Posted in Whathaveyou on May 8th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
For anyone who might look at the list of Graveyard dates below and wonder, hey, where’s the US tour?, well, they were just here with Uncle Acid. What more could you possibly want? Out of life? In the aftermath of that righteousness, the Swedish kingpins of heavy rock and roll are keeping plenty busy, touring Latin America starting on Friday in Guadalajara, Mexico, and wrapping May 19 in Rio de Janeiro, before heading back to Europe for festivals then returning to the US for Psycho Las Vegas — like you do — before shipping themselves out a week later to Australia for a quick run of shows there. They’ll also be at a big, commercial-type metal festival in Tennessee this October called Exit 111 that has a bunch of bands you’ve heard of. Someone actually recommended Fever 333 to me not so long ago. I should’ve been like, “Thanks brah, but I’m more of a Graveyard kind of guy.” It’s a shame sometimes the only one living in my head is me.
And The Patient Mrs., I guess. She’s all up in there.
In any case, more Graveyard touring, wherever and whenever it happens, certainly isn’t going to hurt anybody. After all, we got a taste of the world without them during their brief breakup in late 2016, and that was enough to begin a riding tide of troubling right wing populism that even their reformation hasn’t been able to stem. That’s right. I’m blaming the outcome of the last US election on Graveyard‘s breakup. Live with it.
Stay tuned for more hard-hitting political analysis:
TOUR DATES GRAVEYARD 2019-05-10 Guadalajara (Foro Independencia) MX 2019-05-11 Monterrey (Café Iguana) MX 2019-05-12 Mexico City (Foro Indie Rocks) MX 2019-05-14 Lima (C.C. Festiva) PE 2019-05-16 Santiago (Rock y Guitarras ) CL 2019-05-17 Buenos Aires (Teatro Vorterix) AR 2019-05-18 São Paulo (Fabrique Club) BR 2019-05-19 Rio de Janeiro (BCO) BR 2019-06-08 Nürnberg (Rock im Park) DE 2019-06-09 Nürburg (Rock am Ring) DE 2019-06-13 Interlaken (Greenfield Festival) CH 2019-06-14 Fuengirola (Rock The Coast) ES 2019-06-16 Donington (Download Festival) GB 2019-06-21 Clisson (Hellfest) FR 2019-07-12 Kristianstad (Rockfest) SE 2019-08-08 Moledo (Sonic Blast) PT 2019-08-16 Las Vegas, NV (Psycho Las Vegas) US 2019-08-23 Brisbane (The Brightside) AU 2019-08-24 Sydney (Crowbar) AU 2019-08-25 Melbourne (Corner Hotel) AU 2019-10-12 Manchester, TN (Exit 111) US
Posted in Whathaveyou on October 24th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
God damn. I mean, come on. Really? Isn’t there some kind of quota for awesome that this violates? When is it too much for one show?
March 2019. Uncle Acid and Graveyard. North American tour. Co-headline. Come on. I can’t even write the words. You gotta be kidding me.
I don’t know who the fuck sat down and was, okay America, you get Uncle Acid and Graveyard on the road together now. Have fun with that. Like the UN of Doom decided to do us a favor or something. God damn.
Blah blah blah Uncle Acid supporting Wasteland (review here), blah blah blah Graveyard supporting Peace (review here). Are you still reading this? Just go look at the fucking dates and get your ticket already. Think these shows won’t sell out? Come on.
From the PR wire:
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS and GRAVEYARD Announce “Peace Across the Wasteland” Co-Headlining North American Tour
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS and GRAVEYARD are teaming up next March for the “Peace Across the Wasteland” co-headlining North American Tour. The tour kicks off March 6th in Philadelphia, PA and runs through March 30th in Toronto, ON. Twin Temple will provide support through the March 16th date in San Francisco, CA. On March 18th, Demob Happy will join the tour for the rest of the run. A complete list of dates can be found below. Pre-sales start this Wednesday October 24th and the official public on-sale is this Friday October 26th
Revered Swedish heavy rock band Graveyard is touring in support of their critically heralded 5th album, “Peace”, which is available now from Nuclear Blast. The band’s latest chapter in a celebrated catalog, guides the listener through an ever-changing musical landscape filled with their trademark take on classic rock. From the opening track’s blistering declaration that ‘It Ain’t Over Yet’ to the final note of heart beating bass on the epic and moody rocker ‘Low (I Wouldn’t Mind)’ the band manages to squeeze out every last creative drop of what there is to know, hear and love about the band.
“It’s time to let Peace roll out across the Wasteland. Graveyard and Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats will co headline a tour of North America in march 2019. This will be the first time the bands tour together and were both bringing tons of new music. This one is going to leave no mind unblown,” says Graveyard of the upcoming run.
The brainchild of singer and guitarist Kevin Starrs, Uncle Acid &The Deadbeats have been making extraordinary music since 2009. After the succesful reissue of “Vol 1” in 2017, they have now returned in support of their widely acclaimed fifth album, “Wasteland” The record is 47 minutes of vital, audacious and frequently bewildering heavy psychedelia, and is instantly recognizable as Starrs’ most immersive and evocative body of work yet.
“We’re looking forward to travelling across the wasteland and destroying minds with Graveyard in 2019. This will be our first North American tour in three years so it feels long overdue. See you down the front!” says Uncle Acid frontman Kevin Starrs.
“Peace Across The Wasteland Tour” 3/6: Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer* 3/7: Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live!* 3/8: Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel* 3/9: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade* 3/11: Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall* 3/12: Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Live!* 3/14: Phoenix, AZ @ The Van Buren* 3/15: Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern* 3/16: San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield* 3/18: Seattle, WA @ The Showbox# 3/19: Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom# 3/20: Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater# 3/22: Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall# 3/23: Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre# 3/25: Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue# 3/26: Chicago, IL @ Metro# 3/28: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel# 3/29: Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre# 3/30: Toronto, ON @ The Danforth Music Hall#
It has been a tumultuous few years for Swedish boogie kings Graveyard. In Sept. 2016, the four-piece announced their breakup. It followed the release of 2015’s fourth album, Innocence and Decadence (review here), which was more defined by its plays toward melancholy soul than anything the four-piece had done previously, and with an effective-immediately disbanding and string of cancelled tour dates, it sent shockwaves through the heavy underground in Europe and beyond, as Graveyard‘s influence had by that point already spread across borders to nearly a whole generation of retro and/or boogie-minded bands. It was a genuine surprise, and not the last.
A few months later, in Jan. 2017, they pulled the rug out from their own breakup by getting back together, and for another shocker, announced that guitarist/vocalist Joakim Nilsson, guitarist Jonathan Ramm and still relatively recently returned bassist Truls Mörck had parted ways with drummer Axel Sjöberg (now of Big Kizz), and replaced him with Oskar Bergenheim, who makes his first appearance on the band’s fifth long-player, Peace (on Nuclear Blast). It was no minor change. This wasn’t just a band swapping out one expendable drummer or another. Anyone who ever saw Graveyard live could tell you Sjöberg was a major part of their sound and stage presence both, and as a founder of the band, he’d been there over the years as the inimitable chemistry developed between them. Whatever Peace — its title perhaps aspirational given all the madness of the few years prior — would have to offer, it was going to be a new Graveyard standing behind its delivery. And so it is.
Or at very least it’s one that sounds refreshed in their purpose and like they’re shaking off the rust they never quite let gather on them considering the touring they did to make up for lost time after Bergenheim joined. No doubt that helped them reestablish the dynamic that’s so prevalent instrumentally throughout the 10 tracks/43 minutes of Peace, which as ever is driven by Nilsson‘s gravely and sometimes bluesy vocals — especially well done on organ-laced closer “Low (I Wouldn’t Mind)” — and as the record begins with the full-on thrust of “It Ain’t Over Yet,” the message comes through clear and the band’s energy proves infectious. Part of a spectrum-spanning opening salvo with the more midpaced “Cold Love” and the subdued, Mörck-fronted “See the Day” behind it, “It Ain’t Over Yet” is just the first of several all-out rushes that one wouldn’t have expected from Graveyard three years ago.
The hooks and the songcraft are still there, and when “Please Don’t” kicks in after the quiet end of “See the Day,” it’s Bergenheim driving the movement that Nilsson tops with a bluesy ballad of coming to the city and trying to survive. In its swing and vibrancy, “Please Don’t” is essential Graveyard, and it builds toward an exciting finish with keys backing the guitars of Ramm and Nilsson as it races to its finish and the swirling, semi-garage start of “The Fox,” the shortest inclusion on Peace at a brisk 2:45 and a carrying a sans-frills hook that likely finishes side A and leads to the longer “Walk On” at the start of the tracklist’s second half, which is longer and shifts from one of the album’s most memorable choruses into a wide open section of echoes that set the bed for a build into the last run through the hook and a finish that finds the instruments cutting out as Nilsson recites, “It’s time to walk on” one more time, far, far off the mic.
“Walk On” would stand as a video-worthy single, and but one might say the same of the quieter “Del Manic,” which follows. Catchy and memorable for its repetitions of the line “It’s just like staring at the sun” and its might-just-be-a-waltz rhythm, it shifts past its midpoint into a momentary swell of lower end tone, but recedes back to Nilsson‘s croon before trading back again before the next hook, “Don’t you need a little more to feel it?/Don’t you feel a little like you need it?/Don’t need a little more to feel it?/Don’t you feel a little like you need it?” sets up a swirl-backed solo and a final drop back to bluesy guitar that fades into the more uptempo start of “Bird of Paradise,” which brings Mörck back to the frontman position, his voice vaguely recalling Thin Lizzy if in rawer fashion. His presence alongside Nilsson on vocals is more than just a change-things-up tactic — he genuinely brings something different to the material he tops, and it gives Graveyard even more breadth to their sound.
That shows itself as “Bird of Paradise” gives way to the semi-title-track “A Sign of Peace,” which may or may not ultimately be based thematically on everything the band’s been through to get to this album release, but has a feeling of culmination to it anyway and moves fluidly through a kind of build before closer “Low (I Wouldn’t Mind)” takes hold quietly at first but ultimately with the unfurling of a blues-locomotive rhythm that turns near the midpoint to dual-guitar stomp backed by Bergenheim‘s kick. That quickly sets the foundation for an increasingly chaotic-sounding crescendo which recedes past the four-minute mark — the keys remaining prevalent alongside softly noodled and strummed guitar — and just when near-silence hits at about 4:50, they kick back in and give “Low (I Wouldn’t Mind)” a full revival for Peace‘s final apex, ending by cutting off cold and giving way to a kind of manipulated and echoing moan that also is shortly to disappear.
Peace will likely not be hailed as one of Graveyard‘s most innovative releases. The days of their landmark 2007 self-titled debut, 2011’s Hisingen Blues (review here) and 2012’s Lights Out (review here) are gone and despite having a signature sound, the band show little interest in repeating themselves from record to record, instead offering something different each time out within the sphere of their aesthetic and songwriting. But while it’s not revolutionary, the album should still be welcomed by fans, both for the fact that it marks Graveyard‘s return — something that, if only for months, didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon — and for the reassurance it provides that despite the high highs and the low lows they’ve had since Innocence and Decadence, they remain strong, certain of who they are, and masters of the form of heavy boogie and blues rock. They’re as essential on Peace as they’ve been all along, and reestablishing that place seems to have been part of the idea anyhow.
The new Graveyard record has a couple barnburners on it, from the opener “It Ain’t Over Yet” to the penultimate semi-title-track “A Sign of Peace,” but as has been the case with their last several full-lengths, there’s more to the Swedish heavy rockers’ sound than just one approach. To wit, each half of the 10-song/43-minute LP gets a slower, moodier track, be it “See the Day” on side A or “Del Manic” on side B. Assuming the vinyl splits the tracklisting in half, that makes “The Fox” the finale on side A, and it draws a little bit from both sides. Where Graveyard‘s last video from Peace for “Please Don’t” (posted here), was a little more psychotic in its feel and a little more manic in the song itself, “The Fox” seems to be drawing from multiple sides.
I’m going to have an album review sometime in the coming weeks full of wax critique about what makes Graveyard such a special band and the serious risk they took in continuing on with new drummer Oskar Bergenheim after an initial hiatus, so I’ll save a lot of that kind of commentary for that, but for those looking forward to the arrival of Peace through Nuclear Blast on May 25, there’s much answered in this second video that the first one left to wonder about where the band was headed in terms of overall direction. The answer? They’re headed toward sounding like Graveyard Go figure.
Once again, the album is out May 25 on Nuclear Blast and Graveyard have newly confirmed tour dates in the UK and Europe for the Fall. All that whatnot follows via the PR wire. Dig it:
Graveyard, “The Fox” official video
Swedish classic rock connoisseurs GRAVEYARD are about to release their highly anticipated comeback album Peace, on May 25th through Nuclear Blast.
Today, the band releases another brand new song off their forthcoming record. Watch the music video for “The Fox” here.
Furthermore the band has announced the dates for their upcoming European and UK tours. See below.
Listen to “Please Don’t” in the NB Novelties Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/user/nuclearblastrecords/playlist/6aw9wiedFzzhJiI96DhNhw
The Nuclear Blast Mailorder Edition will feature the CD as well as a red 7″ vinyl single containing 2 exclusive and previously unreleased non-album tracks (‘Headache City’ & ‘Something Else’). Aside of that, the album will be available as digipak CD as well as on black, blue, yellow, beige, white and clear vinyl.
Peace – Track Listing: 01. It Ain’t Over Yet 02. Cold Love 03. See The Day 04. Please Don’t 05. Del Maniac 06. The Fox 07. Walk On 08. Bird Of Paradise 09. A Sign Of Peace 10. Low (I Wouldn’t Mind)
GRAVEYARD live: 08.06. S Sölvesborg – Sweden Rock 15./16.06. S Norrköping – Metallsvenskan 17.06. F Brétigny-Sur-Orge – Download Festival 21. – 23.06. DK Copenhagen – Copenhell 14.07. NL Weert – Bospop 21.07. S Stockholm – Ullevi (w/ GUNS N’ ROSES) 28.07. S Öland – Borgholm Brinner 08. – 11.08. D Eschwege – Open Flair Festival 08. – 11.08. CZ Jarom?? – Brutal Assault 15.08. D Dinkelsbühl – Summer Breeze
Peace over Europe 2018 + BOMBUS 20 sept Columbia Club / Berlin (D) 22 sept Täubchenthal / Leipzig (D) 23 sept Futurum / Prague (CZ) 25 sept Arena Wien / Wien (AT) 26 sept A38 / Budapest (HUN) 28 sept Zona Roveri / Bologna (IT) 29 sept Bloom / Mezzago (IT) 2 oct Technikum / München (D) 3 oct Zoom / Frankfurt (D) 4 oct Garage Kleiner Klubb / Saarbrücken (D) 5 oct Im Wizemann / Stuttgart (D) 6 oct Den Atelier / Luxembourg (LU) 10 oct Ancienne Belgique / Brussels (BE) 11 oct De Oosterpoort / Groningen (NL) 12 oct Melkweg Max / Amsterdam (NL) 13 oct Luxor / Cologne (D)
PEACE over UK 2018 (support TBA) 30 nov Leadmill / Sheffield 1 dec The Key Club / Leeds 2 dec Rescue Rooms / Nottingham 3 dec G2 / Glasgow 5 dec Scala / London 6 dec Manchester Academy / Manchester 7 dec Birmingham 02 Academy 2 / Birmingham 8 Dec The Thekla / Bristol
I’m not saying I don’t dig the new Graveyard track. I’m not. That’s not what I’m saying at all. What I am saying is that for all the hullabaloo surrounding the May 25 release of the Swedish classic heavy rock forerunners’ new album, Peace, listening to “Please Don’t” doesn’t tell us all that much that we didn’t already know. Graveyard can write a hook. Joakim Nilsson is an awesome frontman with an ever-expanding range of melody and expression in his voice. The band rocks. These are all things that Graveyard fans know well. It’s part of the reason there are so many of them around.
So don’t think I’m trying to talk smack on Graveyard as they come back from the hiatus after their 2015 album, Innocence and Decadence (review here), that led to guitarist/vocalist Joakim Nilsson, guitarist Jonathan Ramm and bassist Truls Mörck parting ways with drummer Axel Sjöberg and bringing in Oskar Bergenheim to fill that role. Quite the opposite. Listen to that shuffle. Check out that boogie. That bluesy feel. It’s Graveyard alright. As many bands as have come along in the last decade trying to sound like that, nope. Graveyard still own it, vintage production or no.
But that brings us back to where we started. These are already established facts. Graveyard with a boogie track is awesome. It’s not, however, answering the question of whether Peace will follow in the melancholy soul footsteps of Innocence and Decadence, which had its boogie tracks too. It’s giving a solid first impression of Bergenheim on drums, to be sure, but it’s hardly answering the question of how the band’s personality will have invariably shifted with him behind the kit. It’s a full song, but it’s still also just a teaser for what’s invariably a more complete offering than one song could possibly convey.
So satisfying in some ways, leaving some questions in others. I guess that makes it an effective single…
Peace is out May 25 on Nuclear Blast. Album preorder link and more info follow here, courtesy of the PR wire.
Enjoy:
Graveyard, “Please Don’t” official video
Swedish classic rock connoisseurs GRAVEYARD have released the official music video for the first single, “Please Don’t,” off their eagerly anticipated upcoming comeback album, Peace.
Commented the band: ”As you may know, we’ve been doing some traveling lately. In many ways and on many levels. The good thing is that we brought back a few things for you all. Here’s a first souvenir from the road to PEACE.”
The album is now available for pre-order in various formats. The Nuclear Blast Mailorder edition will feature the CD as well as a red 7″ vinyl containing 2 exclusive and previously unreleased non-album tracks (“Headache City” & “Something Else”). Aside of that the album will be available as digipack CD as well as on black, yellow, mint, beige and clear vinyl.
Peace will be released on May 25, 2018 via Nuclear Blast.
Graveyard – Peace – Track List: 01. It Ain’t Over Yet 02. Cold Love 03. See The Day 04. Please Don’t 05. Del Maniac 06. The Fox 07. Walk On 08. Bird Of Paradise 09. A Sign Of Peace 10. Low (I Wouldn’t Mind)
