Some bands you just know are going to be unrelenting, and that’s certainly the case with long-running New Jersey mega-doomers Evoken. Their last outing saw them reissue their first demo in the form of Shades of Night Descending on Displeased Records, and now they follow that with four new tracks on a split with Swedish outfit Beneath the Frozen Soil on the I Hate imprint that also released their excellent 2007 full-length, A Caress of the Void. Beneath the Frozen Soil were also last heard from in terms of new material in ’07, when they released a split with Long Island, NY, sludgers Negative Reaction. Maybe they just have something for the East Coast, but either way, the pairing with Evoken makes more sense sonically, as Beneath the Frozen Soil are closer to them in sound and overall feel. What that means as regards listening is that the split is consistent in terms of flow, and if you’ve ever heard anything from either of these two bands, you already know the extremely oppressive nature of their output.

Evoken are positively volatile. Their six-piece lineup (which, near as I can tell, sometimes includes founding guitarist Nick Orlando and sometimes doesn’t) is brutally heavy and agonizingly slow, topped with the unearthly growls of guitarist John Paradiso, who only veers from the guttural to embark on the occasional echoed whisper (see the closing movement of “Omniscient”) or dramatic spoken part (“The Pleistocene Epoch”). If all of their albums weren’t over an hour long, I’d be tempted to call Evoken’s four-track contribution to the Beneath the Frozen Soil split full-length at over 42 minutes; in any case, they’re certainly not lacking in conveyance of aural hopelessness. Drummer/founder Vince Verkay makes the most of his nearly 20 years of experience in the band, easily taking on the task of grounding the 13-minute “The Pleistocene Epoch” – which would confound many – and knowing when to step back and give the guitars room, as on “Vestigial Fears.” Keyboardist Don Zaros provides some respite from the crushing sounds, but between the guitars (Chris Molinari makes three), Verkay’s morose pacing and the added thickness of Dave Wagner’s pace, Evoken are near-lethal in their miserable cohesion. They finish cold (of course) on “Vestigial Fears” and close their portion with “Into the Primal Shrine,” – their only cut under 10 minutes at 7:21 – which is instrumental but for a few non-verbal growls from Paradiso spread across the earlier moments.

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Score one for the miserable bastards out there anytime Sourvein hits the road. The band, who’ve released numerous splits and EPs in their nearly 18 years together but only have two full-lengths under their belt (2000’s Salvation and 2002’s Will to Mangle) have had more lineup changes than anyone can count and have somehow still come out of it with a reputation as a must-see live act. Vocalist/founder T-Roy Medlin — long since the only original member left — is nonetheless leading the charge into a 2011 that will see them release a third LP and tour Europe with a stop at Roadburn‘s Afterburner show on April 17.

Before that, though, they’re doing a run of dates on some of which they’ll be joined by Jucifer. For those who would pick up what the PR wire’s putting down:

North Carolina doom metal heathens, Sourvein, will kick off a short US tour this March. Dubbed the “Disturbing the Peace Tour 2011,” the band will be joined by Jucifer on select dates. Said vocalist/guitarist T-Roy Medlin of the upcoming jaunt: “Can’t wait to hit the road with Jucifer, bring the doom and unleash some new songs’!”

Sourvein Disturbing the Peace Tour 2011:
03/01 Sonar Baltimore, MD
03/02 Volume 11 Raleigh, NC
03/03 Cadelonia Lounge Athens, GA
03/04 Wormhole Savannah, GA
03/05 Checkpoint Charlie’s New Orleans, LA
Jucifer joins tour:
03/06 Rouge Fayetteville, AR
03/07 Hi Tone Memphis, TN
03/08 Exit Inn Nashville, TN
03/09 JJ’s Chattanooga, TN
03/10 Soapbox Lounge Wilmington, NC
03/11 Tremont Charlotte, NC
03/12 Hideaway Johnson City, TN
03/13 Krug’s Place Frederick, MD w/ Iron Man (no Jucifer)

Sourvein are readying to release their third studio full-length, Black Fangs, this June via Candlelight Records [cover art above].

Comprised of two-thirds of the now-defunct stoner outfit Sufferghost, Hamden, Connecticut riffers Curse the Son emerge with the first full-length since their 2007 inception, the self-released Klonopain. It’s an album almost entirely unabashed in its influences, proudly flying the backpatches of Sabbath, Sleep, Trouble and Goatsnake in its seven component tracks, the vocals of guitarist Ron Vanacore fitting right in line with the heavier end of slow stoner/doom rock. Curse the Son, more or less in a wasteland as regards their local scene, maximize their tonal heft in Vanacore’s guitars and the bass of Cheech (no, it’s not that Cheech), as if making up for what other bands might also have on offer, while also keeping a more or less straightforward approach to the style that should be familiar to those experienced in the ways of the heavy underground. In many ways, Curse the Son is a scene band without the scene. All the more respectable then, for them to stand alone and not compromise on what they want to be musically.

And judging by the material on Klonopain – four tracks of which appeared on Curse the Son’s 2009 Globus Hystericus EP in previously-recorded versions – what they want to be musically is slow. To their credit, even when they’re not playing slow, on parts of “Anullus of Zin” or opener “Unbearable Doer of Wrong,” they sound like they are. Vanacore’s guitar tone is essential to this, as he takes a heavily-fedback solo on the opening cut, offsetting some of the Goatsnake-ery in the central riff, but still keeping that molasses-boogie feel. Drummer Rich Lemley does well with the tempo changes the riffs present, but isn’t a flashy player by any stretch or as present in the mix cymbal-wise as he might be on other records in this style. No doubt, Klonopain is led by the guitar and mixed in a way that heavily favors it, but for weedian riff metal, that’s more or less par for the course. Vanacore’s vocals – entirely clean and in the Sabotage-era Ozzy tradition – offer enough change throughout to stave off monotony, patterning themselves on “Y?” in a way that reminds of what Floor did so well and only recently got credit for: blending semi-melodic vocal accessibility with balls-heavy doom guitar, while also leaving room to kick into ultra-Sabbath mode toward the end, launching with a suitable “Right!”

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Call me crazy, but I feel like I’ve used that headline before. Entirely possible, since The Melvins are among the most prolific creative forces known to man, and their constantly-expanding discography requires the utmost attention to be kept up with. One might have thought they’d record some of the shows from their recent residency at Spaceland in Los Angeles for their next live installment, but as the PR wire informs, only fools assume when it comes to The Melvins.

Check it:

The Melvins‘ latest offering, Sugar Daddy Live, a 13-track live recording, will see a May 31 release on Ipecac Recordings. Recorded at The Busta-Guts Club in Downey, California, the album features fan favorites such as “Boris,” “A History of Bad Men” and “The Kicking Machine.”

The band recently completed a month-long residency at Los Angeles‘ Spaceland and are currently in New Zealand with a forthcoming round of Australian dates as part of the Soundwave Festival. The Melvins were in Christchurch when the Feb. 21 earthquake struck but escaped unscathed and are due to resume their tour later this week.

Sugar Daddy Live tracklisting:
1. Nude with Boots
2. Dog Island
3. Dies Iraea
4. Civilized Worm
5. The Kicking Machine
6. Eye Flies
7. Tipping the Lion
8. Rat Faced Granny
9. The Hawk
10. You’ve Never Been Right
11. A History of Bad Men
12. Star Spangled Banner
13. Boris

They’re named after a Mustang engine, they rock like the ’00s never happened and their album cover is a shockingly attractive shade of orange — how could I not want to hit up Deptford, NJ, power trio Boss 302 with Six Dumb Questions about who they are and what they do? Their self-titled album (review here) was chock full of riff rock for the choir and, until I get to see them live, this is as close as I’m going to get to understanding where they come from.

Fortunately, drummer Mike Lerro was accommodating in his answers and forthcoming about the relatively recent inception of the band, their involvement with Kasper Racing, Toil Records and his goals for the band. As they’re a group of dudes clearly writing songs because they love the sound and the style, I’m more than happy to give them the space and hopefully get them introduced to some friendly ears.

Mike Lerro is joined in Boss 302 by his twin brother Larry Lerro on bass/vocals and guitarist/vocalist John Modugno. Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions:

How did Boss 302 get together? Is being in a rhythm section with your own brother a pain in the ass or easier than working with someone else? What inspired you to form the band?

Boss 302 got together about two years ago. Larry had some demos he had and wanted to record them at a friend’s studio (NVRWR Studio). Me and John went in basically as session guys just putting down basic tracks with John adding solos and some backing vocals. The three of us were in a band with another lead singer years ago so it was just natural to pick up where we left off effortlessly. It went so well after so many years of not playing together — the chemistry was obviously there — we’d be foolish to not take it further and do it more as a band as an equal effort approach and see where this could go. We instantly started writing all new material and it just took off. “Falls Apart” is the only thing that has remained from those sessions. Playing with my twin brother does make it easy. It’s so easy and a lot of the time very unspoken what we’re supposed to do — we just fall into the rhythm naturally. As brothers and people we’re all very low drama and easy to get along with so thankfully no Oasis brother-type fights have erupted within the band. It’s been smooth sailing so far.

Talk about the songwriting process. It seems like there are a couple different influences in the tracks on the self-titled. Does one person come up with all the material, or is it more of a shared responsibility?

We have a few ways to go about our writing. A lot of the time Larry demos a lot at home and presents it to us in practice and we all mold it into a proper Boss song. Or John or I write a riff or two and bring it to the table and see what we got from there. And our favorite way and where I feel we do our best work is ”on the spot” stuff. Where John or Larry will play a riff and one of us will say “What was that?!” and it turns into a monster. The newer stuff, not on the album, we’re doing now has taken an interesting turn where we’ve never gone before. Heavier, darker, groovier, maybe a little slower — very cool.

I thought I heard a lot of Helmet in the riffs and vocals on the album. Are they an influence at all?

Helmet is absolutely a huge influence obviously. We hear that a lot. Larry‘s vocal style reminds people of Ozzy (and Page Hamilton too). We definitely do not shy away from our influences. We wear them proudly on our sleeves. But we definitely do not try to sound like anyone ever — never will. The stoner rock genre best fits us if I had to pick one. With Queens, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Sasquatch, etc. as bands we obsess over — so it’s hard not to have some of that stuff spill over into what we’re doing. But Motörhead and Sabbath are big influences also along with so many others. I don’t think there is anyone the three of us admire more than Lemmy. The guy just has so much integrity and refused to bend to trends or sound like anyone. It’s incredible how consistent all of his albums are to this day.

How much playing out are you planning on doing? Do you see yourselves being able to hit the road at all to support the self-titled?

With families it’s hard to do a long tour across country. It’s not out of the question that we would do it. If the right opportunity presented itself we would jump at the chance. We do a lot of shows in our area. Our live shows are what represents us best we feel. We tried to capture a live feel for our CD. We have some big shows coming up too at the Hangar 84 in Vineland, NJ, The Note in West Chester, Dobbs, the M Room and the Millcreek Tavern in Philly (with Clamfight).

How are you guys involved with Kasper Racing? I saw the picture of your logo on the car. Have any of you raced before?

We’ve never raced before. Larry and John both had Mustangs as kids and we all love those cars. The idea of the band’s name came from us comparing our sound to the intensity of an old BOSS 302 Mustang (story here). The Kaspers are friends of ours who all race — the brothers and even one of their sons do too. They’re really great at what they do. And we have a lot in common with them in regards to both of us are doing something that we truly love instead of doing it for money or ego. If something big comes of it — great. But definitely not our goal. It was a natural fit to be involved with them first because of our band’s name but a lot of our songs could be looked at as being “car related.” “Highway” and “Speedfeak” (while it is about Lemmy) we are making a video of it with some of the Kasper‘s racing footage.

The album came out in September. What do you have planned for the rest of this year? Will you do more writing or recording before the world ends in 2012?

We are definitely writing now while playing out at the same time. We just want to keep doing what we’re doing at our own pace, on our own terms. Thankfully, we’re with a great label [Toil Records; website here] who really supports us and just lets us roam free creatively and totally trusts us in what we’re doing. We’d like to do more shows with bands we respect and love on the national level while at the same time playing the fun, cool shows in our little scene of bands and friends.

Boss 302 on Facebook

Toil Records

Originally released in 2002, Rwake‘s Hell is a Door to the Sun is a fucking monster of an album. Long before post-metal solidified and was considered a viable genre, the Little Rock outfit were hard at work blending crushing sludge and darkened ethereal psychedelics in a way that has only become more their own over time.

Relapse Records is set to reissue Hell is a Door to the Sun next week, with a new mix from the ever-present and (why not?) effervescent Sanford Parker, a remaster job and artwork that does the disturbing sounds justice. If, like me, you came aboard the good ship Rwake with 2004’s If You Walk Before You Crawl, You Crawl Before You Die, or after, you really should hear this:

[mp3player width=460 height=230 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=rwake-reissue.xml]

Rwake‘s Hell is a Door to the Sun will be out on Relapse March 1, 2011. More info and pre-orders here.

Stalwarts of the New Jersey stoner/heavy rock scene, The Atomic Bitchwax have come a long way since their 1999 self-titled debut on Tee Pee Records, and not just in terms of lineup. The band, once considered by many an offshoot of Monster Magnet for the participation of guitarist Ed Mundell, has endured under the careful eye of bassist, vocalist and founder Chris Kosnik, who found a virtual stylistic rebirth when he teamed up with former Core guitarist Finn Ryan for 2005’s 3. Having also survived the departure of drummer Keith Ackerman (who has since joined and left Solace) and recruited Monster Magnet/Riotgod’s Bob Pantella for the more pop-oriented TAB4 in 2009, which also marked their return to Tee Pee after a stint on MeteorCity, The Atomic Bitchwax are back in 2011 with the curiously non-numerically titled The Local Fuzz.

Admittedly, neither the Spit Blood nor the Boxriff EPs had numbers in their title, but The Local Fuzz is definitely a full-length album at 42 minutes, so maybe it’s the fact that it’s so different from anything The Atomic Bitchwax has done before that inspired the change in nomenclature. The Local Fuzz is comprised of a single titular track that runs, reportedly (I feel remiss in confessing this, but I didn’t count for myself), through a course of no less than 50 riffs, and is entirely instrumental. Compared to the tightness of songwriting and adherence to structure that showed itself on TAB4 in songs like “Sometimes Wednesday” and “Wreck You,” it’s a definite curveball on the part of Kosnik, Ryan and Pantella, and though there are parts throughout where it sounds like one of The Atomic Bitchwax’s many instrumental introductions and interludes that have been spread over their discography and live shows – rather than a larger work, that is – for lovers of the riff, The Local Fuzz cuts out just about any middleman you can think of. It’s probably the most direct line to the essence of heavy rock you can take.

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When I’d called Starland Ballroom earlier in the evening to ask what time Monster Magnet went on, and been told 9:30PM, that was a dirty fucking lie. I rolled in at 9PM thinking I’d catch the tail end of Seventh Void, and instead, A Pale Horse Named Death — fronted by Life of Agony drummer Sal Abruscato on vocals and one of the total three guitars — was just starting up. Thanks a lot, box office girl. True, I didn’t want to risk a Sunday night DWI and I had to get up for work this morning, but there was a bit of spite added to my lack of drinking, to be sure.

It wasn’t crowded, but there were more people than I thought would be there. The least crowded I’ve ever seen Starland was for Candlemass — which was shameful, how empty it was — but by no means was it packed even by the time Monster Magnet took the stage. For A Pale Horse Named Death, there was a decent amount of people who’d shown up early or because they’d heard it was the LOA drummer’s band and maybe they’d play “Through and Through” or something. They didn’t. Instead it was a mediocre but passable kind of doom rock, topped off with the charm of Abruscato inviting everyone in the crowd back to his house after the show for sausage and peppers, which I can only imagine would have been delicious.

Johnny Kelly, drummer for Type O Negative and Seventh Void — which also features Type O guitarist Kenny Hickey — played in A Pale Horse Named Death, pulling double duty for the evening. I think it was their first show, but they were clearly enjoying themselves, and having grown up as a heavy metal Jersey boy, I have trouble begrudging them the good time they looked to be having. However, someone should really point out to Abruscato that it was Death riding the pale horse, and that the horse itself was not Death. Five dudes in the band, you’d think someone would have been on that already.

The first time I saw Seventh Void was at The Trash Bar in Brooklyn, and they weren’t nearly that good at Starland, but they put on a more than respectable show anyway, playing songs off their Heaven is Gone full-length and what sounded like some new material, Hickey of course shouting a song (“Last Walk in the Light”) out to departed Type O Negative bassist/vocalist Peter Steele. That was bound to happen, and Hickey has stepped into the frontman role nicely in Seventh Void, which is encouraging to see. I doubt they’ll hit the commercial heights of his and Kelly‘s former band — the shitbag musical climate having something to do with that as well — but at least they’re still working.

You have to understand, back in 1993, at the tender age of 12, I used to call Pure Rock Q104.3 every single day and request Type O Negative‘s “Black No. 1,” and they, Life of Agony and Monster Magnet were the local bands that made good. As a kid just really figuring out what I liked, it was a big deal to see their videos on MTV. I think everyone has those bands. So it’s not that I didn’t enjoy this show, and it’s not that I didn’t know what I was going to get, I just have my attachments to these dudes’ work (the fauxhawk bassist and girlie-shirt second guitarist of Seventh Void notwithstanding) already set, and that’s not about to change.

It was the first time Monster Magnet played New Jersey in years, and it was clear the varying camps of supporters present at the Starland Ballroom. There was the “Space Lord” contingent, who maybe got into them from their 1998 mega-hit, the local loyalists, who’d have shown up even if they were playing the pits of hell (or worse, Asbury Park — zing!), and the stoner rock heads hoping for some older material in the set list. I count myself a bit in the latter two camps, and to the band’s credit, they did their best to feed everyone — opening with “Nod Scene” was a nice touch — and still manage to push the songs from their latest album, 2010’s Mastermind.

My heart sank when I snapped a picture of their setlist and read that “Spine of God” wasn’t on it. I’d like to think maybe it’s because new guitarist Garrett Sweeny (also of Riotgod), who was brought in to fill the rather sizable shoes vacated by Ed Mundell, doesn’t know it yet, but it could just as easily have been some other reason. Any way you slice it, it was a bummer. That had more or less been the one song that got me off the couch, but I guess you can’t have everything. Gotta make room for “Tractor” and “Crop Circle.” “Dinosaur Vacume” was pretty good though.

They played several songs from Mastermind, including starting the encore with single “Gods and Punks” and “Bored with Sorcery,” but the high point of the new material was unquestionably “Dig that Hole,” even if Dave Wyndorf‘s quoting of the n-word does rest gratingly on my liberal sensibilities. Wyndorf basically had the show resting on his shoulders and he delivered a solid set, Sweeny and Phil Caivano working well together on guitar, Jim Baglino and Bob Pantella doing the same on bass and drums. Everything was tight, everyone played well, but it was pretty clearly a show, and by that I mean if you were looking for a raw outpouring of emotion or some kind of beastly psychedelic trip, you were probably elsewhere.

I will say this, however: It’s time for Dave Wyndorf to grow a beard. And not a little one. A big, honking beard. And he needs to let it go gray. And he needs to never be seen again in public without a Hawkwind t-shirt and some gnarly jeans on, and he needs to cut his hair just short enough so it can still be messy, and it’s time for him to put on some huge-ass mirror sunglasses and take the stage like the Rick Rubin-looking biker space rock  god we all know he is underneath. He might even need a bandanna. I’m completely serious.

He’s obviously not doing the “check me out, I’m on pills” thing anymore, right? But the stage show hasn’t really changed, it’s just become less believable. Time to adapt. Time to unleash the weirdo within. He could hit the jam band circuit and have these fucking hipsters eating out of his hands in no time flat and and start bringing a crowd again in the US, but it’s a change that needs to be made. Every time he threw his hands in the air singing, I couldn’t help think to myself, “Dude, it is time to get strange on these motherfuckers.” Also, “Play ‘Spine of God!'”

I was splitsville before they closed with “Powertrip” — some of us do, in fact, have to work another day in our lives — and I caught an easy Sunday night back north on 287 to get to the valley around 1:00. Easily worth the trip, but not necessarily ideal. You know how it goes. At least I wasn’t asleep at the wheel like after the Pentagram show in Brooklyn.

I took some extra photos, which you can see after the jump.

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