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-(16)- Announce European Tour Dates with Grime

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 28th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

Long-running Los Angeles sludge aggressives -(16)- were previously announced for Desertfest Belgium 2017 as they continue to support their piledriver of a 2016 outing, Lifespan of a Moth (review here), so it’s not necessarily a huge surprise to find them embarking on a full round of European tour dates, but hey, nice to have it confirmed all the same. The run will start on Oct. 7 — which is in like a week and a half in case you, like me, completely somehow missed the passing of September — and in addition to Desertfest, it’ll find the four-piece making stops at Krakatoa Fest in Italy, as well as playing dates in Switzerland, Hungary, Poland and elsewhere with support from extremist sludge acolytes Grime.

Apparently someone along the way decided not to type out a list of tour dates, instead featuring them in the tour trailer below. I was kind of tempted to make a list out myself, just on principle — because I like words and whatnot — but it seems like a pretty purposeful choice to have made, so yeah, I guess if you want to know where -(16)- are headed, check out the trailer at the bottom of this post.

The PR wire still has some info about the tour though, so here’s that:

16

-(16)- Announce Headline European Tour Dates

Veteran California sludge trailblazers -(16)- have announced headlining European tour dates for this upcoming October. Direct support will be provided by Italy’s Grime. The tour commences on October 7 in Bologna, Italy and ends October 21 in Milano, Italy spanning across ten countries in two weeks. The tour includes an appearance at Desert Fest in Antwerp, Belgium. -(16)- have also been confirmed for Maryland Deathfest 2018 on May 24 in Baltimore, MD.

-(16)-‘s Lifespan Of A Moth is the band’s heaviest, darkest, and most complex material to date! Self-produced by the band and recorded with Jeff Forrest (Cattle Decapitation, The Locust) at Doubletime Recording Studio in San Diego, CA, Lifespan Of A Moth sees the band sounding uglier, rawer and more visceral than ever. Down-tuned feedback-driven riffs and bludgeoning rhythms violently clash with vocalist Cris Jerue’s distorted, tortured howls across eight tracks of -(16)-‘s signature blend of hardcore punk, thrash and sludge. Lifespan Of A Moth is the sound of a band that has spent 25 years wallowing in addiction and anguish, and will leave you feeling crushed and confronted by the negativity of existence.

-(16)- is:
Cris Jerue (vocals)
Bobby Ferry (guitar, vocals)
Barney Firks (bass)
Dion Thurman (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/16Band/
https://16theband.bandcamp.com/
http://twitter.com/16theband
http://16theband.bigcartel.com/
http://www.relapse.com/

16 European tour trailer

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-(16)-, Lifespan of a Moth: Cutting Deeper (Plus Full Album Stream)

Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on July 13th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

16 lifespan of a moth

[Click play above to stream 16’s Lifespan of a Moth in full. Album is out Friday on Relapse.]

It’s now been nearly a decade since Los Angeles sludge metallers 16 — aka -(16)- — were reactivated. In that time, they’ve toured the US and Europe, reissued early material via Relapse Records, which seems to have been the home they were looking for all along, and put together three studio albums, the latest of which is Lifespan of a Moth. Led by founding guitarist/vocalist Bobby Ferry and vocalist Cris Jerue with the newcomer rhythm section of bassist Barney Finks and drummer Dion Thurman, they celebrate a quarter century since their start in 2016, and though the road from then to now has been tumultuous, 16 have become a reliable source for disaffected, aggressive sludge chugging. Their grooves remain thoroughly pissed off on Lifespan of a Moth‘s eight tracks/44 minutes, their lyrics delivered in seething growls and rasps, and as with 2012’s Deep Cuts from Dark Clouds and 2009’s return statement, Bridges to Burn, they have an intensity to their approach that bleeds through regardless of tempo, so that the plodding “The Morphinist” and more upbeat “Secrets of the Curmudgeon” both rage with due force.

Probably worth noting that of their total seven full-lengths, they’ve never had one with so few tracks, but as Lifespan of a Moth is by no means their shortest outing, it means the songs themselves have gotten longer and, I think it can be argued, more expressive. There was an undeniable chaos to records like Drop Out (1996) and Blaze of Incompetence (1997) that stands with the best sludge the US in the ’90s had to offer, East Coast or West Coast, Northern or Southern, but 16 seem to have little interest in pretending the last 20 years never happened, and Lifespan of a Moth finds them honing cynical atmospheres through sonic pummel with an efficiency and maturity that a newer band simply couldn’t share.

Recorded in San Diego at Doubletime Recording Studio, the record begins with sampled beach sounds that soon gives way to a crushing chug riff, raw snare drums and blown-out vocals. “Landloper” is the first of a virulent opening salvo of five-minute tracks, along with “Peaches, Cream and the Placenta” and “The Morphinist,” and between them they essentially act to put up a wall between the four-piece and anyone who might not have the endurance to take on what’s still to come. There’s little interest in letup, but it’s not as if 16 don’t have a dynamic. As “Landloper” thuds to its end — Jerue‘s reverb the last thing to go — it gives way to the slower second cut, just as nasty sounding but more nod than headbang, and “The Morphinist” adds even more stomp to the mix along with lyrics about not trusting doctors, and while there’s some element of chestbeating to it, the riff is undeniable and the track is a highlight.

16 (Photo by Shauna Montrucchio)

“Call me patient zero/This is all in your head” go the lines of the bridge, and though the attitude underlying shows 16‘s punker roots, its thickened lurch leads well into “The Absolute Center of a Pitch Black Heart,” the shortest track on Lifespan of a Moth at 3:25 and a faster push with a near-gallop to its rhythm that sees Thurman nodding briefly at Dave Lombardo on his ping ride and the group as a whole rounding out the album’s first half with a marked departure from those first three tracks, clearly setting up the notion that 16 haven’t yet played their full hand. That turns out to be precisely the case.

In linear editions — i.e. CD or digital — the shift from “The Absolute Center of a Pitch Black Heart” to “Gallows Humor” feels no less marked than one expects it would be if it required getting up to flip over the vinyl. Aside from the fact that “Gallows Humor” is the longest track on Lifespan of a Moth at 7:36, it’s also a crawl-and-chug instrumental with either an added layer of lead guitar or maybe keys that lend its roll a sense of drama. The effect is similar to what “Landloper” and company brought to side A — a process of weeding out — but immersive and almost hypnotic as it moves through en route to “Secrets of the Curmudgeon,” which adds in some flourish of black metal-style squibblies to the already-established chug to continue the darker ambience fleshing out the rage that’s been so well stated all along.

Penultimate in the tracklist with a break section led by Finks‘ bass, “Pastor in a Coma” is about as close as 16 come to offering a breather, and they’re still plenty of distance from actually doing so. “Pastor in a Coma” might be the apex of Lifespan of a Moth, and its loud/quiet tradeoff would seem to show that the band have more to say stylistically, but “George” rounds out with a tribute to the Seinfeld character played by Jason Alexander. Not quite timely, but it’s legitimately hilarious to hear Jerue‘s delivery of “These pretzels are making me thirsty,” so the charm makes up for a lot, and the closer’s fuckall, coupled with the weight of its tones, speaks to a lot of what works about Lifespan of a Moth16 have never wanted for a misanthropic sensibility, and while 25 years is a long time to keep that up even factoring in their breakup after 2002’s Zoloft Smile, they’ve found ways to grow without sacrificing the edge that made them so vitriolic in the first place.

-(16)- on Thee Facebooks

-(16)- on Bandcamp

-(16)- on Twitter

-(16)- at Relapse Records

 

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