The PR wire owns your soul with this news about new Darkthrone. They rule and have an influence on underground rock farther reaching than any genre tag you want to saddle on them, so yes, the album will be covered here. If that makes me a hipster poseur loser whatever, I’ll gladly refer you to the banner at the top of the page and hope that clears up the argument.

Here’s the info:

The unrelenting Norwegian duo, Darkthrone, will welcome a new decade with a new album, to be released on Peaceville Records. Circle the Wagons, a creative feast of metal and punk, will initially be released on vinyl on March 8th, through the Peaceville Records webstore, as an exclusive taster for the legions of metal supporters out there who still care about great music delivered the classic way. The vinyl will also include a link to download a digital version of the album, which will be available when the regular and special edition CD versions of the album are released on April 6th.

Circle the Wagons was self-recorded at Necrohell II Studios. Artwork for the album comes once again courtesy of Dennis Dread, notable for his talents on previous Darkthrone albums, F.O.A.D. and 2008’s Dark Thrones and Black Flags.

Drummer/lyricist, Fenriz explains the meaning behind the title…

“The new metal decade starts with our album. It is a message to the invaders of our metal domain to circle their wagons!  With our own brand of heavy metal/speed metal-punk we are a constant ambush on the modern overground metal traitors. Join us in our fight against instant gratification, and let’s see who stands when the smoke clears.”

Track listing:
01. Those Treasures Will Never Befall You
02. Running for Borders
03. I am the Graves of the 80s
04. Stylized Corpse
05. Circle the Wagons
06. Black Mountain Totem
07. I am the Working Class
08. Eyes Burst at Dawn
09. Bränn Inte Slottet

…Just because I have. Yet again I’ve fucking failed to grab the code to stream a song from Spin and put it on this site. This time it’s the title track to the new High on Fire record, Snakes for the Divine. Pleh. Download it here, along with some nifty Jay Reatard and MC Frontalot, whoever the hell they are.

The upcoming release from Los Angeles psychedelic trio Dead Meadow, titled Three Kings, is nearly as difficult to conceptualize as it must have been to execute. Teaming up with the film company Artificial Army, the band (Steve Kille, bass; Jason Simon, guitar/vocals; Stephen McCarty, drums) captured a live show at a warehouse space called Little Radio in their adopted hometown and proceeded to intercut it with narrative film clips portraying the titular three characters — as played by the band — being morally beset on all sides on a journey they know not where, coming together finally for who knows what. Just to make matters more difficult, the audio companion to the DVD intersperses the already-mentioned live recordings with brand new studio tracks — and, get this — it all sounds pretty much the same.

Now that you’re as out of breath as I am trying to wrap your mind around the ambition of the Three Kings project, to be released via Xemu Records, I’ll take a second to remind you that everything is bound to work out just fine, since after all, this is Dead Meadow we’re dealing with, and for a decade now we’ve been able to rely on them for lysergic experiences few bands can match. If anyone is about to pull off the above and come out of it with mustaches in tact, well, it’s probably going to be Dead Meadow.

Steve Kille recently took some time out for a phone interview to discuss the band’s latest meisterwerk and how exactly it all came together. Fortunately, for anyone who might want to read it, Kille proves infinitely more adept at explaining the undertaking than I.

Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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When it comes to the kind of emotive, traditional doom in which Indianapolis, Indiana, four-piece Apostle of Solitude traffic, an album like their 2008 full-length debut, Sincerest Misery, is a hard one to top. The record was a triumph of precisely what the title suggested, and each song carried a drama with it that was neither over-the-top nor silly, but felt remarkably human and real to the listener. The guitar and vocal work of Chuck Brown (ex-The Gates of Slumber) was essential to this process; his voice in particular heralding the doom of yore with an urgency not often heard in their genre.

So if Apostle of Solitude had anything post-Sincerest Misery, it was their work cut out for them. It is, therefore, all the more satisfying to say that Last Sunrise, the band’s label debut for Profound Lore, more than lives up to its predecessor on every level. From the massive, slow bleed that closes “December Drives Me to Tears” or the visceral emptiness that makes up the whole of “Letting Go of the Wheel” — a rare song that feels too short at nine minutes — Apostle of Solitude the nigh-impossible balance between progress and staying true to what’s already been established as their sound. Five of the nine non-bonus cuts on Last Sunrise are over the seven-minute mark, the closing trio of “Sister Cruel,” “Frontiers of Pain” (huge) and “Coldest Love” (ditto) hitting in succession following the aforementioned “December Drives Me to Tears.”

But it’s somehow cheap to talk about song lengths when even the shorter material, songs like “Hunter Sick Rapture” (a paltry 4:45), pack so much weight as well. Based around a traditionally NWOBHM galloping riff, the song is no less forlorn than its more spread out musical compatriots. If anything, the band sounds all the more desperate for the extra energy. The opening title track, “Last Sunrise (Requiem)” is little more than an intro, albeit one whose slow unfolding is even more of a setup for the album to come than the song itself. Perhaps Apostle of Solitude wanted to start Last Sunrise with the more straightforward, rocking material up front, because both “Acknowledging the Demon” and “Other Voices” are under four minutes. Brown and guitarist Justin Avery lead the charge, making “Acknowledging the Demon” an immediately memorable affair, but the rhythm section of drummer Corey Webb and Brent McClellan do an excellent job of grounding the songs, whether the atmosphere’s oppression is coming from the outward heaviness of a given track or its naked minimalism.

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UK rockers Grifter, who practice what they preach on their new EP, The Simplicity of the Riff is Key, are getting set to head out with Sun Gods in Exile on a short tour. In addition, the aforementioned EP is also at the presses, and there’s going to be a limited Grifter/Sun Gods in Exile split for the shows. Here’s an update from the band with more details:

The new EP on Catacomb Records entitled The Simplicity of the Riff is Key is going to pressing, the artwork is all complete and there is a tentative release date of the first week in April. Obviously we’ll be letting the world know as soon as it’s available so you can rush to buy copies!!!!

To coincide with the EP’s release we’ll be going on tour in the first week in April with Sun Gods in Exile from Boston [actually Maine – ed.] on their first visit to the UK. Their debut album on Small Stone Records, Bright Light White Lines has been getting awesome reviews pretty much everywhere so this tour is certain to kick some ass!!! There are plans to put out a split EP with Sun Gods featuring a couple of unreleased tunes by each band. This will be strictly limited edition and low key for the tour.

Catch both bands at:
Truro – Bar 200 (Live Bar) Monday April 5th
TBC Tuesday April 6th (hopefully Bristol)
Birmingham – The Old Wharf Digbeth Wednesday April 7th – support from Alunah
Sheffield – The Cremorne Thursday April 8th – support from Alunah
Leicester – Retribution Friday April 9th – support from Alunah
London – Loud Howls Festival at The Gaff, Holloway Road alongside End of Level Boss, The Freezing Fog, Suns of Thunder, Domes of Silence, Alunah, Stubb, Bodukwe and Obiat – DJ set from Orange Goblin

Plans are also afoot for our first trip to Europe as we’re looking at a couple of gigs in northern France…more news as we have it.

…I know that’s pretty much the lamest Sabbath song ever, but at least it’s appropriate. Observant attendees will note a couple changes around here from over the weekend, which were alluded to in the anniversary update. Here’s a quick rundown:

First: The ads. Yeah, they’re over there. They exist. I tried to make them as minimally invasive as possible, and I hope it worked. A big thank you to Patrick Slevin of The Aquarian Weekly for helping me do what I know there’s no way I would have been able to accomplish on my own in putting that all together.

Second: The line-spacing in between lines of text was widened just a bit. Hopefully this makes The Obelisk look a little less compressed and more readable. If that’s not the case, please let me know. More likely, I’m the only person who’s ever thought about it one way or the other.

Third: The category headings in the sidebar are bigger, and there’s a “What People Dig” heading. That just shows the most popular posts people have been viewing. The bigger headings hopefully make it easier to navigate around here. Thanks again to Slevin for that.

Fourth: The contact page has a new email form which should make it more efficient for anyone who wants to get in touch. The future is now. Actually, the future is like five years ago, but it takes me a while to catch up. Why not drop me an email and tell me how behind the times I am?

Of course, you can always leave a comment to that effect too. I read those pretty regularly.

Thanks for your patience and for reading. Here’s a live Monster Magnet video of them doing “Zodiac Lung” and “Negasonic Teenage Warhead” from 1995, just because:

If you’d prefer to think of them as 13eaver, that’s fine too, it’s all the same band. They formed in the late ’80s in Amsterdam, put out a couple records on various labels — among them Man’s Ruin — and following the collapse of that imprint, weren’t heard from again. Their website is still up for anyone who wants more info or to buy merch.

It was a hell of a week around The Obelisk, what with celebrating the first year, the Dave Chandler interview and whatnot. I don’t know what your plans are, but I just got a package in from the All That is Heavy webstore on StonerRock.com and lent my car to The Patient Mrs. for the evening, so I’m about to spend a relaxing Friday night waiting for the snow that’s supposedly coming to start, drinking a couple beers, listening to good music and, who knows, maybe even reading a book. If that sounds boring to you, I humbly beg you to reevaluate your ideas about excitement.

Enjoy your weekend. Next week is going to rule, so stay tuned.

The PR wire has the goods on a new Deadbird split 7″ with Burned Up Bled Dry, and since Deadbird rule, the info is dutifully presented here. The vinyl is due out Feb. 24 on At a Loss:

Sludge heathens Deadbird — whose last full-length Twilight Ritual was also released in 2008 by At a Loss — contribute one brutal track filled with the patented tempo changes and somber, regret-filled lyrics one would expect. Rabid screams and tempos mesh with oppressive doom and hardcore-esque sing along anthems together in a way few bands make work.

Burned Up Bled Dry’s side of the split offers up four tracks of fast, crusty powerviolence and punk/hardcore rage. This is the first material to be released from the brutal late-‘90s act who brought BUBD back to life in 2005 after a six year hiatus. Bulging with views of hate and hopelessness for today’s society, these tracks shall serve as your anthem for anger.

A full-color cover wraps all the way around the seven inch to unfold for an extended apocalyptic landscape, with a layout by Amjad Faur (Storm the Castle). All copies of the 7” will be pressed on various shades and colors of high-quality, opaque vinyl.

Tracklisting:

Deadbird
1. “Sickness and Conviction”

Burned Up Bled Dry
1. “Punches Thrown”
2. “My Way to Hate”
3. “The New Reality of Distance”
4. “Something’s Missing”

The reason this is a Buried Treasure and not a review or something — aside from album’s having been already reviewed — is that I just finally got around to buying a physical copy last night at Vintage Vinyl. I was there for the Crippled Black Phoenix, The Resurrectionists/Night Raider box and figured since opening track “As Horizons End” has been in my head for a couple days, I’d grab the 2009 Paradise Lost release as well. Maybe there was some subliminal connection because both bands are British. In any case, I had some store credit to burn.

Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us is not an album I’ve consistently gone back to, but for some reason, I recently clicked open the folder of promo mp3s from which the review was written and gave it another shot. It’s still formulaic, but as I stood with the copy of it in my hands and debated taking it to the register, I realized formulaic was exactly what I wanted. There’s no question there’s some filler toward the record’s back half — I know that now even more than the first time around — but that’s what I wanted. A metal album. Something I could put on and not think about. A couple catchy choruses, some decent guitar work, and done. Mind-boggling complexity is wonderful, but sometimes you just want to relax.

I felt way back in August and still feel “As Horizons End” is the strongest cut on the record. It’s the one that led me back to Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and a good portion of motivation for any subsequent listens will be to hear that one song. But what follows it, at least for the next four songs until you get past the title track, isn’t half bad either. I doubt the purchase will instill in me a wholesale new affection for the album, but hey, at least I know it’s on the shelf should I decide to pay it another visit half a year from now.

A heartfelt “Fucking a” goes out to NYC’s best pure rock band, The Brought Low, who landed the gig of gigs opening for much-lauded supergroup Them Crooked Vultures Monday night, Feb. 8, at Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan! Quite a score, gentlemen. If you’ve ever seen The Brought Low live, you already know they’re more than equal to the task, since, to put it succinctly, they kill.

In also-ruling news, The Brought Low also recently finished their new album, Third Record, for upcoming release via Small Stone. They’ve just put up a new track, “The Kelly Rose,” on their MySpace. This year is looking better and better.

Here’s the deal in the band’s own words:

Just confirmed we are opening for Them Crooked Vultures this Monday night, February 8th @ The Roseland Ballroom in NYC! Super duper psyched!

Also, just posted a song from the new album Third Record called “The Kelly Rose” on our MySpace page so check it out! Should be up on iTunes in a few weeks and available as an actual CD later this spring.

I also just set up a Twitter account for the band so if you’re into that sort of thing check it out: http://twitter.com/TheBroughtLow.

Also looking very likely we will be playing some shows in the Midwest on our way down to the Small Stone Records South by Southwest Showcase in March. Stay tuned for tour dates.

It seems at first an unassuming full-length that Philadelphia contemplative rockers Dangerbird have come up with for Homestead (SRA Records), and on some levels it is. The music isn’t especially overbearing or heavy (at least for the most part), they don’t hammer home riff-based groove after groove, and the overall earthy feel of the music lends itself more to emotional warmth than to any kind of technical chill. There are sweet submelodies in the guitars and vocals, and though the back half of the record shifts tone significantly from the front, some semblance of flow is maintained.

The four-piece, which as of this recording was comprised of BJ Howze (guitar/vocals), Mouse Dascher (guitar/vocals), Joe Bats (bass, since replaced by Nick Conway) and Colin Smith (drums/vocals) first adapt ‘90s style indie rock into a droning or stoner feel, then take a turn toward Neil Young-esque organic guitar pieces beginning with “Snowed In,” track four of the total seven. “Frank,” “Alien+Cop” and the title track which precede it are heavier sound-wise. Even “Homestead,” which begins to display the directional adjustment the record is soon to take, keeps a heavy load of feedback and thick riffing. Nonetheless, it’s clear throughout Homestead that Dangerbird are children of the ‘90s alternative movement, and by that I don’t just mean grunge. There’s some of that teenage melodrama working its way into “Hiram,” but there’s nothing quite so postured about the band as to warrant any Seattle comparisons — except maybe their methodology for incorporating the aforementioned Neil Young influence, for which acts like Pearl Jam were well known in their beginnings.

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My first question for Cortez guitarist Scotty Fuse when I saw the below press release was, “Does the album have a title yet?” Nope, it doesn’t. But we do get some song titles, and anything involving stoner rock and monoliths is okay by me. Here’s the update from the band:

Massachusetts stoner/doom metallers Cortez have entered New Alliance Audio (Scissorfight, Cave In, Keelhaul, Trap Them, The Red Chord) in Cambridge, Massachusetts to begin recording material for its second album with engineer Ethan Dussault. Song titles set to appear on the CD include “Monolith,” “Northlander,” and “Beyond the Mountain.” This will be the first recording to feature vocalist Matt Harrington.

Cortez’s latest album, Thunder in a Forgotten Town, was released in 2006 via Buzzville Records.

Below is a live video from September 2009 of Cortez performing “Monolith” at the Stoner Hands of Doom Festival in Frederick, Maryland.

Of course, we all know that Kyuss vocalist John Garcia (also of Hermano, Slo Burn, Unida, and so on) is doing a set at Roadburn 2010 of his legendary band’s classic songs. And short of a full Kyuss reunion, that’s about as nifty as it’s gonna get. Thing is, when they announced that Garcia would be doing this, the rest of the band was never revealed.

Blah, blah, blah, speculation later, it turns out that joining Garcia for what has now been dubbed Garcia Plays Kyuss (GPK) are a few European rock types seemingly plucked from obscurity. I’m willing to wager the number of people who immediately recognize the name Jacques de Haard is relatively low, but he and drummer Rob Snijders were once in Dutch rockers Celestial Season, and are currently the rhythm section of Agua de Annique. See, don’t you feel a little better?

Guitarist Bruno Fevery, on the other hand (why do these all sound like porno names?) comes from the Belgian band Arsenal, who as near as I can tell are a kind of synth pop/electronica act. A bit more mysterious, but needless to say the pressure’s on all these dudes, Garcia included. Even more so, because now they’re taking Garcia Plays Kyuss on the road. Here are the tour dates:

28.05.10  DUBLIN   Andrews Theatre
29.05.10  GENT    Vooruit
30.05.10  AMSTERDAM Melkweg
01.06.10  KÖLN    Underground
02.06.10  LUZERN  Schuur
03.06.10  ARAU    Kiff
04.06.10  BOLOGNA   Estragon
05.06.10  MÜNCHEN   Feierwerk
06.06-10  WIEN    Arena
08.06.10  BERLIN   Festsaal Kreuzberg
09.06.10  KOBENHAVN   Loppen
10.06.10  HAMBURG   Übel & Gefährlich
11.06.10  FRANKFURT Batchkapp

I usually don’t go in for comps, if only because there’s generally no flow to them whatsoever, but there are enough bands I’ve never heard of on the French two-disc offering (Ocoai, Monachus, Kalkh-In(Joy) Erode, etc.) Falling Down II, mixed with enough of the familiar (Ufomammut, Kongh, Farflung, etc.) that I’m interested to hear how it comes out. The best part might be that it’s made up almost entirely of previously unreleased material.

Actually, scratch that. The best part is that the track by German neo-prog metallers The Ocean is called “Asslickers Incorporated.” Yup, that’s definitely the best part.

The compilation is due out in March, and preorders are being taken at the MySpace page (you can also order the first, 3CD Falling Down there). Here’s the full tracklist for Falling Down II:

CD 1
01. Across Tundras, “Final Breath over Venom Falls” (Unpublished Version)
02. Monachus, “Februari” (Unpublished)
03. White Hills, “Heads on Fire” (Unpublished)
04. Ocoai, “La Main Electrique” (Unpublished)
05. Farflung, “R-Complex” (Unpublished)
06. Impure Wilhelmina, “Cold Fever” (Unpublished)
07. Time to Burn, “Elena Djinn” (Unpublished)
08. Gnaw Their Tongues, “We Breathe Hate and Spit Fire from Our Mouths” (Unpublished)
09. The Poisoned Glass “Silent Vigil” (Unpublished)
10. Kalvria, “.N” (Unpublished)
11. U.S.Christmas, “Lazarus” (Live)
12. Kingdom, “Ruina: Where Men Go To Die” (Unpublished)
13. Kalkh-In(Joy) Erode, “Xwck” (Unpublished)

CD 2
01. Kongh, “Thunders Collide” (Unpublished, 2006)
02. Tesa, “Untitled” (Unpublished)
03. Omega Massif, “Am Abgrund” (Unpublished)
04. Kodiak, “By the Sea” (Unpublished)
05. When Icarus Falls, “Nyx” (Unpublished)
06. The Ocean, “Asslickers Incorporated” (Unpublished)
07. The Dillinger Escape Plan, “Farewell, Mona Lisa”
08. Jucifer, “Marianas” (Unpublished)
09. Ufomammut, “Astrodronaut” (Unpublished Version)
10. God is an Astronaut, “Shining Through”
11. Солярис, “Mirage” (Unpublished)
12. Taint, “Black Rain” (Live)
13. Mumakil, “Dawn of Slugs” (Unpublished)

And here’s the Latvian post-metal band Tesa, to whom I’d never listened before posting this:

Whenever I hear a record like the The Shadow over Atlantis, the jaw-dropping sophomore outing from UK doomers The Wounded Kings (and contrary to whatever hyperbole is yet to come, reason knows there are other albums that have provoked this reaction), I feel oppressed by it, like I’m drowning in it — and yes, that is a very good thing. The duo’s I Hate Records label debut crosses traditional lines with newer atmospheres, and maintains a punishingly, torturously slow approach that simply is the essence of doom. As the cover art harkens to the vinyl days of yore while keeping a mystical, occult vibe, so too does the music fall into line across the six tracks of the album.

The Shadow over Atlantis is bookended by two 10-plus-minute tracks; “The Swirling Mist” and “Invocation of the Ancients.” Between them are four interestingly timed pieces, “Baptism of Atlantis” (8:11), “Into the Ocean’s Abyss” (2:02), “The Sons of Belial” (8:01) and “Deathless Echo” (2:50). The shorter tracks are essentially mood pieces and interludes, “Deathless Echo” setting up the closer especially well with multi-layered organ synth work from multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Steve Mills. The structure of the album isn’t necessarily based solely on the timing of these songs — that is, it doesn’t depend on them for flow or its overarching melancholic groove — but the numbers are interesting nonetheless, and add somehow to the mystery of the listening experience.

This is occult doom, through and through. It comes out in both the music’s slow ritualism and in the lyrics, which are delivered with a sort of far-off vibrato like Pete Stahl of Goatsnake in an echo chamber with Messiah Marcolin. There is a traceable narrative of mythological destruction (that of Atlantis comes to mind), but The Shadow over Atlantis isn’t a concept record in the Ayreon sense. Each track offers a complete and satisfying listen — interludes notwithstanding; though I might argue for either piece out of context delivering something on its own as well — and it’s just when they all come together that The Wounded Kings’ doomly immersion is complete.

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