The extensive back catalog of UK drone ritualists Bong can be as foggy as the band’s sound itself. Between studio full-lengths, they have a history of EPs, splits, periodic compilations of EPs and splits, and no fewer than 23 live albums that goes back over a decade. Still, they’ve been pretty quiet since issuing We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been in 2015, with just two live recordings that followed. All the more reason to approach their 2018 long-player, Thought and Existence (previously discussed here), with a marked curiosity. What have the trio been up in what one assumes is a bunker deep below the surface of their hometown in Newcastle? From whence does the new album, delivered appropriately through Ritual Productions — with whom the band has worked since 2011’s Beyond Ancient Space (review here) — arrive?

As ever, Bong present more questions than answers. With the lineup of guitarist Mike Vest, bassist/vocalist David Terry and drummer Mike Smith explore a textural range that spreads out across two massive, immersive, compulsive tracks in “The Golden Fields” (17:31) and “Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius” (19:01), emitting a slow moving swirl that draws the listener in with its well-honed patience and fluidity. You’re hypnotized. They’re hypnotized. That’s kind of the whole point. Not to say it isn’t expressing a sonic idea, but that idea is to get lost in it. That’s the interaction Bong are seeking with Thought and Existence. It’s a communion between performers, audience and sound. Take that how you will — and some simply won’t — but it’s a journey one refuses to their own detriment.

Having been fortunate enough to see Bong perform most recently at Oslo’s Høstsabbat in 2016 (review here), I can recall vividly (or, you know, vaguely) the fog-drenched drone they brought to life on that stage, with Terry gurgling out his vocal parts as Vest and fill-in drummer Rich Lewis went exploring by oozing forth in any number of directions at once, taking the room through a massive, voluminous plunge into brain-melting tonal resonance. It was astounding to watch, and in the chants of “The Golden Fields” and the far, far-gone “Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius,” Thought and Existence captures the same sensibility and feeling of journey. It’s not just a willful slog in the front-to-back listen — actually, at 36 minutes, it’s a quite-manageable single LP, as was their last one; 2014’s Stoner Rock was their last 2LP, sort of — turn it up and it’s a physical manifestation of a near-opaque ethereality. Their methods well set at this stage in their career, Bong continue to explore places that most bands dare not tread and atmospheres from whence many a lesser act simply would not return.

In the relatively brief interview that follows, the band talks about some of the makings, processes and concepts behind Thought and Existence. Since rhythm and flow play so much of a role in what Bong does, I’ve left the Q&A largely untouched, and you’ll find it below only really changed from how it came in in terms of format, putting titles in italics and that kind of thing. The rest is as it showed up to preserve the integrity of it, and I sincerely hope it does just that.

Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions:

Six Dumb Questions with Bong

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What is the interaction between volume and ritual for Bong at this point? Where does one end and the other begin?

Playing live. To create the great sustain live, everything must be cranked. Everything! This is a major part of the ritual. A forced meditation for the audience. Even when we are in the studio, this rule need to be enforced. Textures and tones are really important and can only be achieved through high volume. Capturing that in the studio is a challenge but can be ultimately rewarding.

Why Thought and Existence? What is the album exploring and what do you feel it says about the title ultimately? Is there a conclusion reached through the material?

Exploring metaphysical inner space, the past is a present memory and the possibility that all time has expired. The inward expansive nature of the mind and our senses. The brain is actually part of the external world, it is only through our senses that we can truly see or feel the mind. The title itself is expansive and cannot be summed up, but can be perceived in many different ways.

Tell me about writing “The Golden Fields” and “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.” When did you start putting them together and how did they begin to take shape?

“Tlön” was written over time, we played various different versions of this track over the shows we were at early last year. It formed over time, the main riff was then extended and tightened up at practice sessions before we went into the studio. “Golden Fields” was roughly planned, with certain stages. Lining up the vocals with the tempo, gaps in the percussion. All our tracks are formed over time, the more we play, the clearer the arrangement seems to be.

How malleable are Bong songs over time? If I went to a Bong show three years from now and heard “The Golden Fields,” would it be the same as on the album? How set are the movements of a given piece? How do you know when writing a song that it’s done?

The arrangements, if any, will stay the same.

When changes or intensities begin, they are totally improvised.

Lead or layered octave guitar harmonies will drift in and out of any track live. Wenever play the same track exact, however you can still distinguish between which track is actually being played.

Our songs are never finished, as long as we keep playing the song live it will always change. Tracks on our albums are recorded moments, they have no real set parameters.

Take me through the recording process for Thought and Existence. Of course you know what you want out a studio experience at this point, but how did these tracks come together during the recording? What’s most important for you to capture in a studio recording process?

It’s all about the initial live takes in the studio.

We play all together to set the right tempo, we try to use the second or third take of a track as a final version to keep the feel, playing a track over and over in the studio can bleed it dry. However, using the first take as a reference point it can make it easier to create dynamics, place vocals and possible arrangements. We spent a lot of time playing these tracks, so we knew the arrangements. So we allocated a lot of time for experimentation adding bowed cymbals, more stereo guitars and Harmonium/Melodeon drones.

Any plans or closing words you want to mention?

Thought and Existence is out on May 4th on Ritual Productions We are currently booking shows for Europe and UK right now, so get in touch with us, we want play more shows this year. We [played] London at the end of June. More are being confirmed.
Also thanks to everyone who has picked up an LP/Tape/CD/t-shirt or just came to one of our shows. Means a lot to us. We never thought we would get this far.

Bong, Thought and Existence (2018)

Bong on Thee Facebooks

Ritual Productions website

[Click play above to see the premiere of Drug Cult’s video for ‘Reptile Hypnosis.’ Their self-titled debut is out June 21 on Ritual Productions.]

Maybe this is pointing out the obvious on some levels, but with Drug Cult, the idea is consumption. Yes, theirs, of narcotics, but also theirs of their audience. The Australian four-piece make their self-titled debut through Ritual Productions with nine tracks and 42 minutes of haze doom given its cultish presence by vocalist Aasha Tozer, who on a song like the post-Electric Wizard swinging “Release” comes across like an echo-laden bad trip version of Grace Slick atop the riffing of Vin Steele (ex-Wolfmother, Megaritual, Sun of Man), the snare march from Dale Walker (also Megaritual, Sun of Man) and air-pushing, hope-you-invested-in-replacement-tubes low end of bassist Maggie Schreiber. As a unit their sound is consistent but not unipolar across their debut, but again, they’re looking to swallow the listener entirely.

There are elements drawn from doom — plenty of them, actually — and shades throughout of modern cult rock, but Drug Cult seem less interested in convincing their audience they worship evil spirits than in creating a downer-lumbering atmosphere in which some ritual might take place. Even “Bloodstone,” on which Tozer intones, “I want more/Your blood is the drug I’ve been searching for,” seems more about the hypnotic repetitions of its lines than about the words themselves. With the significant aural murk the band creates there and throughout the rest of the tracks, their sound basks in a dark-toned revelry, and whether a given song is fast or slow, structured or open, it’s the ambience that ties it all together.

The rest of the tracks hover somewhere between three and five minutes, but Drug Cult earn immediate points by opening Drug Cult with the 8:51 “Serpent Therapy,” providing quick immersion into the swamp their tones have created. Walker earns specific mention for his drums keeping these songs from flying apart entirely, and as “Serpent Therapy” rolls out its insistent rif moving toward the halfway mark, it’s the drums that allow the listener to hold onto their consciousness to the extent they can. From there unfold a series of what the band would probably call ‘rites.’ “Release” builds forward momentum rolling into the lurching open of “Reptile Hypnosis,” the stomp of which stands among the record’s most satisfying and the hook of which also provides a highlight moment, let alone the searing guitar lead that comes after it. Throughout, front-to-back, Drug Cult sound positively filthy.

Like the kind of band who show up to play the gig, open their van door and from it wafts a smell that’s as much body odor as it is reefer, the latter both being actively smoked at that moment and seeping through the pores of the band itself. Such is the Drug Cult vibe, and even on faster, more swinging garage-doom-style pieces like “The Wall” or “Slaylude,” the depth of tone remains the same and the spaciousness provided both by the guitar and bass together and by Tozer‘s echo-soaked vocals help craft the band’s dark and obscure plane. Whether it’s the howling lurch of centerpiece “Mind Crypt” or the deceptive shuffle of closer “Spell,” which seems less like the moment Drug Cult are trying to payoff the album as a whole than the moment they’re trying to tear it apart — though perhaps that is the payoff — Drug Cult hold firm to a willful sense of aesthetic and atmosphere, and that they refuse to veer from it makes their debut all the more consuming.

That’s not necessarily to imply that the self-titled is completely unipolar. As noted, they toy with a variety of structures and tempos that keep a steady flow from “Serpent Therapy” onward, and the effect that extended opener has of thrusting the audience into Drug Cult‘s scope isn’t to be understated. Where the rest of the album succeeds behind it is in Drug Cult setting up a fluidity between tracks that carries the listener through a trip that’s both nuanced and familiar somehow, without losing hold of their intention. Taking into account this is Drug Cult‘s debut, the full-album level of consideration the band brings to their work is doubly impressive, though it’s also worth pointing out that individual tracks like “Reptile Hypnosis,” “The Wall,” “Bloodstone,” “Spell,” etc., hardly fail at leaving their own mark. It’s the manner in which these songs feed into the whole experience of the record that give it such a sense of accomplishment on an stylistic level.

In the end, I don’t know if Drug Cult is someone’s distant cousin or something like that — let’s assume not — but they make an excellent fit for Ritual Productions, which has worked to put out offerings from Ramesses, 11Paranoias, Bong, and so on. Perhaps somewhat less extreme in their presentation, they’re no less considerate of ambience than their compatriots, and if this is Drug Cult‘s starting point, it will be fascinating to hear what their sound morphs into over subsequent releases.

Drug Cult website

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Drug Cult Instagram

Drug Cult Tumblr

Ritual Productions website

Ritual Productions on Bandcamp

Ritual Productions on Thee Facebooks

Ritual Productions on Twitter

Ritual Productions Instagram

I know what you’re thinking: Really? A premiere for an album trailer? Well, it’s six and a half minutes long, so quit complaining.

Unceasingly grim in its atmosphere and honed to murky depths that are equal parts obtuse and hypnotic, the self-titled debut from UK three-piece Ancient Lights tops 70 minutes — comes closer to 90 when you count the CD/DL bonus material — and is set to release in July via Ritual Productions. It is a meandering psychedelic wash, repetition and ambience given priority over structure as the trio of bassist/vocalist/guitarist Adam Richardson, guitarist Ben Carr and drummer Tim Bertilsson combine and in some ways surpass their pedigrees in bands like Ramesses, 5ive and Switchblade in order to push as far out as possible.

Do they get there? Oh, they get there. “War of Attrition” sounds like it’s being fought against the notion of consciousness itself, while 17-minute pieces like “Against Nature” and “Fallow Year” drift into a willed-into-existence sonic beyond. Immersion: inevitable. To call it hypnotic as above is underselling it both in concept and execution. It’s not just the listener being hypnotized here; it’s the band as well. The feedback-soaked, chant-laden “Asakai Dasa” feels as much about the experience of its creation as the resulting “song.” In this way, Ancient Lights are in communion with themselves, with their audience, and with the moment captured on the recording. This is characteristic of much of Richardson‘s work in Ramesses or 11PARANOIAS — the latter of whom also reportedly have new material in the works — but I’m not sure it’s even been driven to such psychedelic extremes as it is on Ancient Lights.

Because it is a work of extremity. Not in the sense of blastbeats or death metal vocals or anything like that, but in its sheer willingness to delve into its own psychosis, Ancient Lights‘ debut is neither for the feint of heart nor the closed of mind. Its triumph lies not in emerging on the other side of “Fallow Year” unscathed, but in having made the journey through it in the first place, and even shorter pieces like “Orichalcum Eater” (2:57) or the plodding “Miasmaculatum” (3:58) make an offering of swirl with more than enough undertow to pull its audience away from their own being. To put a realistic point on it, it’s a hard record to write about because I keep feeling my mind wander in time to the ensuing nod.

The trailer gives a taste of opener “Decaying Lotus,” the subsequent “Temple Ghosts” and the bonus track “Vessel of Inevitability,” and again, if your concern is that most album teasers don’t give a sense of the substance of the record itself, you’re not wrong. I assure you that’s not the case here. Click play and find out for yourself. PR wire info follows, as usual.

Enjoy:

Ancient Lights, Ancient Lights album trailer premiere

Immerse yourself and preview the tracks ‘Decaying Lotus’, ‘Vessel of Inevitability’ and ‘Temple Ghosts’ from Ancient Lights debut self-titled album, out on Ritual Productions July 2018.

Ancient Lights refuse to tread worn sonic terrain with their debut, instead crafting a dynamic and textured journey that explores pastures of darkness, ambience, radiance and disintegration. Comprised of members of esteemed bands of the heavy palette, the origins of the band came after 13 shadowy years of jammed discourse and psychic plotting between Adam Richardson (11PARANOIAS, Ramesses) and Ben Carr (5ive, INTRCPTR), with the optimal addition of Tim Bertilsson (Switchblade) catalysing the final reality of this band.

Trailer directed by Cristiane Richardson and edited by Sergio Angot.

The band recorded their debut rite at Bonafide Studios, London under the spell of the 2017 summer solstice sky with Dan Miller. Additional recording by Ben Carr and Adam Richardson in June 2017 at XL Recordings Studio. Mixing and mastering by Dan Miller and Adam Richardson in December 2017 at XL Recordings Studio, London.

ANCIENT LIGHTS is:
Tim Bertilsson – drums
Adam Richardson – bass, guitar, vocals & lyrics
Ben Carr – guitar

Ancient Lights on Thee Facebooks

Ancient Lights on Instagram

Ancient Lights on Twitter

Ritual Productions on Thee Facebooks

Ritual Productions on Bandcamp

Ritual Productions website

When it comes to Newcastle-based psychedelic drone lords Bong, the very, very least you can say about the band is they don’t do anything half-assed when it comes to approaching cosmic sonorities. The often-experimental trio led by guitarist Mike Vest are set to issue their latest full-length, Thought and Existence — not exactly tackling the small issues, philosophically speaking — on May 4 via Ritual Productions, and like its 2015 predecessor, We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been, it’s made up of two expanded-mind drone drifters, unfolding a cosmos in slow motion across its two sides, which seem as ever to work on a wavelength of their won when it comes to tonal and atmospheric proliferation.

That not-doing-anything-half-assed extends to the new trailer premiering today for Thought and Existence, which — where most tease about a vague minute or 50 seconds of new material from a band’s record, follows suit with Bong‘s overall methodology and tops five minutes, giving a substantial glimpse at both of the tracks on Thought and Existence, “The Golden Fields” (17:31) and “Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius” (19:01). The thing of it? It’s immersive. I mean, you get lost in it. The album, the full thing, is 36 minutes long between the two cuts, but I’ve yet to make it through the trailer that you can see below without feeling totally hypnotized. Even right now as I type this I’ve got the thing on and I feel like I’m clinging to consciousness with all I’ve got.

And there it goes…

Maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked at that — trance-inducing repetition is as much a key component of Bong‘s approach as volume or a darkened, ritualized atmosphere. They use it well throughout Thought and Existence, to be sure, and it’s perhaps in conveying that that the trailer is most effective, though that’s not to mention the visuals themselves included which are slowly manipulated and awesome in their own right. Still, while one so often thinks of Bong working in longer-form contexts as they generally do, it’s telling that they don’t actually need much more than five minutes to melt your brain down and drink it as it pours from your ears.

Behold:

Bong, Thought and Existence album trailer premiere

Bong ‘Thought and Existence’ album trailer edited by Sergio Angot and directed by Cristiane Richardson, featuring ‘The Golden Fields’ and ‘Tlön Uqbar Orbis Tertius’. Out Spring 2018 on Ritual Productions.

The cosmos has now aligned, and with great honour Ritual Productions announce BONG’s return after three years with a new and momentous rite. ‘Thought and Existence’ is their sixth album for Ritual Productions and will be unveiled in its entirety this May 4th.

A continuation of Bong’s metaphysical sounds, ‘Thought and Existence’ will take the listener on a spacious voyage that resonates with the works of the band’s past, yet this offering is especially striking and stunning. A resplendent and imposing craft, comprised of two tracks spanning just under 40 minutes, ‘Thought and Existence’ is remarkable in its ability to move the listener and transcend them to imaginative planes anew.

Bong feel ever so omnipresent on ‘Thought and Existence’, continuing their revered ability to transform time through their sublime sonic textures. As all listeners of this rite will attest, the band’s stellar meditative and mystical drone, amplified by the essential and ritualistic hue of the drums, permits our imagination to be heightened. New realms of perception and existence open up, even if only for the duration of the rite; the power of this listening experience subverting the laws of time and space itself.

BONG is:
Mike Vest – guitars
Mike Smith – drums
David Terry – bass & vocals

Bong’s ‘Thought and Existence’ was recorded and engineered by Mark Wood at The Soundroom, Gateshead during September 2017. The rite was mixed and mastered at XL Recordings Studio, London during December 2017, courtesy of John Foyle (Bobby Womack, Sampha, Damon Albarn) and Adam Richardson (11PARANOIAS, Ramesses, Ancient Lights).

Bong on Thee Facebooks

Ritual Productions website

I can’t help but feel like we’re only getting a vague slice of the otherworldly doom to come with the new Drug Cult video, but it’s more than enough to pique interest. Double that factor for the involvement in the band of Dale Walker, spearhead of the most excellent Aussie psych solo-outfit Megaritual, and guitarist Vin Steele, who’s been inolved in the same band. Honestly, even if “Mind Crypt” didn’t roll out as righteously murky as it does, that’d probably be enough to get me on board with Drug Cult‘s impending Ritual Productions self-titled debut, but the track is definitely working in its own sphere. Also, atmosphere. Also, doom.

The PR wire brings a host of info on the band and record to come, as well as the aforementioned video, which does its job well in begging further investigation.

Dig in:

Ritual Productions initiates new signing, DRUG CULT; Watch the new video for the track “Mind Crypt” taken from the band’s debut rite (out Spring 2018)

Ritual Productions expands its roster with the signing of Drug Cult, a four-piece occultist doom collective whose debut self-titled rite beckons to see light of day.

Formed at the edge of Mt. Jerusalem in the hills of Mullumbimby, Australia, Drug Cult is the alchemic workings of guitarist Vin Steele (ex. Wolfmother, Megaritual, Sun Of Man), vocalist Aasha Tozer, drummer Dale Walker (Megaritual, Sun Of Man) and bassist Maggie Schreiber.

The catalyst of the cult is the bands history of art, punk rock, hardcore, doom, psych and metal influences which instinctively fused together; forming a channel of cohesive vibration. Their elemental craft has been brewing since April 2015 when the four close friends gathered on a Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse for a “Megaritual” ceremony, shaping the vision of a heavy celestial voyage through atmospheric sound connection.

Drug Cult reveals: The void opened, energies entwined and the transcendental experience set a tone for our future four piece. With the mission set to find the next ritual site we ventured together in search of visceral elevation. Surrounded by nature and crushing amplification we awakened the serpent.

The result is a 9-track vortex of majestic heaviness laced with an evocative psychedelic haze, whereby classic melodies meld with fuzz-drenched riffs cultivating an enticing potion of technicolour wickedness. Although a grooving heavyweight tone drives throughout the rite, a darkened presence is forever evident, hexing you into Drug Cult’s realm.

We invite you to listen to the first dose of Drug Cult’s craft, with the three-minute song ‘Mind Crypt’. A distinctly alluring track, with dense tones of doom providing a mesmeric undercurrent to spellbinding echoes that hypnotise throughout. Jack Bailey directed the accompanying video (www.jackbailey.com.au), commenting “I have always felt an uncommon affinity with places dark, ancient and unbroken. I find solace in empty landscapes, void of human interference… the company of the wild is far more affable than that of modern man.” Bailey’s ethos perfectly parallels the vast elemental darkness that encapsulates Drug Cult’s sound with the visuals for ‘Mind Crypt’ presenting nature in its most raw, rugged and foreboding form.

The band’s first offering was recorded live at Rocking Horse Studios, Byron Bay during December 2016, with George Carpenter at the recording and production helm and mastered by Brian Lucey of Magic Garden Mastering.

The S/T rite, with the Ritual Productions imprint, is set to be released Spring 2018. Stay alert for updates on the stirrings of the cult.

http://www.drugcult.com/
http://facebook.com/drugcult
http://instagram.com/drug_cult
http://thedrugcult.tumblr.com/
http://www.ritualproductions.net
https://ritualproductions.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ritualproductionsuk
www.twitter.com/ritualmusic
www.instagram.com/ritualproductions

Drug Cult, “Mind Crypt” official video

A new project with members from 11Paranoias and Switchblade? I’ll check that out. Sign me up. One of the best things Adam Richardson ever did was set up Ritual Productions as an outlet, first for his own work with Ramesses and subsequently as a place to release like-minded groups — looking at you, Bong — and those who take sonic cultistry beyond lyrics about the devil or killing ladies and to a place of genuine volume worship.

Ancient Lights, in which Richardson plays bass and handles vocals, posted an early jam on their Thee Facebooks, and I’d embed it if I could, but it sounds immediately like heady stuff that’s right in line with the kind of sonic gruel one might expect. Will be interested to hear what comes of the new outfit as they move forward, but as an initial welcome, it’s easy enough to dig the way they’ve said hello.

More to come, I hope.

From the PR wire:

RITUAL PRODUCTIONS INTRODUCES NEW SIGNING, ANCIENT LIGHTS; MEMBERS TAKEN FROM BANDS INCLUDING 11PARANOIAS, RAMESSES, 5IVE, INTRCPTR, SWITCHBLADE

Ritual Productions have a new offering for the masses – Ancient Lights – comprised of members from esteemed bands of the darkened palette, 11PARANOIAS, Ramesses, 5ive, INTRCPTR and Switchblade. The origins of our new signing comes after 13 unholy years of jammed discourse and psychic plotting between Adam Richardson (11PARANOIAS, Ramesses) and Ben Carr (5ive, INTRCPTR), with the optimal addition of Tim Bertilsson (Switchblade) catalysing the final reality of this band.

The band met in the early 2000s whilst playing shows together and they envisaged a future musical project…however distant that may be. 2017 now sees the manifestation of such surreptitious sonic scheming and the subsequent integration of the members within a united space – considering the trio all live in different countries. The band recorded their debut RITE in North London under the spell of the summer solstice sky which is currently in the mixing process. Prepare to be suffused!

ANCIENT LIGHTS IS:
Adam Richardson (bass/vocals)
Ben Carr (guitar)
Tim Bertilsson (drums)

https://www.facebook.com/ancientlightsband/
https://www.instagram.com/ancientlightsband/
https://twitter.com/ancient_lights/
http://www.ritualproductions.net/
https://www.facebook.com/ritualproductionsuk/
https://twitter.com/ritualmusic

11PARANOIAS, “Milk of Amnesia” official video

Don’t count on the streaming track below to speak for the whole of Thralldom‘s upcoming Time Will Bend into Horror full-length, but even as just three-plus minutes to go on, “Chronovisions” gives a glimpse of raw black metal that seeks to push beyond stylistic confines. In true black metal form, the project, spearheaded by Ryan Lipynsky of Unearthly Trance and Jared Turinsky, hasn’t been active in a decade, but will release Time Will Bend into Horror digitally through Ritual Productions on Nov. 11 and it comes with many elaborate aesthetic comparisons, from dark electronica to impressionist mastery.

The following came in off the PR wire:

Ritual Productions Initiate Thralldom

It is with immense pleasure to initiate Thralldom onto the Ritual Productions roster and announce the digital release date on November 11th of their first rite in ten years, entitled Time Will Bend Into Horror.

Purveyors of the occultist realm may recognise the name from years long passed, being something of an enigma amongst underground metal circles. Indeed, Thralldom have now returned with their first offering in over a decade, consisting once again of Ryan Lipynsky aka Killusion (Unearthly Trance, Serpentine Path, The Howling Wind) and Jared Turinsky aka Jaldagar. Although the alchemists remain the same, this is a new incarnation for the project: Thralldom 3.0.

Textures and tones from their ancient demo days and the experimental blackened noise for which they garnered acclaim melds with their new mentality which focuses more on the nuances of riff, drum and guitar interlacing. Devoid of genre limitations and gimmicks, never bounded by time or space, Thralldom refuse to tread paths gone before on Time Will Bend Into Horror. The six tracks transverse and re-morph sonic terrain, with licks of black, thrash, doom, old-school metal, industrial, noise and dark electronica but never exclusively, always experimental. You’ll find your subconscious entranced, limbs paralysed from the morose stillness before being ensnared into a blistering headbanging frenzy all whilst your face mirrors that of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’. You will not know when your corporeality or psychosis will manifest or seize in its consciousness during the album and that is why the intricacies found on Time Will Bend Into Horror is an alchemical abstract art that amalgamates and subverts the mind/body dichotomy through its evocation of fear, pensiveness, horror.

TIME WILL BEND INTO HORROR TRACK LIST
1) Cosmic Chains
2) Chronovisions
3) Stars and Graves
4) The Corpse Of The Radar Towers Over All
5) Dark Grey Mist
6) Transmission

Thralldom are essential elements in the dark arts. Never fearful of exploring uncharted territory, they trust and learn from the chaos transmuting this into instinctual soundwaves. Time Will Bend Into Horror evokes a variety of moods through its fractured fluidity ultimately making this a magikally compelling listen. After 10 years away, it is now time for Thralldom’s subliminal, subversive and sinister sonics to re-enter the atmosphere and align latent areas of your psyche. We invite you to join this séance.

https://thralldomthralldom.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/thralldom
www.ritualproductions.net
www.facebook.com/ritualproductionsuk
www.twitter.com/ritualmusic

Thralldom, “Chronovisions”

There are exceptionally few bands who pull off extreme psychedelia. It’s not a sound everyone takes on, in part because so much of psychedelic rock is intended to chill out and immerse and so much extreme music is intended to be abrasive — essentially it’s a sound that invites and repels at the same time — but 11Paranoias conjure deep-hued swirl on the blown-out “Milk of Amnesia” from their forthcoming Reliquary for a Dreamed of World LP like the visceral preachers they are. Originally set to show up Oct. 28 — which apparently is a day that already happened; sorry, I barely know what month it is — the album will be out Nov. 11 on Ritual Productions as the follow-up to 2014’s Stealing Fire from Heaven.

That record was the band’s third overall and first to find the lineup of founding bassist/vocalist Adam Richardson joined by guitarist Mike Vest (Bong) and drummer Nathan Perrier (Capricorns), which makes Reliquary for a Dreamed of World a sophomore outing for this incarnation. At least going from “Milk of Amnesia,” it sounds like it. 11Paranoias, as a project, have always had a drive to push limits — of decency, of extremity, etc. — and here they come across as seeking to push their own limits as well in atmosphere and sheer punishment factor. I wouldn’t count on this one track to represent the whole of the offering, and the band has said as much as well, but as a way of getting introduced to that dreamed-of world, it certainly seems nightmarish enough to fit the bill.

Have at you, and enjoy:

11Paranoias, “Milk of Amnesia” official video

Heavy psychedelic trio 11PARANOIAS are soon releasing their new record Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World via Ritual Productions. The trio of Adam Richardson, Mike Vest and Nathan Perrier have aroused gargantuan riffs from ancient slumber, mustered streams of irradiated noise, and arranged them to form an impressive, kaleidoscopic creation that shall now see the light of day on 11th November.

11PARANOIAS send back their latest report from the frontiers of heavy psychedelic rock, their staggering fourth LP, Reliquary For A Dreamed Of World. In the shops on 11th November in LP, CD and digital formats. Advance LP and digital copies are available now via Ritual Productions.

11Paranoias on Bandcamp

11Paranoias on Thee Facebooks

Ritual Productions website

Ritual Productions on Thee Facebooks

Ritual Productions on Twitter