recent and upcoming releases from BONGRIPPER, DEATH. VOID. TERROR., MUTO, RAHATY and THE SPACELORDS

Oh dear, why is it that I'm on vacation yet feel so stressed? ;)

Well, before I'm going to the next club show, cave festival and a short island vacation - and return with a shitload of stuff to write about -, let's quickly use the tiny window right now to listen to some of the newest (so far) digital-only entries into my music collection! Those are one Bandcamp-exclusive live album and the gratefully granted promos of five recent or upcoming albums and EPs:

BONGRIPPER - Live in Leipzig (2026)

Eleven fucking years! That's how long it has been since I've seen the earth-shattering riff worship steamroller  Bongripper live the last time. It's really overdue to do that again. There's nothing quite like these four dudes from Chicago crushing you with their mammoth instrumental compositions of riffs, riffs, riffs, Doom, Sludge and Drone. My first encounter with them at (my also first) Roadburn 2012 still ranks among the most formative experiences for my musical taste there.

This new digital live album recorded in Leipzig last year does a great job of reminding me why. Three hits from "Satan Worshipping Doom", "Empty" and "Hippie Killer" in one hour and not one wasted minute. This band is just colossal!

RAHATY - Bestial Lustmord (2026)

A band of comparable intensity, yet spewing it into a completely different direction is Rahaty from Belarus. Their debut album is an unholy hellspawn of nine short, but all the more infernal Death Metal outbursts.

"Bestial Lustmord" summons the Old School ferocity of Possessed and dials it up to a point which makes it inevitable that this very short, but all the more monstruous poisonous abomination just has to be a Sentient Ruin Laboratories release. With its somehow cavernous and chaotic, yet also crushingly brutal production it's a prime example for how authentic primitive Death Metal can still be the most deliciously tormenting fun to be had in Extreme Metal.

Smash my brain with this and feed it to the ghouls!

DEATH. VOID. TERROR - To the Great Monilith 2.5 (2026)

There's nothing like being thrown right into the middle of an ongoing series, right? Exactly at part two point five that is in the case of Swiss Black band Death. Void. Terror.'s latest EP. But let's be honest: Even if I new the predecessing record, I'd probably not really dig deep into the concept, right? It's occult, liturgic, mystic stuff of some sorts. Spare me the details, just let me enjoy the atmosphere of the music!

And that music is (of course) dark, tribalistic, hallucinatory. It's also very Swiss, like a mixture of Bölzer's rawness, Samael's sinister majesty and E-L-R's mystical etherealness, but with incantatory Attila Csihar-like vocal eccentricities instead of their more beautiful dreamlike voices.

Only the first two tracks of "To the Great Monolith 2.5" can actually count as Black Metal songs, though. The over fifteen minutes long third and final track "Third Monolithic Manifest" is more like their version of Coven's "Satanic Mass" on  "Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls". A droning urfaustian ritual with hardly intelligible spoken words.

While there is definitely something to the lovecraftian evil vibe it exudes, it makes the whole release feel a little unbalanced. How about a little more actual song material? Well, I guess that's why this is only an EP, heralding the next full album coming in a couple of weeks...

DEATH. VOID. TERROR. - To the Great Monolith III: Rifts (release date: Sep. 25th 2026)

So here it is and we'll just continue!

One other band, which isn't Swiss but - geographically close enough - Austrian, which deserves to be mentioned in the context of Death. Void. Terror. might be the Folk Black Metallers Perchta. Because even more than on the EP the album "To the Great Monolith III: Rifts" carries an overwhelming sense of fantastic Folklore. Right from the opener "Gözdyrey" this music makes you feel as if you where hiding at the edge of a secret mountain valley, observing the strange primal rituals of an obscure Alpine cult.

Mostly dominated by a gravely crawling midtempo, layered with noises, chants and whistles, screams and fanfares, yet also featuring blastbeats and tribal rhythms, this album takes you through a strange haze of ancient tales and faint memories, obscured by mirky mountain mist.

Like a spititually charged harbinger of elemental forces the Experimental Blackened music of Death. Void. Terror. washes over you like a baptism from another exitsential plane. Diffuse but powerful.

MUTO - Muto (release date: Oct. 9th 2026)

We're leaving the Alps southbound now to explore Italy, where we meet composer and guitar player Davide Martiello, who welcomes us on his self-titled debut as Muto, which immediately takes us on a journey beyond our small human comprehension.

Muto's instrumental guitar music isn't necessarily huge in scale, but it speaks in both an untouchable primordial timelessness and a precious vulnerable fragility. The promo says that this album is for fans of Post Rock, Ambient and Jazz, yet one might also add Contemporary Classical music and a pinch of Prog Rock (can't help a certain King Crimson tune sneaking into my ear while listening to "Fermo").

But aside from all these categorization "Muto" is just a touching and elevating contemplation on the beauty of  the being and passing of all things for anyone who has a soul.

THE SPACELORDS - Uranus Omnibus Sanctus (release date: Sept. 18th 2026)

Two simple questions:
1. Do you want to rock?
2. Do you want to trip through space?

If you can answer both of them with a confident yes, you don't even need to read further, because the experienced German Space Rock trio The Spacelords - aided by Didi Holzner on organ - provides in spades!

The four excellently produced instrumental tracks on "Uranus Omnibus Sanctus" simply are everything you can wish for in a band which combines powerful Stoner Rock with Psychedelic harmonies and guitar melodies. This album doesn't intent to reinvent the wheel, but it runs a damn podium-worthy cosmic desert race.
Tonzonen Records definitely is the right label for this stuff, because if there's one thing you can do to this, it is to zone out.

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.

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!

More of that WV Sorcery with ARROKOTH, DOPE PURPLE & KAWABATA MAKOTO and SCATTERED PURGATORY

Yes, once again I give you a bunch of recent releases by the commendably unique French/Chinese one man label WV Sorcerer Productions! We're starting with a record I could have grabbed directly from the band's merch table after their fantastic show in Husum - but alas, I had to wait a little longer, since I had already preordered it. (I did however get another album exclusively available at their shows.)

DOPE PURPLE - Live Evil (Coral Pink vinyl LP) (2026)

Yes, this is as wild as the two names on the cover - and the downright audacious album title famously used by Miles Davis and Black Sabbath before - promise: During this hometown show in June 2025 the Taiwanese Psychedelic Rock maniacs Dope Purple were aided my none other than their obvious paragon, Japanese Psych Noise legend Kawabata Makoto from Acid Mothers Temple!

Armed with drums, bass, synths and (including Makoto) three guitars the band wastes no time and immediately shows us what that means. We've heard "New Psyche & Beyond The Body" before, but this version is the noisiest, most rabid version yet. There are no brass or other wind instruments involved in the three longtracks of "Live Evil", but with all those chaotic trippy cascades of Boris-level six string Noise and relentless Kraut overfeed(back)ing your floored ears won't miss it, because how could this insane force of sonic overflow possibly not be enough?

This album surely isn't Dope Purple's most beautiful or delicate work, but fuck yeah, it will cleanse the space between your ears for good! Is that's too much for you I won't even judge - personally I'm having a blast with it. So far these freaks seem incapable of dissappointing me. And with coloured vinyl and OBI strip the presentation by WV Sorcerer is great as usual as well. Bottom line: banger!

ARROKOTH - Avàvâgo Zamran! (CD) (2026)

Arrokoth is a celestial object in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. It's also a project initiated by Neptunian Maximalism mastermind Guillaume Cazalet, featuring John McKusick, Dimitar Dimitrov and guest Zakiyya Mahmudova. Uniting traditions from Central and Southeast Asia, India and Northern Africa it clearly resides within his signature realm of trans-cultural, trans-historic shamanistic world music, his other projects have built before.

Passages of these long ritualistic tracks would easily fit into the context of any Neptunian Maximalism or Zaäar release. This album however presents the most shapelessly flowing, primordial Ambient form of Cazalet's vision. The four average nineteen minutes long tracks use a familiar array of sounds, created by gongs, bowls, other percussion instruments, electronics, incantatory vocals and throat singing. The latter has such an important role that "Avàvâgo Zamran!" feels like a wanderlustly cousin of Phurpa.

The packaging of this simple digipak CD may not be the most spectacular we've seen either from the artist or label, but the music contained here is a highly immersive and transcendent experience. A meditation like spiritually hovering inside the eternal pulse of Earth's core. The sound of forever.

破地獄 SCATTERED PURGATORY - 破地獄 Post Purgatory (CD) (2026)

Last but not least here's another CD in the label's signature 7" + OBI strip packaging, by a band I would probably have an easier time talking about, had I seen them at Roadburn Festival this year, where they unfortunately clashed with several other artists including Acid Mothers Temple (what a small world!), who I ultimately ended up seeing.

The Taiwanese duo (extended to a full band by guest musicians on drums, saxophone and vocals) comfortably fits into the WV Sorcerer roster with a musical language beyond genre restrictions, which brings together many approaches familiar to connoisseurs of the label and beyond, bridging worlds between the cosmic flow of artists like Senyawa or those reviewed above to the Urban heartbeat in the music of Mong Tong or the collaboration of Jaydawn and Wukir Suryadi. Is it based on Trip Hop or Kraut Rock? Does it contain more Doom Metal or Asian Pop influences? Is this Industrial-infused Electronic Music or Psychedelic Rock ornated with Spiritual Jazz and Drone?

You presage the answer: Scattered Purgatory's "Post Purgatory" is everything, often at once, but none of those exactly. Speaking and singing in Taiwanese, Chinese and English, yet playing in musical languages from many more cultures and times, the artists take us onto an anachronistic journey through their strong, uncompromising vison. With a surpisingly clean, but not sterile production this album is easily accessible despite its Experimnetal nature. An exciting, seriously fascinating joy to listen to. 

BIG|BRAVE - In Grief Or In Hope

It's a curious thing that it took me a very long time to get (to this day not fully) warmed up to the sound of Big|Brave's last regular work "A Chaos Of Flowers", even though the shows at A Colossal Weekend and on the MS Stubnitz in 2024, which featured the album's material, both were among my favorite concerts of that year.

Too much weird compression and vocal effects? Just something about the guitar sound? In hindsight it sounds like a turning point in the band's direction, because what challenged me back than is even more present on the latest release of the Canadian trio. This time however I was loving it immediately.  

BIG|BRAVE - In Grief Or In Hope (clear pink vinyl LP) (2026)

The opener "What May Be The Kindest Way To Leave" only needs seconds to establish that both the guitars and Robin Wattie's vocals on "In Grief And In Hope" are heavily processed and noisily distorted to a point beyond the just excessively ridiculous, where it somehow is a powerful artistic tool  again, expressing distanced alienation and close emotional confrontation at the same time.

Maybe the production achieves what was intended already two years ago, but in order to function as brilliantly as it does now, a change of Big|Brave's musical direction had to occur, that hadn't been carried out yet.

So wait? It isn't austerely arranged Drone and Noise any more? Oh yes it, but there has been a crucial change in the band's lineup!

My Disco bass player and long time fourth touring member of Big|Brave Liam Andrews is an official part of the group on the album now, but apart from guest distributions by engineer/producer Seth Manchester on synth and Luc van Weelden on spring reverb box, this is still a trio recording, because there are no drums anymore.

And while it's still hard to imagine Big|Brave performing without Tasy Hudson in the back of the stage, I must admit that the band reaches a new level of both expressive tension and meditative immersion here, which further emphasizes the uniquity of their emotionally driven minimalist Drone Rock. And tracks like "An Uttering Of Antipathy" or "The Ineptitude For Mutual Discernement" can easily rival the highlights of their quickly crawling and growing discography.

What makes these pieces work as songs is of course not only the sheer accumulation of Industrial-spirited harsh guitar and electronic Noise, but the juxtaposition to the greatest melodic Pop appeal in the vocal performance the band has ever had.

"In Grief Or In Hope" truly unites the ugliest and most beautiful sides of Big|Brave in a daring and surprisingly successful simultaneity. It's a remarkable experience even for these artists' standards.

Once again released by Thrill Jockey, the record comes as a nice clear pink vinyl pressing (CDs and another sold out variant also exist) with lyrics on the inner sleeve and the probably stupid question What's that cover photo about? Is it a black trash can? The actually Black Lodge? Seriously, I need help here. 

THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE / THE MOUNT FUJI DOOMJAZZ CORPORATION - Live In Berlin

I guess it's a law of inevitability that whenever you're really adamant on saving money and not visiting this show or not needing that limited edition vinyl, some luxury good you just cannot say no to comes along. Like this big beautiful four-LP box documenting the whole comeback double performance of The Kilimajaro Darkjazz Ensemble aka The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation on August 29th 2025 in the Lido, Berlin. 

Since I had centered a whole musical weekend trip around this event and witnessed the quintet from the front row, this box set basically was pure catnip for me. 

THE KILIMANJARO DARKJAZZ ENSEMBLE /

THE MOUNT FUJI DOOMJAZZ CORPORATION - Live In Berlin

(4LP vinyl box) (2026)

In my live review I had seperated the two shows before and after a brief intermission, labeling one as a Kilimajaro and the other as a Mount Fuji performance, even though I wasn't sure about this attribution at all. And now with the whole tracklist at hand I can confirm that technically the whole night exlusively belonged to The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble, since both sets were based on the main project's already existing material, especially from the albums "Here Be Dragons" (2009) and "From The Stairwell" (2011).

However there is an eery, nocturnal edge in the way the current line-up interprets the material, which feels more like the strictly improvisational music of The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. So besides the obvious messaging that both incarnations of the group are back and available for future endeavours, it is also artistically warranted that this release wears both names on its cover without distinction.

I will admit that I am surely biased when I crown these more than two hours of Dark/Doomjazz immersion as the new holy grail of the group's work, but this excellently recorded mammoth release just gives you almost everything you could wish for inside the sonic cosmos Gideon Kiers (electronics, effects) and Jason Köhnen (bass, theremin) have established. A smooth blend of Ambient, slow motion Jazz, Dub, Doom, Drone, Post Rock, Classical and Folk music that feels like a wonderful soundtrack to countless escapist cinematic experiences spawning in your head.

Especially the far away mystically processed vocalizations of Charlotte Cegarra underline the dreamlike quality, while the versatile trombone and trumpet of Hilary Jeffery does so much more than I expected before experiencing this show. And adding a secong brass player for the encore with "The MacGuffin" and the closing "Reprise" is of course a worthy elevation of the finale.

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble / The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation

Speaking of worthy: Everything comes in a solid slipcase with each of four records in its own sleeve. It looks great and the vinyl quality matches the looks.

The only thing which easily could have been done better is the A3 poster of a polaroid picture of the band taken in the Lido lobby. Instead of having to fold it this would have been way cooler presented as a vinyl-format square matte print. Other than that this box is pretty much perfect.

As an additional perk when ordering online (the few remaining copies are only available at recent and coming live shows!) you got a private YouTube link to the professional video recording of the whole show. Nice!

No doubt: As of now "Live In Berlin" immediately jumps right to the top of my (obviously work in progress) album of the year list. This is special.