The new two-songer from Second Grave is something of a beast. In right about 18 minutes, the Massachusetts-based four-piece sum up the machinations of their prior self-titled full-length debut (review here) and also push the bounds of their emerging aesthetic, frontwoman Krista van Guilder (ex-Warhorse) belting out memorable choruses for both “Mourning Light” and “Drink the Water” as the two songs on Antithesis seem to lock in stylistic combat with each other. Meeting on the line between doom and metal, “Mourning Light” and “Drink the Water” each offer no questions as to their allegiances, but more importantly, as they make their way through, Second Grave sound consistent and confident playing to whichever end they so choose.

To wit, the marauding riff of “Mourning Light” runs at a faster, NWOBHM gallop — van Guilder and Chris Drzal‘s guitars winding around the pace set by Chuck Ferreira‘s drums and the bass of Dave Gein (also of Black Pyramid/The Scimitar) — while “Drink the Water” offers more morose fare, thoroughly doomed with a classic, Euro sensibility about it, heavy, lumbering, but with a tinge of emotional drama underpinning. Looking at the comparative runtimes for the two, “Mourning Light” at 6:38 and “Drink the Water” at 11:41, there’s an immediate understanding that Second Grave have a varied methodology, and the pairing of one right with the next brings that all the more into relief, but at no point do Second Grave sound like they’re putting on airs or cloying at sonic diversity for the sake of pretense.

With “Drink the Water” especially, the natural balance in the band’s sound comes out in the fluid tempo changes and the catchy hook, both of which give way to crushing, slow-paced crash topped with vicious screams emphatically delivered by van Guilder. Feedback-soaked madness ensues, and if nothing else, Second Grave finish out Antithesis on some of their darkest and most oppressive atmospherics yet.

Antithesis was recorded by Clay Neely at Black Coffee Sound and mastered by John Brenner of Revelation. Second Grave will support the Oct. 31 Pariah Child Records release (limited to 500 10″ vinyl copies) with a slot at Stoner Hands of Doom XIII at Strange Matterin Richmond, VA, on Nov. 9.

Enjoy “Drink the Water” on the player below:

[mp3player width=480 height=150 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=second-grave-drink-the-water.xml]

Second Grave on Thee Facebooks

Second Grave’s website

I had a bit of that I’m-in-a-new-place-and-I-don’t-know-where-anything-is anxiety beforehand, but I knew more or less as soon as I found out about the show that I wasn’t going to miss Elder at the Great Scott with Second Grave. It would be my first time seeing the heavy psych forerunners in their hometown — also my first time at the Great Scott, which is a name I’ve seen often on lists of kickass tour dates and a place to which I expect I’ll return before too long. Fortunately, it was easy to find.

The night ended up very different than it started out. Originally, it was a date on Ancient VVisdom‘s headlining tour, but when the tour was canned owing to a family emergency, The Saint James Society were left on their own. They must have been just thrilled with life by the time last night rolled around, because in addition to now being out minus their headliner, they got stuck in Brooklyn with van trouble and couldn’t make the trip north to Boston. I’d been looking forward to seeing them and getting to know their stuff better, but it’ll have to wait for another night.

Elder had stepped in to headline the gig as their last show before taking an extended hiatus. Not breaking up (though one never knows what life will bring), but unfortunately stopping short the momentum that last year’s best-EP-I-heard-in-2012 Spires Burn/Release 10″ (streamed here) continued coming off the 2011 Dead Roots Stirring full-length (review here). A sad occasion, but not a show to let slip. Second Grave were originally the local support for the two out of town acts, but now found themselves the first of a two-band bill, the announcement having gone out on Thee Facebooks that The Saint James Society weren’t coming.

Fair enough. Hell, I’ll take that, especially on a gotta-work-the-next-morning weeknight. When I rolled into the Great Scott, however — cool room, if dark, with an open bar area and lower ceiling by the stage for compression of sound — I saw also-Bostonite four-piece Rozamov had been added as an opener, so what was two touring acts and one local when it was announced became three killer locals by the time the show actually started. All the better. Rozamov showed they were still relatively fresh after touring last month — they said from the stage they’d also played three shows in four nights or some such; so that could have something to do with it as well — and provided an opening bit of extremity to an evening that would approach “heavy” from three distinct angles.

Their road time had obviously done them well, and where at Stoner Hands of Doom XII last fall, they’d started out the show sounding like they were still figuring out where they wanted to be sonically, at Great Scott, they tore right into a set of thickened stoner thrash, nodding at High on Fire but ripping through a proper comparison en route to more individualized, dually-shouted, dually-guitarred territory. As with the last time I saw them, it seemed only sensible to buy a CD, and as they released the Of Gods and Flesh EP in July, six bucks was a small price to pay for the four cuts, all of which were aired throughout the set. “Shadow of the Vulture” was an immediate highlight, but “Famine” and “Empty Sky” and the title-track warrant further investigation for sure. Good thing I bought the disc.

Combining extended cuts from last year’s Second Grave EP (review here) like “Mountains of Madness” and “Covet,” Second Grave came on with some surprising heavy rock movement in their riffs at first, but over the course of their set, delved deeper and deeper into a metallic and anguished doom, given emotional depth by the vocals of guitarist Krista Van Guilder. The band first came to my attention because they feature Black Pyramid/The Scimitar bassist Dave Gein — the EP was also recorded by Black Pyramid drummer Clay Neely — but the personality is almost completely different, and Second Grave approach doom from someplace darker and more theatrical, though guitarist Chris Drzal still looked like a rocker while soloing, having a bit of fun despite the morose context while drummer Chuck Ferreira added to the grander sensibilities with intricate fills and well-placed crash.

Of the five songs they played — it was a full set time-wise, make no mistake — three were from the EP, but opener “Mourning Light” and closer “Drink the Water” were new, and Van Guilder mentioned from the stage that vinyl was forthcoming. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out, if Second Grave have been picked up for the release or are putting it out on their own, but either way, they answered Rozamov‘s periodic bombast with a definitely-metal sense of poise and as Van Guilder added periodic screams to her clean vocals at the end of “Mountains of Madness” and “Drink the Water,” it was easy to see the dynamic developing in the band’s approach between the dark and moodiness of classic doom metal and more extreme, blackened fare. I can’t help but wonder how the varying sides might combine further on whatever their next release might be, another EP or the inevitable debut full-length.

It was well after 11PM when Second Grave finished, but Elder seemed to feel like jamming and I was certainly on board for that. Guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto didn’t make much of the fact that they won’t be playing together for however long it might wind up being, but the spirit of getting while the getting’s good was palpable anyway. DiSalvo opened quietly with some spacey guitar lines and introduced the band and they were quickly underway. In the context of it being their “last show until X,” it was hard not to see them as focusing on the instrumental chemistry between the three players, but really, I think Elder were just enjoying playing out when they hadn’t expected to do so, at a show that wasn’t set up to be any kind of farewell party, but ended up that way anyhow. As anticipated, they killed.

Having seen them earlier this year in London and at Roadburn, I knew the level of play the trio have hit with and after Spires Burn/Release, but that did nothing to diminish my enjoyment of the set itself, which found them immersed in their particular style of quick, unexpected turns offset by thick tonality and stretches of groove that seem to bask in their own righteousness, extended leads more glorious than indulgent. Elder songs rarely hit when you think they’re going to, and even for cuts from Dead Roots Stirring like the title-track and the blissful hit-the-ground-speeding prog of “The End,” just because you’ve heard them however many times doesn’t mean you necessarily know how they’ll land on a given night. They are continually exciting to watch, and it seemed like the masses assembled at Great Scott knew what they were seeing and gave it due appreciation. There’s an emerging heavy psychedelia in the US right now, whether  it’s shoegazing acts like Whirr or the instrumental cosmic explorations of It’s Not Night: It’s Space, but no one does heavy quite like Elder. I was glad to have seen them in their hometown.

Ending the set proper with “Release” and reveling in the Colour Haze-y grandeur, Elder took their time in shutting off their amps in a way that only added to the calls of “one more song!” from the audience, who were treated to “Spires Burn” for their efforts, DiSalvo metering his leads with the lush central progression of the track itself, essentially doing the work of lead and rhythm players at the same time while Couto and Donovan slammed through each of the track’s many resonant twists with adrenaline-fueled precision. Seemed telling to me that they finished out with their newest stuff, and that it got arguably the best response of the night, since it showed all the more just how at their to-date peak they are. Well, last time they seemed to be rolling along and took a break, they came back with Dead Roots Stirring, so if this time around Elder makes a return with even half as much a creative leap as that album was from their nonetheless awesome 2008 self-titled debut, their third outing is already one to look forward to, whenever it might arrive.

And until then, they were given a proper sendoff at the Great Scott. I’m sure it wasn’t the night that some had anticipated — perhaps most of all Rozamov, who joined the bill something like two hours before the show started — but by the time they were done, it was clear everything had worked out all the same.

More pics after the jump. Thanks for reading.

Read more »

Unparalleled in its support for underground heavy, the Stoner Hands of Doom fest has begun to unveil the lineup and other info for the 2013 edition, SHoD XIII. The traveling fest, which in 2012 took place at the El n Gee in New London, CT, heads south this year, to Richmond, Virginia, where it will take over Strange Matter on Nov. 7-10.

I’ve never been to Richmond that I can recall, and this seems like a pretty good occasion to go. Fest organizer Rob Levey has begun the preliminary announcements of things like the above dates and locale and a basic list of bands that should give some idea of where SHoD is headed musically. Dig it:

We are almost there we have secured a place for SHoD XIII it will be held Veterans Day weekend Nov 7th – 10th the location is a mid atlantic city in the south but not the deep south. There will be some limitations this year on time so won’t be able to have as many bands as usual.

Wow I tell you our supporters are awesome anyway the club we are doing this year’s SHoD is called Strange Matter in Richmond Virginia here are the list so far either definite or very close.

Admiral Browning
Beelzefuzz
Fire Faithful
Pike Possum
Wizard Eye
Backwoods Payback
Demonaut
Stone Magnum
Wasted Theory
Planetoid
Deadweight
Second Grave

Be around 20 more when we are done talk to you soon.

One thing Massachusetts is never short on is heavy. The mostly-doomed foursome Second Grave no sooner made their existence public than they had their first EP ready to go, and the self-titled, self-released six-tracker is a vinyl-ready half-hour of surprising cohesion. As one might expect from such a fertile scene, there’s something of a pedigree involved – bassist Dave Gein doubles in Black Pyramid and guitarist/vocalist Krista Van Guilder is formerly of Warhorse and Obsidian Halo, in which fellow guitarist Chris Drzal also played, while drummer Chuck Ferreira is ex-Nodscene – so maybe the cohesive sound on the first outing shouldn’t come as such a surprise. It’s nobody’s first time out, in other words, and that prior experience has obviously bled into Second Grave. The sound blends doom, riff rock and an overarching sense of traditional metal darkness, and while the material isn’t bleak to the extent of some modern doom, neither is Second Grave in the business of upbeat heavy rock. They’re in the process of casting their own blend, rather, and even extended songs like the highlights “Covet” and “Mountains of Madness,” both of which top eight minutes, have a purposeful sense of structure and don’t veer too far into indulgence as to be accessible. The band flirts with horror culture – the title “Mountains of Madness” is a Lovecraft reference – but don’t seem to be committed to that aesthetic anymore than they’re ultimately willing to sign up and fill out their “Underground Doom Band” membership card, which if such a thing would exist one imagines might entitle them to discounts on cheap beer and Electric Wizard reissue LPs. Still, while some bands’ refusal to consent to genre signifies bold forays in defiance thereof, Second Grave remain easily accessible for any doomer who might undertake a listen while also giving a proper sampling of the various elements their sound incorporates now and might continue to bring in going forward. In that way, it’s very much a first release, however solidified the band is in their methods and the reasoning behind them.

They’ve pressed CDs – and of course Second Grave is available digitally as most releases are in this glorious future we all share – but the structure of the EP is clearly set up with vinyl in mind, even more so than the actual production of the songs, which was helmed by the band in conjunction with Gein’s Black Pyramid bandmate, Clay Neely, at Black Coffee Sound. Each theoretical “side” begins with an introduction-type piece, the first of which is “Through the Red Door.” An appropriate opener even more because of the EP’s red-door-inclusive artwork, contributed by Van Guilder, the first two minutes of Second Grave set creepy ambience off vague riffing, crafting what actually turns out to be the biggest sense of space in any of the six tracks as Van Guilder and Drzal’s guitars layer in and echo out before giving way to the rumble that leads into “Covet” and “Mountains of Madness.” Similarly, “Salvation” begins the second half of Second Grave’s Second Grave with a minute of classical acoustic guitar that also sets up a pair of tracks, the shorter “Soul Extinction” (4:32) and the finale “Divide and Conquer” (7:50). The sweet simplicity of “Salvation” is a long way, however, from the metal-minded doom that precedes it, and as “Covet” is shortly underway with engaging riffs, thundering drums and Van Guilder’s bluesy classic rock-style vocal, the vibe is chugging, more than capably melodic, and well-soloed. I keep looking for where its 8:48 runtime goes, and though there are leads and instrumental breaks, none of them accounts for any sense of ranging past the stated structure, and it seems like Second Grave are just effectively patient in their songwriting. There’s some similar crunch in how Neely captures the instruments to his own band – one can hear it in the snare sound and of course Gein’s tonality – but the mood is utterly different even as “Mountains of Madness” begins with a bass introduction to set the bounce of its more stonerly opening progression, giving way to a classic metal verse and a much stronger chorus to follow. At first, the ideas driving “Covet” and “Mountains of Madness” seem to be roughly the same, but following another impressive guitar solo in the second half of the latter, Second Grave embark at 6:39 on what’s unquestionably the most thoroughly doomed section of any of these songs.

Read more »