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Quarterly Review: Unearthly Trance, Heavy Traffic, Saturn, Lucifer’s Fall, Trevor Shelley de Brauw, Scuzzy Yeti, Urn., Nebula Drag, Contra, IAH

Posted in Reviews on March 30th, 2017 by JJ Koczan

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From harsh doom to urban pastoralism to heavy blues rock to rolling doom nonetheless metallic in its defiance, Day Four of the Quarterly Review spins around a swath of styles and hopefully, hopefully, finds something you dig in the doing. It’s been a long week already. You know it. I know it. But it’s also been really good to dig into this stuff and I know I’ve found a few records that have made their way onto the already-ongoing 2017 lists — best short releases, debuts, albums, etc. — so to say it’s been worth it is, as ever, an understatement. Today likewise has gems to offer, so I won’t delay.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Unearthly Trance, Stalking the Ghost

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Brooklyn’s Unearthly Trance make a somewhat unexpected reentry with Stalking the Ghost (on Relapse), their sixth album. In the years since 2010’s V (review here), guitarist/vocalist Ryan Lipynsky has delved into a wide variety of extreme genres, from the blackened fare of The Howling Wind to the deathly-doom of Serpentine Path, in which Unearthly Trance bassist Jay Newman and drummer Darren Verni also shared tenure, but reuniting as Unearthly Trance feels like a significant step for the three-piece, and on tracks like “Dream State Arsenal” and the darkly post-metallic “Lion Strength,” they remind of what it was that made them such a standout in the first place while demonstrating that their years away have done nothing to dull the surehandedness of their approach. At eight tracks/52 minutes, Stalking the Ghost is a significant dirge to undertake, but Unearthly Trance bring pent-up anguish to bear across this varied swath of punishing tracks, and reassert their dominance over an aesthetic sphere that, even after all this time, is thoroughly their own.

Unearthly Trance on Thee Facebooks

Relapse Records website

 

Heavy Traffic, Plastic Surgery

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Probably a smart move on the part of Heavy Traffic spearhead guitarist Ian Caddick and drummer/vocalist Tav Palumbo to swap coasts from Santa Cruz to Brooklyn ahead of putting together their sixth (!) full-length in three years and Twin Earth Records debut, Plastic Surgery. Cali is awash in heavy psych anyway and Brooklyn’s been at a deficit (as much as it’s at a deficit of anything) since space forerunners Naam became one with the cosmos, so even apart from the acquisition of bassist David Grzedzinki and drummer Dan Bradica, it’s a solid call, and one finds the fruits yielded on Plastic Surgery’s dream-fuzzed blend of heft and roll, heady jams like “See Right Through,” the oh-you-like-feedback-well-here’s-all-the-feedback “Broth Drain” and winding “Medicated Bed” finding a place where shoegaze and psychedelia meet ahead of the low-end-weighted closing title-cut and the bonus track “White and Green,” which finishes with suitable push and swirl to mark a welcome and vibe-soaked arrival for the band. Hope you enjoy the Eastern Seabord. It could use you.

Heavy Traffic on Thee Facebooks

Twin Earth Records on Bandcamp

 

Saturn, Beyond Spectra

saturn beyond spectra

In the second Saturn album, Beyond Spectra, one can hear one of retro rock’s crucial next movements taking place. The Swedish four-piece, who debuted on Rise Above with 2014’s Ascending and return with a periodically explosive 10-track/45-minute outing here, find a niche for themselves in adding dual-guitar NWOBHM elements to ‘70s-style (also ‘10s-style) boogie, as on the scorching “Still Young” or opener “Orbital Command.” They’re not the only ones doing it – Rise Above alums Horisont come to mind readily – but they’re doing it well, and the last three years have clearly found them refining their approach to arrive at the tightness in the shuffle of “Wolfsson” and the creeping Priestism of “Helmet Man” later on. I’ll give bonus points for their embracing the idea of going completely over the top in naming a song “Electrosaurus Sex,” but by the time they get down to closing duo “Silfvertape” and “Sensor Data,” I’m left thinking of the subdued intro to “Orbital Command” and the interlude “Linkans Delight” and wondering if there isn’t a way to bring more of that dynamic volume and tempo breadth into the songwriting as a whole. That would really be far out. Maybe they’ll get there, maybe they won’t. Either way, Beyond Spectra, like its predecessor, makes a largely inarguable case for Saturn’s potential.

Saturn on Thee Facebooks

Rise Above Records website

 

Lucifer’s Fall, II: Cursed and Damned

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Measuring its impact between doomly traditionalism and attitudinal fuckall, Lucifer’s Fall’s II: Cursed and Damned (on Nine Records) is a doom-for-doomers affair that tops 55 minutes with its nine tracks, recalling Dio-era Sabbathian gallop on opener “Mother Superior” and landing a significant blow with the slow-rolling nine-minute push of “The Necromancer.” Shades of Candlemass, Reverend Bizarre, and the most loyal of the loyalists show themselves throughout, but whether it’s the crawl in the first half of “Cursed Priestess” or the blistering rush of the clarion centerpiece “(Fuck  You) We’re Lucifer’s Fall,” there’s an undercurrent of punk in the five-piece’s take that lends an abiding rawness to even the album’s most grueling moments. One looks to find a middle ground in songs like “The Mountains of Madness” and closer “Homunculus,” but Lucifer’s Fall instead offer NWOBHM-style guitar harmonics and soaring vocals, respectively, only pushing their stylistic breadth wider, playing by and breaking rules they’re clearly setting for themselves rather than working toward outside expectation. As a result, II: Cursed and Damned keeps its fist in the air for the duration, middle finger up.

Lucifer’s Fall on Bandcamp

Nine Records website

 

Trevor Shelley de Brauw, Uptown

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Over the course of six-minute opener “A New Architecture,” guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw gradually moves the listener from abrasive noise to sweet, folkish acoustic guitar backed by amplified wavelengths. It’s a slowly unfolding change, patiently done, and it works in part to define Uptown (on The Flenser), the Pelican guitarist’s six-song solo debut long-player. Noise and drone make themselves regulars, and there’s a steady experimentalism at root in pieces like “Distinct Frequency,” the low-end hum and strum of “You Were Sure,” and the should’ve-been-on-the-soundtrack-to-Arrival “Turn up for What,” which unfurls a linear progression from minimalism to consuming swell in eight minutes ahead of the more actively droning 11-minute sendoff “From the Black Soil Poetry and Song Sprang,” but de Brauw manages to keep a human core beneath via both the occasional acoustic layer and through moments where a piece is being palpably manipulated, à la the spacious distorted churn of “They Keep Bowing.” I’m not sure how Uptown didn’t wind up on Neurot, but either way, it’s an engaging exploration of textures, and one hopes it won’t be de Brauw’s last work in this form.

Trevor Shelley de Brauw on Thee Facebooks

The Flenser website

 

Scuzzy Yeti, Scuzzy Yeti

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Someone in Scuzzy Yeti has roots in metal, and the good money’s on it being vocalist Chris Wells. Joined in the Troy, New Hampshire, five-piece by guitarists Brad Decatur and Jason Lawrence (ex-Skrogg), bassist Wayne Munson and drummer Josh Turnbull, Wells casts a sizable frontman presence across the five-tracks of Scuzzy Yeti’s self-titled debut EP, belting out “Westward” and “BTK” as the band behind him hones a blend of classic heavy rock and doom. The sound is more reminiscent of Janne Christoffersson-era Spiritual Beggars than what one might expect out of New England, and the band amass some considerable momentum as centerpiece “Conqueror” and the shorter shuffle “Knees in the Breeze” push toward slower, lead-soaked closer “Flare,” which finds the lead guitar stepping up to meet Wells head-on. They might have some work to do in finding a balance between the stylistic elements at play, but for a first outing, Scuzzy Yeti shows all the pieces are there and are being put into their rightful place, and the result is significant, marked potential.

Scuzzy Yeti on Thee Facebooks

Scuzzy Yeti on Bandcamp

 

Urn., Urn.

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The insistent push from punctuated Denver trio Urn.’s self-titled debut demo/EP is enough to remind one of the days when the primary impression of Mastodon wasn’t their complexity, but the raw savagery with which that complexity was delivered. Urn. – the three-piece of Scott Schulman, Graham Wesselhoff and Jacob Archuleta – work in some elements of more extreme metal to “Rat King” after opener “Breeder,” both songs under three minutes and successfully conveying an intense thrust. The subsequent “Stomach” ranges further and is the longest cut at 4:45, but loses none of its focus as it winds its way toward closer “To the Grave,” which in addition to maintaining the nigh-on-constant kick drum that has pervaded the three tracks prior, offers some hints of lumbering stomp to come. As a first sampling, Urn.’s Urn. is a cohesive aesthetic blast setting in motion a progression that will be worth following as it develops. Call it rager metal and try not to spill your beverage while you windmill, you wild headbanger.

Urn. on Thee Facebooks

Urn. on Bandcamp

 

Nebula Drag, Always Dying

nebula drag always dying

2016 found San Diego aggressors Nebula Drag making their self-titled, self-released debut (review here) with a record that seemed to work in willful defiance of their hometown’s psychedelic underground while at the same time occasionally nodding to it. The forebodingly-titled Always Dying three-song EP does likewise, launching with a vengeance on “Crosses” before burying the vocals and spacing out behind the crashes of the more languid-rolling title-track and giving a bit of both sides with the four-minute closer “Flying Fuckers.” It’s almost as if the three-piece of Corey Quintana, bassist Mike Finneran and drummer Stephen Varns, having thus completed their first album, decided to boil it down to its essential stylistic components and the result of that was this 14-minute outing. An intriguing prospect, but it could also be these were leftovers from the prior session with Jordan Andreen at Audio Design Recording and putting them up for a free download was an easy way to give them some purpose. In any case, if you haven’t yet been introduced to the band, Always Dying is an efficient telling of their story thus far.

Nebula Drag on Thee Facebooks

Nebula Drag on Bandcamp

 

Contra, Deny Everything

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If their moniker doesn’t have you immediately running through the most legendary of cheat codes, congratulations on being born after 1990. Cleveland burl-sludge metallers Contra make their full-length debut on respected purveyor Robustfellow with the 10-track/41-minute Deny Everything, and if it sounds like they have their shit together – at least sound-wise – it should make sense given the pedigree of drummer Aaron Brittain (ex-Rue), bassist/guitarist Adam Horwatt (So Long Albatross), guitarist Chris Chiera (ex-Sofa King Killer) and vocalist Larry Bent (ex-Don Austin). Be it established that songs like “Snake Goat” and “Son of Beast” are nobody’s first time at the sludge rodeo. Fair enough. Doesn’t mean Contra don’t establish their own personality in the overarching fuckall and total lack of pretense throughout Deny Everything – hell, seven-minute closer “Shrimp Cocktail” proves that on its own – just that that personality has roots. What Contra wants to do with them still kind of seems up in the air, but something about these tracks makes me think the band likes it that way. See the aforementioned “fuckall.”

Contra on Bandcamp

Robustfellow Productions on Bandcamp

 

IAH, IAH

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Comprised of four songs tracked live in the trio’s native Córdoba at 440 Estudio, the self-titled debut EP from Argentine trio IAH – guitarist Mauricio Condon, bassist Juan Pablo Lucco and drummer José Landín – would seem destined to catch the attention of South American Sludge Records if it already hasn’t. In the interim, the three-piece have made the instrumental EP available as a free download and its unpretentious heavy psychedelics and edge of rock-minded thrust on opener “Cabalgan los Cielos” and the early going of closer “Eclipsum” more than justify their intention to spread the word as much as possible. Set to a balance of post-rock guitar, the bassline of “Stolas” carries a progressive inflection, and the fuzz that emerges halfway into second track “Ouroboros” shows a desert rock influence that blends well into its surroundings as a part of a richer sonic entity. A nascent but palpable chemistry at work across its 26 minutes, IAH’s IAH could portend expansive ideas to come, and one hopes it does precisely that.

IAH on Thee Facebooks

IAH on Bandcamp

 

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Unearthly Trance Confirm Feb. 24 Release for Stalking the Ghost; New Single Streaming

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 16th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

Jeez, Unearthly Trance. Save some crushing misanthropy for the rest of the class, would you? Or, you know, don’t. It would seem the intervening six-plus years have done little to dull the multifaceted intensity of the Brooklyn extreme sludge outfit, though that genre descriptor does little to capture their actual stylistic swath, which is just as likely to pull from death or black metal as from a meaty stoner riff.

Their last album, V (review here), came out in 2010, and in addition to essentially having picked up where they left off in terms of releasing through Relapse Records — that should say something in itself about the persistent appeal of the band; “Oh hey it’s been more than half a decade mind putting this out alright cool” — and having been recently confirmed to take part in Roadburn 2017 with more fest announcements to come, the trio have set a Feb. 24 release for Stalking the Ghost, their sixth full-length, and unveiled the track “Dream State Arsenal,” which if you’re feeling daring you can hear below.

Cover art is by Orion Landau, and not that you need me to tell you, but it’s pretty awesome.

From the PR wire:

unearthly trance stalking the ghost

UNEARTHLY TRANCE Announces New Album Stalking The Ghost; Premieres First Single

New York City sludge/doom/drone trio UNEARTHLY TRANCE reemerges from the shadows with Stalking The Ghost, their sixth full-length recording and first album in over seven years.

February 24th, 2017 will see the worldwide release of Stalking The Ghost via Relapse Records on CD, LP, and digital formats. Physical preorders and bundles are available via Relapse.com HERE and digital downloads can be preordered via Bandcamp at THIS LOCATION.

An esoteric ritual of seismic doom, Stalking The Ghost taps into the darkest realms of the occult over the course of seven tracks that reek of utter despair. Forming a balance between slow-churning maelstrom and spine-chilling harmony, wrapped beneath a blackened cloud of rumbling feedback, UNEARTHLY TRANCE sounds more powerful and exploratory than ever before. Recorded at Menegroth/The Thousand Caves Studios by Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts, Panopticon) and featuring cover art by Orion Landau (Yob, Red Fang, Graves At Sea), Stalking The Ghost restores misery to a gentrifying city.
Stalking The Ghost Track Listing:
1. Into The Spiral
2. Dream State Arsenal
3. Sycthe
4. Famine
5. Lion Strength
6. Invisible Butchery
7. The Great Cauldron
8. In The Forests Keep
In related news, UNEARTHLY TRANCE has been confirmed for next year’s prestigious Roadburn Festival with additional live dates to be announced soon.

UNEARTHLY TRANCE:
4/20/2017 Roadburn – Tilburg, NL

Hailing from Long Island/Brooklyn, New York, UNEARTHLY TRANCE was forged in 2000 by Ryan Lipynsky (guitar, vocals) and Jay Newman (bass), with Darren Verni (drums) joining the following year. Over the past fifteen-plus years, the trio has been creating the loudest, most harrowing blackened doom/sludge in the region. UNEARTHLY TRANCE established their early defining sound with the release of their first two full-lengths (2003’s Season Of Séance, Science Of Silence and 2004’s In The Red) released on Lee Dorrian’s Rise Above Records.

In 2006, UNEARTHLY TRANCE signed with Relapse Records and released three more critically acclaimed full-lengths (2006’s The Trident, 2008’s Electrocution, and 2010’s V) exposing the world to a palpable growth in their doom/sludge foundation and well-crafted songwriting. Over the years, the band has brought their crushing live show across North America, the UK, and Europe with legendary and acclaimed acts such as Electric Wizard, The Melvins, High On Fire, Grief, Sunn O))), Pelican, Sleep, Morbid Angel, Floor, Autopsy, Crowbar, and more.

http://www.facebook.com/UnearthlyTrance
https://unearthlytrance.bandcamp.com/album/stalking-the-ghost
http://www.relapse.com
http://www.relapserecords.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/RelapseRecords
http://www.twitter.com/RelapseRecords

Unearthly Trance, “Dream State Arsenal”

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Unearthly Trance Finish Recording New Album Stalking the Ghost

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 20th, 2016 by JJ Koczan

If you want to feel old today, we’re now 16 years removed from Unearthly Trance first getting together. The Brooklyn trio reunited in Spring 2015 and have made select appearances since, playing local shows and doing a West Coast run last fall that included a stop at Midnite Communion III in Long Beach, California, where they joined Morne, Dopethrone and a host of expertly-curated others.

Six years have gone by since their fifth album, V (review here), was issued by Relapse Records, but the band has posted notice that their upcoming sixth full-length, to be titled Stalking the Ghost, has finished its recording process. Tracking took place with Colin Marston (Gorguts, Behold! the Arctopus) at The Thousand Caves, and Relapse will once again handle putting it out.

There’s still a lot to be learned about the record — most importantly what it might sound like. V was the most developed album that Unearthly Trance put out during their initial run, but guitarist/vocalist Ryan Lipynsky has been exploring a variety of different influences in acts like The Howling Wind and Serpentine Path — in which Unearthly Trance bassist Jay Newman and drummer Darren Verni also play — so whether or not that might have any impact on Stalking the Ghost is up in the air. Their doomly form had become pretty amorphous stylistically by the time they called it quits, so even if they’re picking up where they left off, it seems fair to expect some expanse of ground to be covered.

No release date yet, but one to look forward to:

unearthly trance

We have finished recording our new album entitled “Stalking The Ghost”! We all think it came out absolutely massive and is our best work yet. Colin Marston was a pleasure to work with and we are beyond excited to have this album be released on Relapse Records!

More info soon!

https://www.facebook.com/UnearthlyTrance/
http://unearthly-trance.blogspot.com/
www.relapse.com
https://www.facebook.com/RelapseRecords/

Unearthly Trance, Live at Midnite Communion III

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