KANAAN - Kanaan / Spirits

Nach dem Konzertbericht aus dem Hafenklang fühlt es sich tatsächlich schon ein wenig überfällig an, ein paar Worte über den selbstbetitelten neuen Tonträger zu verlieren, den Kanaan dort vorgestellt haben. Also, nicht lang schnacken, here we go:

KANAAN - Kanaan (Limited Tour Edition Yellow vinyl LP) (2026)

Zunächst einmal wow! "Kanaan" ist inklusive einer Live-Veröffentlichung und ihrer Kooperation mit Ævestaden (aber ohne die "International Space Station Vol.1"-Compilation und das 2024er Überwerk "Cloud Sculptors" mit erweitertem Line-Up als Full Earth) bereits das zehnte Album des norwegischen Powertrios seit 2018.

Wie man es im Grunde erwartet, sobald eine Band sich mitten in der Diskographie entscheidet, auf einen Albumtitel zu verzichten, ist "Kanaan" eine Zusammenfassung - oder besser Konzentration - von beinahe allem, was Kanaan  in der vergangenen noch nicht einmal abgeschlossenen Dekade so getrieben hat. Das in der tourexklusiven Version gelbe Vinyl beherbergt vier Instrumentalstücke sehr unterschiedlicher Länge:

Der Opener "P1800" hat ganz klar Weckfunktion und geht in nicht einmal drei Minuten rund um ein Uptempo-Jimi-Hendrix-Riff mit viel Gitarrengeschredde voll auf die Zwölf.

Kanaan live im Hafenklang, Hamburg

Der "Silver Cloud Blues" erreicht dann mit knapp sieben Minuten was bei Kanaan als normale durchschnittliche Songlänge betrachten kann (siehe z.b. die beiden Alben "Earthbound" und "Downpour"). Stilistisch erklärt sich der Titel im Grunde schon selbst: Überraschung, es ist ein Heavy Blues!
Stabiler, gut fuzzender Bass über ein wild shuffelndes Schlagzeug, mit dem Ingvald Andre Vassbø einmal mehr unterstreicht, was ihn für seine vergangene Anstellung bei Motorpsycho hat, und natürlich auch hier wieder Gitarrist Ask Vatn Strøm mit jeder Menge Gehexe in geschmackvollem 70er-Ton.

Der selbstverständlich vorne wie hinten identische Dreizehneinhalbminüter "Ouroboros" schließt die A-Seite dann episch ab, sich langsam inklusive Mellotron und fusion-artigen Sehnsuchtsgitarrenmelodien zu einer mächtigen Stoner Doom-Black Sabbath-Huldigung steigernd.

Die B-Seite gehört dann einundzwanzig Minuten lang ganz allein "The Wonderer". Ein mächtig dynamischer pychedelischer Prog-Rocker in vier Teilen, in dem Kanaan ihr komplettes Spektrum an Gefühls- und Härtegraden ausspielen und ihre Lust am in perfekter Bandchemie zelebrierten Jam voll ausleben. Mellotron und spacige Modularsynthies als i-Tüpfelchen lassen diesen Koloss dann entgültig in den interstellaren Raum gleiten. Kann man bereits nach dem ersten Hören bedenkenlos in die Hall of Fame der besten Songs des Trios schieben.

Ja, mehr Kanaan als auf "Kanaan" geht wirklich kaum... 

Ein wenig mehr geht aber trotzdem noch, dann nämlich, wenn man zu den einhundert glücklichen Fans gehört, die das Album im Bundle mit einer Bonus-EP ergattern konnten...

KANAAN - Spirits (10") (2026)

Eine White-Label-10", das Cover in grünlich oder bläulich bedruckt, handnummeriert in einer Auflage von hundert Stück - und schon vor dem zweiten Konzert der Europatour ausverkauft!

Mein Glück, dass ich nicht bis nach der Show mit dem Einkauf gewartet habe. Denn "Spirits" knüpft nahtlos an die exzellente Qualität des Albums an, auch wenn die Produktion vielleicht ein Mü weniger druckvoll ist. Da die beiden Longtracks dieser Scheibe auch etwas mehr in der frei improvisierteren Tradition der "Odense Sessions" (2020) oder der beiden "Diversions"-Alben steht, steht der erdige, etwas weniger produtzierte Sound der Musik aber auch sehr gut.

"Plateau" bewegt sich dabei etwas mehr in krautrockend spaciger Richtung, während im Titeltrack der EP wild um ein sowohl bei Acid Mothers Temple als auch The Heads gut aufgehobenes Riff soliert, gelärmt und rhythmisch durchgedreht wird.

Beide Stücke sind super und hätten vielleicht auch mit auf ein verlängertes Doppelalbum gepasst. Aber da sie stilistisch vielleicht nicht ganz so sehr unverkennbar Kanaan sind, verstehe ich die Entscheidung, sie ausgesondert auf dieses zukünftige Sammlerstück zu packen, durchaus.

Aber ich bin ja auch Nummer 53 der hundert glücklichen Besitzer. Hätte ich das Ding nicht bekommen, wäre ich zugegebenermaßen wahrscheinlich anderer Meinung. 

DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Flesh Is Fragile

"Flesh Is Fragile". With that declaration Dead Neanderthals dodge the responsibilty for peeling off your skin and boiling what's underneath with their music. Just like a professional boxer who tells you "nasal bones really snap like twigs", before he punches your face into oblivion.

DEAD NEANDERTHALS - Flesh Is Fragile (LP) (2026)

On their latest album the hardest working duo in Dutch Avantgarde Extreme Music pretty much continues the concept of the "Demo MMXXV" EP from the beginning of the year: No endless meditations and improvisations, but instead a whole bunch of actual songs. Completely gnarly misanthropic songs consisting of brutal primitive Metal drumming, ultra-distorted keyboards, unhinged desperately howling screams and subsonic gutturals, but songs nonetheless.

These songs - in combination with the "Demo" tracks were actually written for Dead Neanderthals' memorable Roadburn 2026 performance, where Rene Aquarius and Kokke took the Hall of Fame by apocalyptic storm.

Dead Neanderthals live at Roadburn 2026

Compared to the previous EP "Flesh Is Fragile" actually sounds both punchier and cleaner, but that's of course one of the most relative facts you'll find on my whole blog. So if you're an audiophile taking my word as an invitation to use the record as a text object to calibrate your system, you're in for a Darwin-award-worthy departure. No, in its short running time of barely over half an hour this beast does everything to do song titles like "We Will Meet Again In a Sea of Flames", "Hollowed-Out Existence", "A Leather Body Bag for the Mass Grave Called Society" or "Buried in a Shallow Grave" justice, both in performance and production.

Yeah, this is a ridiculously brutal fucker - but somehow also weirdly magnetic and hypnotic, as it sucks us into its nihilistic spiral of pummeling weltschmerz. That's it, humanity! We're officially done now. 

GODFLESH - Decay

Is Godflesh going out with a double bang? We cannot tell before "The End", which will be the last studio album next year, coming after Justin Broadrick's announcement that he cannot perform the intense harsh vocals  of Godflesh anymore without seriously risking his health.

We know however that the second to last album before the band's retirement already paves the way for one of the most glorious goodbyes in the history of extreme music.

GODFLESH - Decay (white vinyl LP) (2026)

"Decay" had been written and recorded before Broadrick being hospitalized with inguinal hernia in March, but this album has an urgency and intensity as if he already had a foreboding of the duo's end and wanted Godflesh to leave on an absolutely devastating mark. "Decay" is their most brutal and harrowing work since "A World Lit Only By Fire", yet this time it's not as much due to sheer riff power, but more due a combination of suffocating atmosphere, destructively crushing production and a stylistic return to some elements of their earliest releases from the late 1980's.

First of all the sounds and rhythms of the drum computer feel very angular, brutal, classic. And while the special energy of the low-fi production on "Streetcleaner" cannot be reproduced, "Decay" gives us something which somehow feels equally perfectly imperfect. Just listen to "Feral Colony", which builds upon the primitivism of the self-titled debut, and how during the verses and bridges Ben Green's signature bass completey crunches everything under it - so delicious!

Another quite prominent element is a certain bending of notes and howling of leads which just feels very old school. Maybe this is already one step towards Justin Broadrick playing a guitar with a tremolo - which he has teased to do on "The End" for the first time since 1989 on "Streetcleaner".

The album only consists of six tracks, but already the squelshing, crawling opener "Master and Slave" with its pummeling Drone and Noise, its unsettling synths and horrifyingly distorted vocals tortures us in the best way for almost nine minutes.

During the overpowering first impression of this album one might miss that under all the mayhem "Decay" actually features some peak Godflesh songwriting. The opener of side B, "Fear of Man" for example is a particularly strong track, which feels like a hybrid of the beats and lead guitars of "Christbait Rising" ("Streetcleaner"), the riffs of "Xynoybis" ("Selfless") and that scratching guitar sound from "Perfect Skin" ("Slavestate"), which sounds like an old printer. What a killer!

But don't think Broadrick and Green wane after that. Even though "Fodder" concerns itself less with musicality or even buried beauty, but works rather as an excorcism through sonic dystopia.

Oh wait! Why did I waste that description? It's probably even much more fitting for the twelve minute long closer "Consume Me". This terrifying behemoth raises the levels for bleakness with alienated sounds, which point far beyond the amount of merzbowish Noise we're used to in Godflesh. And indeed it is said that this track is foreshadowing White Light District, Broadrick's new upcoming solo project and outlet for his most "brutal, industrial, heavy" material.

Even with Godflesh being gone again (and for good this time); between White Light District, Jesu and all the other things he's doing there'll surely be no shortage of new Broadrick music and music-like Noise anytime soon.

And of course with that also grows the enormous mountain of great releases to return to. "Decay" certainly is one of the most grim and disturbing among those. Fantastic!

Released by Relapse Records comes in many different colour and packaging variations. Since I'm a sucker for white vinyl and also like the cover artwork better with a light background, I chose the white gatefold variant:

Veil of Stuff feat. EDENA GARDENS, EFFLUENCE, E.U.E.R.P.I. and SLEEPBOMB

Wow, that took some time again! But at last here are the latest four releases I've reviewed over at Veil of Sound:

EFFLUENCE - Anticholinergic Derangement (2026)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

Let's start with what will easily be one of the most batshit crazy Extreme Metal albums of the year - the over seventy minutes long magnum opus of Matt Stevens' "Free Death" project Effluence.

Prepare yourself for a gloriously annoying snare drum sound being hammered into your brain forever - alongside an incomprenhesible overflow of completely over the top, but also just downright fantastically creative Dissonant and Technical Death Metal with ultra guttural growls!

At least on par with the brilliant chaos of bands like Qrixkuor or Esoctrilihum "Anticholigergenic Derangements" pairs its relentless highspeed Brutal Death assault with Free Jazz attitude, swirling pianos, shredding lead guitars, flutes, Folk choir chants and more in an outright unhinged attack on the listener's sanity.

[Don't remind me of the costs - I'd like to forget that part with US imports like this -, but I couldn't be content with only owning this ground- and mindbreaking release in digital form. I don't know if the CD has been shipped yet or whenever it will arrive, but when it does, I'll update this post with one or two pictures.]

SLEEPBOMB - Songs In The Key Of Conan (2026)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

An American band with a comparably ambitious attitude, yet in a significantly less sick in the head - and musically completely different - way are Sleepbomb, who have specialized in creating alternative soundtracks to movie classics - in this case John Milius' famous fantasy flick "Conan The Barbarian" featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger in his legendary minimal-acting breakthrough role.

As bold as even the suggestion that you might need a replacement for Basil Poledouris' bombastic original score feels: Sleepbomb deliver an epic, totally independent take on the subject in the language of sludgy (Tulsa) Doom Metal and Post Rock with Classical and Arabic influences, seasoned with ethereal female vocalizations, atmospheric Ambient keyboards, Tribal percussions and jazzy parts featuring clarinet and saxophone.

It's an almost seventy-seven minutes long album, but its sixteen chapters don't even offer a single weak moment. Crom!  

EDENA GARDENS - Quintessence (2LP) (2026)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

After delivering four studio recordings and one live album since 2022 the Danish Stoner Psych Fusion Jam super group of Nicklas Sørensen, Martin Rude and Jakob Skøtt strikes again with their first double album and probably most ambituous work to date.

In six masterfully morphing longtracks the trio once again demonstrates musicianship, taste and the common cosmic wavelength of its members coming together in perfect alchemy. Edena Gardens' improvisations are captured so intimately that it feels as if you were right there in a room with the band.

It's an amazing album presented accordingly. The gatefold cover with Rude's drawings colourized by Skøtt is an eyecatcher even by the high standards of El Paraiso Records. And if you order your copy directly from the label, you even get a couple of stickers of the figure on the front cover. Very nice!

E.U.E.R.P.I. - Microworlds (2026)
[MY REVIEW ON VEIL OF SOUND.COM ]

The four albums in this bunch are all examples of very different concepts and their respective execution. This work of Bulgarian composer and Experimental musician Mirian Kolev might actually be the most unorthodox one, because it is based on contact microphone field recordings shrinking us down to the size of ants or (on the last of the three tracks) crickets, so we can experience their mystical world beyond our usual perception as a fascinating, strangely satisfying ASMR experience.

The combination with the sounds of obscure touch-based synthesizers ultimately turns these recordings into - still very minimal and Ambient - music. So don't expect catchy melodies and choruses, but enjoy this as the highly Experimental, but in its own special way very capticating project it is! Headphones strictly recommended.

SCIMITAR - Scimitarium I / Scimitarium II

You know how it sometimes goes: You see a great live band which absolutely blows you away, but they don't have an album out yet. So they are slipping from your mind again. And when the album is finally out there you miss the release - and that might be it forever.

Scimitar live in Copenhagen

Well, the case of Scimitar could have ended in a similar way for me. I saw the Danish band filling in on short notice at A Colossal Weekend 2024, where they ended up being one of the weeekend's greatest surprises and highlights.

But even though I did miss the initial release of their debut "Scimitarium 1" in 2025, I eventually got wind of it. Yet since their label Crypt of the Wizard is from the UK I pondered too long in hope to find another source with cheaper shipping, forgot about it again and there you go... They've already releases the follow-up "Scimitarium II" - alongside a new press of the first album. So I finally ordered them both now. From different sources, because my preferred versions weren't available in one place, but both records arrived on the same day nonetheless.

SCIMITAR - Scimitarium I (Rusty Red vinyl LP) (2025/2026)

With its antique-style embossed cover artwork this repress of last year's debut on red vinyl is a beautiful item, including the lyric sheet with a low-fi band photograph and the brilliant skeleton monster drawing derived from it. So while it's probably one step down from the previous limited golden version I had slept on, there's still nothing to complain about here.

The Copenhagen-based group with (among others) members of Slægt and most noticeable singer Shaam Larein (whose band's 2022 album "Sticka En Kniv I Världen" I can only recommend) offers a feverishly performed mix of 1980's Speed/Heavy Metal with a Blackened flavour and a bit of Post Punk attitude.
This is clearly a band which owes its existence to the wave of Occult Proto Metal started by The Devil's Blood. Scimitar however not only take conceptual inspiration from Black Metal, but actually let the guitar work and even occasional bleast beats of the genre seep into their frantic NWoBHM pieces.
Other than that there are also the almost obligatory Classical ideas in the guitar work, while Larein's mostly clean vocals balance 70's Hard Rock with a more eccentric Post Punk/Dark Wave touch.

All in all "Scimitarium I" is an album with an energy close to a demonically possessed version of Johanna Sadonis' pre-Lucifer band The Oath. There is something unbound and chaotic, but very real and pure about this. It always feels as if it was faster and more panically driven than it's supposed to be.
The lyrics also appear to be a liitle too wordy and not as catchy as they could be, while the production sounds muddier than necessary... but that too is actually a powerful part of the album's explosive charme. album, which rocks frim start to finish and doesn't overstay its welcome with a neat playing time of little over forty minutes. 

SCIMITAR - Scimitarium II (Purple vinyl LP) (2025/2026)

Even though I find gold on red a bit more striking than violet on black, you obviously can't hate on the artwork of "Scimitarium II" if you like its predecessor. Interestingly the cover now very much reminds me of various releases from †, also knows as (Dolch) - which translates to "dagger". Not the only parallel I can see to the German Black Ambient band. Are there any other bands around based on a ritual weapon obsession? 
Besides a lyric sheet - which is double the size this time, this first press also contains an OBI strip.

Not only visually but unsurprisingly also musically this album is of course a continuation of the debut, albeit It's neither an exact stylistic copy nor an attempt to make the band more accesible through streamlining the chaos. No, quite the opposite! The opener buries its beautiful vocals under a challenging, shrill wall of oldschool low-fi Black Metal sound. And while the evil fog becomes clearer after that, the two main directions Scimitar are going to at the same time, have been established now:
The melodic side of Shaam Larein's vocals stand out more, so this album could potentially be catchier - if it wasn't for the even wilder and Blacker instrumental performance and decidedly uncompromising production.

On side B things get slower, for a while even cleaner, and more epic in the over thirteen minutes long closer "Mobula Mobular", but overall the band still isn't willing to make it easy for you. Other than for example the Italians Ponte Del Diavolo, who are kind of playing in the same wheelhouse, but immediately reach you with their clean production, Scimitar go the other way and drag you through a trial of initiation. You really need to accustom yourself to the raw occult underground aesthetic - only then you get rewarded all the more.

These two albums are a strong foundation for the band's discography, but they are not designed to lift Scimitar out of obscurity. If that happens, it will do so through their ferocious live shows - of which we hopefully will see more. Because as much as I like their studio work, the stage still is where they truly unleash their true potential.

SLIFT - Fantasia

Bäm! Slift!

Das wäre vielleicht der angemessene Einstieg in diesen Post gewesen; wenn ich nicht so spät dran wäre, ist der Nachfolger des kolossalen Monolithen "Ilion" doch schon vor ein paar Monaten auf die Erde gekracht. Das erste seismische Schockmomentum ist also bereits verflogen. Was bleibt, ist allerdings immer noch so gigantisch, wie man es von dem französischen Heavy Psych-Trio erwartet. 

SLIFT - Fantasia (Starlight vinyl Loser Edition 2LP / side D edged) (2026)

Natürlich gibt es verschiedene Stufen des Gigantismus. Und auch wenn auf "Fantasia" erneut mächtig gedoomrifft und wie am Spieß geschrien wird, muss man für den Moment wohl annehmen, das Slift das Maximum an unter Wahrung ihrer stilistischen Integrität möglicher Überlebensgröße auf dem Vorgänger von 2024 bereits ausgelotet haben. Und da diese Band sich ungern wiederholt, bedeutet dies folgerichtig, dass das neue Album sich im Vergleich übersichtlicher und zugänglicher präsentiert.

Auf das ganz große Hitpotential des diskographischen Goldstandards "Ummon" greifen Slift dabei allerdings nur manchmal zurück - eher schon auf die noch traditioneller krautrockig inspirierten Werke davor. Und hin und wieder findet man sogar eine balladeskere Form (z.B. in "Waiting Man" und "Secret Mirror"), in der tatsächlich ein bisschen Ziggy Stardust vorbeischaut.

Insgesamt bleibt es dabei, dass der Großteil ihrer Musik sich aus einem ultra-energiereichen Powertriosound speist, der in gleichen Teilen von Spacerock bis Metal (Stücke wie "A Storm Of Wings" klingen durchaus an Voivods Triophase mit Eric Forrest an), Prog, Punk und Kraut bestimmt wird.
Slift verstehen es halt, diese Elemente immer wieder ein bisschen anders zu gewichten und anzuordnen. Man kann sich also darauf verlassen, dass jedes neue Albums aufs neue kracht und keine Langeweile aufkommt.

Zumindest ist dies bisher so, und "Fantasia" reiht sich perfekt in diese Tradition ein. Wenn es darum geht, kosmische Weite mit rasantem Raketenritt und gnadenloser Schwerkraft zu verbinden, gehören Slift einfach zur Speerspitze der psychedelischen Szene. Abgesehen von ihren furiosen Liveshows könnten sie dies kaum besser beweisen als mit diesem Banger.

Optisch weiß das dreiseitige Album (auf Seite D gibt es ein Edging mit Slifts multi-hexagonalen Symbolball zu sehen) ebenso zu gefallen. Vor allem das leider schwer gebührlich forografierbare "Sternenlicht"-Vinyl selbst hat es mir angetan. Denke ich daneben noch an den "Pearl Flip"-Effekt von Sunn O))s diesjährigem Album, muss ich sagen, dass Sub Pop Records ganz klar zu den Meistern des farbige Special-Edition-Spiels zählen.

Fazit: Fantasiastisch!

IVAN THE TOLERABLE - Le Monde Inverse (2026 Remaster)

Putting out a bazillion new records each year must be tiring, so to switch it up Ivan The Tolerable returns to older stuff and treats us with an extended and remastered reissue of a 2018 release:

IVAN THE TOLERABLE - Le Monde Inverse (coloured Martble vinyl LP) (2018/2026)

The soundtrack to the film "Le Monde Inversé" (which I sadly know nothing about beyond the title) has been released as a limited 10" pressing before. Now it returns with a new cover artwork on joyfully randomly coloured vinyl with three more tracks, elevating it from an EP to proper album length.

It's a trio record with mastermind Oli Heffernan mostly on pulsating bass and New Age synths, a subtle but very lively drum performance by Mees Siderius and Ben Hopkinson bringing a Jazz feel to the Psychelectronic 70's sound on piano and saxophone.

"Le Monde Inverse" is a very friendly, laid-back album. Its ten tracks aren't urgently pushing towards an aim, but rather live peacefully in the moment - and softly stretching that moment to song length. A wonderfully meandering dreamscape full of blooming Ambient Kraut.

Open your third eye (and ear) and let these waves wash over you!

👁

😇

SUBROSA - Strega

I'm not entirely sure about the current status of Salt Lake City's sludgy Romantic Doomers SubRosa. They are back together for at least a couple of North American live appearances. Are there plans beyond that or will singer Rebecca Vernon go back to her own project The Keening and the rest of the band continue as The Otolith? Will maybe all these things continue existing beside each other?

What I know is that Profoud Lore Records took this moment of attention as an opportunity to reissue the band's three studio albums released by them. And thankfully SubRosa also got I hate Records on board for a re-release of their label debut, which so far had been a blind spot on my musical map.

SUBROSA - Strega (red vinyl LP) (2008/2026)

"Strega" comes on red vinyl with a lyric sheet and really nothing to complain about concerning the physical copy. This is nice. If you had been missing out on this one as a fan - this edition gives you no reason to keep it that way!

Musically the album is quite different than what the band would do on later releases. I already knew that despite playing super heavy, often bleak, yet beautiful Doom Metal with two violins SubRosa has never actually been inspired by My Dying Bride, which would be such an obvious assumption.

Listening to "Strega" now however really drives home who was the real main inspiration behind Vernon and Sarah Pendleton founding this group. And it's not only PJ Harvey, but also Polly Jean Harvey. Most of the eleven songs are still short, there's only one violin yet, the bass sound isn't as crushing as it would become on the following works. The dry guitar riffs in the centre, Rebecca's vocals, the stripped-down, yet effective production... Everything points heavily into this direction. And a piece like "Black Joan" maybe even drives the similarity almost a little too far.

But yes, all in all that's pretty damn cool. This is nowhere close to the magnitude of "More Constant Than The Gods" or "For This We Fought The Battle Of Ages". It's not a perfect album - but it doesn't need to be.

"Strega" shows SubRosa at an intriguing point of their evolution, from which they could have easily developed into a much more chart-compatible Indie Rock direction - and probably still have become an exceptionally great band. But the seed for what they would actually become is also there, especially in tunes like the title track or the instrumental epilogue "Cradles".

What else to say? I'm just really happy to own this now.

NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM - Nāgabhūtam

"Among the Gods

At the Sight of the One

Who Has Become a Serpent

They Are Afraid"

NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM - Nāgabhūtaṃ (marble orange vinyl LP) (2026)

The Belgian Drone collective Neptunian Maximalism had been in turbulence lately. Personal misbehaviour of one member and the following cracks in friendship and consequently the band's line-up lead to them cancelling various shows, including their performances as support act for Blood Incantation where Insect Ark stepped in instead. Even though I cannot know what they had planned to play on those shows, I assume it would still have been a part of the touring cycle for the Blackened Raga Drone Doom Metal of "Le Sacre Du Soleil Invaincu".

With that chapter being closed prematurely the ensemble around guitarist / multi-instrumentalist Guillaume Cazalet returned to the eve, both in space and time, by playing a fully improvisational show in their homeground of Le Botonique in Brussels, with a quartet line-up reminiscent to the "Éons" era, with two drummers and colossal saxophone maximalist Jean Jacques Duerinckx returning to the fold. It's indeed almost the same cast as back in 2018, with only one of the percussionists being replaced by a new guest member.
This incarnation of the band is even officially called the Neptunian Maximalism Éons Quartet in the credits on Bandcamp.

"Nāgabhūtaṃ" (a combined Hindi word which roughly translates to "to become a serpent") is a deliberate step away from the Metal aesthetics of the last album, back to Neptunian Maximalism's original brand of a wildly pulsating sonic ritual, which is in equal parts made of the Black Magick inversion of Spiritual Free Jazz, Tribal Drone, Psychedelic Rock and Doom Metal, without ever fully actually becoming one of those influences.

It is a return to the group's primordial roots, but not a rerun. While all elements, from the deep Northern Asian overtone singing to the powerful baritone sax blasts and the daringly chaotic syncopated drums feel familiar, there are subtle new tweaks like Cazalet playing the toy synth instrument Otamatone instead of flute or brass instruments. Mainly however it's the growth and experience of the musicians during the past dozen years, which leads to a slightly different constellation of everything coming together. We're watching the same stars, yet from another angle.

With a running time of forty-two minutes "Nāgabhūtaṃ" channels a similar otherworldy energy as "Éons" did, but it distills the celestial flow into a more purposefully focussed - yet still imposing and cathartic - result.

The packaging of the marbled orange vinyl (released by I, Voidhanger Records) does the cosmic meditation justice with a great front cover artwork by Daniele Valeriani and an inlay featuring various photographs of this remarkable performance.

So far no flaw has been detected by me. The ridiculously noisy escalation in the final eleventh movement of "Devānām madhye nāgabhūtaṃ dṛṣṭvā te bibhyati" is truly earned at that point. This is Neptunian Maximalism at their best, defying their internal crisis and affirming their position at the spear head of contemporary timeless Drone. Yet another masterpiece!

TORI AMOS - In Times Of Dragons

Ok, da ich ich mich mit dem Kirchenkonzert von Amanda Palmer eh gerade in die Rubrik singende Dame am Klavier begeben habe, ist jetzt vielleicht auch der richtige Zeitpunkt, um endlich die aktuell überfälligste Rezension aus meiner To-do-Liste anzugehen.

Tori Amos befindet sich momentan ja in einer umstrittenen Phase, was die Rezeption ihrer Liveshows angeht; in erster Linie geht es dabei um den Umgang damit, dass sie ihren früheren Stimmumfang einfach nicht mehr über ein ganzes Konzert abrufen kann.

Ich hatte mit ihrem Wechsel zu einer oft tieferen, rauchigeren Lage und dem größeren Fokus auf instrumentale Improvisationen weder 2023 in der Laeiszhalle noch auf dem brillianten "Diving Deep Live"-Album ein Problem.

Auf der aktuellen Tour allerdings bin ich nicht gewesen. Manche Konzertbesucher loben die neuen Arrangements ihrer Songs und die Einbindung von Backgroundsängerinnen, andere finden die Interpretationen zu lahm und eben jene Backgroundsängerinnen zu sehr im Vordergrund. Vielleicht ist es ja auch Tagesform, denn was ich an aktuellen Livevideos gesehen habe, stützt tatsächlich sowohl mal den einen, als auch den anderen Standpunkt.

Ich kann und will mich zu Tori Amos live 2026 also nicht positionieren. Doch wie sieht's im Studio aus?  

TORI AMOS - In Times Of Dragons (clear vinyl 2LP) (2026)

Im Vergleich zum letzten Album "Ocean To Ocean" (2021) ist "In Times Of Dragons" sowohl opulenter als auch sparsamer geraten. War der Vorgänger mit elf Songs relativ kompakt für Toris Verhältnisse, so bewegt sich das neue Werk mit siebzehn Stücken im vertrauteren, fast schon zu großzügigen  Rahmen. Man könnte das Album also leicht um die zwei oder drei im Vergleich schwächsten oder am ehesten schon einmal dagewesenen Lieder kürzen, ohne dass es sich wirklich anfühlen würde, als ob etwas fehlte.

Sparsamer als zuletzt sind die Arrangements ausgefallen. Nein, dieses Album wirkt alles andere als klein. Und ja, hier und da wird mit orchestralen Klängen und Synthies zusätzlich verdichtet. Insgesamt jedoch klingt dieses Album noch mehr nach Band und beschränkt sich großenteils auf das perfekt aufeinander eingespielte Team aus Tori Amos selbst an Klavier, Cembalo, Keyboard, Bassist Jon Evans, Drummer Matt Chamberlain und Gitarrist Mark Hawley. Auch die Chöre und Harmoniegesänge wurden wie eh und je komplett von Tori eingesungen. Die einzige prominente Präsenz jenseits dieser Besetzung ist Toris Tochter Natashya Hawley, die in mehreren Stücken als Duettpartnerin auftaucht.

"Southern girls know what it means

When the patriarchy menacingly says:

You shush yourself down down

You put a finger on those beautiful lips

Whe both know what they're good for, don't we?"

Der Opener "Shush" macht lyrisch keine Gefangenen, sondern erlegt den rückständigen Zeitgeist gezielt schon innerhalb der ersten Zeilen. Das über sechsminütige, getragen schwere Stück stimmt perfekt auf den ernsten, oft düsteren Ton ein, der große Teile der gesamten Trackliste bestimmt. "I knew a girl who wrote Silent All These Years. Where is she?" fragt die Sängerin am Ende des Stücks in Bezug auf ihr 1992er Debüt "Little Earthquakes".

"Where am I? Where am I?" fährt sie im folgenden Titelstück gleich darauf fort. Schon hier sollte klar sein, dass "In Times Of Dragons" ein Konzeptalbum ist, vergleichbar mit dem amerikanischen Stimmungsbild ihrer Reise in "Scarlet's Walk" (2002) oder ihrem Rollenspiel auf "American Doll Posse" (2007). Mal in deutlichen Worten wie eben zitiert, mal in Metaphern und Allegorien besucht die Künstlerin verschiedene - auch im Gatefold des Doppelalbums fotografisch festgehaltene - Charaktere wie die Hohepriesterin, die Tochter,  die Gasoline Girls oder die Handlager, und formt daraus ihren Spiegel der amerikanischen Gegenwart. Es ist also ein Werk über den Kampf der demokratischen Freiheit gegen faschistische Tyrannei.

Schwere Kost, aber notwendig, gerade von Künstlern mit Amos' Erfahrung, die es sich sicherlich bequemer machen können. Zum Glück geht die Sängerin aber nicht diesen Weg, sondern sieht sich selbst nicht als Verwalterin und Wiederverwerterin ihres eigenen Erbes, sondern als Chronistin der Gegenwart. Dies ist natürlich eine Haltung, die bei vielen Musikern, welche einfach zu out of touch sind, zu eher peinlichen Resultaten führen kann. Tori Amos jedoch wächst mit dem Anspruch ihres Konzepts und liefert nicht nur großartige Poesie voller intimer bis überweltlicher Menschlichkeit, sondern eine musikalische Umsetzung, die dermaßen stark ist, dass ich mich kaum traue, einzelne Lieder herauszustellen.
Denn wenn ich die tiefe balladeske Schönheit der "Flood" erwähnte, den dramatischen Puls des "Angelshark", die den Himmel öffnende Ode an "St. Theresa" oder die cinematische alpine Weite der "23 Peaks", warum dann nicht auch die Achtziger-Vibes von "Pyrite", den Western-Upbeat von "Fanny Faudrey" ode das traumhafte Leuchten des "Strawberry Moon"?

Die Dichte an Material, welches sich vor nichts im Katalog verstecken muss, ist beeindruckend. Natürlich klingt Tori Amos 2026 anders als das Mädchen, welches "Silent All Those Years" sang. Das kreative Feuer brennt anders, aber es lodert unermüdlich. Ob man persönlich dieses Album nun als das beste seit "Native Invader", "Scarlet's Walk", gar "From the Choirgirl Hotel" oder doch nur "Ocean To Ocean" einstuft, ist unnütze Formsache. Es ist nicht perfekt, aber doch eine verdammt starke Sammlung von Songs, die ihr qualitativ wie quantitativ gewaltiges Repertoire noh weiter bereichert.

Die Dinge, die mich ein wenig stören, tun dies auch nicht einmal in einzelnen Songs, sondern nur durch ihre Häufung. So ist die zunehmende Angewohnheit, einzelne Zeilen durch vielfache Wiederholung besonders zu betonen, im einzelnen Stück stets angemessen. In der Masse nervt es aber schon ein bisschen.
Ähnlich verhält es sich mit dem bereits im Opener vorgegebenen düsteren Midtempo, welches zwar zu fantastischen Songs führt, die allerdings im Vergleich zu den leichteren, spielerischeren, hoffnungsvolleren Tracks ein etwas unausgeglichenes Übergewicht haben. Ist dies jedoch wirklich eine Kritik? Die Zeiten sind schließlich finster.

Letztendlich gilt aber die alte Regel: Egal welche Kritikpunkte man an einem Tori Amos-Album findet, sie bleiben stets relativ. Denn schlecht kann sie nach wie vor einfach nicht. Ganz im Gegenteil: "In Times Of Dragons" beweist eindrucksvoll, dass sie noch viel zu sagen hat und die Klaviatur ihres Bösendorfer noch längst nicht ausgespielt ist.

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