I’ve been on a real Black Sabbath kick lately, which is about as close as I come to religion. You know how it is, you come and go with those records. You know them front and back, and it’s almost like you don’t have to put them on to hear them in your head. Well, lately I’ve been putting them on anyway, so when I stepped into one of Jersey‘s premiere indie stores (I’m not going to name which), the first place I went was the Sabbath section to see if there were any good looking bootlegs.

There were. I guess since Ronnie James Dio died last month the market has called for an upswing in material with him on it, because I was able to grab two discs from the 1980 Heaven and Hell tour. Yeah, it’s a little crass, but I had the demand before they had supply, so I don’t really feel all that bad feeding the machine on this one. Both Angel and Demon (live in Tokyo, Nov. 18, 1980) and We Blind the Sky (live in Sydney, Nov. 27, 1980) are CDR/inkjet jobs, but the covers are quality prints, the recordings are soundboards and they were only $15 a pop. I’ll pay that. $20’s pushing it, but I’ll go $15.

The setlists on Angel and Demon and We Blind the Sky (a bootleg formerly known as Burning the Cross because of a stage gimmick you can hear on the disc) are identical save for replacing “Lady Evil” on the former with “Die Young” on the latter, which also ends with “Paranoid” instead of “Iron Man,” and the mix sounds better on Angel and Demon, but you really can’t beat having Dio forget the words to the end of “Children of the Sea” as he does on We Blind the Sky. Other highlights include the sundry vocal effects that crop up and Geezer Butler‘s bass tone. Yes, on everything.

I know I’ve had some issues in the past with buying Black Sabbath bootlegs, so it seemed only fair to report an experience as positive as this one has proven to be. I also got Deep Purple, Made in Japan, and the 2CD version of the new Karma to Burn, the former used and the latter John Garcia-fied. All in all, chalk up a win, and for bonus points I’ll note they were playing Goatsnake when I walked into the store. Good things are bound to happen when you stumble on that.

If you’re looking for info on Sabbath bootlegs, there’s only one place to go: black-sabbath.de. They’re helpful in the way only true obsessives can be and they make the rest of us fanboys look like lightweights.

You’ll notice I specified “studio album” in the above headline, because I’m pretty sure space rock progenitors Hawkwind — whose career spans 40 years and whose discography could, when placed end to end, circle the Earth twice — will have at least three live records out by then.

Yes, my friends, gather ’round and hear tales from the PR wire of Blood of the Earth (as opposed to Blood of the Sun, who are a different topic entirely), the first non-live Hawkwind album in five years. Or gather round and read, anyway. And it’s pretty much only one tale. Oh forget it, here’s the press release:

Plastic Head North America confirms August 10 as the North American release date for Blood of the Earth, the new studio album from Hawkwind. The album contains 11 songs and features special appearances from violinist Jon Sevink (The Levellers), BBC personality Matthew Wright, and a posthumous performance from the band’s late keyboardist Jason Stuart. It is the band’s first new album in five years.

Among Blood of the Earth‘s new selections, the album includes re-recordings of songs “You’d Better Believe It” (originally appearing on 1974’s Hall of the Mountain Grill), and “Sweet Obsession” (originally released on Dave Brock‘s 1984 solo album Earthed to the Ground). Guitarist Niall Hone recalls, “The creative process behind this album was an explosive concoction of technology and sheer human endeavor resonating in the mould of space rock legend.”

The band’s current lineup features vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Dave Brock, drummer Richard Chadwick, with guitarist Hone, bassist Dibs and keyboardist Tim Blake.

Confirmed track listing for Blood of the Earth is:

1.) Seahawks
2.) Blood of the Earth
3.) Wraith
4.) Green Machine
5.) Inner Visions
6.) Sweet Obsession
7.) Comfey Chair
8.) Prometheus
9.) You’d Better Believe It
10.) Sentinel
11.) Starshine

Blood of the Earth will be available for North American fans on CD and limited-edition 180-gram clear double-LP that includes a vinyl-only bonus track. Hawkwind are planning to tour later this year in support of Blood of the Earth.

Born of the same fertile sub-Mason Dixon underground that’s previously given rise to acts like Ol’ Scratch, Valkyrie, Vog and others you might see opening any given weekend for Weedeater or Earthride at Krug’s Place in Frederick, Maryland – essentially the home of doom on the Eastern Seaboard – Virginia’s Fire Faithful and the recently reinvigorated Lord join forces on the self-released Refuge for the Recluse split. These and bands from other locales like Caltrop, Backwoods Payback and OSSM have formed a network of post-Alabama Thunderpussy Southern metal, tinged to various degrees with stoner and doom elements, angry in different measures, but a cohesive scene nonetheless, so it’s not really a surprise that two acts would get together for a split. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the first time it’s happened.

Each band gets three songs to show off, and Fire Faithful (formerly known as Southern Vein) begin in force with “Company Loves Misery,” a doom ethic brought to life with tried and true shuffle riffage courtesy of guitarist Dave Marrs, thick bass from Shane Rippey, the smooth drum fills of Joss Sallade and the decidedly metallic vocals of Brandon Malone, who peppers his bottom-of-the-mouth melodic approach with occasional screams. There’s something downtrodden in his voice that sits well over the more midpaced “Now We’ve Made a Memory,” and when he says, “Let me help rest your worried soul,” it sounds genuine. The production on Fire Faithful’s half of Refuge for the Recluse turns out less than fortunate in terms of the drum sounds as compares to Lord, but the sullenness of “Fire Faithful” comes across anyway as the track’s heaviness ebbs and flows. Their three songs are a gradual decline in mood, like a drunken night that starts out partying and ends with your wife pulled over to the side of the highway so I can puke my guts out at three in the morning. I’ve said too much.

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Dear Mr. Homme,

I’d be remiss if I didn’t start off saying thanks for the many years of ass kickery. Having never spoken to you either in-person or via telephone (the closest I’ve yet come was being blown off in 2005), this feels an appropriate avenue to mention that, although there’ve been highs and lows, hard rock probably wouldn’t be the same in 2010 without your having been in it for about two decades now. So yeah, much appreciated.

On to the business at hand: By now I’m sure you’ve seen the video of your former Kyuss cohorts, Nick Oliveri, Brant Bjork and John Garcia playing together at Hellfest in France during a Garcia Plays Kyuss set. If you missed it, here it is:

Pretty badass, I know. Now, the thing of it is, I can’t imagine you haven’t watched that and thought to yourself, perhaps more than ever before, that maybe it’s time to get Kyuss back together. I’m not going to urge you not to do it. Rather, the purpose of this letter is to ask that, if you do decide it’s time for a Kyuss reunion, to do it the right way.

By that I mean no shows. Think of all the reunions going on; bands get back together and they’re all so excited to be playing again — or they’re just doing it for cash — that they book a tour, and yeah, it can be great, but it’s a nostalgic thing. If Kyuss‘ music has proved to be anything, it’s timeless, and to see a reunion come about that’s just based on, “Hey, let’s trot out ‘Allen’s Wrench’ for the folks who didn’t get to see it,” would be disappointing and lame. I think that’s also why it hasn’t happened yet.

That’s not a slag on Garcia Plays Kyuss. I saw them in April and it was great to hear him sing those songs. But if you’re going to revive a band like Kyuss, whose popularity came after their breakup, the way to do it is to put out an album first. I know the music is a lot different, but the best-handled reunion I’ve ever seen was that of Celtic Frost (until it fell apart, anyway). They announced they were back together, and immediately started writing. They took as long as it needed to take to write — in their case it was about five years — and they put out a killer album in Monotheist, and only then did they start booking tours. It was a triumphant return, the shows sold out, the record was great, and most importantly, fans had a context for who Celtic Frost was in the present, instead of who they were when they put out Into the Pandemonium or To Mega Therion.

What I’m saying is, it’s been 13 years since Kyuss ended, and a lot has happened in that time. If you decide to bring Kyuss back, don’t just do it to play the greatest hits, do it as a creative endeavor. That way no one on either side, fan or artist, goes into it thinking things will be just like they were on Blues for the Red Sun, which is a ridiculous expectation but a prevalent one nonetheless. Write first, get Chris Goss to produce, and put out a Kyuss album. Then tour. You’ll find that what Kyuss was is entirely preserved, and what Kyuss is today can honor that while at the same time offer a glimpse of how time has changed you guys as players. As a fan, I just think Kyuss deserves more than the usual “one more go” reunion, and felt compelled to share my thoughts. On the off-chance you see them, thanks for reading.

Sincerely,
Some Dude You’ve Never Heard Of
Heaping Pismire Taskmaster

When I spoke to Stone Axe multi-instrumentalist, occasional-vocalist, recording engineer and principle songwriter, T. Dallas Reed, he was, as I imagine he often is, working in his HeavyHead studio in his native Port Orchard, Washington. His prolific nature is evident in the sheer number of releases Stone Axe has had in the last two years or so, including two full-lengths, numerous splits and singles, compilation appearances, and so forth. Stone Axe II, the second long player, was recently released via Reed‘s own Music Abuse Records, and already there’s word of a new split with weedian Brooklyn mischief-making punkers Mighty High through Ripple Music, out just in time for the band to hit the road alongside the legendary Saint Vitus later this week. He just keeps going.

But if self-sufficiency is a factor in the output of Stone Axe, it’s because of the years Reed has spent honing his sundry crafts. As he explains in our conversation, he’s been making solo recordings for two and a half decades, and is well accustomed to completing projects on his own. His many years working with labels like Nasoni, Small Stone and Roadburn in Mos Generator have helped shape his mindset of what he wants albums to be, and he has the experience to execute his ideas as they occur to him — which apparently they do on a pretty regular basis.

The mission of Stone Axe is simple: To preserve and honor the godfathers of the heavy ’70s, and unlike the myriad retro acts out there whose vacuous posturing is more chic now than it ever was then, Reed prefers to focus on sonic orthodoxy in the songwriting and recording as a means for expressing his love of this sound. Through Stone Axe II and the band’s 2009 self-titled predecessor, joined by vocalist Dru Brinkerhoff, Reed has molded his guns and stuck readily by them, resulting in some of the most prudent classic rock to come along since before it was classic.

After the jump, we join the conversation already in process. Reed has just informed me that with him in the studio is Stone Axe‘s live bassist, Mike Dupont (Mykey Haslip rounds out the live band on drums), and although I shouldn’t be, I’m a little surprised he’s already onto the next round of Stone Axe material…

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Undoubtedly en route to somewhere as they perpetually seem to be, nomadic duo Jucifer (originally from Georgia) stopped in at Akdar Studios in Bernville, PA, in June 2009 to put the four tracks to tape that would become their portion of a Choking Hazard Records split with Montreal natives Show of Bedlam, for whom the split marks their first outing. Jucifer’s four songs are raw and more aggressive than their Relapse studio material has been over the last couple albums, and Show of Bedlam take traditional doom rock plod and add a modern sense of foreboding to it that comes across through the roughness of their own production.

What the two bands have in common is female vocalists. Jucifer’s Amber Valentine offers Khanate-style screams on rumbling slowed-down opener “Hiroshima,” and settles into a thrashing semi-shout thereafter, where Paulina Richards from Show of Bedlam keeps a more melodic edge to her voice à la Made Out of Babies’ much-lauded singer Julie Christmas, though the music behind her is far less given to experimentation and a track like “Miss Johnny Shirt” is left mostly to Richards to make it stand out. She does, if in a way we’ve heard before. Show of Bedlam’s five tracks are distinguished by their pace and empty feeling – feeling, not sound – and where Jucifer brought distorted chaos and frenzied riffing on the Napalm Death-esque 59-second cut “Good Provider,” the relative stillness of Show of Bedlam closing cut “Doppelganger” feels drawn entirely from a different universe.

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I’ve been a fan of Adult Swim since the days when they showed clips of old people synchronized-swimming, and in no way is that depressing. The Cartoon Network Sunday night programming block got ahold of the as-yet-unreleased High on Fire track (somehow Kia was involved too), and posted the single as part of a series they’re doing over the course of apparently eight weeks. So, uh, thanks guys.

You can stream the track below or download it at the Adult Swim page linked above. If you don’t recall, High on Fire guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike spoke about this song in our interview.

Speak in Tongues

The Roareth CD, Acts I-VI, is at the plant. The artwork has been turned in, I mailed out the master, and unless there’s some tragedy there, it will arrive shortly and at long last The Maple Forum will have its first release. I know I’m excited, I know the band is excited, and I hope you are too.

Last Friday, Roareth played their first show, at The Funhouse in Seattle. Surely you remember the flier that was posted? Yeah, that’s the one. Guitarist Aaron Edge, who seems to be Roareth‘s ambassador when it comes to The Obelisk, sent over a quick note about it and some photos I thought you might enjoy. Click the images for larger versions:

Our first show was perfect!

The place was packed at 9pm, we played first at 9:30 (kept our opening slot to just 30 minutes) and after our set people swamped our merch table… bought every shirt we had and then half the place left the club.

It was incredible. Perfect. People were stoked and we were too. Everyone wanted CDs… and that, my friend, is a great sign from the Gawds.