I’m not entirely sure what Miss Lava are railing against in the start of their new single — the general state of culture, maybe; people staring at their tvs and phones instead of rocking out — but I won’t question the Lisbon outfit’s conviction. They’re gearing up to issue their new album, Sonic Debris, as the follow-up to 2013’s Red Supergiant, via ultra-respected purveyor Small Stone Records, and if nothing else, “The Silent Ghost of Doom” is definitely working against any sense of apathy the band might perceive in this age of bought-and-sold wonders. Clocking in at an efficient 4:20, it’s a kick in the ass run from front to back, its initial rant building into a careening heavy rock riff met with a catchy hook that only pushes the momentum further forward.
Sonic Debris is out May 20, and “The Silent Ghost of Doom” is the second track to be featured from it behind the grander opening salvo “Another Beast is Born” (posted here), and as it’s also the second track on the record itself, it shows the kind of one-two punch with which Miss Lava are starting their latest outing, shifting from a larger-sounding roll and melody into the rush of “The Silent Ghost of Doom.” One doubts that’s the entirety of the scope of the album, but as the already-noted intro of “The Silent Ghost of Doom” (performed in a guest spot by Rui Guerra) demonstrates, the band are clearly given to offering a surprise or two along the way. For what it’s worth, neither of the two cuts that have made their way to the public so far has stopped me from wanting to hear more of the album.
Hopefully you feel the same. PR wire info follows “The Silent Ghost of Doom” below.
Enjoy:
Miss Lava, “The Silent Ghost of Doom” official video
Portugal’s volume merchants, MISS LAVA, will drop the deliciously riff raging sounds of their Sonic Debris full-length via Small Stone Recordings next month.
As a precursor to its release comes the visual accompaniment to “The Silent Ghost Of Doom.” The second single from Sonic Debris, “The Silent Ghost Of Doom” clip was directed by Bruno Simões with direction of photography by Mr. Ivo Cordeiro (the team behind MISS LAVA’s “Black Rainbow” video). “To shoot this video, we went to Lisbon’s old athenaeum — the Ateneu Comercial de Lisboa,” elaborates drummer, J. Garcia. “The historic scenery set the right vibe for the song.”
“This is a loud one that shouts about freeing yourself from tedium, apathy and past time glories,” adds vocalist Johnny Lee. “The broken mirror sights the silent ghost of doom.”
Sonic Debris will be released May 20th and come available on CD and 180-gram light blue vinyl limited to 500 units. For preorders go toTHIS LOCATIONwhere you’ll also hear a stream of opening track “Another Beast Is Born.”
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 28th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Welsh cosmic wanderers Sendelica celebrate their 10th anniversary with a run through the UK, Germany and Italy that kicks off with a weekender tomorrow and continues into mid and late May. The prolific space rockers are heading out in time for the release of their latest album, The Cromlech Chronicles, which is due May 29 but available now to stream in its entirety, including its 24-minute opening suite, arriving in four-parts to ensure that the beginning of the record is as far out as humanly possible.
The dates are below for the tour, as well as the info for The Cromlech Chronicles, and of course the stream. Dig if you dig:
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING LOTS OF FRIENDS, OLD AND NEW
SENDELICA 10TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR PART ONE:- FRI 29TH APRIL COSMIC PUFFIN, MERSEA ISLAND, UK SAT 30TH APRIL CELLAR BAR, CARDIGAN, UK SAT 14TH MAY RE-STRUNG HARP, FOLKESTONE, UK WEDS 18TH MAY IMMERHIN, WURZBURG, GERMANY THURS 19TH MAY CIRCUS MAXIMUS, KOBLENZ, GERMANY FRI 20TH MAY SECRET GIG, UDINE, ITALY SAT 21ST MAY ROCK FESTIVAL AT PRIAMAR FORTRESS, SAVONA, ITALY SUN 22ND MAY CENTRALE ROCK, ERBA, ITALY TUE 24TH MAY ALTRAQUANDO, ZERO BRANCO, ITALY WEDS 25TH MAY ARCI TAZIBAO, TORTONA (IL), ITALY THURS 26TH MAY CAFE LIBER, TURINO, ITALY SUN 29TH MAY GAMES FOR MAY FESTIVAL, HALF MOON, PUTNEY, LONDON, UK SAT 4TH JUNE TIPI IN CARDIGAN, UK
As part of their warm-up for last year’s ’13th Dream’ festival, Sendelica went into a studio in deepest, darkest Wales to record a new album for FdM. The Mwnci Studio (promounced ‘Monkey’) is a short walk from a cromlech (an ancient megalithic monument dating back over 3000 years) that features on the gatefold sleeve. Played live, with the minimum of overdubs, the album showcases the band’s extended instrumental side – with all-new songs.
Pete Bingham : Guitars / Electronics Glenda Pescado : Bass Lee Relfe : Sax Lord Sealand: Keys and Theremin Meurig Griffith : Drums
[Click play above to stream Joy’s Ride Along in full. Album is out this Friday, April 29, on Tee Pee Records.]
San Diego trio Joy made their debut on Tee Pee Records in 2014 with their second album overall, Under the Spell of… (review here), a jammy, boogie-loaded outing that seemed to distill much of what has become identified with the boom in Californian heavy, particularly centered around San Diego in bands like Radio Moscow and Earthless. Joy‘s exclamatory third LP, Ride Along!, continues the thread, features contributions from members of those two outfits as well as labelmates Sacri Monti, and refines the band’s approach both in its making — guitarist/vocalist Zach Oakley also stepping up to produce at San Diego’s Audio Design Studios — and in style, Oakley, returning bassist Justin Hulson and new drummer Thomas DiBenedetto (also Sacri Monti) stripping away some of the expanse songs on their last outing offered in favor of a more straightforwardly structured approach, if one still presented through torrents of winding blues riffs, fervent psychedelic boogie and heavy-minded grooves.
The elements are familiar — guitar, bass, drums, vocals, a flash of organ on “Red, White and Blues” and elsewhere, acoustics on “Peyote Blues,” etc. — but it’s the energy Joy bring to their delivery and the turns their material makes that ultimately distinguish them from the crowded West Coast heavy sphere, and in accordance with being of their place and of the heavy ’10s pastiche, Ride Along! issues an invitation that’s hard to refuse as it careens through its 10-track/40-minute run with little care for what or whom it leaves in its dust.
If a release like Ride Along! is going to work in the slightest, vibe is essential, and fortunately, Joy have it in spades. As guest personnel come and go, the band retains a solid — and by solid I mean utterly molten — foundation of hard-hitting blues boogie, the entirety of side A making for an opening salvo that seems to have launched only to launch again, retaining momentum across the first three cuts, “I’ve Been Down (Set Me Free),” “Misunderstood” and “Evil Woman” just to propel itself yet again with the infectious “Going Down Slow” and the ZZ Top cover, “Certified Blues,” which caps the first half of the record. In that span, Joy still find room to jam, whether that’s the layers of guitar on “Going Down Slow” or extended solo section in “Evil Woman” — she’s evil because she left, if you’re wondering — both of which traffic in wah-drenched gnarl, “Evil Woman” adding a touch of organ along the way or at least seeming to as it winds its way toward a return to the hook.
Classic heavy is a touchstone there as on the preceding “Misunderstood” and “I’ve Been Down (Set Me Free),” but the sing-along shuffle chorus of the opener sets the tone for a natural, live-tracked feel that may owe even more than it realizes to the likes of Nebula even as it seems to be Oakley working on his own and pushing up against Radio Moscow-style rhythmic insistence. Speaking of, that band’s guitarist/vocalist, Parker Griggs, shows up on “Peyote Blues,” and Earthless drummer Mario Rubalcaba contributes to “Evil Woman” and side B’s “Red, White and Blues,” the former also featuring Sacri Monti‘s Brenden Dellar on guitar alongside Oakley. The guest spots are a welcome touch — not going to argue against hearing any of those people play — but Joy make the album’s primary impression on their own, twisting and turning to start side B with “Help Me,” a rawer sound adding elements of unhinged garage rock that suit them well amid the maddening insistence of DiBenedetto‘s drumming.
Its stomp no less riotous than “I’ve Been Down (Set Me Free)” at the start of the record, “Help Me” pushes into “Red, White and Blues,” which hardly tops three minutes but remains a standout for how it begins to push against the straightforward take much of Ride Along! has to this point presented, refusing to return from its solo section jam and instead giving way to the acoustic/percussion fade-in of “Peyote Blues,” which seems a kind of companion to “Death Hymn Blues” from Under the Spell of…, though more brightly psychedelic. The entrance of drums and electrified soloing near the halfway point builds to a head, and though the roots might be similar, “Peyote Blues” turns out to be arguably the most adventurous arrangement on the album. Even so, it seems to thrust its way toward the finish, leading to the all-swing-all-the-time “Ride Along!,” on which Oakley howls out the LP’s title line and adds a kind of far-back atmospheric sense as it fades out long but ultimately quickly, letting closer “Gypsy Mother’s Son” cap Ride Along! on a spacier, fuzzier note.
Also the longest inclusion at 6:27, it basks in the chemistry between Oakley, Hulson and DiBenedetto, lead lines tossed in over warm basslines and enviable snare shuffle, wah, vocal reverb, weighted shove — and finally, the departure into the jam at about three minutes in, drums leading the way out on a (temporary) boogie excursion that effectively captures stage-born vitality as the entirety of Ride Along! has been doing all the while. They turn back to the chorus, offer a big rock finish, decide they’re not done, ride out another measure or two, and cut “Gypsy Mother’s Son” cold to end. One can almost hear a crowd erupt. And who would argue? Joy‘s fleet-footed turns, their catchy songs, their balance between tripped-out effects and air-tight performances assure that, once again, they live up to their name. They’ve had a few jammier releases in addition to their proper studio albums, so I wouldn’t necessarily expect Joy to be finished altogether with the kind of acid-vibed explorations they previously honed, but it would be wrong to ignore the quality of the work they’ve done in carving these songs out of those jams in the meantime.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
In a little less than a month, Long Island prog-metallers Moon Tooth head out on tour to support their latest album, Chromaparagon, which was released in February. They’ll be doing essentially a month-long swing down and back up the Eastern Seaboard, playing New England with Warm at the end of May, pushing into the South early in June, and then cutting back north, meeting up with Boston trio Rozamov to continue into Upstate New York and into Canada for shows in Montreal and Toronto before rounding out June 20 in Burlington, Vermont.
All put together, it’s a not inconsiderable run, and hardly Moon Tooth‘s first, the band over the last several years having basically forced their way into East Coast the progressive consciousness through hard work and volume. As noted below, this is the first time both of these acts will hit Canada, and Rozamov do so ahead of the release of their much anticipated debut album, due out later this year. They’ll apparently be playing new material at these shows.
Word came down the PR wire:
Long Island progressive sludge rock weirdos Moon Tooth and Boston atmospheric sludge mongers Rozamov have announced a string of dates together this June. This will be both bands’ first excursion north of the border, hitting both Montreal and Toronto on this run. Moon Tooth are supporting their self released debut LP “Chromaparagon” which has reached numbers 85 and 120 on the Hard Rock and Best New Artist charts respectively.
Rozamov recently wrapped up the recording for their own first full length, and will be airing songs from the album on this run. Last year saw Rozamov release “Ghost Divine” on a split with Deathkings via Midnite Collective.
June 16th – Kingston, NY @ The Anchor June 17th – Rochester, NY @ Monty’s Krown June 18th – Montreal, CAN @ Crobar June 19th – Toronto, CAN @ Smiling Buddha June 20th – Burlington, VT @ Nectar’s
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
I’m just going by what I see in the photo and read in the PR wire info below, but it seems fair enough to expect Methra‘s forthcoming Acolyte long-player to sound somewhat… bigger… than their preceding EP, IV: Ronkonkoma (review here), which the Tucson-based duo released in 2014. The new full-length, which is also their debut on Battleground Records, is out July 4, and based around an apparent affection for Peavey amps and a concept of secret murder conspiracies and upwards of 69 guitar tracks, sounds like it’s going to be weird as hell, which I kind of dig. I wouldn’t dare speculate as to how it might actually come across without hearing it, but “big” seems like a safe enough bet. So I’ll roll with that.
The aforementioned photo and announcement from the PR wire:
METHRA: Battleground Records Confirms Impending Acolyte Debut LP From Tucson Sludge Degenerates
Tucson, Arizona-based marauders METHRA have completed their arduous Acolyte LP for Summer release through Battleground Records, the record sure to prove itself as one of the most bafflingly gnarly sludge metal releases of the year.
METHRA is comprised two self-proclaimed fat weirdos who believe in making heavy music for heavy people, drummer Andy Kratzenberg (Godhunter) and guitarist Nick Genitals (Limbless Torso) recorded the bulldozing Acolyte in late 2015 at Arcane Digital (North Side Kings, Unruh, Landmine Marathon) with Ryan Butler who complained of physical and mental anguish due the bands’ unorthodox recording demands. The band used only incredibly large speakers to record a behemoth load of sixty-nine guitar tracks – for a total of ten songs that is — including 15″ and 18″ speakers, and a 21″subwoofer.
The rough concept of Acolyte is based on persistent online rumors that a cabal of top amplifier manufacturers had Hartley Peavey killed and replaced with a doppelganger in the late 80s to stop the company from collapsing the industry due to low price points on the highest quality original amplifiers in the world.
In deference to the great glory of this nation and the announcement of a sequel to the game-changing blockbuster film Independence Day, METHRA has decided to give a very special 4th of July release to Acolyte, which will happen through the regulation of Battleground Records on colored vinyl and digital deliveries. Album art, audio samples including two videos, preorders, live dates, and other propaganda will be issued in the coming days.
Wade patiently into the murky depths of Stone Machine Electric‘s first single from their new album, Sollicitus es Veritatem, and imagine that the Texas two-piece are setting the stage on which, as the title indicates, nightmares might become reality. Of course, the nightmare they’re talking about — at least if the album artwork is anything to go by — is 30-plus years of Republican anti-government rhetoric coming home to roost, but that otherworldly sense of darkness is evident in the opening of “I am Fire” as well. And as much as Stone Machine Electric — the duo of guitarist/vocalist William “Dub” Irvin and drummer/vocalist/Thereminist Mark Kitchens — teased jammy vibes with their late 2015 EP, The Amazing Terror (review here), “I am Fire” does wind up with a hook to go with its rolling groove, centering the nightmare in a real-world structure.
As much as this is the real world, anyway.
As previously announced, The Obelisk is presenting Stone Machine Electric‘s release show for Sollicitus es Veritatem, which takes place at The Grotto in Fort Worth on May 27 and finds Dub and Kitchens joined by Fogg, Thinman Conspiracy and The FTW. My reasoning for climbing on board for said event was pretty simple: I dig Stone Machine Electric a lot. Their material has always kind of a weirdo underpinning, whether they’re working in open structured jams or more grounded songcraft, and in combination with a richness of tone often captured by Wo Fat‘s Kent Stump, the appeal is that you never quite know what Stone Machine Electric are going to do next. You’ll know what I mean as “I am Fire” jumps from its intro into the nod of the first verse. They’re still able to catch their audience off guard. I like that.
Sollicitus es Veritatem is out May 17 — though if you’re in Europe, you can apparently buy copies from Wo Fat‘s merch table now — and you can find the premiere of the “I am Fire” video below.
Please enjoy:
Stone Machine Electric, “I am Fire” official video
The Obelisk presents “I Am Fire” – the first track off Stone Machine Electric’s anticipated album “Sollicitus Es Veritatem”. The new album is set to be released May 17th, 2016.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Granted, the title Horta could refer to any number of different things. Any number of them. Horta is an ancient city in Italy. It’s a municipality in the Azores. It’s a Greek delicacy, an Etruscan goddess, on and on. You see where this is going, right? My brain puts Horta immediately in its most Star Trek-ian context as the silicon-based lifeform that killed all those miners in the one episode of the original series. I can’t help it. Spock had to mind-meld with it and it turned out it was just trying to protect its eggs, on and on. I can’t be the only one who remembers that episode. Such loneliness.
Among the many other things Horta is, it’s the forthcoming second LP from Italian trio Indivia, who have signed to Argonauta Records for the release. Due out this fall, to hear the PR wire tell it. There’s a new song streaming now as well:
NEW SIGNING: Indivia, Stoner Doom from Italy!
We’re more than proud to welcome an intriguing new name in the Argonauta Records family: INDIVIA, from Italy, authors of an exciting Stoner Doom Rock!
Indivia (Cichorium endivia, from the greek word) arises in a basement somewhere between the lowlands of Padova (Italy), during the autumn of 2012, due to the meeting between Andrea (guitar) and Nathalie (drums). In 2013, after the consequent entry of Diego (bass), the power trio starts organizing gigs under a fake name (Wedge), releasing its first 4-track EP ‘Belladonna’ (totally self-released) in 2014. In December 2015 the band recorded the second album, ‘Horta’, still unpublished.
The trio plays a blackened version of stoner doom through an experimental and hypnotic mood, highlighting the monolithic wall of sound, being influenced by bands as Sleep, Black Sabbath, Conan, Karma to Burn and Bongzilla, accompanied by green vibrations coming from the underground, raw fuzz, pierced eardrums, and vinegar.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Seems I missed a recent announcement from Keep it Low 2016 — aka Keep it Low Issue #4 — whereby the Munich-based autumnal gathering added Kind, 1000mods and Duel to its lineup. All three interesting picks. It’ll be Kind‘s first time abroad, and working with Duel means involvement from Heavy Psych Sounds, so it’s not such a surprise that in the latest round of additions, we also get Black Rainbows joining on. Elder take their place at/near the top of the bill as well, and probably the biggest question there is for Keep it Low 2016 at this point is whether or not the new Elder LP, which I hear is in the works, will be out by the time October gets here. I know I’m curious as hell to know what the trio have come up with this time around.
Also bringing their formidable presence to Keep it Low 2016 are Greenleaf, whose new album, Rise Above the Meadow, stands tall among the finest heavy rockers of the year so far, and the previously announced Monkey3, Colour Haze and Toner Low. It already looked like a good time. Now it looks like an even better one.
Dig it:
Keep It Low – Festival 2016 gets even better with the addition of:
– Massachusetts’ ultimate progressive stoner rock trio Elder (whose last album “Lore” is considered as one of the best releases of 2015),
– Sweden´s fantastic Heavy Rockers Greenleaf (who released their new album “Rise Above The Meadow” via Napalm Records in February),
– and Italian fuzz-fueled rockers BLACK RAINBOWS (who released a few weeks ago their fifth LP “Stellar Prophecy” via HeavyPsych Sounds)!
– the Hellenic grooviest psychedelic quartet 1000mods,
– the brand new Texas-based southern heavy rock outfit DUEL (featuring 2 ex Scorpion Child members)
– and Boston’s tripped out stoner doom supergroup KIND_band (featuring members of Elder, Black Pyramid, Sasquatch, Roadsaw and Rozamov).
Kind released their debut album “Rocket Science” last year via Ripple Music, Duel unleashed their first full length “Fears Of The Dead” in February via Heavy Psych Sounds, and 1000Mods are currently working on their third one, to be released next fall.
IMPORTANT: Our Early Bird action lasts until Monday, May 1st! You can purchase yours onhttp://woolheads.com/but be quick! E-Tickets are also available onhttp://www.eventim.de/
Elder, New Song Live at the Sinclair, Cambridge, MA, 03.16.16
