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BLACK ELEPHANT: The Obelisk Premieres “Walking Dead” Video From Psychedelic Blues/Heavy Rawk Troupe; Cosmic Blues To Be Released This July

…the four-piece have conjured ghosts of ’70s heavy fuzz and ’90s riff mongering offering up a sonic brew that’s both potent and thoroughly modern….

View / Share BLACK ELEPHANT’s “Walking Dead” At http://youtu.be/Tot5JORQiMo

Cosmic Blues, the impending new full-length from Italian psychedelic fuzz/heavy rock troupe BLACK ELEPHANT, will see release next month via Small Stone. In advance of its release, The Obelisk is pleased to unveil the band’s official video for “Walking Dead” alongside an extended review of the record.

Issues the esteemed blog, “While BLACK ELEPHANT don’t necessarily go anywhere that heavy and/or psychedelic rock hasn’t gone before, they do an excellent job of finding their niche in the genre and do even better in tipping the balance in their aesthetic to one side or the other. Some will dig it for its variety. Some will dig it for its familiarity. And some will just dig it because riffs… The varied appeal speaks to BLACK ELEPHANT knowing their audience… and knowing how to communicate their ideas through sound.”

Read more and view “Walking Dead” at THIS LOCATION.

BLACK ELEPHANT’s Cosmic Blues was recorded and mixed by Giulio Farinelli, mastered by Maurizio Giannotti, and cames wrapped in the cover design of Robin Gnista. The record will see release on July 20th on CD, digitally, and limited edition purple vinyl.

For preorders, go to the Small Stone Bandcamp page at THIS LOCATION where album opener “Cosmic Soul” can be streamed.

One would be hard-pressed to come up with a better descriptor for BLACK ELEPHANT’s Cosmic Blues full-length than the title of the album itself. Based in Savona, Italy, the four-piece have conjured ghosts of ’70s heavy fuzz and ’90s riff mongering offering up a sonic brew that’s both potent and thoroughly modern. Cosmic Blues follows 2014’s Bifolchi Inside and 2012’s Spaghetti Cowboys (get it?) and marks their debut on Small Stone Records. Comprised of lead vocalist/lead guitarist Alessio Caravelli, rhythm guitarist Massimiliano Giacosa, bassist Marcello Destefanis, and drummer Simone Brunzu, BLACK ELEPHANT makes their mark in their home country’s booming heavy rock underground with memorable songs and a sound that’s just as comfortable getting funky on “Chase Me” as it is re-imagining Soundgarden as a riff rock outfit à la peak-era Dozer, rolling out huge grooves en route to “Cosmic Blues For Solitary Moose,” loaded with fuzz and scorching solos.

Given a brisk, live sound in its production – fitting for a group with hundreds of shows under their collective belt – Cosmic Blues comes across natural and at times maintains the intensity of BLACK ELEPHANT’s earlier work (closer “Inno” walks by and waves), while simultaneously exploring more spacious realms in the not-a-cover “Helter Skelter” and the takeoff jammer “Baby Eroina,” which eases into and out of its nodding rhythm with a smoothness worthy of a group’s third album and a fluidity that typifies the record’s entire thirty-four-minute run. Leaving their own tracks in the footsteps of bands like Small Stone’s own Isaak, BLACK ELEPHANT hits a new level of craft with Cosmic Blues, and if the righteous drive of opener “Cosmic Soul,” the flowing progression of the LP that ensues, and the name they’ve given the whole affair are anything to go by, they know it for sure. All the better

BLACK ELEPHANT is:
Alessio Caravelli – lead vocals, lead guitar
Massimiliano Giacosa – rhythm guitar
Marcello Destefanis – bass guitar
Simone Brunzu – drums

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27 June 2018 Uncategorized Read more

GREEN DESERT WATER: The Obelisk Debuts “The Deepest Sea” Video From Iberian Classic Power Trio; Solar Plexus Full-Length Nears Release Via Small Stone

View / Share “The Deepest Sea” Video At THIS LOCATION

Solar Plexus, the forthcoming new full-length from Iberian stoner rock trio, GREEN DESERT WATER, will see release via Small Stone Records later this month.

In advance of its official unveiling, today The Obelisk is pleased to debut the band’s video for “The Deepest Sea.” Writes the esteemed online publication of Solar Plexus overall, “If your ears don’t automatically perk up on hearing the phrases ‘classic-style heavy rockers’ and ‘on Small Stone Records’ in the same sentence, well, to put it mildly they should. Thus, we find Spanish classic-style heavy rockers GREEN DESERT WATER making their debut on Small Stone Records with their second album overall, Solar Plexus. Quick to make an impression and earn immediate points with the opener and longest track ‘Open Your Wings,’ the band trio channels earliest AC/DC on the swinging heavy blues of ‘Souls Of The Woodland,’ and offers a fluid dose of fuzz in ‘Chaman,’ demonstrating a propensity both for hooks and for adding modern flair to the core heavy ’70s influence. The shuffle that emerges near the midsection of ‘Chaman,’ for example, or the tambourine-laced jam in the penultimate ‘Mother Moon.’ These are well-established methods, but as Small Stone has endeavored in recent years to demonstrate, a balance can surely be struck between the classic and the modern. GREEN DESERT WATER do this exceptionally well.”

Adds the band of the kaleidoscopic video clip, “What do you hold on to when the deepest sea extends below your feet?”

Read more and view “The Deepest Sea,” courtesy of The Obelisk, at THIS LOCATION.

Solar Plexus was recorded and mixed by Pablo Martínez Pérez at Ovni Estudio, mastered by Kike Sanchís at Green Desert Mastering and comes wrapped in the cover art of Héctor Castañón. The six-track offering will see release on CD, digital, and limited-edition vinyl formats on April 27th via Small Stone.

For preorders visit the Small Stone Bandcamp page HERE where opening track “Open Your Wings” can be streamed.

After getting their feet wet in a molten pool of heavy blues on their 2012 self-titled debut EP, GREEN DESERT WATER is ready for their next conquest. The Oviedo, Spain-based three-piece have been making a name for themselves as one of the best-kept-secrets of the Iberian heavy underground, and with Solar Plexus they’ve never sounded readier to let the cat out of the proverbial bag. And by “cat out of the bag,” we mean unleashing classic power trio grooves – all primo, all soul, but heavier and thicker and more modern than the first record.

Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Kike Sanchís, bassist Juan Arias García, and drummer/backing vocalist Javi González, GREEN DESERT WATER sinks its teeth into hellacious boogie on songs like “Open Your Wings” and find the place where Black Sabbath and Mountain could’ve met on “Souls Of The Woodland” – and when it comes to the title-track? Well, at least you know where they’re going to hit you. With six songs split up over two glorious vinyl sides, GREEN DESERT WATER’s Solar Plexus indeed puts itself right in the center of attention – refusing to commit to one single vibe or another as it captures the best energy of classic heavy rock and brings it forward to a modern era where it’s so desperately needed.

GREEN DESERT WATER:
Juan Arias García – fuzz bass
Javi González – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Kike Sanchís – guitars, vocals
Additional guitar on “The Deepest Sea” by Pablo Martínez Pérez.

With the purple sun, the hermit was introduced into the wild, through the mountains and the long desert to back home…

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11 April 2018 Uncategorized Read more

JIRM: Heavy Psyche Rockers Unveil “The Cultist” Video; Surge Ex Monumentis Out Now On Small Stone

“Surge Ex Monumentis has a healthy psychedelic rock influence but the heavy metal undertones are undeniable. At times, the record seems to take its inspiration from Pink Floyd as much as from Iron Maiden…” — Decibel

Swedish psychedelic riff rockers JIRM released their Surge Ex Monumentis full-length via Small Stone earlier this month. Formerly Jeremy Irons And The Ratgang Malibus, JIRM has never been more themselves than they are on Surge Ex Monumentis. Even as they redefine who they are and what they do as a band, they remain singularly powerful in their delivery and completely unmistakable. The seven-track Surge Ex Monumentis was captured at Puch Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, mixed by Oskar Lindberg at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg, Sweden, and mastered by Chris Gooseman at Baseline Audio Labs in Ann Arbor, Michigan

In celebration of the release of Surge Ex Monumentis, JIRM is pleased to unveil a new video for “The Cultist,” currently playing below alongside their previously-released “Candle Eyes” video.

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30 March 2018 News Read more

JIRM: Surge Ex Monumentis Streaming In Full At New Noise As Small Stone Release Day Nears

New Noise Magazine is currently streaming Surge Ex Monumentis, the impending new full-length from Swedish psychedelic riff rockers JIRM, in advance of its Small Stone release next week.

Hear Surge Ex Monumentis at THIS LOCATION.

JIRM, formerly Jeremy Irons And The Ratgang Malibus, has never been more themselves than they are on Surge Ex Monumentis. Even as they redefine who they are and what they do as a band, they remain singularly powerful in their delivery and completely unmistakable. The seven-track Surge Ex Monumentis was captured at Puch Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, mixed by Oskar Lindberg at Svenska Grammofonstudion in Gothenburg, Sweden, and mastered by Chris Gooseman at Baseline Audio Labs in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Surge Ex Monumentis will see release on CD, digital, and limited edition 2xLP formats via Small Stone on March 16th. Preorders are currently available at THIS LOCATION.

Sometimes in life you have to make a change. And sometimes you have to make a whole bunch of changes. So it is that JIRM is born and stands where once stood Jeremy Irons And The Ratgang Malibus. Having dropped the cumbersome moniker, the Swedish heavy rockers embark on a new era with Surge Ex Monumentis – marked as much by a tightening of sound as name.

For their first record as JIRM, the Stockholm-based four-piece of vocalist/guitarist Karl Apelmo, guitarist Micke Pettersson, bassist Viktor Källgren, and drummer Henke Persson cast off the shackles of expectation entirely. Their style is no less expansive, but it’s become entirely their own, a driving mind meld between psychedelia, classic metal, heavy rock, and individualized realms beyond. Surge Ex Monumentis brims with newfound energy at the same time it benefits from the lessons JIRM have learned since first getting together in 2004 and releasing albums like Elefanta (2009), Bloom (2011), and Spirit Knife (2014), a record Mass Movement crowned, “a blissful mixture of Soundgarden at their grooviest and Pink Floyd…a terrific album of sunny day, top down, cruising music.”

“Surge Ex Monumentis has a healthy psychedelic rock influence but the heavy metal undertones are undeniable. At times, the record seems to take its inspiration from Pink Floyd as much as from Iron Maiden…” — Decibel

“With an underpinning of space metal, heavy progressive swirl and a flourish of psychedelic reaching, the six-minute ‘Candle Eyes’ begins Surge ex Monumentis with a feel that’s both classic and vital… JIRM have their own agenda and their blend when it comes to bringing together heavy rock and prog, and by injecting a current of ’80s-style metal grandiosity — notice I didn’t say ‘glam-diosity;’ that’s not what we’re talking about here — they find a niche for themselves and begin to dig into what will likely be a continuing process of forward creative growth…” — The Obelisk

“While some psychedelia-oriented artists forget to rock and just fumble along, this record keeps rock alive while pushing the lines to space rock without meandering.” — Cosmic Rock

“There seems to be a lot of genuine emotion within the album that you can feel in the songwriting…” — Capital Chaos

“JIRM have found a strong median between ‘70s prog rock, stoner metal, and modern rock instrumentation that feels both distantly stoned and freshly modern…as cinematic as it is engaging…” — Grizzly Butts

“Expansive, atmospheric, progressive, and highly engaging, Surge ex Monumentis is an enjoyable and captivating listen.” — Wonder Metal

http://www.facebook.com/JeremyIronsandtheRatgangMalibus
http://www.smallstone.com
http://www.facebook.com/smallstonerecords

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9 March 2018 News Read more

GREEN DESERT WATER: Iberian Stoner Rockers To Release Solar Plexus Via Small Stone; New Track Streaming + Preorders Available

With the purple sun, the hermit was introduced into the wild, through the mountains and the long desert to back home….

Stream / Share “Open Your Wings” HERE

After getting their feet wet in a molten pool of heavy blues on their 2012 self-titled debut EP, GREEN DESERT WATER is ready for their next conquest. The Oviedo, Spain-based three-piece have been making a name for themselves as one of the best-kept-secrets of the Iberian heavy underground, and with Solar Plexus – their second LP – they’ve never sounded readier to let the cat out of the proverbial bag. And by “cat out of the bag,” we mean unleashing classic power trio grooves – all primo, all soul, but heavier and thicker and more modern than the first record.
Comprised of guitarist/vocalist Kike Sanchís, bassist Juan Arias García, and drummer/backing vocalist Javi González, GREEN DESERT WATER sinks its teeth into hellacious boogie on songs like “Open Your Wings” and find the place where Black Sabbath and Mountain could’ve met on “Souls Of The Woodland” – and when it comes to the title-track? Well, at least you know where they’re going to hit you. With six songs split up over two glorious vinyl sides, GREEN DESERT WATER‘s Solar Plexus indeed puts itself right in the center of attention – refusing to commit to one single vibe or another as it captures the best energy of classic heavy rock and brings it forward to a modern era where it’s so desperately needed.
Solar Plexus was recorded and mixed by Pablo Martínez Pérez at Ovni Estudio, mastered by Kike Sanchís at Green Desert Mastering and comes wrapped in the cover art of Héctor Castañón. The six-track offering will see release on CD, digital, and limited edition vinyl formats on April 27th via Small Stone.
For preorders visit the Small Stone Bandcamp Page HERE where opening track “Open Your Wings” is currently streaming.
 
Solar Plexus Track Listing:
1. Open Your Wings
2. Chaman
3. The Deepest Sea
4. Souls Of The Woodland
5. Mother Moon
6. Solar Plexus
GREEN DESERT WATER:
Juan Arias García: fuzz bass
Javi González: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Kike Sanchís: guitars, vocals

Additional guitar on “The Deepest Sea” by Pablo Martínez Pérez.

For GREEN DESERT WATER coverage contact liz@earsplitcompound.com.

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8 March 2018 News Read more

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