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Vulture Call it Quits

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 15th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Vulture will be missed. Here’s a fun fact about the Pittsburgh sludgers who announced today they’re making their exit as a band: They were the first package I ever got sent for this site. It’s true. I still have the envelope sent by drummer Kelly Benson Gabany containing 2009’s self-released debut EP (review here). Their permanent vacation to Splittsville is a double-bummer though on account of last year’s Oblivious to Ruin (review here) seeming so much like the start of a new era of productivity.

Best of luck to the dudes and lady of Vulture. Hopefully it’s not too long before they sludge anew:

Vulture 2007-2013

After six years, Vulture has decided to call it a day. Over the last year or so it’s become increasingly difficult to get together due to schedules, distance to rehearsal, life, etc. We tried to make it work after our Winter’s Wake performance last February, but it just didn’t take.

We want to thank Innervenus for the last couple of years and releasing our record, Chris Smith for all of the amazing artwork, James Curl and Garret Costlow for the tireless work on our recordings, all the bands we’ve ever played with, the venues we’ve played, the promoters that booked us, the magazines/blogs that’s interviewed, reviewed and featured us, radio shows that played us, the friends we’ve made along the way and each and every one of you that has ever been to a show, bought a t-shirt, cd or supported us in any way.

With that said, we’ll be playing two final shows, the first being The Blackout Cookout IV on August 24th in Kent, Ohio and then a yet to be announced Pittsburgh show that will take place in November. More details as we get them.

Let’s party.

Vulture, “Oblivious to Ruin” from Oblivious to Ruin

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Red Sun Announce 10th Anniversary Gig with Lo-Pan, Sistered, Mockingbird, Before the Eyewall and More

Posted in Whathaveyou on April 9th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

If you’re gonna do it, do it in style. Ohio rockers Red Sun are celebrating 10 years as a band, and along with a good bit of history to catch anyone up who maybe hasn’t been along for the whole ride, they’ve sent over an announcement of their April 20 anniversary show, set to take place across two venues in Columbus and to feature a lineup of Lo-Pan, Mockingbird, Before the Eyewall, Biipiigwaan and Matter of Planets. For a whopping seven bucks, it’s a hell of a lineup.

And it’s a considerable announcement. As you make your way through, you’ll find the poster for the April 20 gig and Red Sun‘s 2011 split with Mockingbird. Dig in:

Red Sun Are Celebrating Ten Years of Poor Life Choices!

Heavy stoner/sludge/doom band Red Sun — founded April 20, 2003 in Warren, Ohio — are celebrating their tenth anniversary by throwing a huge concert in Columbus, OH, on Saturday April 20, 2013.

The band — consisting of Zach Germaniuk (guitar/vocals), Joseph Rosenblum (drums/vocals), and Roger Vincent (bass/vocals) — has come a long way over the past ten years and a lot of stories have come out of that: according to Germaniuk, “We started out as three gawky high school kids growing up in Warren, OH (birthplace of Dave Grohl). We’ve had like 5 bass players through that time and I’d say the fact that we kept the band together for ten years through a lot of personal adversity, overcoming addictions, living and working in different cities and still making time for this particular band is a huge milestone in itself. When we started, we were really the only high school band from our town that was actively playing shows in other cities, and I think we really took it to heart at a very young age. I think we’ve made more mistakes than milestones, honestly, but we’re really trying our best to learn from those mistakes and live up to the expectations of our mentors and ourselves, too.”

Red Sun’s members are currently located across the state of Ohio (in Columbus, Dayton, and Cleveland) but they consider Columbus their home because that’s where they spent most of their formative years as a band, developing their sound, as well as forging a long-term friendship with fellow Columbusites Lo-Pan. Guitarist Germaniuk explains, “They, more than any other band, are probably why Red Sun didn’t break up years ago. They were our guides when we were 19, 20, 21 years old. Playing shows with them, and being as good as they are, you either have to get better or just quit, because they’re going to blow you off stage. Our feeling was, if we could at least be good enough to not look like complete fools in front of them and their audience, we would be OK.”

Some of the band’s more recent highlights include the release of a split 7″ (2011, Innervenus Music) with Mockingbird from Akron, Ohio, as well as a live EP (2012, Innervenus/Unhallowed Records) that was recorded at Carabar (in Columbus) during the band’s summer 2011 tour with Churches Burn (from Columbus) and Pledge of Cain (from France). They later said that drummer Joe Rosenblum’s grandmother died the day that recording was made, and “there was just a lot of anger and frustration and sadness before the show. So to be able to get onstage and let all of that out was an almost spiritual healing for all of us — you can hear the catharsis in the music when you listen to that recording, for sure.”

Given the fact that all three members live in different cities, they have also found time to work on other projects outside of Red Sun: Joe plays in the hardcore band Swarm and the instrumental unit Matter of Planets, while Zach was invited to sit in on guitar on garage/psych band The Wooly Bullies’ last record, which has since developed into a new minimalist, ambient project called Loner (which expects to have a debut record out sometime in fall or winter 2013). However, since all three guys are such close friends that really enjoy making music together, there are no plans for Red Sun to slow down any time soon. In fact, following their anniversary celebration, they will be heading back into the studio in May to record material for another split release, while also working on writing new material for a future full-length studio album. They’ve described the songs as “a mix of probably our most aggressive and also introspective songs to date, [although] we’ve always been a band with dual personality disorder: we still try to keep a lot of that teenage punk rock energy in our music, even as we get older and write heavier music to fit the shits life has taken on all of us.” In addition, details are currently being finalized for summer and fall touring. A decade in and still going strong, 2013 is shaping up to be Red Sun’s biggest year yet!

“Come help us celebrate a decade of lost brain cells, diminished hearing, and blackened lungs!”

The Red Sun Tenth Anniversary Celebration is being held on Saturday, April 20, 2013
at Cafe Bourbon St. (2210 Summit Street, Columbus OH 43201) and The Summit (2216 Summit Street, Columbus OH 43201)

Admission is only $7 for 7 incredible bands (cover charge is good for both locations).
Doors open at 8pm, show starts at 8:30 SHARP at Cafe Bourbon St.
Bands will be performing approximately each half hour, alternating between the two venues.

Scheduled to perform:

Red Sun
Lo-Pan (Columbus, OH)
Mockingbird (Akron, OH)
Before the Eyewall (Columbus, OH)
Biipiigwaan (Ottawa, ON)
Sistered (Pittsburgh, PA)
Matter of Planets (Columbus, OH)

More details on this event can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/events/498162070239852/

Red Sun & Mockingbird, Split (2011)

http://www.facebook.com/redsunohio
http://redsunbeast.bandcamp.com
http://innervenus.org/artists/red-sun/

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Six Dumb Questions with Vulture

Posted in Six Dumb Questions on May 31st, 2012 by JJ Koczan

I was legitimately surprised when Pittsburgh sludgers Vulture‘s full-length debut, Oblivious to Ruin, came across my desk. Not that they weren’t due for a follow-up to 2009’s self-titled EP, which was one of the first releases ever reviewed on this site, but because of how much the band had changed in the three years since that EP came out. Vulture had a doomly appeal to start with, but what Oblivious to Ruin (review here) brought to that was a low-down, dirty feel. A big part of that was the inclusion of new vocalist Justin Erb, whose raw-throated screams, shouts and growls added not only brutality but also character to Vulture‘s sound, now more professional and altogether more lethal.

That’s not to say the seven cuts present on Oblivious to Ruin aren’t without precedent — one finds Vulture culling influence from Sourvein, High on Fire and Down (in that order of prevalence) — but their blend is far more their own than it was a few short years ago, and what’s more, they seem to have hit a starting point for further growth and development, and so the record becomes an essential beginning step in that process, as well as a nasty-as-fuck slab of sludge. They’re having their cake and smashing it with buzzsaw guitar tone too, if you will.

As such, it seemed the perfect time to harass Mr. Erb for some info on his background in the abrasive arts and how he came to be a member of Vulture, and just what Oblivious to Ruin might be driving toward in terms of the overall trajectory of the band. Par for the course for this kind of thing, I also asked about some other stuff as well, like any Pittsburgher recommendations he might have and what’s coming next for Vulture, and he was forthcoming on that as well, as you can see below.

Vulture is Erb, guitarists Garrett Twardesky and Gene Fikhman, bassist Justin Bach and drummer Kelly Gabany. Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions:

1. Tell me about how you came to join Vulture. Did you know the rest of the band beforehand?

I met Vulture while jamming with my other band, Reduce to Ash. Our guitar player, Quinn Lukas, who also plays with Icarus Witch, is good friends with Vulture’s old singer, Buddy Smith. Every summer Quinn has a few huge yard parties, and during one of these parties we made plans with Buddy to do some shows together. Through those shows I ended up becoming good buddies with Garrett, Vulture’s riff master. Anytime Reduce would do shows, Garrett would try to make it out and we would end up outside getting high and rocking out some Sabbath in the parking lot. After a show at Marlene’s Corner Bar in Connellsville, PA, Garrett told me they were having trouble with their singer and were planning on sacking him. He just wasn’t on the same page, musically. I told Garrett that if they fired Buddy, I would be interested in auditioning. Turns out they were planning on approaching me for the gig. The funny thing is that from the first time I saw Vulture play, I imagined myself fronting that band. In Reduce to Ash, I play bass and split vocals with Tim Weir, the other guitarist, so I jumped at the chance to front a band without worrying about playing an instrument. Especially a band like Vulture, who I had a ton of respect for from day one.

2. What was the timeline of the material on Oblivious to Ruin? How much was written when you joined the band, and as the singer, how involved were you in structuring and putting the songs together?

The songs for Oblivious were written over a pretty long period of time. It’s kinda hazy as far as the exact timeline. I was working out of town a lot and the guys made me demos of basic arrangements of the songs. I wrote all the lyrics and rearranged some of the structures to fit my lyric ideas a little better. Most of the arrangements were perfect before I even put my stamp on them. When I joined the band, Garrett gave me a demo with three songs that needed lyrics. The first song ended up being “Prick of Misery,” which we recorded for the Innervenus Music Collective‘s compilation disc, Iron Atrocity Vol. 1. The second song was the title-track, “Oblivious to Ruin.” We jammed on the third song but never ended up using it.

3. How was the band’s time in the studio? The recording seems to capture the songs perfectly, sounding natural and nasty. How long were you at Calfax Alley, and what was the recording process like?

The band’s time in the studio was brief but awesome. All the instruments were recorded live. With a few punch-ins for guitar solos here and there. What you hear on the album is a live take of the band jamming out with my vocals recorded separately. All seven songs, instrumentally, were recorded in one day. The vocals took three sessions. Without incriminating ourselves too much, I will say that we did partake in some illicit substances to capture the right vibe while recording. We are all about the vibe and atmosphere.

4. This being your first outing with the band, and the band’s first full-length after the self-titled EP, how representative is it of the direction you guys want to go in? How do you see Vulture’s sound developing over the next couple records?

I think it is representative of our direction as far as the heaviness that is captured on the album. I don’t think we could lose that if we tried. I can see us keeping with the sludge but also adding more groove and melody. Maybe even some acoustic stuff. We want to record the next album on analog tape. Like some old ‘60s or ‘70s gear. If that’s even possible these days.

5. I know Pittsburgh has a few really killer heavy bands – Argus, Vulture, Sistered, etc. – but is there anyone you guys especially enjoy playing shows with? Any other bands from the area you’d recommend for outsiders to check out?

I love playing with Mockingbird. They are from Ohio, but they do play Pittsburgh from time to time. Fist Fight in the Parking Lot is a badass ‘Burgh band with some deep roots in the city. Molasses Barge are labelmates and good friends of ours. They groove it down and rip it up hard. Gene and Garrett have a band called Grisly Amputation. They may possibly be the fastest and heaviest band I can think of in Pittsburgh. Plus they have hands-down the coolest name.

6. Any other writing/recording in the works, show plans or closing word you want to mention?

We have a ton of shows coming up in and outside of Pittsburgh. Vulture is also planning on recording new songs for a split with Ohio’s DeathCrawl sometime in the near future. Check us out at facebook.com/vulturedoom for all the latest info.

I’m really excited about Gene and Garrett‘s Grisly Amputation full-length, which should be done very soon. My other band, Reduce to Ash, just laid down guitar tracks for our first full-length. It is going to crush.

Vulture on Thee Facebooks

Innervenus Music Collective

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Vulture, Oblivious to Ruin: Over Fire Seas

Posted in Reviews on May 3rd, 2012 by JJ Koczan

What a difference a couple years can make. Well, a couple years and a new singer, to be more precise about it. In the case of Pittsburgh double-guitar five-piece Vulture, they make the most of both. Three years ago, their 2009 self-titled debut EP (review here) charmed with its stoner-doom blend, hinting of better things to come. Listening now to Vulture’s first full-length, Oblivious to Ruin (Innervenus Music Collective), those original songs offer little in terms of preparation for the nastiness present in the new collection. Seven tracks put to tape and mixed by James Curl at Calfax Alley in Ohio over the course of four days in 2011, Oblivious to Ruin is sludge so nasty I had to check and make sure I wasn’t listening to Sourvein by mistake the first time I put it on. Part of that is new vocalist Justin Erb, who bears some sonic resemblance to Sourvein’s T-Roy Medlin, but even in terms of the grit in the guitar behind him, the viciousness of charge in Gene Fikhman and Garrett Twardesky’s playing, Vulture are in an entirely different league here. More assured of their aesthetic and willing to work their way into and out of various levels of abrasion comfortably, they even go so far as to let a song like “Dead Sea” offers a moment of solace before renewing one of the album’s most searing grooves. Erb is a screamer, and a mean one at that, but he doesn’t fail to bring personality to what he does. Along with Medlin, he seems on the title-track to be nodding at the drunken abandon Matt Pike has worked into some of High on Fire’s slower material over the course of their last couple records, and as the faster riff toward the end of “Coming Storm” basks in an early-Crowbar pummel, he follows suit, taking on a Kirk Windstein cadence with what sounds like natural ease.

Of course, what makes Oblivious to Ruin work is that fact that while these influences play out over the course of its 40 minutes, Vulture are putting them to use in service of a sound that’s their own. Indeed, I’d argue that the album’s greatest achievement is how much Vulture come of age on it – which, even three years after their first and now-nebulous-feeling EP, is an impressive feat on a debut full-length – but don’t let that somehow discount the quality of these songs or the fact that the band achieves what they set out here to do. No doubt Vulture had some of the malevolence found on sample-led opener and longest track “This Beautiful Infection” in mind when they got their start as a band, but the difference between then and now is they have the experience and the component viciousness to make it happen. Bassist Justin Bach and drummer Kelly Gabany underscore each filthy, stinking groove Oblivious to Ruin has to offer, and like a lot of sludge, it’s easy to lose sight of complexity because of superficial abrasiveness. Both the titular cut and “Dead Sea” play out marked changes in approach, and not just those already noted from Erb. Gabany’s toms cut through the morass of distortion excellently on the song “Oblivious to Ruin” and each hi-hat hit is excruciating, but the song gradually shifts to a faster groove and a more open-sounding riff that allows for more interplay between Twardesky and Fikhman before fading out and letting the sudden start of “Dead Sea” take hold, in effect reversing the course of tempo from fast to slow. These don’t sound like big changes, I know – slow to fast, fast to slow – but Vulture do it subtly and confidently, so that it almost happens before you’re aware. “Dead Sea” also has a quiet, guitar-led break after the halfway point that speaks to the band’s growing ability to convey an atmosphere… and then smash it to bits shortly thereafter.

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