A couple weeks ago, we began a series of pro-shot live videos shot at this year’s Ceremony of Sludge in Portland, Oregon, with footage of Beard of Bees playing “General Butt Naked.” It was as raucous a start as one could’ve hoped for, and with the second installment, we move into precision post-sludge tectonic riffing, courtesy of Portland’s own Sioux and their chug-a-lug stomper “Let in the Night.” Among the other things it is — progressive, complex, atmospheric — it is righteously heavy.

Sioux debuted in 2013 with a self-titled EP (review here), and at Ceremony of Sludge — held March 7 and 8 at Club 21 in Portland — they celebrated the release of their full-length debut, The One and the Many. “Let in the Night” is the opener from that album, and it highlights the addition of the former trio’s fourth member, synth-specialist/vocalist/sampler Ben Jackson, whose alternately screamed and clean-sung approach makes an excellent complement to the gruff, sludgy style of bassist Kirk Evans. On “Let in the Night,” they trade parts effectively but make highlight moments out of unison between them, adding depth and a sense of arrangement to the already rich turns of guitarist Juan Caceres and gloriously half-timed plod of drummer Ryan McPhaill. The sense of early Mastodonic lumbering that pervaded the EP is still there, but no question Sioux have taken their approach to a new level.

They were the penultimate act on the second night of the fest, with only Holy Grove following, so it was a fitting way to mark the beginning of this stage of the band. Last week, Sioux followed up The One and the Many with a digital single covering Nine Inch Nails‘ 1994 breakout radio hit single “Closer” that’s available as a name-your-price download from their Bandcamp page. However you might feel about the original source, it’s a bold song to take on and Sioux do well in putting their own spin on it.

As with last time, Sioux‘s “Let in the Night” was filmed by Cole Boggess, Justin Anderson, Justin Brown and Eli Duke, and edited by Cole Boggess with sound by Tim Burke. Stay tuned for more in the weeks to come from the third annual Ceremony of Sludge, and please, enjoy:

Sioux, “Let in the Night” Live at Ceremony of Sludge, Portland, OR, March 8, 2014

Sioux on Thee Facebooks

Sioux on Bandcamp

Ceremony of Sludge

I haven’t posted about it yet, because when it comes to this kind of thing one can never really be sure something is going to happen until it’s already happened, but as you can see in the PR wire info below, pending disaster I’ll be hosting a series of videos following the 2014 Ceremony of Sludge in Portland, Oregon. While it would be nice to kick around the West Coast for an extra week after the Pentagram, Radio Moscow and Kings Destroy tour is over and actually attend the thing myself, I think I’d give poor The Patient Mrs. a coronary if I started lobbying for such a thing, so I’ll have to be content with the clips when they arrive.

The two-night fest is free as in “doesn’t cost any money to get in the door,” and set for March 7 and 8 at Club 21. With Lamprey, Holy Grove, Sioux, Serial Hawk, Blackwitch Pudding, Tsepesch, Disenchanter and Beard of Bees, the lineup is right on as well, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all goes down.

Here are the preliminaries, followed by a couple track’s off Sioux‘s upcoming release, The One and the Many. Dig:

Third Annual Ceremony of Sludge Comes to Club 21, Portland

THIRD ANNUAL CEREMONY OF SLUDGE
MARCH 7 and MARCH 8 at CLUB 21 | Portland, OR
FREE

Portland Heavy Seen and Mr. Black present The Third Annual Ceremony of Sludge, to be held March 7th and 8th at Club 21 in Portland, Oregon. The annual mini-festival showcases some of the most crushing bands emerging from the heavy-music community here in the Pacific Northwest. The shows are 21+ and FREE.

Ceremony of Sludge lineup:

March 7
Lamprey
Serial Hawk
Tsepesch
Beard of Bees

March 8
Holy Grove
Sioux
Blackwitch Pudding
Disenchanter

The bands’ performances will be filmed by the Portland Heavy Seen project and released via TheObelisk.net to kick off their new video series.

Mr. Black, a Portland-based effects pedal company will provide Ceremony of Sludge T-shirts for $5, and offer discounts for their pedals.

Ceremony of Sludge: https://www.facebook.com/ceremonyofsludge
Mr. Black: https://www.facebook.com/mrblackpedals
Club 21: https://www.facebook.com/Club21PDX
Lamprey: https://www.facebook.com/lampreypdx
Serial Hawk: http://serialhawk.bandcamp.com/album/buried-in-the-gray-ep
Tsepesch: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tsepesch/204890382882138
Beard of Bees: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Beard-of-Bees/441345789233457
Holy Grove: https://www.facebook.com/holygroveband
Sioux: http://siouxtheband.bandcamp.com/
Blackwitch Pudding: https://www.facebook.com/blackwitchpudding
Disenchanter: https://www.facebook.com/DisenchanterPDX

Sioux, The One and the Many (2014)

Much of the time, when a band issues a self-released EP as a first release, what they mean to say is, “We made a demo,” and I would say that’s the case with Portland, Oregon, trio Sioux and their self-titled debut as well but for the level of professionalism involved. The four-track, 21-minute outing from the dually-vocalized three-piece finds them beginning to explore the reaches of Melvins-via-Mastodon crunch, and it’s an aesthetic on which they clearly already have a firm grasp. They also put in an appearance earlier this year on the Eolian Empire compilation Keep Our Heads among a plethora of their fellow Portland acts, and in what’s probably the most diverse-yet-cohesive heavy scene in the US, Sioux immediately stand out for the grip they have on what they want their sound to be. All four cuts on Sioux — “Bezoar,” “Rheap,” “Aegeless” (sic) and “In Tongues” — plunder and scrape with a sonic clarity to match that behind their musical concept, and though the whole work may not come across as groundbreaking in part because it’s so indebted in its roots to Mastodon, guitarist/vocalist Juan Carlos Caceres, bassist/vocalist Kirk Evans and drummer Ryan McPhaill succeed in establishing some measure of their own personality within that neo-progressive metal riffing, locking into a sludgy groove at the end of “Bezoar” that comes on fluidly and establishes a wider base for the other tracks to build on, which, fortunately, they do. Particularly as it’s their first release, there’s nothing more I could reasonably ask of Sioux than that.

And it’s worth reiterating that among the aspects of the release working in Sioux‘s favor, a remarkably professional production (credited to Fester at Haywire Studios) ranks pretty high. Both Caceres‘ guitar and Evans‘ bass tones come across as varied and full — sounding big enough and layered enough to give the impression of two guitarists — and a consistent thud in McPhaill‘s drums and variety in the vocal approach from the Kirk Windstein croaks of “Bezoar” to the cleaner rhythmic shouting that starts “Aegeless” lends the entire release a crisp studio sensibility that never turns too far to the side of studio trickery. “Aegeless” is perhaps the most melodic of the four inclusions here, but Caceres keeps a steady line of melody in the guitar leads across the board, so that even the chugging drudgery of second track “Rheap” has some accessible lines running through, riffs and lead lines blending in the steady sway of the deceptively patient chorus groove. All four cuts hover between 4:50 and 5:50, “Bezoar” being the shortest and “Rheap” the longest on either end, but there’s a decent amount of diversity between them, the trio shifting in pace and focus, adding a touch of psychedelia to the back-half build of “Rheap” before giving over chug-happy starts and stops of “Aegeless” and the ensuing fullness of the chorus that derives therefrom. McPhaill complements this patience with a flurry of snare hits under the lines, “I am the first and the last/The wheat and the chaff/When all the cities crumble/I’ll still be standing,” as the track opens to one of the EP’s most evocative leads.

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