Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 19th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Perennial progressives Black Space Riders have newly made public the cover art and tracklisting of their next album, Amoretum Vol. 1, which is set to hit ground on Jan. 26. The German space metallers will reportedly use their new offering, which follows last year’s EP, Beyond Refugeeum (discussed here) and the LP on which it was based, Refugeeum(review here), as the launch of a series of releases, looking in some way to counter the negativity of the current sociocultural sphere with a sense of positivity, love and — naturally — keyboards.
“Another Sort of Homecoming” is the first audio to be made public from Amoretum Vol. 1, and it pulses with vitality for its sub-four-minute runtime, a quick arrival after the opening track “Lovely Lovelie” gives a surprisingly gruff introduction. More so than the partially-drifting “Movements” or the post-rock-into-prog-metal closer “Fellow Peacemakers” later on, “Another Sort of Homecoming” reminds distinctly of Astrosoniq‘s penchant for blending space weirdness and heavy rock vibes, but it’s just one look of many Black Space Riders ultimately give throughout Amoretum Vol. 1 — for example, they immediately back it up with the grand chorus of “Soul Shelter (Inside of Me)” — so don’t necessarily look for the rest of the album to sound just like this.
But then, that’s never been their way. Black Space Riders have always been a challenge for themselves and for listeners who might want to put them in one category or another, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s a huge part of their appeal. They remain defiant in that regard on Amoretum Vol. 1, about which I’ll hope to have more prior to its release late next month. For now, you can see the “Another Sort of Homecoming” video below, followed by more info culled from the PR wire.
I hope you enjoy:
Black Space Riders, “Another Sort of Homecoming” official video
German Riffonauts BLACK SPACE RIDERS have revealed the artwork and track list for forthcoming LP Amoretum Vol. 1. The band has also released the official video for the first single “Another Sort of Homecoming.”
Amoretum Vol. 1 will be released on January 26. The single can be purchased and the album pre-ordered on all digital platforms, including Bandcamp, as well as at the band shop: www.blackspaceriders.com/shop
Band: BLACK SPACE RIDERS Song: Another sort of homecoming Album: AMORETUM Vol1 (2018) Music/Lyrics: BLACK SPACE RIDERS (Jochen Engelking ) based on scenes from “SPACE ANGEL” produced by Cambria Productions, CA (1962-1964)
Track List: 1. Lovely Lovelie 2. Another Sort of Homecoming 3. Soul Shelter (Inside of Me) 4. Movements 5. Come and Follow 6. Friends Are Falling 7. Fire! Fire! (Death of a Giant) 8. Fellow Peacemakers
BLACK SPACE RIDERS are: JE: Lead Vocals, Guitars, Organ, Beats SEB: Lead vocals C.RIP: Drums, Percussion SLI: Guitars SAQ: Bass Guitar HEVO: Additional Bass Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 21st, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Last we heard from adventurous German rockers Black Space Riders was this past Spring, and the Münster-based heavy progressives were heading into the studio to craft the follow-up to their 2016 EP, Beyond Refugeeum (discussed here), which itself was an answer to the previous long-player, Refugeeum(review here), the band’s tendency toward social commentary becoming more prevalent over time even as their sound correspondingly has grown less and less bound by notions of genre in pursuit of its own identity. I’ll admit happily that the description below of what Amoretum Vol. 1holds in store has me intrigued, and while I’m not necessarily surprised to find them working in a two-part context, because prog and whatnot, I am interested to hear what develops across and between the pair of 2018 outings to come.
The PR wire has preliminary info:
BLACK SPACE RIDERS Releasing New Album ‘Amoretum Vol. 1’ on January 26
German Riffonauts BLACK SPACE RIDERS are proud to announce the January 26th release of new album Amoretum Vol. 1.
The internationally acclaimed predecessor Refugeeum brought the band renown with its mixture of thoughtful, sensitive themes and hard, atmospheric rock. Two years have passed since then, two years in which the world has not necessarily become a better place in the eyes of most people.
War, terror, displacement, destruction, rejection and nationalism dominate the headlines. Or, as a wise little green fellow once said: “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
“All you need is love”, countered the BEATLES in 1967. The response of BLACK SPACE RIDERS in 2018 is Amoretum, a made-up word comprising “amor” and “arboretum” to symbolize a protective garden and a germ seed of love. And so the new song cycle of BLACK SPACE RIDERS is all about the conflict between fear-hate-rejection-darkness on the one hand, and love-empathy-care-light on the other. For, how else should we overcome hate, if not with love?
Musically, this conflict is consistently put into practice by a band that beats its own path and is constantly developing. The electronic experiments of the Beyond Regugeeum EP of 2016 have been reduced sonically and cleverly integrated into the powerfully sounding songs. Between fat, dirty riffs and trippy delays, everything that sounds good is allowed; the album is interspersed with a flowing groove throughout and an ever-present atmosphere that embraces the listener. Heavy, sometimes proggy, often psychedelic, always engaging and almost catchy and danceable, Amoretum Vol. 1 takes us by the hand, shows us the dark side, and then wants to give us the hope back that we so often painfully miss.
The album flows from song to song as if from a single cast. The listener wonders after 45 minutes whether everything is really already over, and wants to go back to the beginning again immediately.
But of course everything is not over after 45 minutes in the world of BLACK SPACE RIDERS. The band also announces a second chapter for 2018 … Amoretum Vol. 2 is waiting for us, while we are looking forward to Amoretum Vol 1.
Distribution partners: Germany/Austria/Switzerland: Cargo Records USA/ Canada: MVD Entertainment UK: PHD (plastichead distribution) BeNeLux: Suburban records Scandinavia: Border Music Italy: Goodfellas BLACK SPACE RIDERS are:
This Charming Man Records is taking preorders now for the first 12-incher from German boogie rockers The Great Beyond. Titled A Better Place and set to release on July 28, it’s the debut EP from the Münster-based trio, who herald its arrival with a new video for “Empty Grail.” With lyrical nods to Sabbath and layered guitar leads à la Thin Lizzy, they’re not exactly shy in showing off where they’re coming from in terms of influences, but their take on classic methods nonetheless comes through a modern production — though perhaps via vintage gear? — and they skirt the line of actual retroism vs. the kind of heavy ’10s update spearheaded in the last five years by the likes of Graveyard and Kadavar.
Familiar terrain, perhaps, but The Great Beyond cover it well and show in the three-minute “Empty Grail” a steady grasp of the style. On the EP, “Empty Grail” is complemented by the proto-metallic shuffle of the opening title-track, the languid bluesy drawl of centerpiece “Yearning,” the post-Uncle Acid garage riffing of “Solution” and the heavier roll of five-minute closer “Mountains of Gold,” on which the full breadth of bassist Daniel Himmelberg‘s tone shows itself en route to a raucous finale marked by Leon Runde‘s lead work and the uptempo thrust of drummer David Aaron Mrohs, but even as a standalone piece, it gives a sense of where The Great Beyond are coming from in terms of aesthetic, if not necessarily one that speaks for the entirety of their first offering.
So think of “Empty Grail” perhaps as a sampler of wares for a sampler of wares to follow as they ready the ground for A Better Place to land later this month. If you’re so inclined, the preorder links for the EP follow the video itself — along with some words from the label, which is spot-on in the surprising Cave In comparison — which you can find below.
Please enjoy:
The Great Beyond, “Empty Grail” official video
Empty Grail is taken from The Great Beyond’s debut 12″/CD – released 28th of july!
These fellas from Münster Germany are a typical power rock trio mayhem, which took me instantly I listened to their first recorded demos! they pretty much sound like they look like: bone-dry, dusty & oldschool 70s rock – if you dig Mountain Witch or Kadavar, you pretty sure can connect with these 5 songs. On their 12″ they show a wide range of classic rock styles, slowed down Graveyard-eque tunes also as uptempo driven rock hymns. their signature will be the high pitched vocals which reminds a little of mix of Stephen Brodsky (Cave In / Mutoid Man) and John Dyer Baizley of mighty Baroness!
The Great Beyond is: Leon Runde – Vocals & Guitars Daniel Himmelberg – Bass & Vocals David Aaron Mrohs – Drums & Vocals
Posted in Reviews on October 1st, 2015 by JJ Koczan
We’re in the thick of it now. It’s hard sometimes putting these things together to remember that each band has worked incredibly hard to put out an album. I’ve been through that process (once), and so I know it can be harrowing at times between acts going back and forth about recording, what’s included, how to release, when, and so on. There’s a lot to cover this week — and we’re not out of the woods yet — but I hope that, just because each review is short, you don’t take that as a sign I don’t have the utmost respect for the effort that has gone into making each of these releases. It can be a tremendous pain in the ass, but of course it’s worth it when you get to the end product. We continue.
Fall 2015 Quarterly Review #31-40:
We Lost the Sea, Departure Songs
To be blunt, We Lost the Sea’s Departure Songs is the kind of album that immediately makes me want to own everything the band has done, in hard copy, for posterity. The Sydney outfit’s third full-length finds its crux in its two-part closing duo of “Challenger Part 1 – Flight” and “Challenger Part 2 – A Swan Song,” enacting a lush instrumental interpretation of the Space Shuttle Challenger flight and disaster that took place nearly 30 years ago in Jan. 1986. In its progression, patience, flow and discernable narrative thread it is nothing short of brilliant, a lush and sad beauty that serves as a genuinely affecting reminder of the hope for a better future that died with that shuttle’s civilian crew and the era of aspiration that tragedy brought to a close. I think the closing sample is the only time I’ve ever heard Ronald Reagan speak in my adult life and felt something other than anger, and that’s a testament to the ground Departure Songs covers – on the preceding three cuts as well as the final two – and the masterful execution on the part of We Lost the Sea.
There does not yet exist a name for what Finland’s Dark Buddha Rising bring to bear on the two side-consuming tracks of their Neurot Recordings debut and sixth album overall, Inversum. Self-recorded and presented following some shifts in lineup, the album swells to a massive head of bleak, noise-infused psychedelia, fully ritualized and self-aware but still vibrant as it makes its way further and further down into itself. It is bright black, based so much around contrasting ideas of form and tonality that to listen to it, one almost doesn’t believe that the band are accomplishing what they are on an aesthetic level, but the weight, chants, screams, cavernous feel and nod that “Eso” (24:05) and “Exo” (23:52) enact is ultimately real no matter how nightmarish and otherworldly the impression might be. A work that sounds as likely to digest as be digested, it constructs a temple of its own sound and then burns that temple and everything around it in a glorious final push into charred chaos.
Few endorsements carry as much weight for me as that of Germany’s Nasoni Records, so when I see that venerable imprint is on board for the release of Red Mountains’ first album, Down with the Sun, expectations immediately rise. The Norwegian four-piece don’t disappoint, calling forth a heavy psychedelia weighted enough to be immersive without really falling into the trap of sounding too post-Colour Haze or Causa Sui, finding a balance right away on opener “Six Hands” between open-vibe and structured songcraft. They toy with one side or the other, getting crunchy on “Rodents” and tripping out into ambient echoing on the penultimate “Silver Grey Sky,” but that only makes the debut seem all the more promising. Particularly satisfying is the scope between “Sun” and “Sleepy Desert Blues,” which is enough to make the listener think that grunge and desert rock happened in the same place. An engaging and already-on-the-right-track start from a band who sound like they’re only going to continue to grow.
It’s improper to think of Germany’s Black Space Riders as entirely psychedelic if only because that somehow implies a lack of clearheaded consciousness in their work, which as their fourth album, Refugeeum, demonstrates, is the very core tying all the expanses they cover together. As Europe comes to grip with its most dire refugee crisis since World War II, Black Space Riders take their thematic movement from such terrestrial issues (a first for them) and it makes a song like 11-minute centerpiece “Run to the Plains” all the more resonant. Of course, the big-chug groove of “Born a Lion (Homeless)” and the cosmic thrust of the penultimate “Walking Shades” still have a psychedelic resonance, but the balance between the earthly and the otherworldly do well to highlight the progressivism that’s been at work in the band’s sound all along. A considerable undertaking at 61 minutes, Refugeeum is an important step in an ongoing development that has just made another unexpected and welcome turn.
And so, with their third and final outing, III, Portland, Oregon, trio Lamprey reserve their strongest point for their closing argument. The two-bass trio of bassist/vocalist Blaine Burnham (now drumming in Mane of the Cur), bassist Justin Brown (now bass-ing in Witch Mountain) and drummer Spencer Norman recorded the conclusive six-tracker with Adam Pike at Toadhouse (Red Fang, Mammoth Salmon, etc.) and even the slower shifts of “Harpies” and the decidedly Conan-esque “Lament of the Deathworm” breeze right by. Like their two prior releases, 2012’S The Burden of Beasts (review here) and 2011’s Ancient Secrets (review here), III is a showcase of songcraft as much as tone, and it seems to presage its own vinyl reissue, each of the two halves starting with a shorter piece, the opener “Iron Awake” a notably vicious stomp that sets a destructive vibe that the rumble and weirdo keys and leads that finish out “Gaea” seem to be answering, a quick fade bringing an end to an underrated act. They’ll be missed.
If newcomer bruisers Godsleep seem to share some commonality of method with fellow Athenians 1000mods, it’s worth noting that on their debut, Thousand Sons of Sleep, they also share a recording engineer in George Leodis. Fair enough. The big-toned riffing and shouty burl on which Godsleep cast their foundation makes its identity felt in the post-Kyussism of “Thirteen” and stonerly grit of centerpiece “This is Mine,” which follows the extended opening salvo of “The Call,” “Thirteen” and “Wrong Turn,” the latter of which is the longest cut at 9:09 and among its most satisfyingly fuzzed nods. They’re playing to style perhaps, but doing so well, and if you’ve gotta start somewhere, recording live and coming out with a heavy-as-hell groove like what emerges in the second half of “Home” is a good place to start. Godsleep are already a year past from when they recorded Thousand Sons of Sleep in Summer 2014, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a follow-up happened sooner than later.
Slow Joe Crow & the Berserker Blues Band, We are Blues People
Kentucky-based, cumbersomely-named Slow Joe Crow and the Berserker Blues Band may indeed live up to the We are Blues People title of their debut EP, but they’re definitely riff people as well. As such, the four-track sampling of their wares draws from both sides on a cut like opener “No One Else,” the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Austin P. Lunn, bassist Patrick Flanary and drummer Thom Hammerheart in the process of figuring out how much they want to lean to one or the other. They round out with a fuzzy take on the traditional “John the Revelator,” but the earlier “Muddy Water Rising” strikes a more effective and more authentic-feeling balance, leading to the slow jam of “Before I Go,” which adds a ‘70s rock vibe to push the bluesy feel even further and expand the palette in a manner one hopes they continue to pursue as they move forward.
Canadian trio Monobrow follow their 2014 LP, Big Sky, Black Horse (review here) with what’s essentially a new single that finds them continuing to step forward in their approach. Dubbed A Handwritten Letter from the Moon and taking its name from the 8:33 title-track, the Ottawa group’s latest offering finds the instrumental outfit smoothing out the tones a bit, still hitting into raucous grooves, but closer to Truckfighters than their prior brashness. I don’t know if it’s a method they’ll stick to going into their fourth LP next year, but the result is dynamic and suits them well. “A Handwritten Letter from the Moon” comes coupled with “Dyatlov Station 3,” a seven-minute rehearsal-space jam from 2011 that fascinatingly (and I’m sure by no coincidence) showcases some similar classic heavy rock influence. The only real shame of the release is that both these tracks are probably too long to fit on a 7”, since a small platter of vinyl would be a perfect way to hold over listeners until the next album arrives. As it stands, the digital version is hardly roughing it.
French heavy rocking four-piece Denizen issued their decidedly Clutchian debut, Whispering Wild Stories (review here), in 2011, and follow it through Argonauta Records with Troubled Waters, a more individualized 10-track outing that alternates between punkish rawness and classic upbeat grooves. Four years after their first album, their progression hasn’t come at the cost of songwriting, and while they still have work to do in distinguishing themselves in a crowded, varied European market, they deliver the material with an energy and vitality that makes even its familiar parts easy enough to get down with, be it the Southern heavy solo of “Jocelyne” or the meaner bite of “Enter Truckman.” I’ll take the pair of “King of Horses” and “Heavy Rider” as highlights, and remain interested to find out where Denizen head from here, as well as how long it might take them to get there. Four years between records gives Troubled Waters the feel of a second debut as much as a sophomore effort.
Releasing through Candlelight in their native UK, doom metal trio Witchsorrow mark a decade with their third album, No Light, Only Fire. Opener “There is No Light There is Only Fire” seems to nod immediately at Cathedral, with a speedier, chuggier take, and the record proceeds to alternate between shorter and longer tracks en route to the 14-minute closer “De Mysteriis Doom Sabbathas,” cuts like “Negative Utopia” and “Disaster Reality” sailing a black ship past the 10-minute mark on a rumbling sea of riffs and slow motion nod. They break for a minute with the acoustic interlude “Four Candles” before embarking on the finale, and the respite is appreciated once the agonizing undulations of “De Mysteriis Doom Sabbathas” are underway, using nearly every second of their 14:25 to affirm Witchsorrow’s trad doom mastery and bleak, darkened heft. No light? Maybe a little light, but it’s still pretty damn dark, and indeed, it smells like smoke.
the opening track “Lovely Lovelie” gives a surprisingly gruff introduction. More so than the partially-drifting “Movements” or the post-rock-into-prog-metal closer “Fellow Peacemakers” later on, “Another Sort of Homecoming” reminds distinctly of Astrosoniq‘s penchant for blending space weirdness and heavy rock vibes, but it’s just one look of many Black Space Riders ultimately give throughout Amoretum Vol. 1 — for example, they immediately back it up with the grand chorus of “Soul Shelter (Inside of Me)” — so don’t necessarily look for the rest of the album to sound just like this.
