Yesterday the announcement came down the wire that Wino would be opening for Clutch‘s holiday tour this coming December. It’s the kind of news I like to get. If you missed the dates, here they are:

WINO w/ Clutch, Mondo Generator, Saviours:
12/26/2012 9:30 Club – Washington DC
12/27/2012 The Orange Peel – Asheville, NC
12/28/2012 Buster’s Billiards & Backroom – Lexington, KY
12/29/2012 Newport Music Hall – Columbus, OH
12/30/2012 Starland Ballroom – Sayreville, NJ
12/31/2012 The Palladium – Worcester, MA

It’s a pretty killer bill, and Wino will be performing solo acoustic to open the shows, as the PR wire confirms:

Following the ongoing Saint Vitus North American tour, his thriving recent tours of Europe and North America alongside his comrade Conny Ochs in support of their collaborative album Heavy Kingdom, preceded by several tours with close friend and Shrinebuilder bandmate Scott Kelly in support of their split 7” release last year, today the legendary SCOTT “WINO” WEINRICH confirms his latest round of live performances, as the man will bring his solo acoustic set to the road once again, this time in support of the almighty American rock machine Clutch.

WINO has supported Clutch on tour in recent years, with both his backing band as heard on his 2009-released Punctuated Equilibrium album as well as solo as his 2010-released debut acoustic album Adrift. On this special run of year-end dates WINO will join Mondo Generator and Saviours supply opening support for Clutch, with a six-show run from Washington DC up the East Coast and ending in Worcester, Massachusetts on New Year’s Eve. Tickets for this short but incredible tour will go on sale this Friday, September 21st.

Given all that newsly awesomeness, I thought it was a good time to take the opportunity to revisit Wino‘s 2010 acoustic debut, Adrift (review here). That record seems a long time ago now, but it’s only long in terms of all the stuff Wino has done since, with Saint Vitus, Premonition 13 and the Wino & Conny Ochs collaboration — not to mention touring for those projects and playing live with The Obsessed for the first time in more than a decade — and one track that has continued to stand out from it is the closer, “Green Speed.”

It helps that it’s a wailing heavy rock song — whatever kind of guitar it’s played on — with an uptempo chugging riff and buzzsaw-sharp electrified solo, but what really gets me in listening are the vocals, with have that seething underpinning of righteous anger that’s unmistakably his own. “Green Speed” was kind of buried at the end of Adrift, and sure enough, was different from a lot of the rest of the album, but it’s a cool track nonetheless, and seemed to me easily worth highlighting in honor of the upcoming tour.

Enjoy and have a happy Wino Wednesday:

The band is Obelyskkh, not to be confused with The Obelisk, which is the site you’re on right now, and the song is “Mount Nysa,” which comes from the German psych doomers’ new album, White Lightnin’, not to be confused with their prior full-length, which was also called Mount Nysa, and which was released last year. Everybody on board?

Well, you probably should be, because the track is some heavy shit. Obelyskkh brew up a potent cask of doom and heavy psychedelia, crafting ambience as weighted as the lumbering riffs they use to offset it. In its six and a half minutes, “Mount Nysa” builds to a massive, apocalyptic apex with blown-out vocals that remind of some fanatical chanting — never far from a sense of ritual, but still grounded in sludge — like if your totalitarian nightmares came true. But there’s still room for melodic complexity as well, and the guitars of Crazy Woitek Broslowski and Stuart “The Whiz Kid” West display that with a fluidity that in no way contradicts the riff-led groove at the core of the song.

Deadpan vocals highlight the monotony of the plod following the ethereal beginning, and as they gradually join in, bassist Dirty Dave (not to be confused with Dirty Dave of The Glasspack) and drummer Steve “The Krusher” Paradise both underscore and thicken the lumbering root appeal. Excellent and engrossing.

I count myself lucky to be able to host “Mount Nysa” from White Lightnin’ for streaming on the player below. The album is due out Sept. 28 in Germany, Oct. 8 in the rest of Europe and Oct. 16 in the US. More release info (courtesy of the label) follows the stream.

Please enjoy:

Available on CD in a high-glossy varnished 4panel digifile and on 180 g Double LP in a gatefold LP cover  (LP is limited to 500 copies)

LP contains download coupon for the whole album incl. the non-LP tracks “The Enochian Keys” and “Abysmal Desert Cavern”

“White Lightning” is a monstrous pound of sonic heaviness, psychedelic approaches and emotional riffage – ingredients that, if mixed together with love for the music can bring stunning results. Like here. OBELYSKKH fear no boundaries and no flavour of the heavy: “White Lightning” draws from pure sludge filth through psychedelic soundscapes into postrock and back. Sure, this album is heavy and massive but it also breathes some kinda repetitive mantra-like ambition, which clears the air here and there and thus declines total negativity.

„White Lightning“ was recorded, mixed and mastered in winter 2010/2011 by BILLY ANDERSON (Sleep, Neurosis, Mr. Bungle, Eyehategod, High On Fire, Melvins – to name a few) providing the record a raw live sound that gives you a hint to what an immense experience it is to witness OBELYSKKH live – clearly something you shouldn’t miss.

Tracklisting
01 The Enochian Keys (CD only)
02 Elegy
03 The White Lightning
04 Mount Nysa
05 Amphetamine Animal
06 Abysmal Desert Cavern (CD only)
07 Invocation To The Old Ones

Obelyskkh on Thee Facebooks

Exile on Mainstream

This week’s Wino Wednesday clip comes courtesy of one Andrew Lusby, who along with sending in a few much appreciated kind words about the site, included a link to some HD video of Wino & Conny Ochs performing their new song “Crystal Madonna” on their current US tour in support of their debut collaboration, Heavy Kingdom. His story to tell, so let’s let him tell it:

I recently saw Wino & Conny Ochs in L.A. and I was blown away. I happened to record most of their set and the quality came out pretty good. They played a new song titled “Crystal Madonna” which I think sounds great. Figured you might want to use it for a Wino Wednesday or at least enjoy for yourself. I’m guessing it will show up on the next album which Conny told me was definitely going to happen…

Besides playing most of Heavy Kingdom and some of Wino’s solo material they also played some great covers including “Hellbound Train” (Savoy Brown), “Hotel Vast Horizon” (Chris Whitley), and “Isolation” (Joy Division).

Badass. Thanks to Mr. Lusby for the clip and the info. The complete list of Wino & Conny Ochs tour dates is here.

Have a great Wino Wednesday:

Continually fascinating drone outfit Darsombra — which started as the one-man project of ex-Meatjack guitarist Brian Daniloski and is now a duo featuring visual artist Ann Everton — have signed to Exile on Mainstream and will release their new album, Climax Community, on Oct. 16. The following news was sent down the PR wire yesterday, so apologies if you’ve already seen it around, but I’ve dug Daniloski‘s work in the past and wanted to feature the notice in advance of the album.

So here goes:

DARSOMBRA: New LP Set For Autumn Release Via Exile On Mainstream

Following a multitude of releases on labels including At A Loss, Public Guilt and Underradar, in addition to self-released recordings, Maryland’s ultra-eclectic transcendental/drone rock unit DARSOMBRA have signed with Germany’s Exile On Mainstream for the release of their new full-length album, Climax Community.

Set for North American release on October 16th, the three tracks on Climax Community traverse forty five minutes of DARSOMBRA’s unique, slow-building, organic transcendental rock, and explore realms of the musical cosmos not present on their previous releases.

Climax Community Track Listing:
1. Roaming The Periphery
2. Green
3. Thunder Thighs

DARSOMBRA are currently embarked on an East Coast U.S. tour, with plans of hitting Europe in October as well in support of the release of the new album. More tours and live actions will be confirmed and announced in the coming weeks.

DARSOMBRA East Coast tour [remaining dates]:
8/11/2012 Beaumont Where?house – Philadelphia, PA w/ Wally, Tapeworm, Hulk Smash
8/12/2012 Blue Nile – Harrisonburg, VA w/ Degollado

If we can invent the term “transcendental rock”, then let’s apply it to DARSOMBRA, Brian Daniloski and Ann Everton’s audiovisual music project. Daniloski, a veteran of heavier, sludgier, grittier rock bands such as Meatjack and Trephine, controls the sound of DARSOMBRA, alternating between mammoth vocal swells and soundscapes and searing guitar riffs, leads, loops, and samples. Take one part metal, one part psychedelic rock, one part experimental, and a dash of prog and krautrock, and you begin to have an idea why DARSOMBRA, as music, needs its own genre. But there is more than just Daniloski’s sonic world at play here as video artist Everton takes his work to the next level by bringing her DARSOMBRA-induced visions to the stage through her kinetic psychotropic video projections, creating a constantly shifting backdrop to Daniloski’s live performances.

Climax Community, DARSOMBRA’s 2012 release on Exile on Mainstream Records, brings Daniloski’s familiar epic arrangements, with a different feel of dynamics and speed than his previous efforts – but don’t be mislead: with three songs and clocking in at forty-five minutes, this is a record to dive into and exist within.  The first track, “Roaming the Periphery” is a twenty-three-minute opus of vast vocal swells and guitar pilgrimages, a full meal in itself, leaving the listener stimulated and soothed – this sort of psychedelic experience doesn’t recreate the effects of drugs; the music is the drug. “Roaming the Periphery” induces in a perfect state for absorbing the following acoustic track, “Green”, and the final, 18-minute, mind-melting, wordlessly-storytelling, and furious-in-5/4 track, “Thunder Thighs”.  The inclusion of “Green”, the short, earthy, acoustic piece between the two time-giants of the record, is a wise one: it reminds the listener that this isn’t the great mountain-monster from Fantasia’s “Night on Bald Mountain” creating these aural sagas – but rather, a man with a practice, on his guitar, everyday, from now to the horizon.

A climax community is “a biological community of plants and animals which, through the process of ecological succession — the development of vegetation in an area over time — has reached a steady state,” says good old Wikipedia. Climax Community is a record by DARSOMBRA, built and hewn from time, practice, and re-arrangement of one’s life for the love of creative journey to other planets through music.

Both LP and CD versions of Climax Community will be released with a direct link to the visual part of this project which shall be watched while listening to the album.

http://www.facebook.com/darsombra
http://darsombra.com
http://www.mainstreamrecords.de

Next Tuesday, June 5, marks the North American release of German atmospheric sludge outfit Black Shape of Nexus‘ third album, Negative Black. It’s their first outing through Exile on Mainstream and follows four years after its predecessor, 2008′s Microbarome Meetings. The delay is fascinating enough — since it was only a year before that B.SON, as they’re acronymically known, released their debut — and I’d love to speculate on what perhaps might have caused it, but it seems my skull has suddenly been pummeled by a massive sledge of inhuman tonal weight and darkly hopeless ambience.

I guess that means I’m listening to Black Shape of Nexus, because while they’ve put huge effort in the past into their aesthetic presentation — releasing albums in golden tin boxes, etc. — the density of their atmosphere has always been at the fore, and it remains so for Negative Black. The record is a confounding 80 minutes long and takes the churning malevolent tempest of rhythm that Neurosis‘ Through Silver in Blood so readily conjured and marries it to an expansive and vicious experimentalism that’s indebted and irreverent in like proportion. Atop a bed of abrasive electronics and noise, the riffs of a song like “60 WV” make the listener feel all the more doomed.

And for an intro? Well, how’s six minutes of punishing-as-fuck feedback set to a crawling drumbeat? The Mannheim post-sludge six-piece have no problem working in indulgent spheres, but Negative Black, ultimately, is immersive the way you think of an undertow as something that consumes, and the more it plays out, the further into your skin it seems to be burrowing. That’s not mixing metaphors (well, it is, but it’s on purpose). It’s in you as you’re in it. Communion.

You’ll find the monolith in its entirety streaming on the player below, followed by the release info from Exile on Mainstream. Please enjoy:

Available on CD in a matte-varnished six-panel digifile and on 180g double LP in a ultra-heavy gatefold cover (LP is limited to 500 copies).

Awaiting a new release hasn’t been that unnerving ever, as EOM signed B.SON four long years ago and since then the band has been working to get this new album done. They underwent numerous lineup changes, short-term hiatusses, phases of utter productivity and periods of calm as well as those of energy. This all has been channeled into an album drawing a true emotional landscape of current Black Shape of Nexus. We hope you enjoy it. It’s a task! 80 minutes long!!! Yes, you read that right. 80 minutes of pure sonic assault!

Recorded in the mild winter of 2011/12 and twisted into shape at the mighty Tonmeisterei studio this album marks a new step for Black Shape of Nexus, postulating a path into their foreseeable future. We don’t need to rave about the fact that this is their best recording to date and we have never heard anything better from them or any other band in the entire known universe, do we? You wouldn’t find this band on this label if we wouldn’t be 120 percent convinced that these guys can save the world. Or tear it down. Whatever…

For more, including tour dates, check out Black Shape of Nexus‘ website, or hit them up on Thee Facebooks. Exile on Mainstream is online here. Special thanks to the label and to Earsplit PR for letting me feature the album.

There are few punches pulled, no real instances of trickery, and more than anything else, the crux of Heavy Kingdom seems to be the joy of the collaboration between Scott “Wino” Weinrich and Conny Ochs. Perhaps the most elaborate thing about Heavy Kingdom is the gorgeous foldout artwork in which Exile on Mainstream has encased the CD. That’s not a criticism of the album itself. Rather, the first joint offering from Wino & Conny Ochs seems to be purposefully geared toward as natural a presentation as possible, which if anything only feeds into the narrative of how the project came about – that it was born of Weinrich touring Europe with the German native Ochs supporting his first acoustic album, Adrift, that the two played together on the road and decided a joint release was in order. Ochs, whose aptly-titled album, Raw Love Songs, was released by Exile on Mainstream early in 2011, is clearly comfortable in the role of singer-songwriter, and the several instances where he takes the fore on Heavy Kingdom prove it. Songs like “Dust,” “Traces of Blood” and “Here Comes the Siren” probably won’t be what draw Wino devotees to Heavy Kingdom, but offer some of the record’s strongest material nonetheless, and as the balance between the two players shifts throughout the 11 tracks, it only feeds into the natural feel. Layering is minimal – some electric guitar makes its way into “Here Comes the Siren” and the earlier “Vultures by the Vines,” as well as elsewhere – and really, it’s just about two songwriters who wanted to work together working together. It’s as unpretentious as that.

It’s a relatively short outing too at 38 minutes, and between that and the vocal tradeoffs and duets between Weinrich and Ochs, Heavy Kingdom asks little indulgence of its audience and gives much melody in return. Opening with one of its strongest choruses in “Somewhere Nowhere” – a hard strum makes the song stand out aside for more than its being the longest inclusion on the album – the collaboration feels immediately rooted in folk, and comes across as less staid than was Adrift, as though Weinrich internalized the lessons of touring acoustic for the first time alongside both Ochs and Scott Kelly. Arrangements are relegated mostly to two acoustic guitars, but there are flourishes here and there, and more active moments such as the title-track (also reportedly the first song the two wrote together) show a kind of rocking energy underlying the pace. Likewise, there are parts – the chorus of closer “Labour of Love” or “Vultures by the Vines” – that feel informed by an intensity (certainly the latter with its distorted solo) purely Weinrich’s, but the patience in “Dust” or the gorgeously melodic “Traces of Blood” offsets that side of the album with serenity and emotionally complex melody. Some of the most effective parts of Heavy Kingdom come about when Weinrich and Ochs work to complement each other in the songwriting, be it Ochs backing Weinrich in the chorus of “Dark Ravine” or Weinrich doing the same on “Dust” or “Here Comes the Siren,” which with its added sense of foreboding is an exceptional outing in and of itself.

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[NOTE: This giveaway is now over. Thanks to everyone who entered.]

You might recall a couple weeks ago when I posted the stream of Danish metallers Rising‘s debut full-length, To Solemn Ash, in its entirety. Well, the album got a pretty killer response from people saying they dug it, so I beat down the doors at Exile on Mainstream and begged for some copies to give away.

Lo and behold, sitting on my desk right now are a whopping FIVE digipak CDs, just waiting to go out the door. If you want one — and I think you do — just leave a comment to this post.

Now, if you’re wondering where the entry form is that I used for the last few times, I’ve spent this whole week deleting an onslaught of spam from the King Giant contest. Safe to say the robots know we’re here. So in an effort to avoid some of that, Slevin suggested comments instead.

You don’t have to say much of anything in the comment, just make sure your email is included with your name so I have a way to tell you you’ve won. If you want to leave your address there, you can, but if you’re iffy about it, that’s fine too. Doesn’t affect me picking the winner either way.

And if you need an immediate refresher course as to Rising‘s potent blend of heavy riffs and melodies, I’ll kindly refer you to the Bandcamp player below:

Winners will be picked next Wednesday, Feb. 15. Happy commenting, and thanks to Rising, Earsplit PR and Exile on Mainstream for making this happen. To Solemn Ash is available now. For more info, check out Rising‘s website or the label’s website.

For this week’s Wino Wednesday, I have the absolute thrill of hosting the first track premiere from Heavy Kingdom, the new collaborative album from Wino & Conny Ochs. Ochs, a German singer-songwriter whose aptly-titled Raw Love Songs was released last year by Exile on Mainstream, toured with Wino following the issue of his own acoustic debut, Adrift, and the two reportedly hit it off creatively as well as personally. As is often the case when it comes to Wino, an album was imminent.

And Heavy Kingdom, which will be out on Exile on Mainstream Jan. 30 in Europe and March 13 in North America, captures the emotionality in both songwriters’ work. Most of its tracks are pretty bare-bones, however, so there’s an element of rawness that seems to convey the basic nature of the collaboration. They wrote them together, they play them together. Wino & Conny Ochs, as a unit, isn’t about showing off the prowess of one player or another, but about two artists who respect each other working in tandem to create something new and whole.

The album succeeds in that, and is at times almost embarrassingly honest. As a representation of the material as a whole, it’s fitting to unveil the title-track first, since it hones both that honesty and the rawness of approach that so much of Heavy Kingdom is built on. Like the collaboration itself, it deals in duality and effectively bridges seemingly disparate elements into something natural and engaging.

Please enjoy Wino & Conny Ochs‘ “Heavy Kingdom” on the player below:

Heavy Kingdom is due out Jan. 30 in Europe and March 13 in North America on Exile on Mainstream. Special thanks to Earsplit PR and Exile on Mainstream for letting me host the track. For more on the release, check out the label’s site here and Wino‘s official page. If you’d like to see a bigger version of the cover, click here. Happy Wino Wednesday.

The album came out last autumn in Europe, but is just today finally seeing its North American release, and to celebrate, Danish metallers Rising and their label, Exile on Mainstream, have been kind enough to let me stream the band’s debut full-length, To Solemn Ash, front to back. It’s a record that runs the gamut of modern heavy, sounding on a song like “Passage” as the poppiness of Mastodon‘s The Hunter might have had it not been so overly processed and reminding of Entombed‘s deathly grit on “The Vault.” The 10 tracks are catchy and heavy in equal proportion, balancing brutality and melody with precision and a feel that is neither amateurish nor contrived.

Interplay between bassist/vocalist Henrik W. Hald and guitarist/backing vocalist Jacob Krogholt is a central source of melody, the latter bolstering the rough, lower register of the former with harmonic shouting that fits well alongside the subtle complexity of the arrangements. Later track “Heir to Flames” works in Leviathan-esque acoustics, but by the time closer “Seven Riders” thunders its stop-start riff upside your skull, even the Torche-worthy chorus feels like one more tool serving to enhance the crushing sound.

Rounded out by Jacob Johansen‘s steady pulse on drums, Rising‘s first record is remarkably assured in its aesthetic, heavy as fuck and delivered with authority. Please feel free to find that out for yourself by streaming To Solemn Ash on the player below.

Introducing the band and the album, Hald says:

“Hello everyone! We are Rising, a heavy metal three-piece from Denmark. Back in October, we released our debut album To Solemn Ash in Europe via Exile On Mainstream. Now the time has come to make it available to the States. We are super excited about our album being released on another continent and hope to follow up with a tour one day. You can stream the entire album right here on The Obelisk. Enjoy and stay heavy on the heavy!”

Rising‘s To Solemn Ash is available now from Exile on Mainstream. For more info, check out the band’s site or the label’s store.

Okay, so maybe my timing on Wino Wednesday was a little off, or I might have gotten this press release in time to make it coincide with that, but what the hell. I’m pretty sure no one’s going to moan about it when the news is that Wino has a new record coming out. It’s a two-man collaboration with German singer-songwriter Conny Ochs, with whom Wino toured in Europe for his acoustic album, Adrift.

One can only hope that, like that album, Exile on Mainstream decides to do a wood-box edition of Heavy Kingdom. No details yes or no on that yet, but here’s what the PR wire has to say:

The folks at Germany’s avant-rock source Exile on Mainstream Records are thrilled to report that the final master for Heavy Kingdom, the anticipated collaborative album by Wino and Conny Ochs has arrived at label headquarters, and the final details on the album’s release are being finalized.

The legacy of Scott “Wino” Weinrich in the world of heavy music is indisputable and ever evolving, and here he teams up with Conny Ochs, a songwriter so pure and honest in his output that he seems to be the perfect partner for the straightforward Weinrich. The two met for the first time in 2010 when Conny was supporting Wino on his acoustic solo tour promoting his acclaimed solo album, Adrift. Through music they discovered a very similar approach to life and art, and a shared wisdom in creating music. It really seemed like two souls becoming one after they got to know each other. Together the two wrote, performed and recorded an incredible set of soulful tunes that speak for themselves, as well as a Townes Van Zandt cover. The artwork contains drawings by both Weinrich and Ochs, and follows the dedicated and deeply personal approach of the whole album.

Heavy Kingdom Track Listing:
1. Somewhere Nowhere
2. Heavy Kingdom
3. Dust
4. Vultures by the Vines
5. Dark Ravine
6. Traces of Blood
7. Heavy Kingdom Jam
8. Highway Kind
9. Dead Yesterday
10. Here Comes the Siren
11. Labour Of Love

Heavy Kingdom will be released throughout Europe on Jan. 27, 2012 and in North America sometime in March, a final release date to be confirmed in the weeks ahead. Stay tuned for tracks from the record to be released in the near future, as well as the details on a month-long European tour being finalized for March and April.

It’s virtually impossible to make it through Negative Liberty, the second full-length by five-piece instrumentalists The Winchester Club, without a Godspeed You! Black Emperor comparison coming up somewhere along the line. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, as there are certainly worse bands out there to take inspiration from, and to their credit, The Winchester Club put a particularly British grayness into the mood of the five component tracks of Negative Liberty, and they don’t sound like they’re ripping anyone off, but the influence is there and is fairly prominent. That said, the sprawl of the opening three cuts on Negative Liberty – which encompasses 40 of the album’s total 51 minutes – is bound to be driven by the various personalities of the players involved, and it is. That, coupled with the two-guitar/two-bass, xylophone-inclusive arrangements The Winchester Club have on offer, indicates that the push of a song like “R.D. Laing (Little Chemical Straightjackets)” isn’t so much to exorcise influences as to explore a sonic space. Other tracks, working in a scope that’s impressive despite being largely consistent atmospherically, follow suit, and Negative Liberty proves more than a collection of aimless instrumental jams or extended builds.

By way of an example, opener “Fuck You Buddy” reaches its apex approximately halfway through its 12:58 runtime, and the last five and a half minutes of the song are more of a contemplative investigation of the after-effects of that apex. Xylophone notes launch the track and album, but it soon takes on a different live, incorporating a Londoner’s melancholy in its striking bass work from Harry Armstrong (also guitar/vocals in End of Level Boss) and/or Elana Jane, both of whom are credited in the album’s liner. The latter also shares xylophone duties with drummer Tim Spear, who founded The Winchester Club along with guitarist and Chineseburn bandmate Jerry Deeney and guitarist Jonathan Morgan. Guitars are prominent but not really dominating throughout Negative Liberty – that is, nothing on the album is exclusively riff-led – and as “Fuck You Buddy” bleeds into the acoustic start of “The Lonely Robot” (12:41), I’m more drawn to the warmth in the bass sound than to the loneliness of the guitar notes, however melodically engaging they might be. Like all the material here, “The Lonely Robot” takes its time developing, but ultimately hits its high point even earlier into the proceedings than did “Fuck You Buddy.” That’s not a critique or putting down the structures The Winchester Club are working in. Quite the opposite. As someone who hears a lot of instrumental bands, it’s refreshing to have one come along not hell-bent on marching to the heavy part, instead getting it out of the way so the music can breathe. With the humming undercurrent of amp noise in the later parts, “The Lonely Robot” sounds full and complete, but still manages to hold onto that walking-alone ambience.

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Seeing its North American release July 26 is Eklectric, the third album from British riff-loving noisemakers End of Level Boss. For anyone who’s followed the band since they were formed by ex-Hangnail guitarist Heck Armstrong and released their Prologue debut in 2005 — like the new one, on Exile on Mainstream — it’s an interesting record because Armstrong has basically remade the whole band.

Lead guitarist Roland Scriver (formerly of Sloth) came aboard for 2007′s Inside the Difference Engine, but the rhythm section is entirely new, which means Armstrong is the only remaining original member. Fear not, however, End of Level Boss‘ nuanced technicality and righteously heavy tonality remain in tact, as the track “Thee Absurd” from Eklectric shows.

Special thanks to Exile on Mainstream for letting me host the song. I get kind of a Soundgarden meets AmRep vibe from it. See what you think and let me know. Here it is followed by some info from the label’s website:

After a quiet period End of Level Boss returned to the fray in 2011 with their third album, Eklectric, released via Exile on Mainstream Records. Continuing in their all-consuming search for twisted riffs, the London-based band returned to the analogue domains of Earth Terminal Studios, England, (the same location used for their highly acclaimed 2007 release, Inside the Difference Engine) during the dying days of 2010. Bringing in a completely new rhythm section [Peter Theobalds (ex-Akercocke/Gonga, also of Obiat) on bass, and Neil Grant (ex-RAAR) on drums] the band have unleashed an angrier, dirtier sound, recorded live to tape across four short winter days.

Having recruited ex-Sloth guitarist Roland Scriver for lead guitar duties on their previous album, this third incarnation of EOLB have uncovered a mutual need to blend the familiar with the bizzare, resulting in the first End of Level Boss album to be written collectively, through intensive jam sessions, by the entire band.

End of Level Boss, Eklectric:
01. As the Earth Forgets Us
02. This is Not the Way it Was
03. Mouth of Hats
04. Thee Absurd
05. Senescence
06. Thud
07. Blueshift
08. If Not All
09. Lost in the Etalon
10. Red Grey Eye

He might be the single most pivotal figure in American doom. Scott “Wino” Weinrich, in a career that’s lasted more than 30 years and is only showing signs of speeding up, has assembled the greatest pedigree in heavy music that doesn’t belong to someone with the last name Iommi. From his years in outfits The Obsessed and Saint Vitus to his ongoing involvement with the supergroup Shrinebuilder, Wino has left a stamp on the genre that — try as many might — simply cannot be duplicated.

And yet, it’s not his legacy that he wants to talk about. In our interview last week, there was some discussion of the “old days,” of course, but it was more about the work of others with whom he’s played, or been friends with — and what was coming next — that really seemed to be what was driving him most. The love of the music. What the hell other reason could there be? There’s no glamor in it. Who the hell cares if a bunch of bearded dudes say, “Cool riffs, bro?” If you don’t love Heavy, you go do something else. You certainly don’t make it your life’s work.

Next month, Volcom Entertainment will release the LP version of Wino‘s first solo acoustic album, Adrift (review here; CD available on Exile on Mainstream), and if you’re unfamiliar with the man’s doings in any of the above bands, or Shine/Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, Dave Grohl‘s Probot, Victor Griffin‘s Place of Skulls or his innumerable guest spots and contributions to others, let it say something that after 30 years, he’s still pushing himself into new territories.

There was a lot to talk about and limited time, but in the Q&A below, Wino discusses the experience of writing and recording Adrift following the death of bassist Jon Blank of the Wino band (also featuring drummer Jean-Paul Gaster of Clutch), the origins of his new, two-guitar outfit, Premonition, where some of the drive to keep starting over comes from, his deep and abiding respect for his fellow players, the status of the Spirit Caravan reunion that bassist Dave Sherman alluded to some while back on this site, and much more.

It was a very conversational interview, as you can see for yourself after the jump. Please enjoy.

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The fourth album from Dutch rock masters Astrosoniq, Quadrant, hit me like a face-bound roundhouse. The Wizards of Oss treat common notions of genre like water treats a screen, passing through and back on different sides of different lines, showing individual personality in their music like few active bands the world over in either the heavy rock underground or any other style. They are — and I don’t use this word lightly — unique.

As it was my first experience with the band, listening to Quadrant inspired me to traipse my way through the Astrosoniq back catalog for a still-in-progress series of Buried Treasure posts (here and here). So far what I’ve learned in so doing is that the willingness to toy with stylistic conventionalism Astrosoniq display on their latest album is hardly new to the band; they’ve been doing it since their Son of A.P. Lady debut in 2000.

All the more reason, then, to want to talk to drummer and founding member Marcel Van de Vondervoort, who not only contributes electronics (and drums, obviously) to Quadrant, but also produced and mixed the album in his own Torture Garden Studio. In the email interview that follows, he sheds light on Astrosoniq‘s processes, his own in writing and in the studio, the neurological condition that’s forced him to relearn how to drum using just his hands, and just how he managed to get something coherent out of the track “Zero,” on which Astrosoniq is joined by the entire band Zeus, one act in the left channel, one in the right.

You’ll find the complete Q&A after the jump. Please enjoy.

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The only thing I don’t like about Wino and Scott Kelly touring together performing solo acoustic sets (as opposed to when they tour together as part of the same band in Shrinebuilder) is that they’re playing New York on The Patient Mrs.‘ birthday. And 2011′s a big one. Curse you, satisfying and longstanding loving relationship!

But just because I can’t nerd out doesn’t mean you can’t. This came down the wire the other day, so it might be old news by now, but here’s the US release info for Wino‘s acoustic album, Adrift, and the tour dates:

Answering the call from his friends and supporters to record an acoustic solo album following the sudden and tragic passing of friend and bandmate Jon Blank, who appeared on Wino‘s Punctuated Equilibrium album in 2009, Scott “Wino” Weinrich set to work on his most personal and powerful recording to date. Adrift is a revealing alternative view of this underground legend’s personality and history. Stripped down to the bare minimum — just his voice and his guitar — the songs on Adrift follow classic American songwriting ideals offering a compelling mixture of emotion and storytelling.

Adrift Track Listing:
01. Adrift
02. I Don’t Care
03. Hold on Love
04. Mala Suerte
05. Old and Alone
06. Iron Horse/Born to Lose
07. Suzanes Song
08. DBear
09. Whatever
10. Shot in the Head
11. O.B.E.
12. Green Speed

Adrift is set for official release on respected German label Exile on Mainstream Records March 8th, 2011, in North America, the label now distributed domestically by E1 Entertainment. A limited edition vinyl version of the album featuring extended liner notes and more is to be released in the US on January 18th by Volcom Entertainment.

Wino will hit the road Stateside this February on a short acoustic tour, rocking alongside longtime friend, and also Shrinebuilder bandmate, Scott Kelly (Neurosis). The tour will be in support of the upcoming split 7″ between Wino and Kelly, to be released early in the year by Volcom, as well as the Adrift album. Sponsored by BrooklynVegan, the tour will venture through California, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York, showcasing both legendary artists each in solo, acoustic mode.

Wino/Scott Kelly February 2011 Tour:

02/05 Viper Room, Hollywood CA
02/07 Casbah, San Diego CA
02/08 Emo’s, Austin TX
02/09 Abbey Pub, Chicago IL
02/10 Great Scott, Allston MA
02/11 Sonar, Baltimore MD
02/12 Mercury Lounge, New York NY