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Hey Desertfest, Roadsaw Made a New EP Just for You!

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 28th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Well I don’t know about you, but if Roadsaw made an EP just for me, I’d feel pretty dern special.

In order to honor the Massachusetts rockers’ upcoming appearance at the London Desertfest next week (my goodness how time flies), Roadsaw recently hit frontman Craig Riggs‘ own Mad Oak Studios to lay down three mostly-live tracks as an advance EP that they’ve made available for free download via Bandcamp. You’ll notice Tim Catz (of “70 RPMs” fame) killing it on bass on the moody “Twisted Steel and Broken Glass” and the bluesier “Burn Down the Night” — on which guitarist Ian Ross also shines amid some pretty righteous organ.

And while I once swore a blood oath never to groove on a song called “Monkey Skull” (that’s not true), the barn-burning, grunge-laden punk of the third cut is more than enough to make me rethink my (hypothetical) position on the matter, drummer Jeremy Hemond seeming to be on three cymbals at once in the chorus while Riggs makes himself at home in the catchy lines. If I get to see them play any of these tracks next week — or, you know, ever — I’ll feel like I’m winning out.

Dig it:

No word on if they’ll press these songs to any kind of plastic, be it that compatible to lasers or that best read by needles, but to download Roadsaw‘s new EP, click here to get it free from Bandcamp.

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Ararat, II: The Doom of the Resistance

Posted in Reviews on March 28th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

In the two-plus years since Los Natas guitarist/vocalist Sergio Chotsourian made his debut with Ararat, a lot has changed. Long story short, Ararat has become a band and Los Natas – for all intents and purposes – has stopped being one. While the self-titled Ararat debut (review here), which was released in the US by MeteorCity and in Chotsourian’s native Argentina on Oui Oui Records, was essentially a solo-project on which Sergio was joined by a few friends and his brother, pianist Santiago Chotsourian, and which sought to bridge the musical gaps between Middle Eastern and Latin American cultural and musical influences, Ararat II, or simply II, follows a much more rounded course. Both Chotsourian brothers return, with Sergio once more handling guitar, bass, vocals and piano while Santiago also contributes piano, and Alfredo Felitte of Banda de la Muerte has taken over on drums for material that’s more aligned to fuzzy groove than any specific cultural modus – though those elements certainly show up as well. II, however, is less outwardly experimental than was its foot-getting predecessor, with Chotsourian’s bass (he plays bass live, while Tito Fargo of Sumo handles slide guitar and noise) taking much of the fore instrumentally on heavier songs like the lumbering “Lobos de Guerra y Cazadores de Elefantes” or the psychedelically ranging low-end bliss of “Caballos.” It’s still pretty clear Sergio is driving these songs, and II, released by Elektrohasch on CD and LP, has its commitment to variety in common with the 2009 self-titled that came before it, but where that album drew a direct line to – and in fact shared a few tracks with – Los Natas’ excellent Nuevo Orden de la Libertad (review here), the second Ararat outing feels more bent on standing on its own than being allied to any of Chotsourian’s past work.

It’s a darker atmosphere overall than was the first album, doomier in more than just Chotsourian’s bass tone, but if the sophomore Ararat proves anything, it’s that the personality of the band is still developing. Each side of II centers itself around an extended, highly atmospheric and massively heavy single track. Side A seems bent on serving the will of “Caballos” (16:20) and Side B counters with “La Ira del Dragon (Uno)” (15:48). Not that the material surrounding doesn’t have substance – the album opens with perhaps its most experimental moment in “El Carro”’s blend of acoustics, electrics and what sounds like flute – but those two songs are impossible to ignore as the focal points or landmarks around which the rest of the album’s total seven tracks are working. “Atenas” and the closing “Tres de Mayo” are piano-led pieces of significant length – 6:34 and 4:49, respectively – and atmosphere, and even the shortest cut, the acoustic CD-centerpiece “El Inmigrante,” is granted weight through Chotsourian’s echoing vocals and bluesy lead. The real anomaly of the bunch, then, is “Lobos de Guerra y Cazadores de Elefantes,” which, though far from being a misstep of any kind with its start-stop bass riff, huge-sounding tone, undeniable groove and Felitte’s locked in cymbal work, doesn’t fit the pattern. It’s somewhat faster than “Caballos” preceding, and more straightforward where “Caballos” patiently unfolds its build and makes sure its synth ambience matches the nod-worthy doomed lurching, but to pick one over the other is hard and, honestly, not worth the effort without a gun to the head. And if its inclusion on II makes the album that much more complex and harder to classify or dissect, well, that also makes it more fascinating to listen.

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Odyssey Mess with the Lights in New Video

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 27th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

You know, after all the Truckfighters shenanigans lately (see here and here, for starters), I considered giving it a rest this week with the Swedish bands… for about three minutes. Then I got a note from Hellsingborg trio Odyssey with a link to their new video for the song “Wicked Witch,” and well, I was right back on the wagon. Or off it. I can never remember how that one goes.

“Wicked Witch” comes off Odyssey‘s recent split 7″ with Massachusetts’ own Black Pyramid — it’s their first recorded outing to feature Darryl Shepard‘s guitar and vocals — and was released as part of Transubstans Records‘ vinyl club, about which you can find more info here, if you’re so inclined. Transubstans will also release Odyssey‘s debut full-length, Abysmal Despair, on May 15.

If this song is any indicator, the album title is a little more dire than the music Odyssey make, but perhaps their darker side comes out elsewhere. Would be hilarious if these dudes were full-on black metal the rest of the time, though I doubt that’s the case. Anyway, hope you enjoy “Wicked Witch” below and have as much fun as I did watching them play with the lamps:

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Anathema, Weather Systems: The Change that’s Always in the Air

Posted in Reviews on March 27th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

More than 20 years into their career since starting in 1990, Anathema are nothing if they’re not divisive. Even among the most dedicated, loyal members of their fanbase (more of a cult, really) one will often hear arguments in favor of or decrying this or that era of the band – their death/doom beginnings as one of the Peaceville three alongside My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, the semi-gothic dramatic melody of what’s now their mid-period work, or the melo-prog elements that have surfaced in their sound since 2008’s Hindsight found them revisiting and rearranging older material with a decidedly new look. Their new studio album, Weather Systems, follows another such revisiting, last year’s Falling Deeper (review here), which in a fascinating process took musical and lyrical pieces of their death/doom songs and breathed new life into them – somewhat more complex than the rearrangements of Hindsight, but also further from what the songs originally were as a result. Before Falling Deeper, Anathema had what was then their first studio outing of new material in seven years. That was the long-awaited We’re Here Because We’re Here, released through Kscope Music in 2010 with eventual North American issue by The End Records last year. Kscope and The End align again with the band to release Weather Systems, as Anathema dives deeper into the rich melodic and progressive course that We’re Here Because We’re Here seemed to be steering toward.

And as ever, it’s an album that no doubt will spark and continue many a debate about which Anathema era is the strongest. Tracks based on the weather thematic like “Lightning Song,” “The Gathering of the Clouds,” “Sunlight” and the nine-plus-minute exercise in contrast, “The Storm Before the Calm” speak to some thread running throughout, but as much as guitarist Vincent Cavanagh’s vocals shine here as they always do and Lee Douglas has stepped up her presence in the band’s songwriting, there are parts of Weather Systems that simply sound over-produced and that ultimately take away from the emotion Anathema is trying to convey, which has always been at the center of what they do no matter what the material might actually sound like or which genre it might be aligned or not aligned with. On “The Storm Before the Calm,” for example, the first half – presumably “the storm” – features dated-sounding electronic drums that gradually build amid a cloud-swirl of vocals repeating the line “It’s getting colder,” reminding of something A Perfect Circle might have been able to convince themselves was groundbreaking more than a decade ago, building gradually to a mash of abrasive noise that eventually gives way to silence – i.e., “the calm.” That back half of the track is one of Weather Systems’ finest moments, with Danny Cavanagh’s piano backing his brother’s and Douglas’ gorgeous, lush and fully-engaged vocals amid strings, drum punctuation from John Douglas, a triumph of guitars and melodic delivery taking hold and swaying the song to its finish. It’s a beautiful, stunning stretch, and I’d gladly point to it as an example of the kind of dramatic potency this era of Anathema can produce at its best – one can’t help in listening but be affected by it – but the more I listen, the more I wish “The Calm” and “The Storm” had been two separate tracks so I could skip the one to get to the other.

That specific kind of unevenness persists, and Weather Systems seems to be executed in movements of it. Opening duo “Untouchable Part 1” and “Untouchable Part 2” offset overdone vocal arrangements in their first part (the “prog” influence comes out as well in fast-picked guitars and double-time drumming) with a simple, piano-driven hook in the second, Vincent and Lee turning in one of the album’s most impassioned vocal performances complemented by characteristically swirling guitar melodies and the effective underlying bass of Jamie Cavanagh. Right away, Weather Systems, like life, like the meteorology for which it’s named, has its ups and downs. “The Gathering of the Clouds” takes the frenetic picking of “Untouchable Part 1” and partners it with a more effective vocal build, layers piling on so that by the time John’s bass drum comes in to provide extra push, the song almost doesn’t need it for the energy it conveys, cutting with strings to the more subdued but still in-motion “Lightning Song.” Lee takes the fore on vocals here and proves able to carry the track on her own without any trouble, but when a distorted guitar introduces itself at 3:16 with two quick chugs before taking full hold of the song, the tone sounds thin and doesn’t produce the same kind of chill up the spine as it otherwise might, or as the subsequent “Sunlight” does almost with John’s drums alone as its build pays off toward the end. Nonetheless, that’s one of Weather Systems’ heaviest movements and something fans clamoring for that side of their sound – which so effectively propelled standout tracks like “Panic” from 2001’s A Fine Day to Exit and “Pulled Under at 2,000 Metres a Second” from 2003’s A Natural Disaster – will cling onto in listening.

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audiObelisk: Viaje a 800 Premiere 12-Minute Opening Track from New Album

Posted in audiObelisk on March 27th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Adventurous Andalusian heavy psych trio Viaje a 800 made their full-length debut with 2001’s Diablo Roto De…, and it would be another six years before their sophomore outing, Estampida de Trombones, came out. The second album was released by Alone Records, who also reissued the first one that same year, and it’s through that same label that the follow-up to Estampida de Trombones, titled Coñac Oxigenado makes its way to the public this spring.

Coñac Oxigenado is widely varied and doesn’t really belong to any single genre, but Viaje a 800 consistently maintain elements of space and heavy rock throughout, even as they veer into atmospheric interludes on Coñac Oxigenado‘s five extended tracks, which become as much about the mood they create as about the riffs or the complex, highly-stylized rhythms.

If the album is anything, though, it’s meticulous. You can hear it when the organ subtly joins in behind the acoustic/percussion interplay of 10-minute centerpiece cut “Eternal Soledad,” or when opener “Oculi Omnium in te Sperant Domine” gives way to an interlude of flamenco-style hand claps. Viaje a 800 leave room for jams, but nothing on Coñac Oxigenado is happening by accident.

You can find out for yourself on the markedly progressive “Oculi Omnium in te Sperant Domine” by streaming it on the player below. Given that it’s not every year that Viaje a 800 get a new record out, I’m thrilled to be able to host the track for you to check out, followed by some info courtesy of Alone Records:

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

Viaje a 800 is an Andalusian and Spanish rock classic. Not as “Andalusian rock” label, but as a feature of identity. A band respected by critics and audience, with a journey full of obstacles (three discs in 12 years of age) and abused by bad luck, with which Alone Records has maintained a close relationship since our label took his first steps as record company. Finally, the highly anticipated Coñac Oxigenado album will be released during the second quarter of 2012. With this album, Viaje a 800 closes a stage in which the band undergoes changes in its classical line-p, which delivered rock gems as Diablo Roto De and Estampida de Trombones. Now, Coñac Oxigenado appears as the end after more than 10 years being a reference in the Spanish doom-prog scene in Spanish language. Unique in its kind and unmatched on scene.

If you want to hear more, the band has two other songs from Coñac Oxigenado streaming through the label’s Soundcloud page, where you can also check out tracks from Black Rhino, Adrift and others.

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Saint Vitus, Lillie: F-65: The Doom of Ages

Posted in Reviews on March 26th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Awkward and obscure as the name is, guitarist Dave Chandler did right in naming Saint Vitus’ first album in 17 years Lillie: F-65. The title refers to a barbiturate the band used to take, and in many ways, that’s just what Lillie: F-65 is: A classic Saint Vitus downer. One might compare the situation that brought it about to Pentagram and their 2011 release, Last Rites. I’m not sure if there’s as much at stake personally for any one member of Vitus as there was for Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling in that record, but in terms of pivotal American doom acts pitting their legacies against studio offerings that marked new eras, it seems a fair analogy despite a few key differences. Saint Vitus are arguably the single most important and influential band in American doom – certainly on the West Coast – and Lillie: F-65 (released by Season of Mist) renews the recording partnership of Chandler and vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich. The two exceedingly charismatic personalities have intermittently torn down stages the world over for the better part of the last three years, and together with bassist Mark Adams and drummer Henry Vasquez – who replaced a then-ailing Armando Acosta (R.I.P.) in 2009 – the 2012 lineup of Saint Vitus stands ready to honor both its own legend and the influence that inspired the band in the first place. Several of Lillie: F-65’s successes come in doing just that.

Chandler, as the principle songwriter of this and all Vitus material, wastes no time tapping into the primordial immediacy that made the band’s earliest work so powerful. Some of these lines, some of these riffs are so easy as to be obvious, and yet they are characteristically Chandlerian, and the more one listens to Lillie: F-65 – or any Vitus album, for that matter (how easily the new one fits in the lexicon of the band should say something as to its quality) – the more one can discern the blueprint behind the songs. Structurally, they are as they’ve always been: Simple, high-grade pop put to nefarious use. His vocals mostly following Chandler’s riffs, Weinrich nonetheless makes a landmark of nearly every chorus – to wit, “Let Them Fall,” “The Bleeding Ground” and “Blessed Night” – and delivers lines with feeling and drama worthy of any performance in his storied discography. For his part, Adams is in the Geezer Butler role – appropriate, considering how much of Vitus has always been derived from Sabbath – quietly, unassumingly turning good songs, like the above or the side B duo “The Waste of Time” and “Dependence,” into great ones with warm low end that’s both classy and rudimentary. I’ll say flat-out that he sounds the best on these tracks that he’s ever sounded in Saint Vitus, and part of that credit has to go to producer/engineer T. Dallas Reed, who positions him mix-wise so as to fill out the songs and highlight the character in his playing without stealing the spotlight from Chandler’s guitar, which without question is running the show.

That’s one of the things Saint Vitus has very much done right on Lillie: F-65. Another relates specifically to Vasquez’s drumming. Anyone who’s heard his work in Blood of the Sun can tell you the dude can throw down in true classic rock style. Indeed, that’s most of what Blood of the Sun (in which he also handles vocals) does. But that’s not what he does here. Adapting his style to the simplicity of the songwriting, Vasquez honors Acosta’s contributions to the band while maintaining a personality of his own. He does not indulge in long fills. He does not unleash double kick for its own sake. Instead, he hits remarkably hard and shows that he has obviously become an integrated part of the band over the last three years of time on the road. Along those same lines, Saint Vitus also plays it smart in keeping Lillie: F-65 short. Their 1984 self-titled debut was 35 minutes long, 1985’s Hallow’s Victim 34 and 1986’s Born too Late (their first album with Weinrich on vocals) also 35. Lillie: F-65 is a bullshit-free 34:29, right in line. The closest they come to any kind of indulgence is a Weinrich-penned acoustic interlude called “Vertigo” that comes between “The Bleeding Ground” and “Blessed Night,” and even that serves the purpose of allowing a few minutes of breath between those two landmark cuts and adding to the overall depressive atmosphere the album creates. One could argue closer “Withdrawal” – which is three and a half minutes solid of Chandler’s guitar feedback – is an indulgence, but I think that’s missing the point, since the track’s pretty much as close as Vitus is ever going to come to saying to their fans, “Hey, thanks for buying our record, here’s the fucked-up mess of noise you came for.” And you know, he’s right.

Half an hour before that, though, it’s Vasquez who has the honor of starting the first Vitus record since 1995’s Die Healing reunited them with original singer Scott Reagers, and he does so with a fittingly unceremonious bass-drum/crash cymbal count-in. Four hits and “Let Them Fall” is underway, and as if that wasn’t up-front enough, the song begins with its chorus:

“Why do I scream at them
They never listen
Why do I beat my head
Against the wall
I made a simple plan
They complicate it
Now they’re near the edge
Let them fall”

From the mere shape of the lines, one can almost discern the lumbering rhythm with which Weinrich delivers them; the ebb and flow – or better, rise and fall – of Chandler’s much-imitated patterning allowing for almost as little hope to peak through as the lyrics themselves. While Vasquez keeps time on his crash and Adams supplements the riff with deep, swarming low-end, Weinrich adopts the voice of god – or whatever omnipotent creator force you want to substitute for god, mother nature, etc. – giving up on humanity. Want to start a doom album, kids? That’s a pretty good way to do it. The song itself is strong enough and enough in line with classic Vitus anthems that it could’ve easily carried the record as a title-track – a move that would’ve aligned it to tracks from the band’s discography like “Saint Vitus” from Saint Vitus, “Born too Late” from that album or “Children of Doom” from 1992’s C.O.D. – but either way, it’s an immediate hook that sets the course for the rest of the album’s songs. It’s the shortest of the non-interludes or outros, but of undeniable substance and memorability. Plodding, miserable, and gloriously primal – it’s the best-case scenario for what Vitus could do on Lillie: F-65.

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GIVEAWAY: Win a Copy of High on Fire’s De Vermis Mysteriis

Posted in Features on March 26th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

[PLEASE NOTE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.]

What you see above — artfully placed on my desk with a shadow in the upper left hand corner as if to remind us of the ever-looming spectre of Matt Pike‘s guitar tone — are three copies of High on Fire‘s newest album, De Vermis Mysteriis. I’d like to get rid of them as soon as possible.

The album officially hits streets next Tuesday, but the fortunes of doom have smiled brightly on my humble form and granted me these CDs for giveaway purposes. To win a copy, just leave a comment on this post and make sure your email is entered. If you win, I’ll email and ask for your address. I know I said this last time, but I don’t recommend you leave your address in the comments here. Call me paranoid.

If you’d like to know more about De Vermis Mysteriis, you can check out the review here, but really, I would think “Free High on Fire” is enough of a draw, so please, do it up.

Normally I’d let this go for a week, but because I want to give you a better chance of actually getting the CD by the release date, I’m going to pick winners Friday and mail out the discs Saturday, assuming everyone gets back to me with their address on time.

Thanks to all who enter, and thanks to E1 for the hookup.

[PLEASE NOTE: This contest is now closed. Thanks to all who entered.]

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Sat-r-dee Dala Sun

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 24th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

I’ll admit I didn’t even know gritty Greek heavies Dala Sun had a new record coming until I looked them up on the YouzTubes and found they not only did, but that they had it up for free download from their website. Fancy that. Their new album, Gegenschein, follows their much-dug 2010 self-titled outing and is available sans charge in 320 kbps mp3 right here. Pretty good service for a Saturday, if you ask me.

About that: Last night was a frustrating end to a frustrating week. True, I capped a post-happy hour at the office by watching baseball and having a few more beers — more or less the ideal — but I’d missed lunch, was drunker than I wanted to be and wound up paying with a headache that, fortunately, did not last till the morning. I say that’s fortunate, even if it did cost me pouring out most of my last Palm. Always hate to see a good beer go down like that.

Anyhoo, today’s considerably less dire and Dala Sun‘s aptly-titled leadoff track, “Sludge Machine” fits perfectly with just the undercurrent of chill in the air this late Saturday afternoon. They’re part of the nebulous Greek collective of bands that goes by Spinalonga Records — their last album came in a package from Spinalonga, anyway — who are worth checking out at their website, what with the supporting good music in an up and coming scene and all. Spinalonga also put out the Miss Fortune was a Henhouse Manager compilation, which was reviewed last year. Lots of really interesting things happening in Greece, in more than just global economic terms.

So enjoy that cut, grab that record and support Dala Sun if and however you can. Stick around too next week, as Monday I’ll be giving away three copies of the new High on Fire record, De Vermis Mysteriis (review here). Throughout the week, we’ll also have a track premiere from Viaje a 800‘s long-awaited (by me, anyway) new album, and a full front-to-back stream of the new Hong Faux record, which is killer straightforward Swedish rock — right up my alley and hopefully yours too. I’ve got the new Saint Vitus record slated for a review on Monday, and it’ll be followed by Ararat and The Mound Builders as the week progresses, hopefully among others, and New Zealand doomers The House of Capricorn have sent back their answers to my Six Dumb Questions, so that’ll be posted as well, along with Mario Lalli‘s second column, which is awesome.

The Patient Mrs. is also in Portland, Oregon, this weekend (very much wish I was as well, but the money and the timing didn’t work out) and she might be headed to check out Mars Red Sky tonight. As she put it, she’d go, “Unless I get drunk early.” Love that woman. If she makes it, I might see if I can coax her into filing some special correspondence on it afterwards. We’ll see. Either way, lots of killer stuff to come as we wind down March.

That said, part of the reason this week was so frustrating was that there was so much going on. I mean, seriously, just look at this page. The two Truckfighters reviews, the Ufomammut premiere, the Wino Wednesday clip, the Lo-Pan video, the Tasha-Yar jam — not to mention that massive Ancestors review — all the way up to premiering the Snail video with that interview yesterday. Put it all together with the full-time job and the part-time job and it makes for a pretty intense week. I know I do it to myself, and I have no regrets, so whatever. But I don’t wonder why I’m tired as hell all the time either.

Oh wait, yeah I do. What a fool.

In any case, while I rest up, I wish you a wonderful and safe rest of the weekend. I’ll see you on the forum and back here Monday for more riff-led shenanigans.

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