Albuquerque desert metallers Red Mesa will release their fourth album, Partial Distortions, on April 19 through guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye‘s Desert Records with a Euro pressing on Majestic Mountain, and it is nothing less than the point at which they find their sound. The blend of grueling sludge and uptempo earthy groove on opener/longest track (immediate points) “ÓDR” shows a character that both 2020’s The Path to the Deathless (review here) and the follow-up willful-aural-divergence of the single “Forest Cathedral” (review here) hinted toward, but the balance between nod and aggression, the density of the atmosphere emerged from the tones, and the sense of the band having genuinely dug into their own approach are all palpable across an album that I can’t stop thinking of as a point of arrival. As potential realized.
That’s before you get to the Soundgardenery of “The Assertion” or the suitable roll and more forceful chug of “Desert March,” and, sitting back there waiting for you all the while, closer “Witching Hour,” which premieres today. Hints of a blend of doom, rock, metal and maybe even hardcore that reminds of Solace‘s brooding moments is met with a multi-layer vocal and an explosive back and forth in the hook that is worthy of the album it caps. The thing’s not our for two months, so I don’t want to sit here and review it before anyone’s ready. Think of this as me sharing a song I think you might dig in a spirit of friendship and a hope for making your day, week, whatever, better.
There’s a press quote from me floating around with the album. I was asked to give one and did, pretty straightforward. As a rule, I don’t run press quotes, even my own, because I should be having my own opinions instead of cutting and pasting someone else’s, but I’ll just say I stand by what I put there. This is a new level for the band. And there’s a lot to say about consistency in lineup, expanded input from the rhythm section in the writing process, exploring different sides of one’s personal influences, on and on. I’ll hope to have more to come as we get closer to the release.
“Witching Hour” premieres below. Partial Distortions is out April 19.
Enjoy:
Red Mesa on “Witching Hour”:
“This is our foreboding tale inspired by the creepier elements of Stephen King’s “Pet Cemetery”. The closing track is heavy and dark with Alex taking the lead on vocals. Musically, the song consists of two sections that were organically brought together. The first half of the song consists of two riffs that Brad showed Roman and they recorded it into the voice memos of an Iphone in early 2021. The second half showcases a huge riff that Alex had been keeping in his back pocket for 20 years. Once the ending riff was worked out, the song came together quickly. We have been adding this song to our live setlists and is quickly becoming a staple.”
‘Partial Distortions’ shows a powerful return of the Albuquerque, NM heavy desert rock trio Red Mesa with their fourth full-length. The album will be released on April, 19th 2024 via Desert Records (North America) and Majestic Mountain Records (Europe).
This 6-track album features the same lineup from their 2020 release ‘The Path to the Deathless’ and the 2022 single ‘Forest Cathedral’.
The record shows further collaboration between band members as guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye, bassist/vocalist Alex Cantwell, and drummer/vocalist Roman Barham all contributed musically and lyrically throughout the album.
Red Mesa has been leading the new generation of desert rock by proving that the genre is capable of greater expanses. The trio has expanded their signature heavy desert sound on ‘Partial Distortions’ to include more doom and sludge metal moments. “Blackened desert” sound collages and an overall doomier and downright frightening musical path will confront the listener, as the album is darker musically and thematically. All whilst still dwelling within an optimism that instills hope that amongst the loss, the tragic endings, and the suffering that this existence brings, that life is still worth living.
Album cover gouache painting by Marco Blasphemator. Gatefold and back cover photos by Hayley Harper. Graphics and Layout by Dave Walsh.
Recorded by Augustine Ortiz at the Decibel Foundry in Santa Fe, NM in December 2022. Recorded and mixed by Matthew Tobias at Empty House Studio in Albuquerque, NM in April, June, August, & October 2023. Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, OR in October 2023.
Tracklisting: 1. ÓDR 2. The Assertion 3. Dying in the Cold Sun 4. 12 Volt Shaman 5. Desert March 6. Witching Hour
Red Mesa is: Brad Frye – Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals Roman Barham – Drums, Lead and Backing Vocals Alex Cantwell – Bass Guitar, Lead and Backing Vocals, Additional Rhythm Guitars, Piano
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 1st, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Albuquerque-based trio Red Mesa laid a foundation for themselves in straight-ahead, gruff-but-not-necessarily-aggro desert-style heavy rock, and their 2022 standalone track, “Forest Cathedral” (review here, also streaming below), pivoted toward more of a classically doomed style — think Cathedral the band as well as things grandiose and churchy. Partial Distortions, which is the band’s fourth full-length and was recorded over nearly a year’s span, has been in discussion from Red Mesa for at least a year now, and they seem to hint below that the album continues to expand on where Red Mesa started out, which has kind of been their thing all along. Gradual, organic evolution.
Check out Majestic Mountain getting involved for the Euro release, while of course the North American edition will be handed by guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye‘s Desert Records, which much like the band has seen its definitions of ‘desert’ and ‘heavy’ willfully broadened. I do not think that’s a coincidence, and I do look forward to having more to come on the album before it’s out in April. There’s a premiere in the works for sometime between now and then, anyhow.
From the PR wire:
Red Mesa announce new fourth full-length album ‘Partial Distortions’ to be released on April 19th, 2024.
‘Partial Distortions’ shows a powerful return of the Albuquerque, NM heavy desert rock trio Red Mesa.
Desert Records will release the album on limited edition Vinyl LP, CD, and Cassette in North America and on digital download/streaming platforms worldwide.
“Red Mesa bring their signature heavy desert sound with more doom and sludge metal!” – Desert Records
Majestic Mountain Records will release a limited edition vinyl LP in Europe.
“It is an honor for Majestic to be involved in the release of Red Mesa’s excellent new album!’ – Marco Berg/Majestic Mountain Records
Presale will begin in mid-February.
—
The 6-track album features the same lineup from their 2020 release ‘The Path to the Deathless’ and the 2022 single ‘Forest Cathedral’.
‘Partial Distortions’ shows further collaboration between band members as guitarist/vocalist Brad Frye, bassist/vocalist Alex Cantwell, and drummer/vocalist Roman Barham all contributed musically and lyrically throughout the album. Red Mesa employs a three vocal attack as all band members share vocal duties.
The trio has expanded their signature heavy desert sound on ‘Partial Distortions’ to include more doom and sludge metal moments. “Blackened desert” sound collages and an overall doomier and downright frightening musical path will confront the listener, as the album is darker musically and thematically. All whilst still dwelling within an optimism that instills hope that amongst the loss, the tragic endings, and the suffering that this existence brings, that life is still worth living.
Recorded by Augustine Ortiz at the Decibel Foundry in Santa Fe, NM in December 2022.
Recorded and mixed by Matthew Tobias at Empty House Studio in Albuquerque, NM in April, June, August, & October 2023.
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, OR in October 2023.
Red Mesa is: Brad Frye – Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Lead and Backing Vocals Roman Barham – Drums, Lead and Backing Vocals Alex Cantwell – Bass Guitar, Lead and Backing Vocals, Additional Rhythm Guitars, Piano
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s kind of funny while also horrifying to think that post-metal, as a style, has been around for about 20 years. The fifth full-length from Albuquerque trio Distances, called Abstruse, is set to arrive on Jan. 19, and across its 10-song/40-minute span, it recalls the formative period of the aesthetic, with a worth-mentioning-twice crush in its tone and a churn that recalls when outfits like Isis, Rosetta and Mouth of the Architect (among others) seemed to be and arguably were at the forefront of a generational wave. Whatever volume you can give Abstruse when the time comes, it will have earned it, but in pieces like the piano-led “Contralateral,” the synth-drone “Passage” and even in the break before the blasting starts in “Empty Prose,” there is of course an atmospheric mindset being employed in conjunction with all that churning intensity.
These guys have been going since at least 2011, so I’m definitely not early to the party, but as my first experience hearing them, Distances‘ concrete bludgeon mostly benefits from the short runtimes of the record’s component pieces, the band refusing to stay in one place for too long while still giving each statement the breadth warranted. On headphones, it is engrossing if you let it be, and well represented by the magnetic-field iconography of the cover. To be sure, there are mysterious, iron-born electric forces at work here. For a sampler, the animated lyric video for first single “Two Thirty” is streaming below.
From the PR wire:
Albuquerque post-metal trio, Distances, to release LP “Abstruse” 1/19/2024
Albuquerque trio, Distances, pushes forward with post-metal weight while still keeping one foot in atmospheric headiness on “Abstruse”, an album diving headlong into the hypocrisy, obscurity, and contradictions woven into the knots of life. Crushing sonics are accompanied by heavy themes for those willing to claw deeper, where melancholic and contemplative valleys sit between towering, crushing mountain passages.
Available on Digital, CD, and Vinyl 1/19/2024. Pre-orders available 11/17/2023.
Welcome back to the Summer 2023 Quarterly Review. I hope you enjoyed the weekend. Today we dig in on the penultimate — somehow my using the word “penultimate” became a running gag for me in Quarterly Reviews; I don’t know how or why, but I think it’s funny — round of 10 albums and tomorrow we’ll close out as we hit the total of 70. Could easily have kept it going through the week, but so it goes. I’ll have more QR in September or October, I’m not sure yet which. It’s a pretty busy Fall.
Today’s a wild mix and that’s what I was hoping for. Let’s go.
Quarterly Review #51-60:
Weite, Assemblage
Founded by bassist Ingwer Boysen (also High Fighter) as an offshoot of the live incarnation of Delving, of which he’s part, Weite release the instrumental Assemblage as a semi-improv-sounding collection of marked progressive fluidity. With Delving and Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo and Mike Risberg in the lineup along with Ben Lubin (Lawns), the story goes that the four-piece got to the studio with nothing/very little, spent a few days writing and recording with the venerable Richard Behrens helming, and Assemblage‘s four component pieces are what came out of it. The album begins with the nine-minutes-each pair of the zazzy-jazzy mover “Neuland,” while “Entzündet” grows somewhat more open, a lead guitar refrain like built around drum-backed drone and keys, swelling in piano-inclusive volume like Crippled Black Phoenix, darker prog shifting into a wash and more freaked-out psych rock. I’m not sure those are real drums on “Rope,” or if they are I’d love to know how the snare was treated, but the song’s a groover just the same, and the 14-minute “Murmuration” is where the styles unite under an umbrella of warm tonality and low key but somehow cordial atmosphere. If these guys want to get together every couple years into perpetuity and bang out a record like this, that’d be fine.
The fourth album from Portland, Oregon’s Mizmor — the solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, vocalist, etc.-ist A.L.N. — arrives riding a tsunami of hype and delivers on the band’s long-stated promise of ‘wholly doomed black metal.’ With consuming distortion at its heart from opener/longest track (immediate points) “Only an Expanse” onward, the record recalls the promise of American black metal as looser in its to-tenet conformity than the bulk of Europe’s adherents — of course these are generalizations and I’m no expert — by contrasting it rhythmically with doom, which instead of fully releasing the tension amassed by the scream-topped tremolo riffing just makes it sound more miserable. Doom! “No Place to Arrive” is admirably thick, like noisy YOB on charred ambience, and “Anything But” draws those two sides together in more concise and driving style, vicious and brutal until it cuts in the last minute to quiet minimalism that makes the slam-in crush of 13-minute closer “Acceptance” all the more punishing, with plenty of time left for trades between all-out thrust and grueling plod. Hard to call which side wins the day — and that’s to Mizmor‘s credit, ultimately — but by the end of “Acceptance,” the raging gnash has collapsed into a caldera of harsh sludge, and it no longer matters. In context, that’s a success.
With a couple quick drum taps and a clearheaded strum that invokes the impossible nostalgia of Bruce Springsteen via ’90s alt rock, Netherlands-based The Whims of the Great Magnet strolls casually into “Same New,” the project’s first outing since 2021’s Share My Sun EP. Working in a post-grunge style seems to suit Sander Haagmans, formerly the bassist of Sungrazer and, for a bit, The Machine, as he single-track/double-tracks through the song’s initial verse and blossoms melodically in the chorus, dwelling in an atmosphere sun-coated enough that Haagmans‘ calls it “your new summer soundtrack.” Not arguing, if a one-track soundtrack is a little short. After a second verse/chorus trade, some acoustic weaves in at the end to underscore the laid back feel, and as it moves into the last minute, “Same New” brings back the hook not to drive it into your head — it’s catchy enough that such things aren’t necessary — but to speak to a traditional structure born out of classic rock. It does this organically, with moderate tempo and a warm, engaging spirit that, indeed, evokes the ideal images of the stated season and will no doubt prove comforting even removed from such long, hot and sunny days.
German instrumentalists Sarkh follow their 2020 full-length, Kaskade, with the four-song/31-minute Helios EP, issued through Worst Bassist Records. As with that album, the short-ish offering has a current of progressive metal to coincide with its heavier post-rock affect; “Zyklon” leading off with due charge before the title-track finds stretches of Yawning Man-esque drift, particularly as it builds toward a hard-hitting crescendo in its second half. Chiaroscuro, then. Working shortest to longest in runtime, the procession continues with “Kanagawa” making stark volume trades, growing ferocious but not uncontrolled in its louder moments, the late low end particularly satisfying as it plays off the guitar in the final push, a sudden stop giving 11-minute closer “Cape Wrath” due space to flesh out its middle-ground hypothesis after some initial intensity, the trio of guitarist Ralph Brachtendorf, bassist Falko Schneider and drummer Johannes Dose rearing back to let the EP end with a wash but dropping the payoff with about a minute left to let the guitar finish on its own. Germany, the world, and the universe: none of it is short on instrumental heavy bands, but the purposeful aesthetic mash of Sarkh‘s sound is distinguishing and Helios showcases it well to make the argument.
A 2LP second long-player from mostly-traditionalist doom metallers Spiritual Void, Wayfare seems immediately geared toward surpassing their 2017 debut, White Mountain, in opening with “Beyond the White Mountain.” With a stretch of harsher vocals to go along with the cleaner-sung verses through its 8:48 and the metal-of-eld wail that meets the crescendo before the nodding final verse, they might’ve done it. The subsequent “Die Alone” (11:48) recalls Candlemass and Death without losing the nod of its rhythm, and “Old” (12:33) reaffirms the position, taking Hellhound Records-style methodologies of European trad doom and pulling them across longer-form structures. Following “Dungeon of Nerthus” (10:24) the shorter “Wandering Doom” (5:31) chugs with a swing that feels schooled by Reverend Bizarre, while “Wandersmann” (13:11) tolls a mournful bell at its outset as though to let you know that the warm-up is over and now it’s time to really doom out. So be it. At a little over an hour long, Wayfare is no minor undertaking, but for what they’re doing stylistically, it shouldn’t be. Morose without melodrama, Wayfare sees Spiritual Void continuing to find their niche in doom, and rest assured, it’s on the doomier end. Of doom.
Even when The River make the trade of tossing out the aural weight of doom — the heavy guitar and bass, the expansive largesse, and so on — they keep the underlying structure. The nod. At least mostly. To explain: the long-running UK four-piece — vocalist Jenny Newton, guitarist Christian Leitch (formerly of 40 Watt Sun), bassist Stephen Morrissey and drummer Jason Ludwig — offer a folkish interpretation of doom and a doomed folk on their fourth long-player, the five-song/40-minute A Hollow Full of Hope taking the acoustic prioritizing of a song like “Open” from 2019’s Vessels into White Tides (review here) and bringing it to the stylistic fore on songs like the graceful opener “Fading,” the lightly electric “Tiny Ticking Clocks” rife with strings and gorgeous self-harmonizing from Newton set to an utterly doomed march, or the four-minute instrumental closer “Hollowful,” which is more than an outro if not a completely built song in relation to the preceding pieces. Melodic, flowing, intentional in arrangement, meter, melody. Sad. Beautiful. “Exits” (9:56) and “A Vignette” (10:26) — also the two longest cuts, though not by a ton — are where one finds that heft and the other side of the doom-folk/folk-doom divide, though it is admirable how thin they make that line. Marked progression. This album will take them past their 25th anniversary, and they greet it hitting a stride. That’s an occasion worth celebrating.
Sons of Froglord is the fourth full-length in three years from UK amphibian conceptualist storytellers Froglord, and there’s just about no way they’re not making fun of space rock on “Road Raisin.” “Collapse” grows burly in its hook in the vein of a more rumbling Clutch — and oh, the shenanigans abound! — and there’s a kind of ever-present undercurrent sludgy threat in the more forward push of the glorious anthem to the inanity of career life in “Wednesday” (it doesn’t materialize, but there is a tambourine on “A Swamp of My Own,” so that’s something), but the bulk of the latest chapter in the Froglord tale delivers ’70s-by-way-of-’10s classic heavy blues rock, distinct in its willingness to go elsewhere from and around the boogie swing of “Wizard Gonk” and the fuzzy shuffling foundation of “Garden” at the outset and pull from different eras and subsets of heavy to serve their purposes. “Froglady” is on that beat. On it. And the way “A Swamp of My Own” opens to its chorus is a stirring reminder of the difference drumming can make in elevating a band. After a quick “Closing Ceremony,” they tack on a presumably-not-narrative-related-but-fitting-anyway cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s “Born on the Bayou,” which complements a crash-laced highlight like “The Sage” well and seems to say a bit about where Froglord are coming from as well, i.e., the swamp.
Released digitally with the backing of Abraxas and on CD through Smolder Brains Records, the Cult of Devil Sounds split EP offers two new tracks each from São Paulo, Brazil’s Weedevil and Veraruz, Mexico’s Electric Cult. The former take the A side and fade in on the guitar line “Darkness Inside” with due drama, gradually unfurling the seven-minute doom roller that’s ostensibly working around Electric Wizard-style riffing, but has its own persona in tone, atmosphere and the vocals of Maureen McGee, who makes her first appearance here with the band. The swagger of “Burn It” follows, somewhat speedier and sharper in delivery, with a scorcher solo in its back half, witchy proclamations and satisfying slowdown at the end. Weedevil. All boxes ticked, no question. Check. Electric Cult are rawer in production and revel in that, bringing “Rising From Hell” and “Esoteric Madness” with a more uptempo, rock-ish swing, but moving through sludge and doom by the time the seven minutes of the first of those is done. “Rising From Hell” finishes with ambient guitar, then feedback, which “Esoteric Madness” cuts off to begin with bass; a clever turn. Quickly “Esoteric Madness” grows dark from its outset, pushing into harsh vocals over a slogging march that turns harder-driving with ’70s-via-Church–of–Misery hard-boogie rounding out. That faster finish is a contrast to Weedevil‘s ending slow, and complements it accordingly. An enticing sampler from both.
When I read some article about how the James Webb Space Telescope has looked billions of years into the past chasing down ancient light and seen further toward the creation of the universe than humankind ever before has, I look at some video or other, I should be hearing Dr. Space. I don’t know if the Portugal-based solo artist, synthesist, bandleader, Renaissance man Scott “Dr. Space” Heller (also Øresund Space Collective, Black Moon Circle, etc.) has been in touch with the European Space Agency (ESA) or what their response has been, but even with its organ solo and stated watery purpose, amid sundry pulsations it’s safe to assume the 20-minute title-track “Suite for Orchestra of Marine Mammals” is happening with an orchestra of semi-robot aliens on, indeed, some impossibly distant exoplanet. Heller has long dwelt at the heart of psychedelic improv and the three pieces across the 39 minutes of Suite for Orchestra of Marine Mammals recall classic krautrock ambience while remaining purposefully exploratory. “Going for the Nun” pairs church organ with keyboard before shimmering into proto-techno blips and bloops recalling the Space Age that should’ve had humans on Mars by now, while the relatively brief capper “No Space for Time” — perhaps titled to note the limitations of the vinyl format — still finds room in its six minutes to work in two stages, with introductory chimes shifting toward more kosmiche synth travels yet farther out.
The debut from Santa Fe-based solo drone project Ruiner — aka Zac Hogan, also of Dysphotic, ex-Drought — is admirable in its commitment to itself. Hogan unveils the outfit with The Book of Patience (on Desert Records), an 80-minute, mostly-single-note piece called “Liber Patientiae,” which if you’re up on your Latin, you know is the title of the album as well. With a willfully glacial pace that could just as easily be a parody of the style — there is definitely an element of ‘is this for real?’ in the listening process, but yeah, it seems to be — “Liber Patientiae” evolves over its time, growing noisier as it approaches 55 or so minutes, the distortion growing more fervent over the better part of the final 25, the linear trajectory underscoring the idea that there’s a plan at work all along coinciding with the experimental nature of the work. What that plan might manifest from here is secondary to the “Liber Patientiae” as a meditative experience. On headphones, alone, it becomes an inward journey. In a crowded room, at least at the outset it’s almost a melodic white noise, maybe a little tense, but stretched out and changing but somehow still solid and singular, making the adage that ‘what you put into it is what you get out’ especially true in this case. And as it’s a giant wall of noise, it goes without saying that not everybody will be up for getting on board, but it’s difficult to imagine the opaque nature of the work is news to Hogan, who clearly is searching for resonance on his own wavelength.
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Party in the desert, right? Certainly looks that way as the inaugural and maybe-one-time-only Burque Rock City Fest adds Dead Meadow, Greenbeard, Abrams, SuperGiant, Violet Rising and THC Worm to complete its lineup. SuperGiant are local to Albuquerque — which is the ‘Burque’ in ‘Burque City,’ where the fest is happening — this Aug. 4-5, and the first three names are familiar, but I admit I can’t find any info on Violet Rising and as this is my first time hearing/hearing of THC Worm, I’ve included the Bandcamp stream of their Dec. 2022 debut, Dead Horse Incubator, in case you’d also like to be introduced. As one might expect, it’s pretty over the top.
In the end — and I’ll note that there’s still two months to go before the festival actually takes place, so ‘end’ is relative — the lineup here is pretty solid for a lower-key take on what the same crew normally puts together for Monolith on the Mesa. A representative showing set in a different context. If this is a pivot to building something new, they certainly have the contacts, infrastructure and reach to do so, but if it’s a placeholder until 2024, it’s a badass one just the same. If you headed out, I think you probably know what’s coming, and if not, please see the first sentence above.
From the PR wire:
BURQUE ROCK CITY ANNOUNCE FINAL LINEUP!
Burque Rock City Is Happy To Announce The Full Lineup Of Bands For August 4th & 5th Downtown ABQ At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar
Burque Rock City Would Love to Welcome: Dead Meadow * Greenbeard * Abrams * Supergiant * Violet Rising * THC Worm
Completing the Amazing Lineup with Previously Announced Bands:
Weedeater * Pike Vs The Automaton * Belzebong * Early Moods * High Desert Queen * Thunder Horse * Sorcia * Prism Bitch * Coma Revovery * Brant Bjork * Yawning Balch * Year of the Cobra * Fatso Jetson * Electric Citizen * Tenderizor * Street Tombs * Red Mesa * Ojo Malo * Nomestomper
Roman Barham, co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa, has been quietly working on Burque Rock City Fest.
Barham says:
“Monolith On The Mesa crew would love to thank everyone who helped make Monolith 2022 an awesome fest. Huge thanks from The Taos Mesa Brewery crew, the Hotel Luna Mystica crew and to all the very respectful patrons that came out and made Monolith On The Mesa 2022 an amazing tribute to our fallen brother Dano Sanchez (deceased Monolith co-founder).
We have decided to take a year off from Monolith and bring it back in 2024 to Taos Mesa Brewery.
Branching south from the Monolith On The Mesa tree is Burque Rock City Fest in Albuquerque, NM At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar On Friday August 4th & Saturday August 5th 2023.
[Click play above to stream High Desert Queen and Blue Heron’s Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake split LP in full. Album is out Friday on Ripple Music and available to preorder here for the US, here for Europe, and here on Bandcamp.]
It’s a quick listen to be sure at just 28 minutes, but Turned to Stone Chapter 8: The Wake, which follows a lineage of Ripple Music splits that goes back eight years to the beginning of a series called The Second Coming of Heavy that focused on then-up-and-coming acts like Geezer and Borracho, Red Mesa, Kingnomad, and so on. That series boasted 10 releases and Turned to Stone began in earliest 2020 with Mr. Bison and Spacetrucker (review here) and has continued to roll out two or three split LPs per year since, the latest bringing together Albuquerque desert grunge sludgers Blue Heron and Austin, Texas, purveyors of plus-sized riffs and melody High Desert Queen.
The reason the lineage is relevant — yea, one split begat another split and that split begat another split, on into biblical perpetuity — is that Turned to Stone Chapter 8: The Wake reminds distinctly of the prior series’ specific intent to bolster newer bands; a mission that it directly inherited. Both High Desert Queen (side A) and Blue Heron (side B) present three songs that arrive subsequent to their debut full-lengths, Blue Heron having released Ephemeral (review here) a year ago this week through Seeing Red Records and Kozmik Artifactz and High Desert Queen having made a justified splash on Ripple (pun absolutely intended) with late 2021’s Secrets of the Black Moon (review here), the recording sessions of which birthed the three songs included here.
Cohesion between the two bands in terms of sound isn’t hard to come by. Both are straightforward in their arrangements, putting weighted fuzz out front in their mix and backing it with mostly mid-tempo grooves, more nod than shove, and both have frontmen involved behind-the-scenes in the heavy underground, whether it’s Blue Heron‘s Jadd Shickler serving as a label manager for Ripple as well as Magnetic Eye Records (also under the SPKR Media umbrella, along with labels like Prophecy Productions, Testimony Records and others) and Blues Funeral Recordings (responsible for the PostWax series and releases this year alone from Dozer and Acid King, among others) or High Desert Queen‘s Ryan Garney heading the booking concern Lick of My Spoon Productions, putting on RippleFest Texas and slating shows and tours for his own band and others.
The fourth-wall-breaking, multi-tiered ‘scene’ contributions of Shickler and Garney give another dimension to Turned to Stone Chapter 8: The Wake — emblematic of the DIY manner in which heavy rock and roll has become what it is today; a worldwide subcultural phenomenon most people know nothing about — but none of it would matter as regards this split LP if the songs weren’t there. I’ll confess there was part of me hoping the High Desert Queen tracks — the mega-hooky “Black Moon,” the shorter, floating-but-not-an-interlude “Drift Into the Sun” and the telltale stoner boogie “Roll the Dice” — would be newer recordings, but one takes what one can get, and having “Black Moon” as a late-arriving semi-title-track from that album is welcome, the song fading in on feedback before its forward roll begins in earnest, a somewhat foreboding groove that turns out to be thick enough for everyone to ride opening up in the verse before the layered melody of the chorus.
Like the album from which they (didn’t) come, “Black Moon” and “Roll the Dice” — the lyrics in the latter seem to be the band asking themselves ‘should we go for it?,’ which is laughable with the hindsight of the two years they’ve spent mostly on tour in the US and Europe, where they’re touring even as this split is released — aren’t trying to play coy in their appeal. They make a space and fill it. “Roll the Dice” has an edge of metal in its post-solo finish, but never crosses over to outright aggression, and is much more a standout single in its impression than a leftover. “Black Moon,” with an even stronger hook at the outset, functions similarly, while “Drift Into the Sun” connects the two to create a sense of fluidity between them, strengthening and broadening the whole as a mini-EP on one side. Don’t be surprised when they show up as bonus tracks on the 10th anniversary reissue of Secrets of the Black Moon eight years from now.
Answering back with “Able Baker” (a Richard Scarry reference?), “Day of the Comet” and “Superposition,” Blue Heron run a thread between first-record-era Queens of the Stone Age in tone and oldschool sludge rock burl as guitarist Mike Chavez (who, like Shickler, was also in Spiritu), bassist Steve Schmidlapp and drummer Ricardo Sanchez smoothly establish themselves on side B. Immersion and atmosphere are prevalent as “Able Baker” runs through its five minutes, with a tonal-highlight of a solo in its second half answering the leads in its first, and melody met with due rhythmic force. “Day of the Comet” is deceptive in feeling looser but maintaining the strong grip on structure, and like High Desert Queen before them, Blue Heron cap with the speedier nod of “Superposition,” a righteous showcase that transposes Facelift-era Alice in Chains onto a foundation of modern heavy.
High Desert Queen and Blue Heron offer further complement to each other in the depth and apparent reach of their mix. Both bands sound big without being overblown or sacrificing craft to studio-born largesse. For committed heavy rockers or those who’ve followed along with the series, Turned to Stone Chapter 8: The Wake is a no-brainer. The kind of release you can pick up and see where it takes you. To those who are unfamiliar or have seen the names around but have yet to check out the songs, the sampler-style encapsulation of what they do is likewise convenient and actually-good. While they’re coming off their respective debuts, as noted, Blue Heron and High Desert Queen share a knowledge of what they want to accomplish in songwriting and performance, and that sense of control makes it that much easier as a listener to roll along to where the riffs are leading.
That destination might be the desert, if we want to talk about aesthetic, but the direction is forward, as both clearly have more to say than has been said here or on their respective first LPs. Ultimately stronger for its relative brevity, Turned to Stone Chapter 8: The Wake leaves the audience wanting more from one band and then the other, engaging with new takes on classic methods with a realized intent toward quality and fullness of sound. The only way to lose is by missing it.
Quotes from the bands, PR wire info, preorder and social links, etc., follow in blue:
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Ryan Garney on Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake:
“It’s an honor to share a split with Blue Heron. From the first time we saw this band play live we were immediately happy to do anything with these musical juggernauts. Incredible musicians and even better people. It’s also great to be able resurrect three songs from the dead. These 3 tracks didn’t make our debut record and we are happy they get to see the light of day in conjunction with three powerful songs from Blue Heron.”
Jadd Shickler on Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake:
“Split releases work best when there’s a reason for them to exist. It’s easy to slap two bands on a record to fill up the album sides, but when there’s something to connect them, that’s when a split makes sense. Blue Heron and High Desert Queen are both from the Southwest, we’ve both got a shared love of massive desert rock and, whether we intend it or not, a lot of grunge influences. We also dig them as people and as musicians. We welcomed them for their first out-of-state show at our 7-inch release gig in 2021, and they hosted us at Ripplefest Texas last year. We respect the hell out of their ambition, their musicality, and their dedication to huge riffs, so it’s a real pleasure to share this record with them. As for the songs, we put a bit of pressure on ourselves. Our debut album came out just a year ago, and we wanted to follow that with a batch of new tunes that are compact and fairly straightforward, but still show our love for starting a song in one place and ending up somewhere radically different.”
Pairing up two highly esteemed bands of the Southwest underground scene, “Turned To Stone Chapter 8” is a gigantic masterclass of heavy rock, with six tracks that will take you on a riff-fueled journey with no further ado! Between HIGH DESERT QUEEN’s versatile and massive-sounding heavy and BLUE HERON’s raucous and desert-shaped songcraft, it is no understatement to say that we are in presence of true forces of nature, an alliance between two up-and-coming greats of the US stoner and desert rock scene.
“Turned To Stone Chapter 8” will be available on May 26th in various vinyl formats as well as digitally, with preorders available now on Ripple Music. The artwork was created by award-winning comic and poster artist Johnny Dombrowski.
TRACKLIST: 1. High Desert Queen – Black Moon 2. High Desert Queen – Drift Into The Sun 3. High Desert Queen – Roll The Dice 4. Blue Heron – Able Baker 5. Blue Heron – Day Of The Comet 6. Blue Heron – Superposition
High Desert Queen: Morgan Miller – Bass Phil Hook – Drums Ryan Garney – Vocals Rusty Miller – Guitar
Blue Heron: Mike Chavez – Guitar Ricardo Sanchez – Drums Steve Schmidlapp – Bass Jadd Shickler – Vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 2nd, 2023 by JJ Koczan
One assumes Ruiner‘s Zac Hogan is not lacking self-awareness in naming the drone solo-project’s single-song/80-minute debut album The Book of Patience. The New Mexico-based Hogan, formerly of Drought, currently also guitarist of blackened death metallers Dysphotic, isn’t the first to explore drone frequencies in longform by any means, and it’s worth pointing out that he isn’t claiming to be, but the whoever pegged the track “Liber Patientiae” as ‘floral’ nailed it. Petals falling in air. Absolutely. Drone rites of Spring.
I actually just turned the record off so I could finish this post because the drone was kind of consuming. There’s no sample up from it yet, but while I’m sure everybody involved knows the marketability of 80 minutes of mostly the same kind of noise — not knocking it, just pointing out that it’s never going to be everybody’s thing — I’ll say that a headphone listen is evocative enough to surprise. I’ll be interested to see the response it gets.
From the PR wire:
Desert Records explore the mysteries of the sands of Santa Fe to uncover RUINER
‘The Book of Patience’ will be out June 9th and has aspects of William Basinski melded together with Sunn 0)))
Orchestral, Melancholic, Sonic Obliteration. Layers of ethereal, floral ambience gradually, crescendos into a glacial wall of sound.The subtle evolution of the album aims to engage and enchant the listener, leading them through an other worldly, monumental experience that is The Book of Patience.
A Cosmic Experimental Key Desifned Assiduously to Asses Ones Intrisic Stamina Of Postponed Gratification. If Absorbed Wholly, Transcendental Exultation Will Be Ascertained.
The Book of Patience was recorded in one take using a bass bow on an open B string (mostly) of a 5-string Bass.
Album Name: The Book of Patience
Song Title: Liber Patientiae
Credits: Zac Hogan is Ruiner. Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Augustine Ortiz
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Two things to immediately note in this second lineup announcement from Burque Rock City 2023. One, it’s Brant Bjork solo, which means Stöner are still on the backburner as he and Nick Oliveri dip back into their own stuff. Two, this will be the first live performance from Yawning Balch, which is the amalgam of Yawning Man and Bob Balch of Fu Manchu. Yawning Man recently brought in Greg Saenz on drums ahead of their European tour, and presumably he’ll do this gig as well, though I suppose it’s always possible Bill Stinson could sit in for it. One way or the other, jams will be had.
I’m hopeful for a new Year of the Cobra album, if not this year then next. They had some exciting growth pre-pandemic and toured like mad, and have been somewhat quieter since, but hopefully this Fall they’re back at it hard. Tenderizor were — I’m not sure if they still are — affiliated with hometown Albuquerque weirdo heroes Leeches of Lore, so that’s a cool local tie, and Red Mesa features Roman Barham, who is organizing this fest and is a co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa of which Burque Rock City is an offshoot, maybe just for this year. Bringing in Fatso Jetson only enhances the desert vibe, and Electric Citizen will be on hand to lend their particular take on classic heavy. With Ojo Malo and Nomestomper and Street Tombs filling out, it’s a solid announcement for the two-dayer; a kind of conceptual preview for the likes of RippleFest Texas and Desertfest New York in substance if not geography. A lot to like, is the bottom line.
Tickets are on sale now, early-bird style. Dig it, and check out the TubeVision show I stumbled on from Brant Bjork, 2003 in San Francisco. Bros.-era. 20 god damned years ago. Pretty badass:
BURQUE ROCK CITY FEST: Announces MORE BANDS!
Burque Rock City Is Happy To Announce Another Round Of Bands For August 4th & 5th Downtown ABQ At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar
Burque Rock City Would Love to Welcome:
Brant Bjork * Yawning Balch * Year Of The Cobra * Fatso Jetson * Electric Citizen * Tenderizor * Street Tombs * Red Mesa * Ojo Malo * Nomestomper
First Wave of Amazing Bands Previously Announced:
Weedeater * Pike Vs The Automaton * Belzebong * Early Moods * High Desert Queen * Thunder Horse * Sorcia * Prism Bitch * Coma Revovery
Get Your Early Bird Tickets NOW!! Once Full Lineup Is Announced, Tickets Will Go Up!
Roman Barham, co-founder of Monolith on the Mesa, has been quietly working on Burque Rock City Fest.
Branching south from the Monolith On The Mesa tree is Burque Rock City Fest in Albuquerque, NM At The Historic El Rey Theater & Insideout Bar On Friday August 4th & Saturday August 5th 2023.
More band announcements & more exciting info soon.
