rewarding experience and we can’t wait to bring the show back on the road.”

Black Pyramid will also be playing the London Desertfest in April 2012. For more info on that, click here.

It hasn’t yet been a full week since I reviewed Good Morning Harakiri, so I’ll spare the long-winded descriptions of how the album as a whole functions and just say that the pairing of former Iota guitarist/vocalist Joey Toscano with the rhythm section of bassist Dave Jones and drummer Zach Hatsis — both of post-metal unit  SubRosa — results in a unique mixture of riff-driven heaviness and thickened jam explorations. While this elements aren’t necessarily uncommon, Dwellers‘ blend of space and blues winds up being almost entirely their own.

Case in point, “Vultures” is the longest track on Good Morning Harakiri at just over 10 minutes. It’s got a bluesy semi-Southern riff and Toscano‘s vocals are graveled as they deliver the initial verses, but the song soon opens up to an expansive heavy jam with a waltzing progression that feels born as much from willful exploration as from its classic rock soloing.

Small Stone was kind enough to let me host “Vultures” for your streaming pleasure, and you’ll find it on the player below. Hope you enjoy:

Dwellers‘ Good Morning Harakiri is available now on iTunes through Small Stone Records, and is set for CD release at the end of January. The band will be playing Burt’s Tiki Club in their native Salt Lake City, Utah on Jan. 21 with YOB and Old Timer, and will also take part in Small Stone‘s annual showcase at SXSW in Austin, Texas, on March 16. More info on that is here, and you can check out Dwellers on Thee Facebooks here.