It seems early, but here’s one to look forward to for 2014. British doomly four-piece Alunah will have their third full-length out as their debut on Napalm Records, and as a follow-up to last year’s infectious White Hoarhound (review here), I’m excited to hear what they come up with, especially with the inclusion of new bassist Dan Burchmore, who joined them earlier this summer.

As they continue writing and with the prospect of recording ahead of them, Alunah have some quality gigs booked for the interim with the likes of Samsara Blues Experiment, Stubb and Benson Griffin, which is apparently a new Victor Griffin project that teams him with former Goliath vocalist David Benson. More on that to come as well, I’m sure.

Until then, this from the PR wire:

Writing the 3rd album and giving thanks to friends…

Our bassist Dan is now well and truly settled in, he played his first gig with us on the 18th July supporting Karma to Burn, and everyone’s response to him has been great.

Since Dan joined we’ve been locked away in our beloved murder hut deep in the Warwickshire countryside to begin writing for our third album. The three of us have just hit our seven year anniversary together with Alunah, and in that time we’ve been through a lot – mainly good and some bad! However, we’re still going strong with a new band member, and are writing material that we’re ridiculously excited about! Dan has some great ideas, and a majestic style of playing which has brought a new dimension to the Alunah sound. We currently have one of our favourite illustrators working on the artwork, and should have more release news for you towards the end of the year.

We also want to say a massive thank you to Mark at Psychedoomelic Records. Shadow Kingdom have now taken over Psychedoomelic due to Mark concentrating on other things. Mark believed in us by releasing White Hoarhound, he helped open the floodgates and led us to some amazing opportunities. We wish him all the best for the future.

We’ve recently added some new dates to the gig diary, these include a DesertScene promoted London date with fellow Sound of Liberation band Samsara Blues Experiment, and a Birmingham date with Benson Griffin(new project of Victor Griffin – Pentagram / Place of Skulls / In-Graved). All confirmed dates are below, we are also working on a UK tour later in the year. Please get in touch if you are interested in booking Alunah.

10/08 The Snooty Fox, Wakefield: Alunah, The Albion Codex & Rachael Hannah McCaul
View Facebook Event
31/08 The Anvil, Bournemouth: Alunah, Iron Witch, Diesel King, Grifter, Eldorado, Greenhorn & Hummune
View Facebook Event
05/10 Lock 42, Leicester: Alunah, Slow Worm, Mage & Temple of Lies
View Facebook Event
27/10 Asylum 2, Birmingham: Benson Griffin, Alunah, Arkham Witch & Iron Void
12/11 Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton: Mammoth Mammoth, The Quill, Alunah & Gringo
Buy tickets or View Facebook Event
15/11 Borderline, London: Samsara Blues Experiment, Stubb & Alunah
View Facebook Event
29/11 Hard Rock Hell, N Wales w/ Black Star Riders, Nazareth, Crucified Barbara & many others…

Alunah, White Hoarhound (2012)

UK doomers Alunah parted ways with their bassist Gaz — now focusing on his band General — and have just today announced Dan Burchmore as his permanent replacement. He’ll have a considerable task ahead of him in holding down the band’s low end, which as their 2012 offering, White Hoarhound (review here), stands testament, is a big part of their sound.

Alunah, who will debut their new lineup on July 18 with Karma to Burn in their native Birmingham, have some considerable momentum in their favor thanks to the response to White Hoarhound and the roadtime they’ve put in to support the album, plus signing to Napalm Records. I’d expect the addition of Burchmore to the lineup of Soph Day (guitar/vocals), Dave Day (guitar) and Jake Mason (drums) will only lead to more touring, and if so, all the better.

The band (via the PR wire) take it from here:

New Alunah Bass Player

We are proud to introduce Dan Burchmore as our new bass player, replacing Gaz who recently departed amicably to concentrate on his other band General. Dan hails from Rugby in Warwickshire and has spent the last 7 years playing gigs and touring with various bands up and down the country.

Dan says: “I’ve been a fan of Alunah’s work for a while, so it’s an honour to be part of the band, playing with some great musicians and all round great people. Really looking forward to what the future holds and making some heavy sounds!”

Vocalist Soph commented: “We had a few jam sessions with some potential bassists, all great players but we either had no spark or they couldn’t commit to our schedule. So, we put an ad out and received an amazing response, thanks in large to the amount of people on our social network sites spreading the word. One email stood out to us, and we arranged a jam with Dan. We instantly all hit it off, he’s got a great attitude, is an awesome, tight player with a fat sound, plenty of groove and has added something extra to our existing songs. We can’t wait to get on stage with him and introduce him to everyone”.

The new Alunah line-up will be debuted in Birmingham on July 18th at The Asylum2 with Karma to Burn, Desert Storm and Moghul. Special Alunah fan price tickets are available here.

Alunah, White Hoarhound (2012)

Funny, I just last night had Alunah‘s “Oak Ritual” from last year’s White Hoarhound stuck in my head, and now here I am with an excuse to revisit the album. Having already reissued the full-length through Spinning Goblin Productions/Napalm Records, the naturalist British psych-doomers have announced a handful of tour dates as a result of joining forces with Euro-booking powerhouse Sound of Liberation. An announcement on that just came down the PR wire, as well as a link to where one fortunate enough to be within range of going can purchase a ticket to see Alunah at the 02 Academy in Birmingham with Saint Vitus and Mos Generator. Damn that’s a good show.

In case you were also looking for an excuse to revisit White Hoarhound, I humbly submit the following:

ALUNAH JOIN WITH SOUND OF LIBERATION BOOKING & ANNOUNCE FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR DATES!

Alunah are proud to be working with Sound Of Liberation, the well respected booking agency will be handling all future European dates for Alunah, starting with dates in March, April and May. These dates mark Alunah’s first gigs outside of the United Kingdom.

Sound Of Liberation are the booking agency behind such events as DesertFest Berlin, Up in Smoke, Brainbanger’s Ball and Santa Psychedelia. Artists who Alunah will be joining on the roster include Ahab, The Atomic Bitchwax, Belzebong, Black Pyramid, Colour Haze, Fatso Jetson, Truckfighters and Ufomammut amongst many others.

European Alunah Dates:

Sound Of Liberation proudly presents the following Alunah dates. Please forward any European booking enquiries regarding Alunah to contact@soundofliberation.com or visit their website at www.soundofliberation.com. Booking enquiries within the UK should still be forwarded to info@alunah.co.uk.

31/03: Alunah, The Skeletons, Cultura Tres @ Les Combustibles, Paris
27/04: DesertFest Berlin @ Astra Kulturhaus – Berlin, Germany
28/04: Date TBC – email contact@soundofliberation.com for booking requests
29/04: Belzebong, Alunah @ Römer – Bremen, Germany
30/04: Ufomammut, Belzebong, Alunah + 1 TBC @ Club Puschkin – Dresden, Germany
01/05: Date TBC – email contact@soundofliberation.com for booking requests
02/05: Date TBC – email contact@soundofliberation.com for booking requests
03/05: Heavy Days in Doom Town Festival @ Ungdomshuset – Copenhagen, Denmark

Alunah will also be supporting St. Vitus in Birmingham at The O2 Academy on 13th March, reduced £10 tickets are available from Alunah’s Bandcamp!

www.alunah.co.uk
www.alunah.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/alunah.doom

It’s no coincidence that just about every time I post something about UK doomers Alunah, it’s good news. The band, who issued the most chorus-rich White Hoarhound (review here) on CD through PsycheDOOMelic and subsequently signed to Napalm Records heavy imprint Spinning Goblin Productions, have today released the album on vinyl and been added to the lineup for the 2013 Berlin Desertfest. I had the chance to catch Alunah live last year in London and they were right on. Always killer to see cool stuff happen to good bands.

Desertfest sends over word of their addition. Dig it:

ALUNAH (UK)

Today, January 25, is a great day for the English band ALUNAH ! First Napalm Records officially release their 2nd album in vinyl. And then, they are confirmed for the DESERTFEST BERLIN 2013 !! Birmingham based ALUNAH is a Psyche/Stoner/Doom band which unleashes an incredible paganistic sound characterized by thick guitars, a punishing rhythm section, and earthy and hypnotic vocal melodies. Sometimes groovy, oppressive, or downright grimy depending on what the situation calls for, the songs are dark and slow without being downers !

Billed as the “Future of Doom” by Terrorizer Magazine, ALUNAH’s “White Hoarhound”, their 2nd full-length album was released in September 2012 on PsycheDOOMelic Records, and is now officially available on vinyl on Napalm Record !This album is the follow-up to their debut “Call of Avernus” released in late 2010, and their EP “Fall to Earth” in 2008.

Consisting of Soph Day (vocals and guitar), Dave Day (guitar), Gaz Imber (bass) and Jake Mason (drums), ALUNAH have spent the last 6 years building up a reputation for being one of the most hardworking and consistent live bands by playing national dates and festivals (Desertfest London, Desert Storm Birmingham) with international artists such as Fu Manchu, Orange Goblin, Karma to Burn, Acid King, Witchcraft, Graveyard, The Storm and shortly High on Fire !

Even though their reputation as a great live band is already built, they never played beyond UK… Damn !… so many of us have never seen them !

Fortunately, the DESERTFEST BERLIN is here to fix that lack ! Be there !!

Alunah’s rise has been marked and impressive these last several years. The four-piece hail from Birmingham – a pretty good place to be from if you’re into the heavy – and their latest offering is White Hoarhound. The album is their debut for new label PsycheDOOMelic and their second full-length overall behind 2010’s impressive Call of Avernus debut (review here), a split with Queen Elephantine (review here) in 2009 and 2008’s preceding Fall to Earth EP, and the central difference between it and everything the band has done to this point is a clarity of mindset. With White Hoarhound’s seven tracks/47 minutes, what’s most apparent in listening is that Alunah have a much clearer idea than they’ve ever had before of who and what they are as a band. The guitars of Sophie Day and Dave Day are thick, viscous and forward in the mix alongside Gaz Imber’s bass, and Jake Mason’s drums beat out straightforward motion in line with the riffs. They are rarely showy as a band, but these songs deliver quality heaviness, a few standout choruses, and a solidified aesthetic rooted in pagan-style nature-worshiping lyrics. Sophie’s vocals are a defining element, and where in the past I’ve likened her voice to Lori S., that’s never been less true than it is on White Hoarhound. Some similarities remain, but as Sophie begins to come into her own as a singer, she necessarily leaves that and other such influences behind her. One still gets the sense in listening to their second album that Alunah are continuing to develop as a unit, but there are plenty of instances throughout the sophomore LP that show that potential beginning to pay off, both in terms of songwriting, as on the title-cut, and in terms of performance, as on the harmonized acoustic guitar/organ penultimate track, “Oak Ritual I.” The production of Greg Chandler (who also helmed Call of Avernus) and a mixing/mastering job from the increasingly ubiquitous Tony Reed finds the album moody but crisp, and with a darker atmosphere around them than last time out, the doom in Alunah’s sound has never come across better than it does here.

As on the debut, that doom comes tempered with a fuzz rock mentality that ties these tracks closely to the riffs on which they’re founded. Alunah would hardly be the first band to be driven by the progressions of their guitars, but it sets up a singularity of approach that plays out across much of White Hoarhound. I don’t necessarily think it’s a detriment to the album, however, since the mood is varied along the way and the unit don’t tie themselves to just one structure. That is, not every verse sounds the same, not every riff sounds the same, not every song winds up in the same place. So while it’s the riffs being followed, the destination changes. They touch on psychedelia here and there, as in the very intro of the album on opener “Demeter’s Grief,” but on the whole, it’s a doomier kind of sound than last time out, thicker, with Gaz’s bass right up front playing off Sophie and Dave’s guitars. No complaints there. The grooves are weighted but not drudging, and “Demeter’s Grief” does a solid job in setting up the listener for what’s to come throughout the album, shifting smoothly between a slower verse and more upbeat chorus, catchy and memorable with semi-mystical lyrics that serve as a distinguishing factor throughout the whole of White Hoarhound, including on the title-track, which follows and features the best of the album’s choruses. Sophie layers and backs herself on vocals, and the song’s musical bounce and vocal cadence comes across not unlike that of Mars Red Sky’s “Strong Reflection,” the heft in the guitars and bass once more not weighing the song down in the slightest. Alunah move into an effective start-stop groove in the second half, playing up the swagger for a brief break before cutting to a section of noise and skillfully bringing back the verse with a gong hit and revitalized purpose. Rightly, they end with the chorus, and shift directly into Mason’s drum intro for “Belial’s Fjord,” which at 8:03 is the longest track on the album, closer “Oak Ritual II” having a longer runtime but ending earlier.

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