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Groan Join Lineup for London Desertfest 2013

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 29th, 2013 by JJ Koczan

Similar to being grateful for having the opportunity to catch bands like Alunah, Grifter and Trippy Wicked at last year’s Desertfest in London, I’m excited at the chance to see Groan on stage. Having so thoroughly nerded out over their metallicized 2012 offering, The Divine Right of Kings (review here), it should be fun to see them do some of that material live, and all the more interesting now that they have two guitars. Seems like they can never quite keep still. All the better for the stage show.

Here’s the announcement, cruelly snatched from the Desertfest website:

Hear the Groan at Desertfest

Here at DesertFest HQ we’ve been doing some experiments. We ain’t messing around here – there are Bunsen burners, SPSS datasets and white lab coats lying around all over the place! So what have we learned from this cactus-tax funded piece of analysis? Well, during our careful dissection of a certain infamous British hard rock band, we have successfully proven the hypothesis that Groan are, in fact, 67% TRUE DOOM.

So what does this mean for the remaining 33% I hear you exclaim? Well, you can fill out the rest of that pie-chart with righteous segments of HARD rock, THUNDER BOOGIE heavy metal, INSANE trouser choices and a significant quantity of FACIAL hair. Groan were formed roughly around 1967 by guitarist The Riff Wizard who then met lead singer Lord Mazzereth in a field of frolicking, opium-fuelled virgin pagans; such fields as I’m told were in abundance at that time. Soon however the initial line-up became a forgotten myth confined to Celtic folklore and the rarest of parchment inscriptions sealed in a series of long lost mountain caves. Yet in 2009, Groan were resurrected and rose like a phoenix silhouetted by several glow-sticks from their tomb of rock. Lord Mazzereth, who some say is older than Jesus, had forgotten all of the old hymns, but a new line-up of devout worshippers to the altar of the noble ryffe were nonetheless recruited and they wrote some new, better gospels together in haste. Now rounded out as a well-drilled five-piece with the addition of former Invasion and Pettybone drummer Zel Kaute, plus Trippy Wicked drummer Chris West and Mike Pilat (ex-Ocean Collective) on guitars joining frontman Mazzereth and corduroy comedian Leigh Jones on bass, the time to Groan is now!

Here to rock your life out of control with the likes of ‘Witchy Woman’, ‘Throne of Weed’ and ‘Gods of Fire’, this is one party train of David Coverdale fanatics, playing the best riffs that Sabbath threw away, that you’d be a fool to miss. A FOOL I TELL YOU! And if that’s not enough for you, the last time I saw this band, they were all dressed as bananas. Be there, or be somewhere sensible.

Words by Pete Green.

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Groan Post Video for “Gods of Fire” from The Divine Right of Kings

Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 18th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Someday I’m gonna see this band…

There’s a lot of footage swiped from a lot of places that shows up in the new Groan video, for the ultra-catchy “Gods of Fire” from their The Divine Right of Kings sophomore full-length (review here), including some out of one of the Star Trek movies and the classic Chris Holmes interview from Decline of Western Civilization Pt. 2: The Metal Years, but Groan also manage to work in some snitched from classic ’70s horror, as they have in the past. Wherever they’ve grown from their roots, those roots are still here.

And as you’ll see in the clip, so is the band’s palpable sense of charm. Touting their new(est) slogan marking them as “67% true doom,” they unleash a video for “Gods of Fire” that once you’ve started you can’t help but finish. To wit:

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Groan Post Trailer for The Divine Right of Kings, Announce Release-Week Tour

Posted in Bootleg Theater, Whathaveyou on September 4th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

Ever the troublemakers, British stoner specialists Groan have announced a few lives dates around the release of their new album, The Divine Right of Kings. The four-piece will unleash the new album, featuring alternate-universe future classics like “How Black was Our Sabbath” and “Let’s Have a Pint at the Crooked Cock,” on Oct. 26 through Soulseller Records, and joining them for the shows will be none other than Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight.

Here are the dates, courtesy of the band:

Tue 23rd Oct Oxford, The Wheatsheaf (support TBC)
Wed 24th Oct Manchester, The Bay Horse (w/Arke)
Thu 25th Oct Sunderland, Venue TBC (w/Witch Charmer + Ashes of Iron)
Sat 27th Oct London, The Black Heart (w/Valve, Crumbling Ghost, Dead Existence)

And to give a first look at the chicanery on tap for The Divine Right of Kings, Groan put together the following album trailer, which I’m happy to host for your perusal. Dig it and then go back to the start and dig it again:

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