I’ve heard rumors of Serpents of Secrecy‘s existence for a while. Vague murmurings that former Alabama Thunderpussy frontman Johnny Throckmorton had a new band with Aaron Lewis from When the Deadbolt Breaks, stories of the involvement of a mysterious second guitarist, drummers, and so on. Even at Stoner Hands of Doom last year, already word was kicking around, and it seems that in November, the formidable lineup of Throckmorton, Lewis, Rev. Jim Forrester (bass; Sixty Watt Shaman), Chuck Dukehart III (drums; Sixty Watt Shaman) and Todd Ingram (guitar; King Giant) will premiere at Stoner Hands of Doom XIII in November.

That fest, the lineup for which is becoming more and more substantial with each passing week (Lo-Pan, a Lord reunion, Gozu, Order of the Owl, etc.) , is to be held in Richmond, Virginia, at Strange Matter the weekend of Nov. 7-10. Here’s more info about Serpents of Secrecy:

313 INC Artist Management Announce New Signing – SERPENTS OF SECRECY

(Feat. members of Sixty Watt Shaman, Alabama Thunderpussy, King Giant, When The Deadbolt Breaks)

Something’s got to give, you can feel it. The Universe is about to bring you a crushing gift of sonic excellence. The five elements of this musical current were called forth by The Great Brotherhood of the Heavy, 313 INC, specifically for this task. The rock solid rhythm section of Reverend Jim Forrester (Sixty Watt Shaman) on bass and Chuck Dukehart III on drums (Sixty Watt Shaman, Fog Hound) combined with the gut punching wall of guitars of Aaron Lewis (When the Deadbolt Breaks) and Todd Ingram (King Giant) that all together provide the perfect foundation for the explosive and soulful vocals of Johnny Throckmorton (Alabama Thunderpussy, Darkitect).

Right from the first jam sessions the chemistry was undeniable. Within a few hours of convening, three mammoth songs were delivered from a higher plane…with ease. And with a band line up like this, simply put, you KNOW it’s going to rule. Serpents Of Secrecy continue to write and craft what will be their first release. This almighty union is truly the stoner and doom rawk Illuminati.

So, while you’re waiting for the album to be completed, don’t sleep on getting your tickets for Stoner Hands of Doom 2013. Serpents Of Secrecy will deliver their debut U.S. performance during this legendary event scheduled to be held in Richmond, Virginia at the cities premier venue, Strange Matter.

Be sure to check out Serpents Of Secrecy online @
www.SerpentsOfSecrecy.com
www.facebook.com/SerpentsOfSecrecy

Just a week after Glasgow-based jam worshipers The Cosmic Dead showed off their new ambient collection, Orbiting Salvation (info and music here), the band has put out word that not only are they hitting the road next month on a tour through Europe, but that Orbiting Salvation is just one of three new releases coming. In addition to a limited CDR of that droning bliss, they’ll also have the new Inner Sanctum and Live at the Note limited cassettes. My only hope is there are some left by the time they get to Roadburn on April 20.

Here’s the latest, courtesy of the band:

The Cosmic Dead – European tour and new releases

This April the astral Glaswegian quartet known as The Cosmic Dead are set to embark on their first voyage overseas, reaching out to new heads and lands unknown on an extended exploratory mission across the European continent. Amongst the highlights of the trip are an appearance alongside Mars Red Sky and My Sleeping Karma at this year’s Stone Rising Festival in Oullins, France on the 12th of April, a veritable indoor street party with fellow sonic experimentalists Gnod in Berlin, Germany on the 19th of April and a late night materialisation at this years premier pilgrimage to the riff; Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Holland on Saturday 20th of April.

The tour will also be a platform for these Scottish psychonauts to introduce a wealth of new material to all ye astronauts out there in the form of three new releases; Inner Sanctum, a massive slab of tweaked out, head-spinning, jammed out recordings set to limited edition cassette tape by Sheffield based label Evil Hoodoo. Live at the Note, a pretty much exactly as it says on the tin live recording from our base of operations and spiritual epicentre The 13th Note in Glasgow, is also to be released on limited cassette tape by Stabbed In The Back Records. Orbiting Salvation, a collation of jams, drones and mythological mantras released by the band in limited edition subtly hand-made CD-R. Alongside the availability of new material comes a reawakening of old in editions of the acclaimed self-titled album and it’s postliminary successor The Exalted King on super deluxe gatefold vinyl via Cardinal Fuzz and Cosmic Eye respectfully.

All this in 2013, the year no-one expected to happen.

COSMIC DEAD EURO TOUR – APRIL 2013:
8th ? Sheffield (ENGLAND) ? The Redhouse
9th ? Basingstoke (ENGLAND) ? Sanctuary
10th ? London (ENGLAND) ? The Unicorn
11th ? Brussels (BELGIUM) ? Café Central
12th ? Oullins (FRANCE) ? Stone Rising Festival
13th ? Milan (ITALY) ? Lo-Fi
14th ? Legnago (ITALY) ? White Rabbit
15th ? Salzburg (AUSTRIA) ? Shakespeare
16th ? Prague (CZ REPUBLIC) ? Klub 007
17th ? Dresden (GERMANY) ? Ostpol
18th ? Liepzig (GERMANY) ? Zoro
19th ? Berlin (GERMANY) ? White Trash
20th ? Tilburg (HOLLAND) ? Roadburn Festival
21st ? Antwerp (BELGIUM) ? Trix
23rd ? Dudingen (SWITZERLAND) ? Badbonn
24th ? Toulouse (FRANCE) ? Le Saint des Seins
25th ? Bordeaux (FRANCE) ? Heretic
26th ? Paris (FRANCE) ? La Mécanique Ondulatoire
27th ? Portsmouth (ENGLAND) ? Southsea Social Club
28th ? Bristol (ENGLAND) ? The Croft
29th ? Middlesbrough (ENGLAND) ? The Legion
30th ? Edinburgh (SCOTLAND) ? Banshee Labyrinth

You can track our progress at the following Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/429621680459261

The Cosmic Dead, “Djamba” Live at the 13th Note, Glasgow

To date, they’re not revolutionaries or anything like that, but I like Swedish four-piece Mamont. I dug their EP well enough, but with the cumbersomely-titled 2012 debut full-length, Passing through the Mastery Door (review here), it was easy to hear they were beginning a process of coming into their own, and that sensibility I almost always find exciting in an album. The band, based in Nyköping and Stockholm and previously interviewed here, seem bent on doing the work of a genuine creative progression — both in their songwriting and in terms of putting in time on the road — and in their new video for the track “Stonehill Universe,” they show that even a simple performance clip of a group in a room (or two) still has space to show a bit of individuality. I’m not the betting type, but I’m looking forward to hearing what Mamont do next, and this is fun in the meantime.

Enjoy:

Mamont, “Stonehill Universe” Official Video

Chicagoan trio I Klatus previously self-released their third full-length, Kether, on vinyl and are following that up this month with a wider, promoted digital release. As you can hear in the video below, it’s some disgustingly heavy stuff, and you might recognize guitarist/vocalist Tom Denney from his disturbing album art for Kylesa, Sourvein, Cephalic Carnage and many, many more. Whether or not you do isn’t really the issue at hand, I suppose, but even though the record’s been available for a few months, it’s an excuse for me to post another 10 minutes of spaced-out doom, so fuck it. You know?

Maybe, maybe not:

I KLATUS: Behold The Second LP By Chicago Sludge/Doom Hybridizing Collective

Rooted in the sprawling Chicago underground metal scene with ties to multiple internationally-notable musical and artistic forms of media, a massive composition five years in the making has finally arrived. Behold Kether, the second LP by sludge/doom hybridizing collective I KLATUS.

With the dark spirit of Chicago in mind and the mysteries of the Cosmos at heart, the all-consuming devastation achieved on Kether takes the pummeling morphing of sludge/grime/doom the I KLATUS clan has previously attained to even more warped and exploratory realms through nearly an hour of continually-engaging material in the progressive tradition of Spaceboy, Gasp, Ufomammut, Rwake, Noothgrush and YOB. The band self-describes the material as “beyondcore, sludge, and shamanistic method doom.”

I KLATUS self-released the mammoth Kether in an extremely limited 2xLP version at the end of 2012, but now takes the album to an entirely broader audience with an official digital release of the album this month. The album lies in the wake of the tragic passing of I KLATUS’ bassist Tariq Ali and features the artist’s last recordings. The three surviving members of the collective — drummer Chris Wozniak (Lair of the Minotaur, Earthen Grave), bassist John Bomher (Yakuza, Indian) and guitarist/vocalist/visual artist Tom Denney (known for art created for Soilent Green, Kylesa, Saint Vitus, Black Cobra, Rwake, Samothrace among countless others) — have dedicated the album to Tariq’s memory and pay thanks to his family members, stating that he was “a good dude on the scene here in Chicago, and was part of the best lineup of the many this band has seen.” Kether also features guest contributions from Leon Del Muerte (Intronaut, Murder Construct) and Bruce Lamnot (Yakuza, Bloodiest), among others.

Kether Track Listing:
1. John of the Network
2. Flailtank
3. Chemtrails
4. Antediluvian Knowledge
5. Model Prisoner Interlude
6. Model Prisoner Revolt
7. Portals (Under the Lake)
8. Pillar of Boaz
9. Tree of the Sephirot
10. By the Coercion of Marduk
11. Karma and Forgiveness
12. Dark Commitment to the Ceaseless NON

I Klatus, “Portals under the Lake”

http://www.iklatus.com
http://www.tomdenney.com

A few years back, Prosthetic Records seemed to get an itch for extreme metal that took some of the tropes of black metal and added elements of hardcore, doom and thrash. The result was a slew of albums from the likes of Book of Black Earth, Withered and The Funeral Pyre, each of which seemed bent on taking on black metal from a different angle. Austin trio The Unmothered appear to be on a similar kind of trip with their 2012 self-titled debut EP, but the conviction and thickness with which they carry across their ideas puts them in line as well with the newer class of post-His Hero is Gone “dark hardcore” — the main difference being The Unmothered come off as better at actually bridging the gap between that sound and doom than most others, who like to pretend they’re bridging it while playing redundant metalcore riffs in a Venom t-shirt.

It’s not in every song, but take a listen to “Leviathan,” which is tense to the point of breaking open even as it rolls out the groove of its verse. Unmothered drummer Matt Moulis sat in with The Hidden Hand on their last tour, and there’s some swing in the earlier “The Awakening” to show for it, but together with Matt Walker and Joseph Barnes, the three-piece draws more on later, rocking Carcass than anything so definitively fuzzed. Even the later post-black metal soloing of “Spectre” takes a vehement position rather than give itself up to psychedelic posturing for the sake of including one more genre in the mix, and with the Godflesh-y tone of “Solstice” and the gallop late into opener and longest cut “Gravitons,” it’s not exactly like The Unmothered have skimped on the variety anyhow.

Having just shared the stage with the likes of Venomous Maximus and Mala Suerte at SXSW in their native burg, and caught a fair amount of attention there, The Unmothered have a solid first showing to fall back on in their self-titled and a foundation to expand on in any number of directions. You can listen to the self-titled now as part of the playlist on The Obelisk Radio, and check it out via the stream below, hoisted from the Unmothered Bandcamp:

A digitally-released full-length with its individual songs wrangled into two extended vinyl-side tracks, The Kings of Frog Island IV is an anomaly before you even press (or click) play. The Leicester outfit have proved as amorphous as they are amphibious over the course of their prior three self-titled albums, but IV marks a couple big changes for the psychedelic rockers. Primarily, it’s their first outing without the input of guitarist/vocalist Mat Bethancourt, who split following the 2010 release of III (review here), and it’s also their first full-length to arrive without an Elektrohasch Schallplatten logo stamped on back.

But if these real-world changes have had any effect on the molecular creative doings in Amphibia, the Kings‘ ethic shows little shift for it. As they did on their 2005 self-titled and 2008 let-me-almost-go-five-minutes-without-telling-you-how-awesome-this-record-is follow-up, II, The Kings of Frog Island casually, naturally, blend desert rock organics with deep-running space tonality. The tracks on IV — there are 10 of them and it’s fun to suss out which starts when — vary in mood and tempo, but a strong thread courses throughout of inner-peace fuzz, and where III showed a rawer, garage rocking side of the band, IV (review here) reacts to unite this with prior accomplishments, resulting in a new and potent blend.

Much about the band — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist Mark Buteux, drummer Roger “Dodge” Watson, Gavin Searle, Gavin Wright and Tony Heslop, as well as other guests — remains obscure, and by all appearances, that’s on purpose. They don’t like having their picture taken and though Buteux talks about the processes involved in putting IV and the already-in-the-works V together, who’s actually doing what and when is a mysteryThe Kings of Frog Islandseem to enjoy perpetuating. With good reason. Not only is a layer of murk fitting for their swampy thematic, but for an album where they’re asking (telling, really) their listeners to take in on as a whole instead of each track as an individual piece, a bit of meta-vagueness seems only appropriate.

Still, Buteux — Watson may have had a hand in here as well — remains forthcoming as regards the making of IV and the intent and concepts at work behind that album, while also giving a hint at what V might bring upon its arrival, which could be as soon as later this year. You’ll find the complete Q&A after the jump. Please enjoy.

Read more »

The first thing you hear is that unmistakable wall of fuzz. I was fortunate enough to be standing on the balcony in the Green Room at the 013 in Tilburg when the Wino trio — Scott “Wino” Weinrich on vocals/guitar, Jon Blank on bass and Jean Paul Gaster on drums — played the set that’s captured on Live at Roadburn 2009, and though it’s a work that will probably always carry with it an element of tragedy — Blank would die of an overdose a few weeks after returning home to the States — there’s no denying the potency of the three-piece in this live setting. If anything, Live at Roadburn 2009 (review here) is only made sadder by how good it is and how much potential this partnership had, should it have been able to continue and flourish as its own unit.

Of course, Wino and Gaster (who was on loan from his main outfit, Clutch) were the headlining names, but to hear how well Blank stood up to both of these marquee players in filling out “Sunblood” — which originally appeared on The Hidden Hand‘s first full-length, Divine Propaganda, in 2003 — it’s obvious he was the right guy for the job. In addition to the setlist that spanned Weinrich‘s discography and included cuts from The Obsessed (“Neatz Brigade,” “Streetside” “Skybone” and “Streamline”), Spirit Caravan (“Lost Sun Dance”) and the aforementioned The Hidden Hand in addition to the Wino album, Punctuated Equilibrium, released on Southern Lord the same year they played in Tilburg, Live at Roadburn 2009 showed a nascent propensity to jam as Gaster and Blank took off in “Release Me/Wild Blue Yonder” that Weinrich would soon use as a founding principle in his subsequent four-piece, the shortlived Premonition 13.

Roadburn/Burning World Records, which released Live at Roadburn 2009 late in 2010, has the collection up for a pay-what-you-want download at their Bandcamp page, and to honor their generosity and celebrate this perhaps-baggage-laden-but-still-awesome live record, hosting the stream here for Wino Wednesday seemed like a no brainer. Hope you enjoy.

Happy Wino Wednesday:

Imagine being the one to have to break the news to European bands how much shittier they’ll get treated if they decide to make a run of it in the States. The bold impresario taking on the task of imparting such wisdom that our nation’s humble scene is… getting better… is none other than Nathan Carson, drummer of Witch Mountain and founder of Nanotear Booking, who count YOB, Primordial, Acid King and the recently-reviewed Helen Money among many others on their client roster.

What can Carson (interview here) teach attendees at Roadburn 2013 about hitting the road both in the US and in general? Plenty, I’ve no fucking doubt — and better, he can do it not only as someone who runs a respected booking outfit, but from the perspective of someone who’s put in significant road time himself.

One not to miss, and one more way in which Roadburn continues to push the boundaries of what a fest can do. Here are details:

This year, Roadburn Festival is pleased to present master classes and performance clinics for the first time. It seems like a great opportunity to give those of you attending the festival, many of whom are in bands or enjoy playing music on your own, and some of the folks on the bill an opportunity to meet and learn from each other.

On Saturday, April 20th, Nanotear Booking‘s Nathan Carson will focus on what it takes to strategically tour in the US, and how to avoid the many pitfalls that can put tours in jeopardy (financial and otherwise). Questions from attendees will be welcomed.

Nathan Carson is a musician and booking agent from Portland, OR USA. A member of the international doom scene since the 90s, he taught himself to book DIY tours for his own band Witch Mountain, and soon after for his first official clients YOB. Nanotear Booking was founded in 2004 based on the success of those tours and Carson‘s growing network of connections, which he built first-hand on the road.

In 2013, Nanotear represents over twenty-five uncompromising artists, including Agalloch, Jarboe, Lene Lovich, Corrupted, YOB, and Witch Mountain. Riding the fine line between DIY ethics and sincere professionalism is what sets Nanotear apart from many other booking agencies. Artistic curation, fair deals, and humane practices are all a part of this successful formula.

Touring The US is available for Roadburn ticket holders (no additional fee) and will be held between 1:30 PM and 2:30 PM at the Hall of Fame in Tilburg, Holland.