If I could, I’d pay good money to see Victor Griffin playing guitar in Pentagram tonight. Unfortunately, I don’t live anywhere near Raleigh, North Carolina, so it’s a big no dice. One can only imagine the doom to take place on this latest Pentagram tour — one of these days, they’re gonna have to put out a record if they want to keep playing all these shows — but stuck here in Jersey, that’s a long way away. Maybe next time.

If you’re below the Mason/Dixon, you’ll probably want to pay attention to these tour dates from the PR wire:

Legendary doom band Pentagram have just announced the Southern US tour dates with Relapse recording artist Black Tusk. This tour will kick-off in Raleigh, NC and finish at the Maryland Deathfest. A listing of confirmed tour dates and cities can be found below.

May tour will feature the following band members:

Victor Griffin – guitar
Greg Turley – bass
Gary Isom – drums
Bobby Liebling – the madman on the mic

Pentagram Tour Dates:
May 21 Raleigh, NC Volume 11 Tavern
May 22 Savannah, GA The Jinx
May 23 Orlando, FL The Backbooth
May 25 Houston, TX Walter’s On Washington
May 26 Austin, TX Emo’s
May 27 New Orleans, LA The Hanger
May 28 Nashville, TN The End
May 29 Newport, KY Southgate House
May 30 Baltimore, MD Maryland Deathfest VIII

If you’re going to kiss a record’s ass, a good reason to do so is the dude who made it was in Chicago doom legends Trouble, but much as I’ve tried, and tried, and tried to unconditionally accept Again, the self-released full-length debut from Jeff “Oly” Olson’s Retro Grave project, I just can’t do it. The album was originally download-only, and came out early in 2009, but was tweaked for physical issue and given its hard copy release in February. More or less since then (it might have been March), when I got the record, I’ve been avoiding reviewing it.

It’s not that Again is bad, but it is very disjointed. I get that Retro Grave is supposed to be an experimental project, but Olson as the chief songwriter, is still using the basic elements of heavy music that launched Trouble in the early ‘80s. It just feels like he has put them in the wrong order. The riff that drives “So So Souls,” for example, is killer, has that full-on swagger that made Trouble a metallic household name, but the surrounding elements aren’t cohesive, and after five minutes, when the track drops to organ, I can’t help but feel let down in a, “Hey, bring that back!” kind of way. Olson, who went to Berklee and clearly knows his shit, can only be doing it on purpose, and I don’t doubt that writing a song like “Monstah” (as opposed to “monster”) is a lot of fun, but that isn’t necessarily going to translate into the listening experience.

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In a pathetic bid to live vicariously through anyone who was lucky enough to see it, the next day found me asking nearly everyone I talked to at this year’s Roadburn in Tilburg, Netherlands, how Goatsnake‘s set had been the night before. The response was universally positive. About the only person I didn’t ask was Goatsnake guitarist Greg Anderson, who also played the fest with Thorr’s Hammer — he’s also in dronely lords SunnO))) and founded Southern Lord Recordings, in case it wasn’t clear yet of whom I was speaking — though I had more than one opportunity to do so. If there’s anything more horrific than the sounds SunnO))) crafts on their latest album, Monoliths and Dimensions, though, it’s the thought of human interaction with someone I don’t already know, so you can pretty much figure that was out.

Goatsnake never actually broke up. There was no press statement, no talking of shit between former band members (at least not in public), no tour dates canceled. They just kind of petered out, first after 2000’s Flower of Disease full-length — just reissued on Southern Lord — and then again after 2004’s Trampled Under Hoof EP, and with Anderson, who was the principle songwriter, head-first involved in SunnO))), fans were more or less left to assume the days of Goatsnake‘s Crisco-thickened grooves were through. Vocalist Pete Stahl continued his work with earthlings? and bassist Guy Pinhas, who had been replaced by Scott Reeder (Kyuss, The Obsessed) and who had also played in The Obsessed with drummer Greg Rogers, part-time filled a vacant slot in Acid King. That was that.

And of course, owing to what Anderson refers to in our interview as “The Kyuss Syndrome,” once Goatsnake was no longer active, the band’s legend began to grow, eventually getting to such a fervency that not only were they asked by Roadburn to play, but also to headline on the main stage the first night of the festival. Pretty fucking impressive. In our discussion, Greg Anderson talks about the process of putting Goatsnake back together after nearly a decade of not playing with this lineup, his nervousness about the performance, and updates on SunnO))) and his Ascend project with Gentry Densley of Iceburn and Eagle Twin fame.

As always, Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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You’ll have to pardon me if I take some pleasure in seeing a music blog make good on releasing albums from artists about whom it feels passionate. Can’t imagine why I would or anything. Duh. Speaking of, if I told you what was delaying the Roareth album, you’d laugh your ass off.

Anyway, the good people of the The Ripple Effect blog have launched a label and are kicking off a busy release schedule with JPT Scare Band next month. They had the following to say about it via the PR wire:

Last year, John Rancik (Pope JTE) and Todd Severin (Racer X) of The Ripple Effect music site and radio show were approached with a business proposition that befuddled them as much as it sparked embers of excitement in their creative souls. They were asked if The Ripple Effect would be interested in releasing previously unearthed material from legendary proto-metal rockers, JPT Scare Band. After much soul searching, and hours of research, the duo responded with an enthusiastic “yes,” and Ripple Music, the record label, was born.

Since then, Ripple Music has amassed a stellar roster of guitar-oriented, rock-based acts that range in style from roots Americana to psychedelic proto-metal, and everything in between. The first release will be hitting the streets on June 22nd, 2010 with JPT Scare Band‘s Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden. The heavily fuzzed-out blues-based rock outfit has been hailed by Classic Rock Magazine as the “Lost Pioneer” of heavy metal. Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden finds the band at the peak of their form with tracks that span the decades of their musical existence. Acid Blues will be available in deluxe CD digipak, download, and multi-colored double 12″ vinyl formats. The vinyl edition will also include two bonus tracks of JPT madness!

Also coming in June, Ripple Music is proud to unleash a split 7” single between retro-blues rockers Stone Axe and stoner cretins Mighty High. The single coincides with Stone Axe’s summer West Coast tour, with some dates in support of legendary rockers, St. Vitus.

July 13^th sees two more Ripple Music releases hit the streets. Vancouver‘s beloved modern rock/prog alienists, Fen, join Ripple Music to release their fourth album, Trails out of Gloom. This is an epic album of haunting and beautiful songs in the Tool/Porcupine Tree/Incubus vein with stunning melodies and textural brilliance. Trails comes in deluxe CD digipak and digital download formats. Following this, award-winning singer/songwriter, Kevin Beadles, will release You Can’t Argue with Water, a debut album of impeccably-crafted Americana, highlighted by thought provoking and poetic lyrics. Available in CD digipak and digital formats.

Ripple Music is also thrilled to announce the re-release of the 1972 lost protometal classic, Let Me In, from Poobah. Featuring the guitar wizardry of Jim Gustafson, Poobah has milled about in the same circles as classic rock icons Hawkwind, Blue Cheer, and Iron Butterfly. This deluxe reissue comes in jewel case CD, digital download, and multi-colored double 12″ vinyl formats with never-before-heard bonus tracks from “lost tapes” of the Let Me In recording sessions.

With intricate metallic composition and power/prog tendencies, While Heaven Wept’s third album, Vast Oceans Lacrymose (Cruz Del Sur), blends the high drama of European doom à la Paradise Lost with the technical savvy of American prog acts like Dream Theater. The Dale City, Virginia, six-piece (that’s two trios!), led by chief songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist Tom Phillips, weave practically a whole album into 15-minute opening track, “The Furthest Shore,” which sets a tone of conflict and triumph for the rest of Vast Oceans Lacrymose to follow.

Harmonies abound on keyboards, guitars and vocals, with Phillips, lead vocalist Rain Irving and keyboardist Michelle Schrotz all contributing. Of course, as a double-guitar unit with a singer and keymaster, there is plenty of room for such things, provided the players are talented to pull it off, which in the case of While Heaven Wept, they are. One imagines that it’s Phillips’ role as main songwriter that keeps things together – difficult as it is to get five people other than yourself on the same page about anything (try it sometime if you never have) – but that’s conjecture on my part that only seems to make sense because of the complexity of the material, the amount of changes in the songs and the carefully hewn theater of a song like “Vessel.” In the context of many other albums, it might just be power metal, but While Heaven Wept keep too progressive a mindset for such simple labeling.

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Mark it a “yes.” Ramesses, the English trio born out of a restructuring of Electric Wizard in 2003, have announced that they’ll unleash their new slab, Take the Curse, on June 21. Two tracks are up for sampling on the YouzTube, including closer “Khali Mist,” which you’ll find the tripped out psycho-delic video for below. It’s riff-tastic. The PR wire has the details on the album:

The psychedelic doom trio Ramesses were spawned in the woodland of Dorset, England in 2003, and have been brutalizing their devoted fanbase ever since, unleashing a rash of EPs and demos, one full-length release, splits with Negative Reaction and Unearthly Trance and more over the past seven years. They’ve ripped a wound in the UK and across Europe with brutalizing live shows alongside some of the best and heaviest names in the extreme metal world.

2010 brings the next slab of raging doom from Ramesses, in the form of their second mammoth full-length release Take the Curse, which is set to infect the general public on the 2010 Summer Solstice, June 21st. Releasing the album is new label Ritual Productions; the label formed by the band’s management. The beast will see worldwide release on CD and digital download formats through Ritual, as well as a 2xLP version to be released by Scottish label At War with False Noise.

On Take the Curse, mournful harmonies are the backdrop to the ever-increasing influence of The Occult on the band. Although a riff tsunami remains the centerpiece, the Ramesses sound is refracted through even more circles of hell; of dirge-sludge, of rhythm, of Lucifer himself. Grim melodies, blistering spaced-out guitar solos and atmospheric samples add depth to the tracks and display the band’s eclectic traits and ‘70s influences.

Take the Curse track listing:
1. Iron Crow
2. Terrasaw
3. Black Hash Mass
4. Take the Curse
5. Vinho dos Mortos
6. Baptism of the Walking Dead
7. Another Skeleton
8. Hand of Glory
9. The Weakening
10. Khali Mist

Take the Curse is a shattering expression of cruelty where Ramesses’ bleak sound finds an accurate counterpart in UK artists Jake and Dinos Chapman (website here) and their grand vision of suffering; the Chapman’s controversial art piece “Fucking Hell” has become the front cover art of Take the Curse. The pieces of this masterpiece used for the album’s art have never been released to the public until now. The CD version of the album will come with two alternative covers, and first 200 orders through the label website will receive a limited edition collector’s art card set featuring the two alternative covers. The music and the artwork dredge the turpitude of humanity and explore the utter horror of possibility. Prepare to be engulfed by torrential riffing!

Say it with me just once: “Hookerfight.” Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?

The Sacramento fuck-all stoner trio owe some of their lumbering groove to Bongzilla, but the blown-out vocals of guitarist T.J. Ferrari and the occasional burst of speed, as on “Hellbound and Down” from their latest EP, Siren’s Revenge, put them in a different — if likewise sludge-filled — category. The EP is available for purchasing and sampling on their MySpace page, along with the 2009 full-length …And Then There Were Three, which is even more raw-sounding than its successor.

Joining Ferrari in Hookerfight are bassist Phil Rodriguez and drummer Matt Amott, and though the former is somewhat lost in the mix on the Siren’s Revenge tracks, whose production is rough at best and whatever’s less than rough at worst, all three in the trio manage to make themselves heard over the course of the EP’s 33 minutes. They probably could have gotten away with calling it a full-length, but the spread in time difference seems to make the EP tag fit better. The opening title track clocks in at 14:59, and closer “Sonic Mountain” is 11:32, but none of the other three tracks top 2:55, which is “Hellbound and Down,” a noisy punk take on which Napalm Death meets thunderous amplification and a “yee-haw!” call.

By contrast, “Reckon So…..” which follows is 1:58 of comparatively mellow shamanistic riffing, imbued with a sense of ritual despite an unnecessary change in the guitar line before a fade out and long silence that leads into “Sonic Mountain.” The only other cut on Siren’s Revenge, “Nag’s Head,” is also under two minutes long and based entirely around acoustic guitar. Hookerfight, it seems, revels in presenting a lighthearted face and backing it up with some real diversity. That’s probably just the way it should be.

Hard to say which facet of their sound results in the best work, though the riffs of “Sonic Mountain” — audible, once again, on MySpace — are definitely in the running. It’s such a cliche to say it, but it’ll be interesting to hear where they take their sound next. A more professional recording job might allow some of the tonal and stylistic intricacies hinted at on Siren’s Revenge come to the fore, but of course there’s something to be said for the lower-fi demo quality as well. In any case, Hookerfight‘s hunger comes through clearly, and for that, they’re well worth keeping on the radar.

Well, it’s got a fluffy white dog lost in the woods, fog that comes and goes, and a band playing in a room without any mics. Yup, it’s a metal video. At least the window-less space in which Swedish epic power doomers Grand Magus seem trapped is well (and expensively) lit, and there’s a tarp on the floor in case anyone makes a mess. Heavy metal is so silly, but Grand Magus do kick ass, and the song in this clip — the title track to their new album, Hammer of the North (no, I don’t know who’s releasing it in the States; time to step up, Metal Blade) — is as killer as you might expect: