Posted in Whathaveyou on March 7th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Portland, Oregon’s Disenchanter will welcome North Carolinian doom rockers Demon Eye in April for a West Coast run presented by Nanotear Booking. To my knowledge, it marks Demon Eye‘s first trip out west, and for Disenchanter, it follows an EP compilation released on NoSlip Records and the announcement that they’ll take part in Psycho Las Vegas in August.
Demon Eye, meanwhile, will also play Maryland Doom Fest 2016 in June. Their second album, Tempora Infernalia (review here), was issued last year on Soulseller Records and they’ve supported it since playing local shows with the likes of Acid King and Pentagram. Guitarist/vocalist Erik Sugg was also recently announced as having joined Lightning Born, whose lineup features, among others, C.O.C. bassist Mike Dean.
More on that as I hear it. Here are the tour dates and more info:
Our West Coast tour with Disenchanter will be happening soon! A huge thanks to Nanotear Booking!
Coming up in April: Demon Eye and Disenchanter West Coast tour!
The stars have aligned
Formed in May of 2011, rising from the ashes of the black machine, invoked after many moons, Disenchanter is a heavy rock band riding the currents of doom, casting riffs of rock, and melding the elixirs of metal to bring forth a fantasy of sci-fi wrapped in a stoner groove!
Demon Eye’s heavy grooves and thunder rhythms channel the doom and crush of Black Sabbath and Pentagram, and the fist banging shred of early ‘Maiden. The band has received international recognition for their highly acclaimed songcraft and their stunning live performances. Demon Eye remains hellbent on bringing their hook-laden, dark riffin’ songcraft to fans far and wide.
4/14 Seattle, WA – Highline 4/15 Portland, OR – High Water Mark 4/16 Grant’s Pass, OR – The Haul 4/17 Sacramento, CA – Blue Lamp 4/18 Pacifica, CA – Winter’s Tavern 4/19 San Jose, CA – The Caravan 4/20 Los Angeles, CA – Complex 4/21 San Diego, CA – Kensington Club 4/22 Los Osos, CA – Sweet Springs Saloon 4/23 Oakland, CA – Oakland Metro
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 28th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Goodness gracious. Here I was minding my business on a Sunday night and Psycho Las Vegas went and more than doubled the size of its lineup, adding Uncle Acid, Elder, Converge, Wovenhand, Boris, The Black Heart Procession, Budos Band, Dead Meadow, SubRosa, Midnight, Disenchanter, Lumerians, Tombstones, ASG, Death Alley, Ides of Gemini, Goya, Dirty Streets, Crypt Sermon, Mantar, Gozu, Beelzefuzz, Lo-Pan, Holy Grove, CHRCH, Carousel and more. Not like the fest wasn’t huge already, but big bands, small bands, in-between bands, European bands, Asian bands, West Coast bands, East Coast bands — pretty much if it falls under the category of “bands,” they’re probably playing. And by way of a friendly reminder, this isn’t it. As you can see in the lineup below, there are more announcements to come next month.
Just look at this insane shit:
PSYCHO LAS VEGAS 2016
Psycho Entertainment
Friday, August 26, 2016 at 12:00 PM – Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 12:00 AM (PDT)
Las Vegas, NV
BLUE OYSTER CULT SLEEP UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN PENTAGRAM CANDLEMASS DEATH TRUTH AND JANEY CONVERGE (Announced March 3rd) BUDOS BAND WOVENHAND (Announced March 3rd) BLACK HEART PROCESSION FU MANCHU BORIS DOWN ZOMBI COLOUR HAZE YOB DEAD MEADOW ELDER ACID KING DANAVA SUBROSA MIDNIGHT SATAN’S SATYRS THE SHRINE JUCIFER BONGRIPPER BLOOD OF THE SUN ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE MARS RED SKY SPELLJAMMER BELZEBONG THE COSMIC DEAD TOMBSTONES LUMERIANS ASG SAVIOURS A STORM OF LIGHT DEATH ALLEY LECHEROUS GAZE DIRTY STREETS IDES OF GEMINI GOYA SPENCER MOODY SOLO (Murder City Devils) WITCH MOUNTAIN HAS A SHADOW ASHBURY CRYPT SERMON MONDO DRAG MANTAR TALES OF MURDER AND DUST SHROUD EATER CRAZY BULL DEMON LUNG LOPAN CHRCH BEHOLD THE MONOLITH DISENCHANTER CAVE OF SWIMMERS HORNSS CAROUSEL TIA CARRERA GOZU FLAVOR CRYSTALS HOLY GROVE BEELZEFUZZ GREAT ELECTRIC QUEST FAMILY HIGHLANDS LYCUS THE COMPANY CORVETTE WASHERWOMAN THE RARE BREED INVDRS
Psycho Pool Party 8.25.16 MUDHONEY FATSO JETSON MOTHERSHIP GOLDEN VOID ELECTRIC CITIZEN MAC SABBATH GREENBEARD
ACCOMMODATIONS Join the bands and crew at the Hard Rock Hotel & use the code: Psych16 at checkout to recieve 30% off your rooms.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 1st, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Portland, Oregon, trio Disenchanter made their full-length debut late last year with Strange Creations. The album followed two shorter releases, an initial demo called Back to Earthin 2013 and a follow-up EP early in 2014 called On Through Portals (review here), and NoSlip Records has announced its intent to compile the pair onto one jewel case CD offering. It’s due out soon and available to preorder now — one has to wonder if persistent delays in all things vinyl will feed back into some minor uptick in CD pressings — and their album is streaming and download-ready at their Bandcamp page.
The numbers on the CD are limited, though I’m not exactly sure to how many that might be. Disenchanter continue to play shows around the Pacific Northwest among other heavyweights of that fertile scene. They have a weekender coming up in Feb. with Seattle duo Year of the Cobra in a one-two punch of hometown shows for which you can see the details below, along with the announcement and release info from NoSlip:
Joey asked me if I would be interested in releasing Disenchanter’s two EPs on CD and being the fan I am of them I simply couldn’t pass this up, we will be combing the two EPs into a single CD Release that will be coming out very soon…
This Cd Release will have the two EPs combined as a single CD release. Jewel Case with Booklet.
Back To Earth & On Through Portals
Track Listing :Back To Earth 1. Back To Earth 2. I’m Alive 3. Rainbows
Track Listing : On Through Portals 1. Journey To Abydos – Moon Maid 2. Invoke 3. Into Darkness
Disenchanter is Sabine Stangenberg (guitar and vocals), Joey DeMartini (bass) and Jay Erbe (drums).
Disenchanter live: 02.19 High Dive Seattle WA w/ Year of the Cobra, Witch Ripper, Black Bone Exorcism 02.20 Hawthorn Lounge Portland OR w/ Year of the Cobra, Moondrake
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 6th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Hard to argue with the lineup for the Portland-based Ceremony of Sludge IV. Not the least because it’s eight bands over two nights, which is killer. I wonder how long each band gets to play, if it’s full sets or like half an hour or what, but either way, it’s a manageable Friday and Saturday night, and it doesn’t look like there’s a clunker in the bunch in terms of who’s playing. Cool to see Ancient Warlocks making the trip from Seattle to play the first night and Serial Hawk doing the same for the second. Two cities with such vibrant rock traditions that are only about two hours apart, sometimes it feels like you hear way more about Portland and Seattle separately than you do the Pacific Northwest as a whole. I guess you could say the same of New York and Philadelphia, though. Fair enough.
Either way, some familiar faces in the likes of Diesto and Holy Grove and Disenchanter, and a newcomer or two like Old Lie, who’ve just recently finished tracking their debut EP.
Details and many, many links follow:
Ceremony of Sludge IV Comes to Tonic Lounge, Portland
CEREMONY OF SLUDGE IV
MARCH 20 and MARCH 21 at TONIC LOUNGE | Portland, OR
$7
Portland Heavy Seen and Soundcontrol PDX present Ceremony of Sludge IV, to be held March 20th and 21st at Tonic Lounge in Portland, Oregon. The annual mini-festival showcases some of the most crushing bands emerging from the heavy-music community here in the Pacific Northwest. The shows are 21+ and $7 at the door.
Ceremony of Sludge lineup:
March 20th Holy Grove Ancient Warlocks Disenchanter Old Lie
March 21st Diesto Serial Hawk A Volcano Tsepesch
Limited edition “Ceremony” prints by Epochal Void will be available for purchase, as well as T-shirts from Mr. Black. The bands’ performances will once again be filmed for the Portland Heavy Seen project, with audio recorded by Penumbra Sound Arts.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 27th, 2014 by JJ Koczan
If you want a little extra thrill, plug in some headphones and turn the bass up as Disenchanter run through the below rendition of the song “Green Queen.” The track, which of course shares its name with a strain of weed — wasn’t that just a given? — makes a fantastic showcase for the low tone of four-stringer Joey DeMartini, and with Sabine Stangenberg‘s riffs and vocals leading the charge and Jay Erbe playing one tom against the other on drums, it’s halfway between boogie rock and all out heavy rager, and seems content to find a place somewhere not quite one or the other. This version was recorded earlier this year in Disenchanter‘s hometown of Portland, Oregon, at the Ceremony of Sludge festival, and is part of a series of clips I’ve been fortunate enough to premiere recorded over the course of that fest’s two days.
Disenchanter opened the second day of Ceremony of Sludge, which was held at Club 21, and while they’ve showcased a penchant for epic metallurgy or at least an appreciation for the grandiose on their two three-song releases to date, 2013’s Back to Earth and this year’s On through Portals (review here), “Green Queen” hones in a more straight-ahead heavy rock sound built around a strong hook, a still driving riff and the melody in Stangenberg‘s voice. I don’t know if that’s meant to be emblematic of some shift in direction or if Disenchanter were pulling a one off or if the song might even be a cover — go Google “Green Queen” and you’re only gonna find pot info — but it’s a cool groove one way or another and the band carries it just as well as some of their more epic material.
You can click here to see the other clips thus far released in the Ceremony of Sludge 2014 video series, and check out Disenchanter‘s “Green Queen” on the player followed by video info below. Please enjoy:
Disenchanter, “Green Queen” Live at Ceremony of Sludge
Disenchanter perform “Green Queen” live at the third annual Ceremony of Sludge (Club 21, Portland, Oregon, 3/8/14).
Edited by Cole Boggess. Cameras: Cole Boggess, Justin Anderson, Justin Brown, Eli Duke. Audio: Tim Burke
This week brings even more radio adds than I expected. I had kind of a hard time whittling it down to figure what I wanted to write about, to be honest with you, but we got there in the end, and I’m thrilled to have another batch of additions to the playlist for this week. Doing this seems to have quickly become a Friday ritual for me, and frankly, I can think of worse ways to spend the afternoon than listening to and writing about a bunch of records. Like just about everything else, for example.
Adds for May 30, 2014:
Iron Man, The Passage & Generation Void
Two brand new vinyl reissues from Shadow Kingdom Records. Digital promos are particularly useless in the case of badass LPs, and I’m pretty sure both of these albums by Maryland doom stalwarts Iron Man, 1994’s sophomore outing, The Passage, and it’s 1999 follow-up, Generation Void, are already on the Radio playlist, but screw it, it’s Iron Man. If the chances of hearing an Iron Man song go up with each file added, then it’s worth tossing both of these records on the server. Generation Voidis a full-on lost classic of doom, and if you don’t already own it, I’d imagine the vinyl of The Passagejustifies picking it up based on the artwork alone. Either way, you’re never gonna lose when it comes to these guys, and Shadow Kingdom‘s loyalty in following up its CD reissues with LP versions is commendable. On Thee Facebooks, Shadow Kingdom website.
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Electric Citizen, Sateen
Led by guitarist Ross Dolan and vocalist Laura Dolan, this Cincinnati four-piece traffic in high-order retro-minded Sabbathisms that keep in mind just how much boogie went along with all that darkness. To wit, the shuffle at the heart of the organ-laced “The Trap” and “Burning in Hell” or the push in the earlier “Magnetic Man.” Sateen, the band’s debut on RidingEasy Records, features riffs and leads heavily, and Laura‘s croon never strays from the forefront in delivering a barrage of hooks through the ’70s-worship production, but as with Sabbath themselves, the foundation of what Electric Citizen accomplish in these memorable, immediately familiar tracks is built on a foundation of rhythmic excellence in the bass and drums, here provided by Nick Vogelpohl and Nate Wagner, respectively. That organ ain’t half-bad either. The album arrives with no shortage of hype, but it’s a shockingly cohesive debut in style and performance, and the songwriting more than earns its way. On Thee Facebooks, RidingEasy Records.
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Disenchanter, On through Portals
The Sept. 2013 Back to Earth demo from Portland, Oregon, doom-blues metallers Disenchanter has been sitting on my desk for an embarrassingly long time. That release is added to the playlist as well, but on the early-2014 follow-up, On through Portals, the trio of guitarist/vocalist Sabine Stangenberg, bassist Joey DeMartini and drummer Jay Erbe stretch out the form somewhat. Both arrive as EP-style releases, but On through Portals tops half-an-hour and executes a darkened psychedelic flow over its three extended tracks — “Journey to Abydos/Moon Maid” (12:15), “Invoke” (7:38), and “Into Darkness” (11:20) — so it could just as easily pass for a short album. Either way, the partial shift in aesthetic suits Disenchanter well, and what seems to have been in-process on their first demo comes closer to fruition here. Songs are patient and lumbering, but never boring, and Stangenberg‘s vocals layer effectively at the front of the mix to give the impression of a consummate frontwoman in the making. I won’t declare their development finished, but On through Portalsis a big and interesting step for Disenchanter to take. On Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Junior Bruce, The Nomad
Just two tracks on this latest release from Southern heavy rockers Junior Bruce. The Nomad is the second of two (to date) digital releases following Junior Bruce‘s 2012 debut full-length, The Headless King, and intended as a complement to last year’s TheBurden. Fair enough. Taken as such or on their own, The Nomad‘s two cuts, “The Promised Sleep” and “Nomad,” offer unpretentious heavy rolling groove from the Floridian five-piece fronted by Scott Angelacos and featuring bassist Tom Crowther, both also of Hollow Leg and formerly Bloodlet and Hope and Suicide. Molasses riffs from guitarists Nate Jones and Bryan Raymond and steady crash from drummer Jeff McAlear further distinguish “Nomad” in the Southern tradition, and the single/EP is twice as intriguing in the context of Hollow Leg‘s most recent recording, “God Eater” (discussed here), which moved in a more rocking direction as well. Itseems to work for both bands. On Thee Facebooks, on Bandcamp.
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Anuseye, Essay on a Drunken Cloud
Cuts like “J R” and “Wrong Blues” take ’90s crunch and heavy rock vibes to heart, but where Italy’s Anuseye really distinguish themselves on their Vincebus Eruptum Recordings debut — other than with their somewhat unfortunate moniker — is in the weirdo jamminess of “Push Magic Button” or the psychedelic exploration of “Earthquake.” Essay on a Drunken Cloud boasts a few riffs and effects-laced stretches like that in “Cursed Pills” that might call to mind guitarist Luca Stero and vocalist/guitarist Claudio C.‘s and prior work together in That’s all Folks, but Anuseye has a personality of their own here, with bassist Michele V. and drummer Antonello C. keeping step with the strange vibes every step of the way. The balance shifts effectively between psych rock and noisy post-punk, but songs like “Demon Pulse” and the penultimate “S.S. Abyss” find an engaging and unexpected middle ground on which to make an impression. And then they do. For those days when you feel like you’re heard everything a riff can do, Essay on a Drunken Cloudmight just convince you there’s still territory to be discovered. On Thee Facebooks, at Vincebus Eruptum.
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For the complete list of this week’s adds, click here.
Posted in Whathaveyou on January 22nd, 2014 by JJ Koczan
I haven’t posted about it yet, because when it comes to this kind of thing one can never really be sure something is going to happen until it’s already happened, but as you can see in the PR wire info below, pending disaster I’ll be hosting a series of videos following the 2014 Ceremony of Sludge in Portland, Oregon. While it would be nice to kick around the West Coast for an extra week after the Pentagram, Radio Moscow and Kings Destroy tour is over and actually attend the thing myself, I think I’d give poor The Patient Mrs. a coronary if I started lobbying for such a thing, so I’ll have to be content with the clips when they arrive.
The two-night fest is free as in “doesn’t cost any money to get in the door,” and set for March 7 and 8 at Club 21. With Lamprey, Holy Grove, Sioux, Serial Hawk, BlackwitchPudding, Tsepesch, Disenchanter and Beard of Bees, the lineup is right on as well, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all goes down.
Here are the preliminaries, followed by a couple track’s off Sioux‘s upcoming release, The One and theMany. Dig:
Third Annual Ceremony of Sludge Comes to Club 21, Portland
THIRD ANNUAL CEREMONY OF SLUDGE
MARCH 7 and MARCH 8 at CLUB 21 | Portland, OR
FREE
Portland Heavy Seen and Mr. Black present The Third Annual Ceremony of Sludge, to be held March 7th and 8th at Club 21 in Portland, Oregon. The annual mini-festival showcases some of the most crushing bands emerging from the heavy-music community here in the Pacific Northwest. The shows are 21+ and FREE.
Ceremony of Sludge lineup:
March 7 Lamprey Serial Hawk Tsepesch Beard of Bees
March 8 Holy Grove Sioux Blackwitch Pudding Disenchanter
The bands’ performances will be filmed by the Portland Heavy Seen project and released via TheObelisk.net to kick off their new video series.
Mr. Black, a Portland-based effects pedal company will provide Ceremony of Sludge T-shirts for $5, and offer discounts for their pedals.
