Whereas much of the movement in the last several years of heavy psychedelic rock has been toward the more freeform, jamming style of bands like Earthless and Naam, the Vitoria–Gasteiz collective The Soulbreaker Company from the north of Spain present an incredibly tight-wound vision of what space-leaning psych can be on their second Alone Records full-length, Itaca. The six-piece (plus guests) band run through a wide array of sonic motifs, from the jazzy synth-prog of opener “It’s Dirt,” to the Doors-y feel of the ending movement of “Sandstorm,” always maintaining control, always sounding full. Never a hair out of place, so to speak. It’s an accomplishment mostly in the complexity of the song arrangements – I know of plenty two-piece bands who can’t get to the point of togetherness The Soulbreaker Company have with up to eight or nine people on a single track.

Part of that credit has to go to Chris Fielding, who produced Itaca at Foel Studios in Wales (Obiat, Conan, Porcupine Tree) along with the band. The sounds here are crisp but not unnatural, and there’s a remarkable balance between the separation in the instruments and their meshing. The already-noted opener earns kudos not only for its creative breadth, but for being the longest cut on Itaca at 9:38 (I’m almost always a sucker for a band who opens with their longest song instead of tacking it at the end), and cuts like “Oh! Warsaw,” the catchy “Sow the Roses” and the later, piano- and horn-driven “Take a Seat on the Moon” only reinforce the album’s primary statement, that The Soulbreaker Company are a band for whom the limits are few and far between. They have the will (and the personnel) to take listeners on a genuine journey, and the more of Itaca I dig into, the farther-ranging I’m finding it to be. While the classic rock approach of vocalist/guitarist Jony Moreno (backed occasionally by Layla Seville and/or Joanne Deacon) does a lot of the tying together of the different-sounding tracks, there’s also a tonal consistency to the material on Itaca that serves to heighten the drama of the songs while it helps the flow one to the next. Fans of Hypnos 69 will swoon over the guitar work of Daniel Triñanes and Asier Fernandez on “Colours of the Fire” and the sax-playing of Kike Guzman (who might want to think about adopting a nom de guerre) on “It’s Dirt” and “No Way Back Home,” on which the Hammond of Oscar Gil also provides an album highlight.

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There isn’t much outlandish or sonically experimental in their structures or intent, but San Francisco metallers Slough Feg have always been regarded more as a critic’s band than a fan favorite. On their eighth album in their 20-year existence – a first release through Profound Lore (appropriately enough a critic’s label, literally and figuratively) — The Animal Spirits, the venerable four-piece reinforce this notion by simply being too good at what they do to be accessible. Understand, I’m not saying that Slough Feg is showing off Robert Fripp-style guitar manipulations or anything like that – their riffs have more in common with Iron Maiden, Dio and Thin Lizzy – but just that the band’s material is so full and compact that it’ll go right over the heads of most casual listeners. I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing, and it’s only my theory, but The Animal Spirits, which follows 2009’s unabashedly awesome Ape Uprising! and offers no fewer moments of demented genius from vocalist/guitarist/auteur Mike Scalzi, seems to bear out that Slough Feg are working on a different level entirely from fans and most bands alike.

For example, take “Trick the Vicar,” the opening track of The Animal Spirits and seemingly the inspiration for the album’s scowling cover. At 1:55, the song is barely an intro, and yet Scalzi and fellow lead guitarist (they’re both credited in the liner notes with lead guitar and I’d argue that’s fair given how much time the two of them spend soloing and how often the lead tracks take the place of what most bands would consider rhythm tracks) Angelo Tringali pack enough barn-burning riffage and clever angularity into the song to make it feel three minutes longer, while the alliterative and referential lyrics wink at Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and remind those who can keep up that it’s all in good fun. The galloping “The 95 Thesis” reinforces Slough Feg’s reputation as one of the finest American producers of classic metal, and what it and the instrumental “Materia Prima” that follows epitomize is the band’s ability to balance the epic and the unforced. Where some power metal feels over-the-top and stagey (granted, in some cases that’s the appeal), Slough Feg accomplish a sound no less grand with a feel as natural as low lights in a barroom. The defiant triumph in Scalzi’s voice on “Free Market Barbarian” is no less effective for the lack of pomp surrounding.

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Vicious Israeli sludgers Dukatalon make their Relapse Records debut with Saved by Fear, an eight-track (not to be confused with an 8-track, though that would also rule) beast of seething aural abrasion. Some music just feels like it’s cutting you while you listen, and that’s what Saved by Fear does. With songs like “Vagabond” and “Gate of Mind,” its heaviness comes as much from the oppressive atmospherics as from the thick bass of Lior Mayer, the riffs of Zafrir Zori or Yariv Shilo‘s drums. Any way you look at it, though, you’re basically getting your ass kicked for a solid 46 minutes.

“Electric Site,” at 9:01, is the longest slab on Saved by Fear, and I think also my personal favorite. It’s like the twisted bastard son of “Dopesmoker.” Relapse was kind enough to grant The Obelisk permission to host the track exclusively for your sonic punishment, so please, by all means, stream it on the player below and enjoy.

Dukatalon, “Electric Site” from Saved by Fear
Electric Site

Dukatalon‘s Saved by Fear is out Dec. 14, 2010, on Relapse Records. More info here and here.

Boy oh boy, Morgantown, West Virginia, must really have something against vocalists. First Karma to Burn has to basically be ordered to get one for their first record, only to swear them off forever afterwards (only to eventually merge with Year Long Disaster and employ one more regularly), then Treasure Cat comes along wanting no part of any singer’s ego, and now the bruising trio Hovel likewise can’t be bothered. Don’t get me wrong, I know first-hand what a pain in the ass singers can be, but there’s got to be at least one in West Virginia that the rest of a band would be willing to put up with. West by God has one. Maybe they’ll share.

It’s easy to get into the grooves Hovel proffers, what with the familiarly American doom riffs and quality bass fills of a song like “Taking off the Guv’nor,” or the decidedly Iommi-esque bent of “26 Inch Sonic Witch” — both audible at the band’s MySpace. The second of those tracks comes off Hovel‘s Fuzzbuster/26 Inch Sonic Witch 7″ (you can also hear the first on there), released by Seattle‘s Flotation Records in a limited edition of 500. Hovel also has a six-song self-titled EP they’re selling on the MySpace that one presumes the cuts “GammaMinusMachineMinder” and “Taking off the Guv’nor” come from.

For being from an area rich in this kind of rock — could Morgantown be the official home of instrumental stoner riffing? — Hovel fit right in with a second generation of quality guitar-led jammers like Admiral Browning and Nitroseed in losing nothing of the doomed experience for lacking in throat. Ah hell. Whoever was singing would probably just blather on about cars and chicks anyway. Might as well let the crowd enjoy the riffs unencumbered. Take a listen to “Taking off the Guv’nor” and see if you don’t agree:

Taking off the Guv’nor

It’s nice to know someone out there took it to heart when Ian Gillan invited them to go space trucking. German riffonauts Black Space Riders mention to space in each of the 13 titles on their self-titled Sound Guerilla debut full-length, from opener “Spacebomb” right through to the end with “Space Trilogy Part III: Space Collision,” it’s basically the theme they’re working with, and from the sound of things, they’re having a good time with it. Cuts like “Lonely Space Trucking Man” and my personal favorite, “Stoned Bikers in Space,” show that it’s not about prog posturing for Black Space Riders or about who can noodle their way into the outer reaches of the cosmos, but about being a little silly, enjoying yourself and riffing out. If you’ve got to have a formula, this one’s certainly proven effective.

Black Space Riders starts off with a collection of straightforward and catchy biker space rock numbers, beginning with the aforementioned “Spacebomb” and moving after the interlude “Black Part I: Blackspacing” to the memorable call and response of “Black Part II: Space is Black” before epitomizing the genre in which it dwells with “Stoned Bikers in Space.” Granted, it’s hard to take something called “Stoned Bikers in Space” completely seriously, but in addition to having fun with riffs and grooves, Black Space Riders work in a number of stoner elements from acts as wide ranging as Orange Goblin (on that track) to Brant Bjork (“Black Book of Cosmic Salvation Part II: I, Black Space Messiah”), the guitars of JE and SLI, the former who also handles vocals, more than adaptable to either furious riffing, laid back grooves or even – who would have guessed? – the moody deep space affectations of “Hide from the Spacelight.”

On that song, the lyrics issue a request to be covered in hair and blood in succession, and that provides a quizzical moment on Black Space Riders – a kind of “huh?” double-take – but the record’s second ambient interlude, “Black Book of Cosmic Salvation Part I: A Short Mess(i)age from the Black Space Rider,” leads into the second part of that series and Black Space Riders take an appropriate moment to let both the song and the album breathe. Tonally, “Black Book of Cosmic Salvation Part II: I, Black Space Messiah” is probably the most satisfying work on Black Space Riders – I still wouldn’t call it an album highlight over “Stoned Bikers in Space,” if only for the novelty of that song – but it’s right in line with a whole league of heavy neo-psych, from Colour Haze to 35007. Contrasting it with the brash howling punk of “Voodoo Spaceship,” on which bassist SAQ provides backing vocals to JE, and drummer CRIP has no trouble finding and exploiting the downbeat, is a smart move, as it snaps the listener out of the induced psychedelic trance of the song before, setting up the return to the catchy heavy rock-ness that comes on with “Ride on, Black Space Rider” and “Lonely Space Trucking Man.”

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I have absolutely no information about this track, when it was recorded, or for what reason, where, how, etc. All I know is that Obelisk attendee David sent me an email with a link in it to Soundcloud (to answer your next question, yes, I follow every link that gets sent to me in emails because I understand nothing about how the internet works), and it’s a Queens of the Stone Age cover of Tom Waits‘ “Going out West” that kicks ass. It’s nigh on 1AM, and the player says it was uploaded four hours ago, so there you have it. Thought I’d share, so here it is:

I still haven’t heard the new Electric Wizard album, Black Masses. By now I think I’m the only one. I bought a copy off the Rise Above website the weekend before it was to be released (Oct. 30 or so), and although I told myself that if it wasn’t here by this Tuesday, I was going to buy a copy off the All That is Heavy webstore because I couldn’t wait any longer — because spending more money on their product would certainly teach the label a lesson about their slow shipping — I haven’t done that either. I refuse to download the record. What am I, 19 years old? Fuck that.

Moreover, I refuse to listen to it digitally. Even the clip above for “Black Mass,” I didn’t hear it all the way through. I played about two seconds’ worth so I could gauge the audio quality (apologies if it’s unacceptable) and then hit stop and embedded the file. I’d rather wait than listen to shitty quality. Of course, I’d rather not wait, but if it’s one or the other… well, here I am.

If anyone needs me, I’ll be alternating between homework and patting myself on the back for actually posting all three of the promised interviews this week. Stick around next week because I’ll have a chat with Crowbar‘s Kirk Windstein to go up and all kinds of giving-thanks goodness.

Until then, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. I’m gonna go find some dinner.

If you had plans for the night Crowbar‘s gonna be in town, you might want to seriously consider canceling them. Dates below. Click the image to open it bigger.