Somewhat contrary to the monstrous and somehow still nipple-inclusive design of the album’s cover, the self-titled debut from London-based trio Bright Curse is a thoroughly human and natural-sounding affair. The three-piece, who arrived in London by way of France, offer four extended tracks and an intro that run a heavy psych gamut from the sweet jamming of Colour Haze all the way to the open-spaced vibing of earliest Witchcraft, and while the stylistic shifts they make are interesting enough, what works best about the album is the smoothness with which the lineup of Romain (guitar/vocals), Sammy (bass) and Zach (drums) transition between stretches of bare sonic minimalism to effective fuzzy propulsion, making the most of tradeoffs between loud and quiet in a manner usually reserved for post-metallers while still keeping a focus on the heavy and grooving straightforward aspects of their songwriting. Following opener “A Sonic Wave,” which sure enough is a minute-plus of a single undulating riff, “The Hermit” sets a structural pattern that “Unknown Mistress,” “What’s Beyond the Sun” and closer “Mind Traveller” will all follow to one degree or another that departs from verse/chorus interplay to an instrument-driven build that gives each track both its length and its sense of dynamic apex. What keeps Bright Curse‘s Bright Curse from sounding redundant as a result of this structural similarity is the stylistic shifts between the songs, so that though patterns may repeat, the context for those patterns comes across as fluid and malleable, and the band, which recorded the songs at Rock of London Studio with JB Pilon, who’s since taken over bass duties in place of Sammy.

The element of contrasting loud and quiet stretches is immediate almost from the start, as “A Sonic Wave” gives over its established rolling groove to the subdued low-end beginnings of “The Hermit,” which Sammy opens in ambient rumbles while Romain adds punctuation on the guitar for the first minute until the vocals kick in and the stage is set for Zach‘s entry a short while later and a push not far off from some of what Elder has managed to hone commences, though it moves more into a modern European heavy psych jam, Romain taking a rising solo that the bass follows as Zach holds the flow together. There’s only really been one verse so far, but the song has come a long way, and the instrumental build winds up providing the crux of the motion as it continues to play out, rising to full-toned heights before locking into a sizable riffy groove before the five-minute mark and from there crashing into the from-the-ground-up build that will comprise its last couple minutes, Romain repeating the takeaway line “In my head…” that also appeared earlier in the song as the first lines as setup for another run through the verse and the heavier part of the song. “Unknown Mistress” works in more of a shuffling vein with an effective chorus and delivery from Romain of the title line and a more immediate groove. Here too, Bright Curse take their time in letting the track unfold, but the clearer divisions between verse and chorus — though less ambitious stylistically — suit them well and showcase a knack for the straightforward as well as the less predictable that adds depth to the album. Around the halfway point of the song’s 7:27, they break into a still-moving just jazzier atmospheric stretch that carries past the six-minute mark before a Tool-style return finds Zach adding palpable stomp. They pick up the pace to end somewhat raucous, but a final nod to the chorus gives a last-second sense of symmetry to the whole affair, which never came off as that out of control to start with.

Read more »

Apparently they’ve been at it since 2006, but the new self-titled LP on Bilocation is the first studio full-length from Swedish triple-guitar six-piece Mexicoma. The band shares a hometown — Umeå, in the north of the country — with Meshuggah, Refused, Cult of Luna and Nocturnal Rites, but from what I can tell, there’s not much in common with any of them or much to point sonically to the low temperatures from which Mexicoma hail. Maybe rock is how they stay warm.

I’ve been a sucker for a “John the Revelator” cover since I first heard The Midnight Ghost Train do the song years ago. It’s included as a bonus to Mexicoma‘s self-titled vinyl, and you can hear it below, vocalist Magnus Olsson giving it a gruff, Mark Lanegan-style treatment. First, to the PR wire:

BILOCATION #10

You’re about to witness one of the heaviest bands of the gerne. These 6 dudes (incl. 3 guitars and 1 heavenly hellish voice) from Sweden bring you an earth shattering melange of stoner rock, doom and metal. So heavy, so melodic, so unique … no need to categorize any further, just listen for yourself …

BANDINFO

Since the beginning in 2006, Mexicoma has grown from being a clean-cut stonerband to expressing a much more ambient and heavier sound. Just as a good whiskey, Mexicoma has needed the time to age and evolve to get the right taste. The earlier flirt with the 70s and more peeled off sound, has developed into a heavier and saturnine presence, without discarding their riff-based foundations. The sound today is easiest described as heavy-hearted and transformative, but at the same time still captivating and progressive.

Mexicoma’s self-titled EP is far from the first recordings, still the release is stated as the first official issue. Although the band has been a part of Swedish scene in the north for several years, the time is now to reap what once was sown. Mexicoma is ready to conquer both the international scene as well as, once again, the Swedish one.

VINYL FACTZ

- 300 copies total: 200x transparent yellow / (100x transparent red-SOLD OUT)
– transparent red vinyl exclusively available from Kozmik Artifactz incl. tarot card signed by the band
– all high-quality heavy 180g vinyl pressed in Germany
– matte laquered 300gsm gatefold cover
– handnumbered

TRACKS

Side A:
1. 5.27 (7:04)
2. Pray (6:14)
3. Relentless (5:02)
Side B:
4. Truth Been Told (4:20)
5. Bright Black Day (3:50)
6. Omega Doom (7:27)
Bonustrack:
7. John The Revelator (Cover) (6:43)
Total 40:40

www.kozmik-artifactz.com
www.bilocationrecords.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/bilocationrecords

Mexicoma, “John the Revelator” (Blind Willie Johnson cover)

Science — whose greatest hits include gravity and, more recently, the Higgs boson — has proven time and again that Dutch trio Toner Low are as heavy as, if not heavier than, your face. Next month, the heft purveyors will unleash their first album in five years, III, on CD, tape and LP.

Not much of a surprise, but it sounds heavy as hell. Toner Low‘s fattened fuzz is many things, and in the trailer posted below, which feature song samples from the upcoming, you can find out just a few of the descriptors that the band use for themselves. Spoiler alert: “Meaner” is included. Enjoy:

When the time comes, you can get yourself some Toner Low at their BigCartel store.

Bilocation Records, which previously handled the 2LP issue of Cortez‘s Cortez full-length (review here), has released a CD of the album, and well, you’re probably going to want to check it out. The maddeningly catchy Boston-based heavy rockers’ debut album was a long time in the making, and every bit worth the wait. Cortez also still have copies of the vinyl edition (though very few) available through their Bandcamp, and if you haven’t actually heard the record, I grabbed the player so you can check it out below:

The self titled Cortez album which was released on double vinyl LP in 2012 has been released on CD via Bilocation Records. The CD contains and 8 page booklet and artwork by Alexander Von Wieding. It is available via our Bandcamp page for $12.00 plus shipping. The track-listing is:

1. Johnny
2. All Hail
3. Until We Die
4. Ride On
5. Wormwood
6. Beyond The Mountain
7. Monolith
8. Nostrum
9. Satan
10. Northlander
11. Nice Try

You can buy it here: http://cortezboston.bandcamp.com/album/cortez

I know it hasn’t yet been a full month since I reviewed Wight‘s Through the Woods into Deep Water, but it actually arrived much earlier than that, and in a lot of ways, the second album from the German stonerly trio has summed up the crux of my summer. It’s languid in some parts and unrepentantly heavy in others, and as we round out this weekly feature and approach Labor Day — the traditional end of summer here in the States, at least as regards back-to-school time and vacationing — there doesn’t seem to be a single record that comes to mind more than Wight‘s as having been such a regular feature throughout the season.

Whether it was the bleak weirdness of “Kiss Your Friends Goodbye” or the reconfigured Pentagram riffing of “I Spit on Your Grave,” the sleepy psychedelia of the title-track or the dirty blues of “You!,” Wight‘s jam-ready platter made for an easy go-to, suitable to any number of moods and atmospheres. In the car, in the yard and in the office (where I was more than anywhere else these past few months), the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Rene Hofmann, bassist/saxophonist Peter-Philipp Schierhorn and drummer Michael Kluck proved malleable to whatever was going on at the time, and the songs made a reliable fit, no matter what.

If you go back over the past Album of the Summer of the Week picks, you’ll notice that none of them were from this year. A couple from 2011, and others scattered throughout the past few decades, but Through the Woods into Deep Water is the only 2012 pick for this whole series of posts and that’s on purpose. There are a ton of records I’ve been immersed in for review and just general listening purposes, but Wight has been a consistent presence throughout the last couple months and I continue to appreciate its varied and rich atmospherics even as I tilt my head back and just let the riff of “Master of Nuggets” carry me where it will.

In case you’ve not yet had the chance to be carted off by their boogie shuffle or bass heavy grooving, here’s Wight‘s Through the Woods into Deep Water in its entirety, courtesy of their Bandcamp page, where the album is available in an array of CD and LP editions: 

“Clear-headed” probably isn’t a fitting descriptor for something so fuzzed out as Through the Woods into Deep Water, but in trying to sum up the progression of German stoner trio Wight on their second album, nothing else quite fits. The Darmsdadt three-piece made their debut early in 2011 with the Sabbathian heavy psych of Wight Weedy Wight (review here), and for all the potential that record showed, the follow-up seems to be the band taking their sound to a new level. What that means, essentially, is a more professional approach all around and a firmer idea of what they want their style to be. Hence “clear-headed.” Available through Bilocation Records as a limited double-vinyl or in a Fat and Holy Records CD digipak edition of 500 with a foldout poster of the Arik Roper artwork, the physical presentation of Through the Woods into Deep Water is just one way in which the band has developed from their already impressive beginnings. The nine-track/58-minute release shares in part with its predecessor the recording work of Jorge Medina – Lorenz “Lolo” Blümler also engineered five of the songs – and there are sonic consistencies on account of that, but on the whole the mix is better and guitarist/vocalist Rene Hofmann, oft-sunglassed bassist/saxophonist Peter-Philipp Schierhorn (also of black metallers Fallen Tyrant) and drummer Michael Kluck have more of a sense of what they want to do as a band. Songs blend elements from modern European heavy jamming, as on the thoroughly-percussed, thoroughly-soloed instrumental opening stretch of the 11:20 “Southern Comfort and Northern Lights,” with classic heavy rock boogie and shuffle – see “Master of Nuggets” – and the organic live feel of the first album is maintained even as Hofmann layers solos over top of each other and he and Schierhorn come together in sub-harmony for creepy opener “Kiss Your Friends Goodbye,” giving a sense of foreboding to what might otherwise just seem to be stonerly shenanigans and weighted jamming.

Not to say that stonerly shenanigans and weighted jamming aren’t part of it and a big part at that –Wight maintain a lighthearted atmosphere even in darker moments like the opener or the somber acoustic interlude “Halfway to Infinity” – but altogether, Through the Woods into Deep Water is a more professional record than was Wight Weedy Wight on nearly every level. More importantly, it’s among the best representations of next-gen heavy rock and psych that I’ve heard this year. The band’s songwriting purpose is clearly established, but a loose vibe is maintained, and even as Kluck crashes to emphasize the dooming plod of “Kiss Your Friends Goodbye” and the creepy lines, “My lap will be your graveyard/Kiss your friends goodbye,” are repeated in a manner reminiscent of a thicker take on The Kings of Frog Island, there’s something laid back in Wight’s mood that doesn’t take away as much from the threat as makes it even more vague and mysterious. After five minutes in, the opening fades and a slow, open jam fades up, underscored by Hofmann’s organ work. It’s a curious transition, but just as likely intended to defy expectation as anything else. As an introduction, it sets you up to not know what’s coming next. Fitting since what’s coming next is “I Spit on Your Grave,” an almost direct port of the riff to Pentagram’s classic “Forever My Queen.” Now, I don’t hold it against a band like Wight to cull parts from a band like Pentagram – it’s so obvious here what’s going on sonically and they take it somewhere else in the chorus, so I don’t at all get the sense that they’re trying to pass that riff as something they just came up with. Hell, even the drums are same in the intro. By the halfway point, however, it’s clear “I Spit on Your Grave” is repurposing more than it’s simply adopting, and the song puts that classic musical hook to good use. After five minutes in, the pace picks up and Wight unveil the first of Through the Woods into Deep Water’s several effective shuffles, only to shortly turn it on its head with metallic crunch. Only 13 minutes in, and the band has shown they’re nothing if not big on surprises.

“Southern Comfort and Northern Lights” arrives not entirely without precedent. Both “Let Me Know When You’ve Found God” and “Wight Weedy Wight” from Wight Weedy Wight were extended jams on either side of 11 minutes long. There’s more to “Southern Comfort and Northern Lights” than that, however. It basically breaks down into four parts: the opening jam, a boogie verse and chorus that cycles through twice, an organ-led break that also boasts some excellent interplay between Schierhorn’s sax and Hofmann’s guitar, a return cycle through that verse and chorus, and beginning just after 10 minutes in, a swaggering riff that’s too thick to really be a shuffle, but moves nonetheless. The structure isn’t what stands out in listening so much as the catchy chorus or the performances of all three players, but it shows that Wight, however far out they might go, still have a sense of not letting the song they’re writing get away from them, and with the dreamier acoustic interlude “Halfway to Infinity” following “Southern Comfort and Northern Lights,” it shows they feel that way about the whole of Through the Woods into Deep Water as well. After the sprawl of the preceding cut, it makes sense to have the classic Zeppelin-style acoustics where they are, the 3:32 track gradually introducing Kluck’s drums and Schierhorn’s bass to the mix before blowing out to an echoing and distorted finish that somehow keeps its otherworldly sweetness. Aside from sounding warm on its own, it’s a good bridge between “Southern Comfort and Northern Lights” and the 9:52 centerpiece “Master of Nuggets,” the riff of which is quick to infect and long to let go. Again Wight unleash a shuffling rhythm, the bass and drums holding it down while Hofmann breaks out a verse of lead lines on guitar and matches it vocally, pulling strings and holding notes at the same time in a classic kind of indulgence. After two verses, they move to a bouncing chorus of “oohs” that brings to mind Colour Haze’s falsetto non-verbal vocalizing, and where “Master of Nuggets” really distinguishes itself is in the extended jam that follows the next verse/chorus cycle. Schierhorn’s bass takes the fore for a moment and Hofmann answers back with a solo – Kluck holding the rhythm the whole time until shortly before eight minutes in the chorus begins again and Wight use it to transition into another meaty riff, an assortment of grunts topping until a stop brings back a couple measures of winding guitars and the age-old question, “What’s wrong with being sexy?” – the This is Spinal Tap reference delivered totally deadpan – launches the warm “wanna love ya”-type rocker “You!”

Read more »

A little while back, guitarist Scott O’Dowd of Allston, Massachusetts, rockers Cortez hit me up for a band bio. The record, self-titled, came out on Bilocation just this very week, and of course, I said I was glad to write up a history of the band. I remember when they put out their 2007 Thunder in a Forgotten Town EP on Buzzville, and we’d played shows together periodically over the years, so as Cortez began to really take shape as a band – and especially after vocalist Matt Harrington came aboard in 2009 – it was exciting to think of their first album finally coming out. Songs like “Johnny,” “Until We Die” and the C.O.C.-esque riffing of “Monolith” were mainstays of their live set, and the demo they cut of that material was stellar. We’d talked about maybe doing a release via The Maple Forum on CD before I decided to draw back on that side of the site, and as I listen now to Cortez – a massive gatefold 2LP release with cover art by Alexander von Wieding that includes that 2009 demo as side D – I really do think it’s for the best that it ended up as a record. While my general preference is for shorter releases that, like a short story, can be absorbed in a single sitting, Cortez simply have more ground to cover. Ostensibly, this is their full-length debut, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a follow-up to the EP, one that’s nearly five years in the making and one that has to do the work of establishing Cortez not only as a fresh act in Boston’s admirable heavy rock scene, but also a band who’ve put that half-decade since their last offering to good use in terms of development and creative personality. That’s a lot to ask of a 40-minute album, or even a 50-minute album. Cortez’s Cortez, including the demo, tops out at 75 minutes, and that proves to be more than enough time to get the job done.

In that span, all four members – O’Dowd, Harrington, bassist Jay Furlo and drummer Jeremy Hemond – distinguish themselves, but most importantly, Cortez shines as a unit, and whether it’s the melodic complexity of a track like “Wormwood” or the doomed atmospheric reveling accomplished by the later “Satan,” their songwriting sensibility is never lost. There’s a clear allegiance to riff rock – that’s not to say “stoner rock,” though I think that’s part of their scope as well – but Harrington soulfully belts out these tracks in a manner that clearly indicates that though he’s a more than capable frontman, it’s not about any single person in the band, but about the group working together toward a shared whole. Solos are taken, to be sure – O’Dowd is a classy player and that shines through no matter how fuzzed out the material gets – but one gets no sense of ego bleeding through Cortez’s straightforward arrangements. With a crisp New Alliance Audio production and mix from Ethan Dussault, the songs prove to be their own greatest strength, and it’s not just the riff, or the bassline (though Furlo kills it in the rhythm section with Hemond, crafting the stomp that makes the back end of second track “All Hail” so effective), or the drums or the vocals. It’s how all of it works together. That might be the most modern aspect of their approach, clearly grown out of a Boston punker/hardcore ideology – “no rock stars” – but it’s well met by their classic rock structures and heavier leanings. Even at his roughest (i.e. even on those demos), Harrington is never separated entirely from a melody, and his professionalism is wonderfully matched in the presentation of the album’s 11 central cuts.

What Cortez don’t do, however, is fuck around. There are very few ethics to which I apply universal favor, and strong songwriting is one of them. Cortez make songwriting sound innate, effortless, like the “Helter Skelter”-referential chorus that immediately plasters “Johnny” on the lining of the cerebral cortex like it’s a gig flyer is just what the band does every day after work. As the opener, “Johnny” emphasizes many of the album’s best aspects. It is impeccably constructed, briskly performed and crisply presented, and that remains a thread that runs all the way through to pre-demo closer “Nice Try.” A lyrical narrative of dudely heartbreak is met by undeniable groove, and Harrington’s melodies are infectious alongside O’Dowd’s riffing. It’s especially interesting to listen to “Johnny” as the first of the three demo tracks, because as they appear in order of “Johnny,” “Until We Die” and “Monolith,” that’s also how they come up on the record – just with other songs in between. So it’s probably something you might recognize your second time through or on some subsequent listen, but those songs sort of wind up being anchors for the rest of the material. “All Hail,” which divides “Johnny” and “Until We Die” on Cortez-proper, marries an epic intro to a driving guitar-led central figure – Hemond (also of Roadsaw and also in Black Thai with O’Dowd) gives an especially rousing performance here to provide early indication of the diverse style in his play that manages never to lose accessibility despite being technically complex, particularly in the fills – and shifts with about two of its total five minutes left to the aforementioned stomp, changing tempo some but mostly relying on Hemond easing off on the drums and opening the groove up some to match the guitars and bass. That sets a high expectation, but “Until We Die” quickly outdoes it.

Read more »

Yeah, I know I’ve streamed audio from Black Cowgirl before, but there’s just something about the Pennsylvanian riffers that begs to actually be heard. I can tell you they’re melodic, or that they’re fuzzy, or that their songs are catchy, but that could (and often does) describe 100 other bands, and I really think these four dudes bring their own edge to what’s admittedly a well-trod path of genre. Their debut full-length will see a vinyl issue through Bilocation Records in July.

As a preview for that and the self-released CD version set to coincide, Black Cowgirl once again granted me permission to feature some of their down-home pastoral tone-age. The album, called simply Black Cowgirl, matches last year’s demo on the first side with a batch of new material on the second. To support, Black Cowgirl will once again hit the road — the summer heat is perfectly matched to their sound — and play shows along the Eastern Seaboard in July with Clutch-offshoot The Company Band, and they’ll make a stop Sept. 1 at this year’s Stoner Hands of Doom fest in Connecticut, where they’ll share the day with Pale Divine, The Skull, Devil to Pay and Admiral Browning, among others. Good company to keep all around.

“Weight of Oblivion” from Black Cowgirl shows the band reaching a Pearls and Brass-style (if we’re keeping the comparisons to Pennsylvanian acts) balance of blues, Americana and heavy. Check it out on the player below — followed by the full gatefold artwork; click to enlarge — and enjoy.

Black Cowgirl‘s Black Cowgirl LP — cover art by Adrián Brouch — is due in July on Bilocation Records (website here). The band will self-release a CD around that time as well. They’ve also already begun to write the follow-up, so for the latest news and tour updates, be sure to check out their Thee Facebooks or their BigCartel store. In the meantime, here’s the full tracklist for the self-titled:

1. Talk of Wolves
2. Roadmaster
3. The Ride
4. Alkaline
5. Dead House
6. Eclipsor
7. Weight of Oblivion
8. Three Seasons
9. Solarizer
10. Becoming Nothing
11. Unio Mystica

Heartfelt kudos and congratulations to The Maple Forum alumnus Darryl Shepard on the limited vinyl release of Dronolith, the second album from his one-man drone project, Blackwolfgoat. Bilocation Records handled the pressing, but he’s got copies for sale through the Blackwolfgoat Bandcamp page for people in the States, and if you didn’t check out the album when it was released on CD through this site’s in-house label last year, now’s definitely the time. That Alexander von Wieding cover must be gorgeous in a glossy gatefold.

Shepard and his cohorts in Black Pyramid will be playing this year’s four-day, all-ages SHoD festival in Connecticut, so stay tuned for more on that, and in the meantime, here’s the details on the Dronolith vinyl release, straight from the man himself:

Two months after they were shipped, the Blackwolfgoat, Dronolith, vinyl has finally arrived and I have them in my hands. I’ll be selling these, shipping to the US only. Rest of the world can order directly from Kozmik Artifactz, it’ll be cheaper and easier that way. Thanks to Bilocation Records for everything. I have 35 copies and once they’re gone, they’re gone.

Blackwolfgoat, Dronolith on vinyl, splatter or clear, gatefold cover. Released on Bilocation Records, limited to 350 copies. 46 minutes of blissed-out guitar drone. Order it directly off of Bandcamp.

Vinyl facts:
– limited to 350 copies only: 250 clear 180g vinyl / 100 clear green white splatter 150g vinyl
– special vinyl mastering
– 300gsm glossy gatefold cover
– handnumbered
– high quality vinyl, pressed in Germany
– artwork and layout by Alexander von Wieding

A little known band from California once said that, “five years is forever,” and though that band was wrong about many, many things, they were right on that one. Fortunately, Allston, Massachusetts, heavy rockers Cortez are making up for lost time. Their new full-length, Cortez, will be released as a 14-song double-LP on Bilocation Records next month.

The album follows the Buzzville Records EP, Thunder in a Forgotten Town, which was released in 2007. True, members of Cortez play in Roadsaw, Black Thai and other outfits, but even so, it’s hard to keep momentum going off an EP for half a decade. Periodic shows and regional tours in the Northeast US have helped, but there’s no denying that Cortez are overdue for an album. I think the band would probably be the first to say it.

So what we have, then, in Cortez‘s Cortez is a long, long awaited release of classic-minded heavy rock songwriting. You got your ’70s, you got your ’90s and you get your ’10s from how the two are combined. Cortez‘s combination of riffs and soul has only grown in potency since Thunder in a Forgotten Town, and Cortez, the album, shows that quality songwriting is ultimately timeless. Catchy is catchy, whatever year it happens to be.

In that regard, and as a fan of the band, it’s my honor to premiere the first studio-recorded audio from Cortez in five years. They hand-picked the song “Johnny,” which opens the album, and I probably would have chosen the same one, since it’s a case of the band rocking at their unpretentious best on a song that’s as well-performed as it is immediately memorable. In other words, I dig it and I hope you do too.

Please enjoy “Johnny” on the player below, followed by some info about the band and the album:

Cortez is vocalist Matt Harrington, guitarist Scott O’Dowd, bassist Jay Furlo and drummer Jeremy Hemond. The album Cortez will be released on Bilocation Records as a 2LP, features artwork by Alexander Von Wieding and was recorded by Ethan Dussault at New Alliance Audio in Cambridge, MA. For more on the band and updates on the release, check out their Thee Facebooks or the label’s website.