Posted in Whathaveyou on October 9th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Swedish outfit Avatarium, who feature in their ranks none other than Candlemass bassist and songwriter Leif Edling, are set to release their second album later this month. Dubbed The Girl with the Raven Mask, it will follow-up their 2013 self-titled debut, and will see release in Europe on Nuclear Blast Oct. 23 and in North America in cooperation with Metalville Records on Oct. 30.
Art, tracklisting and release info follow, courtesy of the PR wire:
SWEDISH DOOM METALLERS AVATARIUM SET TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM THIS FALL
THE GIRL WITH THE RAVEN MASK OUT OCTOBER 30TH
Founded in 2012 by bassist Leif Edling (ex-CANDLEMASS) and guitarist Marcus Jidell (EVERGREY), Swedish-based doom act AVATARIUM, are set to release their magnum opus The Girl With The Raven Mask in North America on October 30th as part of a joint licensing venture between Nuclear Blast Records and Metalville Records.
Recorded and mixed in the Ghostward Studio in Gröndal, Stockholm with engineer David Castillo (BLOODBATH, OPETH, KATATONIA) at the helm, The Girl With The Raven Mask follows the group’s first EP Moonhorse (2013), a highly acclaimed self-titled debut that same year, and a second EP All I Want (2014).
“The quest for the perfect studio wasn’t that easy,” states Jidell, who also produced the record. “To get the right feel, drums, guitar, bass and some keys were recorded live. It was extremely important to find the right studio and the right equipment to make the album sound like we wanted.”
AVATARIUM, which also features Jennie-Ann Smith (vocals), Lars Sköld (drums), and Carl Westholm (keyboards), once again had the pleasure to work with Michael Blair (TOM WAITS, LOU REED) who emerged as guest percussionist. “He did his usual magic and helped us to catch a little of that cool old school vibe we were looking for,” Jidell confirms.
The Girl With The Raven Mask is not only the name of the album but also the opening track. It is the shortest song on the record at just over four minutes. Jidell explains, “It is an up-tempo hard rock/doom number with a very strong lyric made by Leif about a little girl with a big raven head mask. The song asks questions like: Who is she and what did she experience? What is it that she doesn’t want us to see?”
The band’s musical aim on the forthcoming album was to continue the philosophy and atmosphere they had created on their on their self-titled album and the All I Want EP.
“We want to catch the vibe of our heroes, bands like MOUNTAIN, RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, CROSBY, STILLS & NASH and LED ZEPPELIN, to make organic sounding music but to combine that with the raw and heavy sound of today. The songs all have their own soul and touch, we really wanted to have a nice flow on the album and to make something different both musical and lyrical wise. We wanted to keep the energy in all the individual performances and at the same time allowed the songs to grow the way they needed,” Jidell closes.
This is evident in the lengths of the tracks. None of the songs (except the title track) are shorter than five minutes, taking listeners on an epic prog-rock journey.
The Girl With The Raven Mask track listing: 1. Girl With The Raven Mask 2. The January Sea 3. Pearls And Coffins 4. Hypnotized 5. Ghostlight 6. Run Killer Run 7. Iron Mule 8. The Master Thief
Posted in Features, Reviews on April 13th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
04.13.14 — 22:38 — Sunday night — Hotel Mercure, Tilburg
I own one really nice pair of socks. They’re black, a name brand, and I don’t know when I picked them up, but they breathe, they’re comfortable, and most of all, they fit my silly clown feet. As someone who doesn’t usually wear shoes that require socks let alone the socks themselves if he can help it, these socks are where it’s at. I took them out of my luggage on Friday and went to put them on and I was like, “What the hell am I doing? I’ve still got three more days here! I can’t waste the good socks!”
Well, today I wore the good socks. The occasion was as fitting as any: the Roadburn 2014 Afterburner, a stripped down, laid back incarnation of Roadburn proper that closes out each year. Three stages. For me the big difference was in how I decided to approach the schedule. Apart from needing to be at the Main Stage in time to take pictures, I didn’t worry about getting up front, or getting somewhere 25 minutes beforehand. I let myself be a little freer to roam around. I don’t have up-close shots of everything I saw, but it was good to experience the fest like I think a lot of people do, just wandering back and forth between the rooms, enjoying the music in one, going back to the last, going back to the next and so on. In any case, I’ve no regrets.
After finishing the final issue of the Weirdo Canyon Dispatch, the day began with a moving tribute to former The Devil’s Blood guitarist, the late Selim Lemouchi from players who knew him, including his sister and ex-The Devil’s Blood frontwoman Farida Lemouchi, billed as Selim Lemouchi’s Enemies and playing the 2014 Earth Air Spirit Water Firealbum from Lemouchi‘s post-The Devil’s Blood project, Selim Lemouchi and His Enemies. There were 10 people on stage — two drummers, four guitars, bass, two keyboards, and Farida Lemouchi on vocals, honoring her brother by playing his songs. It was a powerful experience to be sure, in part because of the otherworldly feel of the music, but even more just on the emotional level of those involved, still clearly grieving the loss.
It felt somewhat voyeuristic to be taking photos in front of the stage. I’d never flatter myself into thinking that being in the photo pit, particularly on a stage so high, effects the performance one way or another, I just mean that these were people in mourning. His sister especially. I cannot and would not imagine that loss, and to have it so soon after, when all people still just have nothing more than dogma and hollow epithets to offer for the sense of injustice you feel. In a way it was the heaviest set of the weekend, but it was also beautiful, the band playing to images of Selim projected behind the songs with which he was moving on from The Devil’s Blood and into unknown sonic territory. I’ve heard from several natives how much he’s missed, And you could tell watching the players on stage that Lemouchi was well loved, even by his Enemies.
There was what felt like a moment of exhale when they were done, a picture of Lemouchi left on the projector screen on the empty stage, and in the Green Room, extreme Swiss duo Bölzer went on seemingly with the intent to blast their way through the reverent spirit with a filth-caked maelstrom. To be fair, they would’ve blasted through any kind of atmosphere; hardly seemed like a personal thing. It was kind of a jump from one end of the spectrum to the other, and they were a standout on and otherwise psych-heavy Green Room lineup of Aqua Nebula Oscillator, who opened, The Papermoon Sessions, New Keepers of the Water Towers, Harsh Toke and Lumerians. Coming out of the Main Stage room still wowed by the raw human spirit of what I’d just seen, my head wasn’t in it for Bölzer, but I was in a clear minority. Not only was the Green Room full, but the hallway outside was full too. Couldn’t get near them.
That would be a kind of running theme soon enough, but Avatarium were next on the Main Stage. The Stockholm natives released their self-titled debut last fall on Nuclear Blast, and are notable also for boasting Candlemass bassist and principle songwriter Leif Edling in their lineup, but Edling was absent owing to illness so Avatarium played with a fill-in and treated the crowd to their progressive melodic metal, vocalist Jennie-Ann Smith borrowing cadences from Ronnie James Dio (a better source than most) and leading the five-piece into a set that sounded ready for any number of summer festivals over here. A little clean for my personal tastes, but well performed by the band, who were not long in distinguishing themselves from Candlemass. Pretty much immediate, actually.
Papermoon, the collaboration between Electric Moon and Papir, was happening in the Green Room, and I caught some of that while simultaneously wishing I had been in two places at once to see more of the Sula Bassana set the other night as well as Papir on their own, but every Roadburn requires hard choices. The Papermoon Sessions(review here) debut full-length from the combined unit was a jammer’s joy, and if what I caught of them tonight was anything to go by, it’s worth hoping they do another. YOB were getting ready to go on the Main Stage playing three out of the four cuts on their new album, Clearing the Path toAscend as well as others from the back catalog, and particularly after watching them nail The Great Cessationyesterday, it wasn’t something I could stand the thought of missing.
I debated even typing this, because it sounds like hyperbole, but it’s honest in terms of how I feel about them so I’m going with it. YOB are a once-in-a-generation band. Every generation you get a few landmark acts who not only distinguish themselves from their peers and become influential, but who take the creative lessons of their forebears to a genuinely new place. Sleep did it. Neurosis did it. YOB are doing it. I can’t think of another act from the US who’ve left such a mark in the last decade of heavy. Tonight, guitarist/vocalist Mike Scheidt, bassist Aaron Rieseberg and drummer Travis Foster greeted a crowd as much theirs as any they’re likely to encounter and treated them to essentially the next step in their ongoing progression, taking the lessons of 2011’s Atma(review here) and breaking their own rules with a languid, psychedelic opener and a classic rock finish the sprawl of which is worthy of the entire vinyl side it will no doubt receive upon its release.
Every Roadburn I allow myself to watch one band from the side of the stage. This year it was YOB, and not for the first time. Each of the new songs stood out for a different reason, whether it was the hook of the one that opened their set (track three on the album if I’ve got the order right), the maddening churn of Foster‘s drums leading the way through what I was later told is called “Nothing to Win,” or the patient unfolding of the album opener, played third, which brims with tension and meets a payoff no less rich. They backed the new material with “Adrift in the Ocean” and the title-track from Atmabefore closing out with “Quantum Mystic” from 2005’s classic-to-be, The Unreal Never Lived, which they also performed in full at Roadburn 2012 — that set, like the Candlemass Epicus Doomicus Metallicus set, is out on vinyl now — and giving everyone a moment to let their brains reconstitute. Two nights of YOB in a row. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish there was a third to be had.
Now. Triptykon would be starting their headlining set soon on the Main Stage, but Carlton Melton and Øresund Space Collective keyboardist/all-around aces human being Scott “Dr. Space” Heller were doing a collaborative jam at Cul de Sac that had been on for a couple minutes. I shot over to catch some of that hoping maybe for a place where I could see the band. No dice on that, but I stood in the back for a couple minutes and closed my eyes and grooved out to the ultracosmic vibes. I don’t know if it was all recorded, but Roadburn could do a series of releases just of the jams this year, between this one, Lenny Kaye and Harsh Toke, Niklas Barker and Reine Fiske, Oeds Beydals, Papermoon and so on. Maybe not the best marketing move. I’ve never had much of a nose for business.
Back in the reaches of the 013, the Tom G.Warrior-fronted Triptykon made ready to once again darken the skies of Planet Roadburn, now celebrating their new release, Melana Chasmata, as they celebrated their debut, Eparistera Daimones, by playing their first live performance at the Warrior-curated Roadburn 2010 event, “Only Death is Real.” Three cuts from Warrior‘s prior band, Celtic Frost, were aired — “Messiah” and “Circle of the Tyrants” — but with a brand new record and as the new band moves further away from the old, it only makes sense the focus would be on Triptykon. Joined on stage by guitarist/vocalist V. Santura, bassist Vanja Šlajh and drummer Norman Lonhard, Warrior (né Fischer) was statesmanlike and seething in kind, and while I’m sure they’d already gotten rid of plenty of copies of Melana Chasmata, set-opener “Black Snow,” “Tree of Suffocating Souls,” and “Altar of Deceit” made a compelling argument toward purchase. As release parties go, it was formidable.
About halfway into their set, San Diego’s Harsh Toke — whose jam with Lenny Kaye on Friday has already become a Roadburn 2014 landmark in my mind — hit it in the Green Room, and I decided a little more of the ol’ back and forth was warranted to see them play their own material. I think they made a lot of friends this weekend, and not just by passing out beer cans from the stage (though that never hurts). Their heavy push was right on with or without the psych legend accompanying, and when it came time for me to do so, I decided they were how I wanted to end the night. I stood for a few minutes inside, then a few minutes in the doorway, then I went back to the Main Stage, then back to the Green Room, then upstairs, then back down, then around the foyer of the 013, then back to the doorway of the Green Room, and that was when I got that sinking, nagging feeling that I couldn’t avoid it anymore and my Roadburn was over. Time to leave.
I have many, many people to thank and it’s hit the point where I’m starting to nod off, so I’ll save that for the travel tomorrow, but as an initial blanket statement that I hope provides some warmth: Thank you. So much.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 1st, 2013 by JJ Koczan
Candlemass bassist and principle songwriter Leif Edling returns with Avatarium, who’ve just announced they’ll release their debut EP, Moonhorse, on Nuclear Blast. Pretty good start if I ever heard of one. Auspicious at the very least. Last we heard from Edling (interview here), he was putting the finishing touch on one of doom’s most influential discographies with the final Candlemass album, Psalms for the Dead(review here) on Napalm. An LP of their performance at Roadburn 2011 with original frontman Johan Längquist was also released in June on Svart.
Of course, Candlemass released three records on Nuclear Blast from 2005-2009, so this isn’t Edling‘s first time dealing with the label either. The PR wire sends hopes for future doomage:
AVATARIUM SIGN WORLDWIDE DEAL WITH NUCLEAR BLAST
AVATARIUM, the new band by Swedish doom metal pioneer Leif Edling (CANDLEMASS), is the latest addition to Nuclear Blast’s worldwide roster.
AVATARIUM features Edling on bass, EVERGREY guitarist Marcus Jindell, Lars Sköld of TIAMAT on drums, Carl Westholm of KRUX and JUPITER SOCIETY on keyboards, and Jennie-Ann Smith on vocals.
“AVATARIUM has only been around for about eight months, so we are thrilled to begin the mix of our first album and bring our special dark/heavy/poetic metal music to the masses,” shares Edling from his home in Sweden. “We would like to take our music out to the world and no one does it better than Nuclear Blast. It’s an honor for us to join the Nuclear family!”
“We’ve been fans of Leif Edling’s doom metal since he started making music with NEMESIS,” states Nuclear Blast Germany’s A&R manager Jaap Wagemaker. “We followed him with all his other bands: CANDLEMASS. ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA. KRUX. We’ve also had the pleasure of working with Leif and CANDLEMASS in the past [beginning with 2005’s self-titled CANDLEMASS comeback album], which was a great honor. We were all ears when he contacted us saying he had founded a new band. As soon as we heard the music, we fell in love with it. Great melodies and riffs the way only Leif can write them and angelic vocals by Jennie! Leif did it again! Nuclear Blast is very stoked to announce the return of Leif ‘The Master of Doom’ Edling to the Nuclear family and welcome AVATARIUM to our roster. We simply can’t wait for you to listen to his amazing new band!”
The band’s 3-song Moonhorse EP will be released in North America this fall. The track listing is:
