It’s been 15 years since Eastern Pennsylvania doomers Pale Divine released their pivotal Crimson Tears demo in 1997. That release in many ways would come to define them, as they signed with Game Two Records to issue their also-stellar Thunder Perfect Mind debut in 2001 and shifted to Martyr Music Group for 2004’s follow-up, Eternity Revealed. Some three years later, Cemetery Earth on Shadow Kingdom – who also reissued Crimson Tears in 2008 – promised to be the band’s last album, and it was plain to see their formula had run its course. The record, like everything the band had done leading up to it, was American doom built directly from the traditional prototype, wrecked emotionally but still rooted in a heavy metal burliness that came through in the thick riffs of band mastermind Greg Diener (guitar/vocals). As Pale Divine marked their return with a set at 2011’s Days of the Doomed fest in Wisconsin and followed with one at Stoner Hands of Doom in Maryland in the fall, they seemed armed with a new energy and newfound enthusiasm for what is patently unenthusiastic. Diener and drummer Darin McCloskey (also of Beelzefuzz) teamed with Sinister Realm bassist John Gaffney for those shows, but on their awaited fourth album, Painted Windows Black (Shadow Kingdom), it’s Jerry Bright taking on low end duties for eight tracks packed with enough doom to account for the five years since the last Pale Divine offering.

A lot of what has always been true about Pale Divine remains so on the 68 minutes of Painted Windows Black, and one imagines the band wouldn’t have it any other way. They are doom for doomers, playing off the genre’s conventions even as they remold them in their own image, making what is inherently familiar about traditional doom sound fresh, or at very least newly-miserable. Diener’s vocals keep to a middle range, neither high nor especially low, but add melody nonetheless alongside his guitar despite sometimes moving to the other side of bottom-of-the-mouth post-Hetfield heavy metal conventionalities. Those same conventionalities, though, often work in Pale Divine’s favor, as the instrumental “Nocturne Dementia” opens Painted Windows Black with marked immediacy both in Diener’s guitar and in McCloskey’s capable drumming, which sustains double-kick bass remarkably well underneath layered guitar solos. At six and a half minutes, “Nocturne Dementia” has to be more than just an intro, but the function is the same, even if it works faster than most of the songs’ plod, it sets the tone nonetheless, and the strong opening salvo continues with “The Prophet” (the shortest and most straightforward track at 5:26) and “Angel of Mercy” (9:13), which has Painted Windows Black’s most memorable chorus. Fantastic lead play is near-constant with Diener at the fore, and the album is mixed well so that although he clearly dominates with lead play and is often backing himself with rhythm tracks as well as Bright’s bass, it’s not necessarily overbearing when it’s not trying to be.

Still, Painted Windows Black is clearly led by the guitar and makes no pretense otherwise. “Angel of Mercy” skillfully returns to the chorus following a long instrumental break (there’s room for it), and ends quietly, letting the opening riff of “End of Days” – one of the larger-sounding – add a grandeur to what’s already a well-crafted album. Pale Divine stick to the theme that riff presents for most of that song, letting it play out even under Diener’s solos, but there is some development to be found amid the nine and a half minute sprawl, and by the time the six-minute mark is passed, one is reminded just as much of Pepper Keenan as of Bruce Franklin. More than some of the cuts in the bottom half of the tracklisting, those on the first stand out individually. Their structures largely the same, they nonetheless show personality in their choruses and, bolstered by the lead work – again, Diener’s pretty much putting on a clinic on how to play doom guitar – the tab book would have to come in volumes – tap into what’s always made Pale Divine stand out among their morose peers: technical ability coupled with quality songwriting and a tight grasp on their influences. It’s a clarity of purpose that continues onto “Black Coven,” which works with an ethic similar to “The Prophet” in being a straightforward lead-in for lengthier indulgences to follow. Perhaps not as memorable as “The Prophet” itself, but no less accessible on a doomly level, its familiarity is nearly instant, so that by the end of the song, you already know it and are well grounded as Painted Black Windows moves into its longest and most atmospheric piece, “The Desolate.”

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It’s been a while since we last heard from pita-loving Kansas heavy rockers The Midnight Ghost Train. The band self-released their self-titled debut late in 2009 (review here) and were just getting ready to record the follow-up, Buffalo, named for their former hometown, but after Karma to Burn dropped off the Truckfighters tour, they’ve been selected to fill the position.

So congratulations to the band. If you have to delay recording, at least it’s for a good cause. The tour is set to start this week, and as you can see below, the run with Truckfighters is just a fraction of the dates confirmed for Spring.

From their website:

Hey y’all, we’ve got quite the exciting news for you. I know we recently posted that we were taking the month off to get ready for our new record, but we just can’t stay off the road. We are very honored to announce that we were chosen to go on tour with one of the world’s biggest stoner rock bands of all time: Truckfighters from Sweden.

This is huge for us, and will be a big step in the right direction for our band. It’s a very last-minute tour, we leave this Monday and the tour starts in Charlotte, NC, on March 1. So I know its very last-minute but let’s pull together and show Truckfighters and the world that TMGT has not only got the greatest fans in the world, but also let’s show them how much TMGT kicks ass. So let’s pull together and tell your friends, and blog about it, and do whatever y’all do.

The day after the tour ends we will be going into the studio to record our new record. So we will be rip roarin’ and ready to record. Can’t wait to see you guys at the shows, we love you and we wouldn’t be here without you. The tour dates with Truckfighters are posted below. See you at the show, get ready to rock the fuck out.

The Midnight Ghost Train and Truckfighters:
03/01 Tremont Music Hall Charlotte, NC
03/02 31st Street Pub Pittsburgh, PA
03/03 Blind Bob’s Dayton, OH
03/04 Pyramid Scheme Grand Rapids, MI
03/05 Ultra Lounge Chicago, IL
03/06 Hi-Tone Memphis, TN
03/07 Siberia New Orleans, LA
03/08 ND Austin, TX
03/09 Jake’s Downtown Lounge Tulsa, OK
03/10 The Roadmap Texarkana, AR
03/11 Downtown Music Little Rock, AR
03/13 The Get Down Asheville, NC
03/14 Pour House Raleigh, NC
03/15 Jewish Mother Backstage Norfolk, VA
03/16 The Station Philadelphia, PA
03/17 Public Assembly Brooklyn, NY

The Midnight Ghost Train Spring US tour dates:
04/13 Green Lantern Lexington, KY
04/14 Neptune on Pine Warrensburg, MO
04/20 Indys Jukebox Indianapolis, IN
04/26 Filling Station Boozeman, MT
04/27 Jesters Bar Helena, MT
04/28 Jesters Bar Helena, MT
04/29 Dante’s Portland, OR
05/04 Redwood Los Angeles, CA
05/05 Bar 11 San Diego, CA
05/10 Lions Lair Denver, CO
05/14 Soundpony Tulsa, OK
05/17 JD’s Glass Sheffield, AL
05/18 Wild Salmon Lafayette, LA
05/19 Tsunami Bar Monroe, LA

European shows:
05/25 Bolzplatz Revival Fest Fiefbergen, Germany
06/01 DB’s Utrecht, Netherlands
06/02 Jume Kiel, Germany
06/09 ROTORMANIA Festival Berlin, Germany
06/15 Revolver Oslo, Norway

*ALERT: There be spoilers ahead.*

I’d read the email wrong. Perhaps it was my subconscious knowing how little I want to be in Midtown Manhattan, ever, but the address where the press screening of the long-awaited Bobby Liebling documentary, Last Days Here, was taking place was 1619 Broadway, and not 1616, as I swore up and down to The Patient Mrs. We still made it on time, and when I walked off the elevator on the fifth floor of the building — which, while we’re relating things to movies, I’ll say looked like something out of The Hudsucker Proxy — I awkwardly stumbled through identifying myself to the guy with the clipboard and the press list on it and we soon made our way inside, to the front row, and waited for the film to start.

Filmmakers Damien Fenton and Don Argott of 9.14 Productions — who between them directed, edited, produced and operated the cameras — also serve as the guitar duo for Philadelphia instrumentalists Serpent Throne, who released their third album, White Summer/Black Winter (review here), in 2011. Between this and the recent screening of the Southern metal doc Slow Southern Steel helmed by CT of Rwake (covered here), I’ve had occasion recently to think a lot about the nature of self-examination as regards heavy and underground metal and rock. Last Days Here was made my professionals, absolutely — Fenton and Argott crafted the documentary Rock School in 2005, prior to taking on this project — but professionals well inside the culture they’re documenting.

On an anthropological level, that’s bad science. Ideally, you would want someone outside of the subculture analyzing and reporting on its characteristics. One does not expect in watching one of his nature specials that David Attenborough should be a penguin, so why is it that no one but headbangers can be trusted to convey the ideals of the heavy metal lifestyle?

The simple answer — and what I’ve come to reconcile myself to in watching these movies — is they’d fuck it up. You couldn’t have Last Days Here filmed by a group of people without a direct appreciation for Liebling‘s contributions to heavy metal and more specifically to doom. It would either fall flat, ring hollow, or collapse on its own insincerity. It takes someone who knows not only what that appreciation feels like, but how much of your life it can consume and how much of your worldview it can shape. I don’t think heavy metal is alone in this regard, but had Last Days Here been produced by “outsiders,” it would have been condescending and cynical, and since the emotional investment is part of what typifies the culture, it has to be present on the most basic creative level for a film like this to work.

There are arguments to be made on either side of that, I suppose, but the notion of the “true” and underground heavy’s seemingly endless search for authenticity is an essential piece of understanding that Last Days Here takes as a given. It’s part of what revived Pentagram in the first place for the latest run that winds up as the triumph with which Fenton and Argott cap their film — well, that and the birth of Liebling‘s son in 2010 — and it’s what serves as the driving motivation that leads Philadelphia native and former Relapse Records employee Sean “Pellet” Pelletier to spearhead that revival.

We open on a toothless Liebling living in his parents’ sub-basement, smoking crack and promising not to die before the film is completed. Going into it knowing that Pentagram successfully completed tours of the US and Europe since this time, that Liebling was able to stay clean long enough to oversee the recording and release of the first album in a three-record deal for Metal Blade — 2011’s Last Rites (review here) — it’s obvious he keeps that promise, but if I wasn’t familiar with the band, it would be easy to see that as a foreshadow of his death to come. He looks neither long for the world nor particularly thrilled at having to spend another day in it. His arms are bandaged from what’s soon to be revealed as perpetual scratching and picking off his own skin as a result of crack-induced paranoia. He is a mess of injection scars and infection.

Last Days Here is ultimately sympathetic to Liebling, but at times brutally honest. We meet Bobby‘s parents, Diane and Joe Liebling, who’ve had to come to terms with their son’s failure at life and love him anyway. Their role as enablers of his lifestyle, such as it is, is touched on but never explored, and for a moment, it’s a bit like an episode of the tv show Intervention gone wrong. Before long, Pelletier (who is not to be confused with fellow Philly resident Chris Pelletier, the US label manager for Season of Mist; that’s a mistake I’ve regretted making a few times) is introduced as the second of the movie’s major focal points (that’s not to use the word “characters” to refer to people who actually exist), and he tells his story of discovering Pentagram‘s music at a record show with his then-girlfriend and having it change his life to the point of putting together the compilation of unreleased ’70s-era material, First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection), which was put out on Relapse in 2002 and instrumental in raising the profile of the band’s influence on doom, as well as somewhat ironically becoming one of their most influential releases in and of itself. All of a sudden, Witchcraft made a lot of sense.

A full history of Pentagram, its members, its legacy and its breadth of impact on the Maryland/D.C. doom style and underground and commercial metal is a project that the format of a feature-length documentary simply cannot cover, and Fenton and Argott must have either learned that early on or realized it going into the filming. Instead, Last Days Here crafts a narrative after giving a basic background from interviews with the likes of original drummer Geof O’Keefe, Joe Hasselvander, Victor Griffin, soundbyte-worthy journalist Ian Christie, Pelletier and others as well as telling the stories behind the band’s several failures — the audition for Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley they flopped, the lambasting Liebling gave Blue Öyster Cult engineer Murray Krugman (who appears to discuss the incident and the fame the band could’ve had in one of Last Days Here‘s several cringe-worthy segments) that unraveled their chance for a major-label contract — and laying much of the blame where it seems to belong: on the troubled singer writhing on his couch and rambling about parasites he needs to get out from under his skin, going to the hospital, signing a contract to turn over his record collection to Pelletier, Argott and Fenton if he ever smokes crack again.

He does, and so far as I know, keeps his records, and that’s one of the moments where the line between the filmmakers and the subject are the most blurred, but it’s also one of the most honest scenes in the movie, which one imagines is why it made the final cut and what must have been hundreds of hours of footage was cut. As regards the narrative that emerges in Last Days Here, it’s the story of Pelletier and Liebling — their troubled friendship (one gets the impression, particularly in hearing from O’Keefe, Hasselvander and Griffin, that Liebling knows no other kind) and Pelletier‘s attempts to get Bobby clean and put together a new Pentagram album with the original lineup. O’Keefe squashes those hopes after an entertaining trip down memory lane of some of Pentagram‘s negative reviews from their early days, but what shines through without any real outward mention is Pelletier‘s passion for the idea and for the band. As charismatic as Liebling is on camera — and even at his most addled, he is that; I had my own experience with it interviewing him early in 2010 — it’s Pelletier‘s belief in Liebling that drives the movie and serves as its emotional crux.

Liebling meets and falls for Hallie, a woman literally half his age (he’s 52, she’s 26), but though she eventually becomes his wife and the mother of their child, their own tumultuous relationship is seen more as an extension of Liebling‘s many addictions than the shot at redemption it ultimately wound up being. As Liebling moves to Philadelphia from the sub-basement to be near Hallie, it soon turns sinister (you can hear the musical shift in the Stars of the Lid drones that serve as a soundtrack when Pentagram‘s own music doesn’t) because of his drug use and Hallie dumps him, breaking his heart. We see Liebling as devastated, but it’s not heartbreak as much as it’s an addict needing a fix and she’s the fix. He pines, he moans, he gets tossed in jail for violating a restraining order she’s had put on him, and it’s Pelletier who puts his arm around Liebling and says how glad he is to see him after he bails him out. This is one of the most subtle and pivotal scenes of Last Days Here, because while Pelletier says this, he also adds that at least while Liebling was in prison, he knew where he was, reminding of an earlier confession that while Bobby was in jail, at least he could get some other work done.

Still heartbroken, Liebling returns to live with his parents and puts together a new Pentagram around the lineup of drummer Gary Isom, guitarist Russ Strahan and bassist Mark Ammen (all of whom would be gone by the time Last Rites came out). Its formation is somewhat nebulous, but Pelletier is nonetheless thrilled when he finally hears about it, only to be disappointed as Liebling continues using and mourning his loss of Hallie. Going to jail had cost Pentagram a deal with Phil Anselmo‘s Housecore Records — Anselmo shows up and appears as little more than a cartoon caricature of himself during his time on screen; I wanted to imagine the cameras shutting off and him asking in a perfectly clear and semi-British accent, “Shall we do another take, then?” — but Pentagram is moving forward anyway, mostly, from Liebling‘s perspective, as a means for him to prove to Hallie that he can not make it as a person more than a human being.

A sentimental pang went off in me when I saw the Metal Maniacs logo on the poster for Pentagram‘s 2009 comeback gig at Webster Hall. I didn’t go to that show (because that’s how much I hated working in New York), but seeing Liebling prevail on stage is Argott and Fenton‘s climax of Last Days Here. Off to the side of the stage is Pelletier, crying happy tears for Liebling‘s being able to pull it off this time as opposed to the several other flubbed comebacks mentioned as part of the buildup to the show, and in an interview shortly after their set, he says it was the best night of his life. His belief in Liebling, which doubtless came at the advice of those around him in his private life and, at times, himself, is validated, and the film fades to black after Bobby in repose and drunk on joy, quotes Forrest Gump in saying “life is like a box of chocolates.” As much as it kind of shot that moment in the foot to see it reduced to commodified film dialogue — the stuff of pop culture cliché — one almost has to applaud Argott and Fenton for leaving that in, unmanipulated. Muting him after the sentence before, which was poignant enough, and keeping him on screen in slow motion during the fade might have also worked, but it’s not really worth speculating.

Since it was finished before the album was released, Last Rites and Victor Griffin‘s return to Pentagram are never mentioned. Instead, an epilogue comes in seeing Liebling cooking breakfast and calling Hallie into the room. The two have gotten married, Liebling is living clean, and there’s a baby boy on the way. “There’s gonna be another me!” Liebling hams for the camera, while Hallie averts her eyes, clearly showing a preference for the man off-screen than the one on it. Nonetheless, this is grown up Bobby Liebling we’re being shown. Maybe 25 years too late, but grown up all the same. He has a bank account, he accompanies Hallie to the doctor to hear their son’s heartbeat for the first time, and in the very last shot of the movie, in a still photo, he and Hallie stand with their child, Robert Joseph Liebling, born in August 2010. He’s still posing for the camera, and there’s no guarantee that life is going to keep its serenity going forward — Argott and Fenton were wise not to make any such ridiculous promises — but you get what you get, and it’s certainly a happier ending than the opening promised.

After the credits rolled through, The Patient Mrs. and I joined the group of writerly-types in the hallway to head back downstairs and out. In the elevator, in a discussion between two critics in which I took part, one man told enough, half-laughing, that Last Days Here was well made, but that he had a hard time sympathizing with a pedophile — referring to the age difference between Bobby and Hallie Liebling — and I was astonished at how someone could so easily miss the point of the movie. Last Days Here isn’t the story of a musician who chases down a young girl and tricks her into bearing his seed, it’s the story of addiction, and each of Liebling‘s behaviors prior to getting clean as relates to Hallie can — and I’d gladly argue, should — be seen in that blue light more than any other.

The fact that at 26, Hallie — however sweet-faced or youthful she might appear next to her husband’s grizzled visage — was eight years beyond legal adulthood at the time of filming and at least deserves the respect of being allowed to make her own decisions on how and with whom to spend her days no matter how counter those decisions might run to one’s own perception of social norms and mores, is another issue altogether, but most importantly as regards Last Days Here, if Liebling proved able to correct his addictive behavior on all levels, including Hallie, and a healthy relationship was able to emerge from that, well, that’s more than a lot of people get. Hallie herself acknowledges the age difference and realizes that some people might think it’s weird. “If they think I’m only with him for his money, he doesn’t have any,” she says. And she’s right. If there wasn’t a strong emotional attachment there, why bother putting up with an addict whose track record of failures spans decades?

Hearing that, more than anything else, cemented for me the assertion above that you have to be within a subculture to fully understand it and that without the foundational appreciation for Liebling‘s creative work, no accurate portrayal of who he is and what he’s done as a person and as the leader of Pentagram, for better or worse, could be enacted. Last Days Here is that, and it’s a skillfully crafted, expertly edited narrative of friendship, love, failure and redemption in doom. I don’t know what the film’s appeal to those outside the sphere of the music will be, and I don’t have to care. If Pentagram have ever been anything, it’s been understood and embraced by a select group of people on whose lives they’ve made a serious impact. If that turns out to be the case with Last Days Here as well, the film can only be called more accurate for it. Doom on.

Thanks for reading.

Pentagram on Thee Facebooks

9.14 Pictures

I thought I’d try a little YouTube experiment to end off this week. Starting with Truckfighters‘ “Desert Cruiser,” I clicked through six different related videos, one to the next, and decided I’d roll with the one that had the purplest cover. And so we have the German-by-way-of-Italy Black Spirit with the track “Old Times” from their 1978 self-titled album. From what I can tell, it’s the only record they ever put out and though it’s got some keyboard flourish near the end, the sound is much more aligned to bluesy heavy rock of the earlier part of the decade than the prog indulgences of the latter.

It’s 10 minutes long, has no fewer than three jams, and rocks pretty hard. For a band I’d never heard before clicking through — and clicking some pretty funky-looking covers, to boot — I’ll more than take it. Well worth sticking around through the end, too.

Hard to believe, but February’s almost over, even with that extra day. Next week I’ll have the numbers up and the interview I did with Pallbearer bassist Joseph D. Rowland this past Wednesday, as well as Chris “Woody High” MacDermott‘s first “Spine of Overkill” column on the mysterious decade known as the ’80s, which most of us lived through but nobody remembers, and reviews of new records by Pale Divine, Conan and Greenleaf, the latter of which has been kicking my ass around the block for the last 18 hours or so. I’ve been through it five times already and am likely to go five more before the weekend’s out.

That’s especially true because I’ll be sitting in front of the computer the whole time anyway. I had wanted to review the Bobby Liebling documentary, Last Days Here, today, but decided to give myself an easier afternoon and do it tomorrow instead. Doesn’t do much for making the weekend the nonstop thrill ride it otherwise might be, but I still think it was the right call.

So I’m not actually signing off, since I’ll be posting tomorrow, but I figured screw it, might as well put a clip up anyway and say I hope you have a great and safe weekend, whether or not you’re endeavoring to step away from the keyboard. If you’re around and looking for something to do, the forum‘s always open.

They’re doom, for sure, but there’s more at work behind the sound of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, foursome Sleestak than just heavy riffs and slow cymbals. The band’s self-released sophomore album, 2011’s The Fall of Altrusia (review here), was raw on the one hand, but sublimely progressive on the other, showing melodic range and a tendency to wander into lengthy jams. That impulse was even more highlighted on Altrusian Moon, which Sleestak posted online in January.

Altrusian Moon was essentially a practice-room recording — the band subtitled the release A Lo-Fi Collection of Psychedelia and Space Rock — but it was also a fascinating insight into the creative process that drove the writing for The Fall of Altrusia. As complex as the material on that full-length was, its organic roots nonetheless shone through the finished product. Listening, you still knew you were hearing jams.

When it came time to do it, there was plenty to talk about with Sleestak guitarist/vocalist Matt Schmitz, from the band’s participation in Wisconsin’s Days of the Doomed fest to the fact that they’ve been a band since 2003, to their penchant for making references to the tv show Land of the Lost, from which their moniker and album title are both derived and from which the lyrics of The Fall of Altrusia draw thematically. It was a long time coming, but Schmitz took great care in his answers (I think it’s the cleanest copy I’ve ever gotten back on an email interview), and you’ll find the results below.

Sleestak is Schmitz alongside guitarist Brian Gresser, bassist Dan Bell and drummer Marcus Bartell. Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions.

1. Tell me about how the band got together. What brought on the Land of the Lost references? Were you a particular fan of the show?

Marcus, Dan, and Brian had already been jamming together for a while, at least a year I think, before I came into the picture. Marcus and I had been in a previous band together so I would see him at shows and he would always try and get me to come down and hang out, an open jam-type vibe. I always kind of just passed it up. Well, finally I gave in and what do you know? It was cool and there was for sure potential there. As for the name of the band and the LOTL references, it came about while we were jamming one night and I had just stopped playing and threw the name out there. I knew everyone in the band had at least heard of the show. Myself, yes, I was very into it as a kid and then forever it was just a hazy memory. How awesome it was that they released it on DVD not long after we were a solid band. That really gave us a treasure trove of conceptual material to work with, as I found how much depth the show really had. It could easily appeal to children, sure — that‘s who the show was for — but there were many more grown-up themes interlaced, things kids wouldn’t necessarily understand. Despite the now very corny effects and such, it has proven to be quite dark and psychedelic and I guess that’s the direction we try to go in.

2. How would you describe the concept of Fall of Altrusia? What’s the story you’re telling in the lyrics and music?

I guess it helps to know some of the source material, but I tried writing most of it lyrically to appeal to anyone with imagination, who digs post-apocalyptic themes, fantasy, and sci-fi, and I did take some creative liberties with the actual fiction to develop my own story. Basically (or not so basically), there is this immensely advanced civilization, their city being Altrusia. They are scientists, statesmen, philosophers, etc. and have recently developed the technology of time travel. For the first time in history, their debates over this technology lead to war. Factions develop, fighting erupts among everyone, and eventually the losing group of Altrusians are exiled into the jungles. It is there that they discover an ancient temple with a room containing the skulls of their ancestors. The skulls speak through hallucinatory visions and telepathy and warn this group of impending doom by the rising of a triple lunar eclipse. This group goes into a hibernation as this warning plays out in the form of a meteor storm that causes mass devastation. The city is destroyed, yet the temple remains unharmed and those who were victorious in the war are all wiped out. During the hibernation, the surviving Altrusians go into a de-evolution, a fall from grace if you will. Their intelligence, memory, and even speech is lost due to the barbarism and cruel acts of war inflicted upon each other. This is the transformation into Sleestak. As they awake, they encounter a creature similar in appearance but with high intellect and speech. This is Enik (please reference the television show or wiki for the background of this character). While he walks among them, the Sleestak conspire to kill him — but not yet. He is much too powerful of a being. In the story of the song, Enik does not die but the wheels are set into motion for his murder. Here we are left with the final prophecy of the arrival of the Marshall family. I do not wish to elaborate on this area of the story’s timeline as I leave it to the show. They come, change and affect the Sleestak world, and then they either leave the dimension, die, or just become caught in a time loop. My story then picks up after them…

3. The transitions between the tracks are so smooth. Was the album written as one long piece, or separate songs that were then joined together? Do you see yourselves keeping to narrative concepts for future releases?

It really is a mixture of both ideas as Altrusia has some of our original plans which were to have a way to play our songs set with transitions and without stopping. Since then, of course, that has almost all but been rewritten with the only remnant being “The Marshall Prophecy” which is a variation from “Plan” on our earlier album. For the next studio album we do plan on continuing this form of songwriting, having recently decided that we are going to do the next act of the “Altrusian” story and that it may even be a trilogy. In fact, we’ve been doing A LOT of conceptualizing lately and the story and music is flowing quite nicely and coming together faster than anything we’ve tried writing before. But of course writing an hour-long song and making it sound like a singular cohesive piece takes some time. We are really trying not to make it sound like “riff A” goes into “riff B” goes into “riff C” and so on, we want there to be a pace to the music with lots of atmosphere. If we have a part or a riff there should be a purpose for it.

4. Talk about the contrast between jamming and heavy parts. There are these stretches that feel very open, and then you play off that with really gritty sounding doom metal. Are your roots more on the metal end than rock? Is there any influence from European death/doom?

Doing these long jam sections is just a part of the band’s identity now. We used to, in the beginning, do it to mess around, make noise, or work out a song idea, but they started taking on a more serious side, realizing that we were really able to express something through this, almost like sculpting while continually marching forward on a blank slate of time. If that makes any sense? Anyways it just seemed a natural thing to have these jams work their way into a structured song, with our songs primarily in a metal style. Personally, my roots are in punk, thrash, death, and grind and there is definitely a European influence there. I am a big fan of My Dying Bride, Anathema, Paradise Lost, Amorphis, etc. along with stuff like Napalm Death, Entombed, and Carcass. I don’t keep up on that stuff as much as I used to as you can probably tell by the band names I dropped, but the influence is still there for sure.

5. You guys played the Days of the Doomed Fest this past year. How was the show? Any highlights you’d like to share? How is doom received in Wisconsin in general? Is there a scene of bands?

The fest was amazing. Hands down, Mike Smith is the man for putting that together. It’s only going to get bigger and better and this year Sleestak are going to be curators for the official pre-party show on June 21, 2012. I think the highlight at the fest for me this past year personally was getting to meet Eric Wagner and hang with him a bit as he was one of my favorite vocalists growing up. The fest is definitely putting Wisconsin on the map for fans of doom.

As far as a scene goes, bands have come and gone, some good, some not so good. We’ve been here watching it change and evolve. For a few of the early years we felt like we were the only doom band this city had and to be honest it’s been a lonely ride in Milwaukee. For us it seemed like we were too heavy to play with any of the indie kids as we don’t even have that heavy sludgy “indie” sound and on the other hand we weren’t heavy enough and didn’t fit in with a lot of the generic death metal and hair bands that plague the area. We actively avoided doing anything locally for a few years unless we were helping route some good touring bands through town giving us a reason, a justification for us to play a show. We were jaded from both a lack of fan response and from reaching out to bands and clubs who either ignored our desire to connect and network or just flat out dicked us around and were assholes to us. Just this last year, though, we decided to try again and stir up interest here because it’s much easier for us to play local shows than it is for us to get out and tour all the time. But, let me tell you, because of Days of the Doomed fest and a small handful of bands like Northless, I see a glimmer of hope. I think there’s going to be something wonderful and important happening with the scene here given a little time and nurturing.

6. Any other plans or closing words you’d like to mention?

THANK YOU — to everyone who has been supporting us through the years and to all our new friends we’ve made in the past several months. It’s getting crazy with how things are picking up. Even though we’ve been going since 2003 it seems like the start of an amazing journey… Cheers!

Sleestak on Thee Facebooks

Sleestak on Bandcamp

I heard about this the other day, but apparently now there’s a poster to prove it: Mars Red Sky will be embarking on a mini-tour of the West Coast to complement a slew of shows they’re doing at this year’s SXSW in Austin, Texas. Click to enlarge:

The thing about it is The Patient Mrs. is going to be in Portland, Oregon, the same weekend as the band.

Now, Mars Red Sky are playing Roadburn and I’ve been very much looking forward to seeing them there. I’ve no doubt they’ll kill and be one of the highlights of the fest for me. I’m as excited to see them this year as I was to see Sungrazer in 2011. Plus, since it’s March 24, that’s precisely the week I should be getting things ready at work for my absence for the aforementioned Roadburn and the London Desertfest. I’m already taking 12 days off in April.

Not to mention, between going to Massachusetts next weekend to see Black Pyramid, Gozu and Infernal Overdrive, and shows from Truckfighters and Alcest, that would mean four out of the five weekends in March I’d be at shows. There’s some weeknight gigs in there too, with Clamfight and Kings Destroy on the 14th or Windhand on the 1st. Scott Kelly is coming around too. Top that off with a $400 flight (at least) to Portland, the lost time at work from flying out Thursday and back on Sunday or Monday, and it starts to look significantly less feasible.

On the other hand, though — Mars Red Sky. In Portland. A band I’ve never seen in a place I’ve never been and a show I’ll probably remember as long as I have a memory to remember it with, and probably the chance to do some excellent record shopping and have something cool to write about. I could literally see Truckfighters one weekend and Mars Red Sky the next.

I’m open to any advice on this one. While we all mull it over, here’s a clip of Mars Red Sky playing in Kiev:

With a one-two punch of releases from the two bands, who share a country of origin, a stylistic pastiche, European tour dates, a graphic artist, a record label and a drummer, comparisons between Les Discrets and Alcest feel inevitable. Alcest released their third album, Les Voyages de l’Âme (review here) via Prophecy Productions at the very start of the year, and now, led by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Fursy Teyssier (who also handles the aforementioned visuals), Lyon’s Les Discrets answers back with Ariettes Oubliées…, their second album after 2010’s excellent Septembre et Ses Dernières Pensées. The eight-track, 43-minute collection is shorter than Alcest’s latest, and heavier in a traditionally metallic sense when it wants to be, but no less emotionally gripping or melodically complex. In terms of the actual sound of the album, aside from Winterhalter, who drums, what the two acts most share is the richly evocative melody and the emotionalism that’s become a mainstay element in post-black metal in large part thanks to both Les Discrets and Alcest’s contributions to the genre and Teyssier and Alcest mastermind Stéphane “Neige” Paut’s common roots in the band Amesoeurs (in which Winterhalter also drummed), who released a self-titled album in 2009 before splitting up. As closely linked as the two outfits are, there’s bound to be some sonic overlap, and Ariettes Oubliées… bears that out, as did the first album, but Les Discrets emerges from their sophomore effort with a personality and direction of their own as well.

Part of that is thanks to the contributions of vocalist/lyricist Audrey Hadorn, who complements Teyssier’s own singing for nearly the entire album, one or the other dropping out at various points – mostly, it seems, for dramatic effect. The distinguishing factor is convenient for discerning one band’s methods from the other’s, but more importantly, Hadorn greatly enriches the material on Ariettes Oubliées…, and her voice helps carry across the wistfulness and longing that seems to drip from the music. Time and mortality seem to be central themes, or at very least they’re easily read into the fragility present in the melodicism, but Les Discrets have a few moments of unabashed black metal, whether it’s the final moments of longest cut and highlight “La Traversée” or the more progressive approach that shows up in the surprisingly angular “La Nuit Muette.” Unsurprisingly for anyone who encountered the first album, Les Discrets take their time in letting the songs unfold, and work within an open sensibility as regards pace and instrumentation. Teyssier layers acoustic and electric guitar along with his bass, and the resulting complexity accounts for much of the richness in their sound. It’s not a wash of melody, but it’s not far off. Vocals remain crisp, clear and unburied, but like everything else on Ariettes Oubliées…, they are impeccably balanced, brilliantly mixed, and work in service to the songs and the atmosphere the material is looking to present. The gradual start the album is given with “Linceul d’Hiver” is met with a coinciding triumph in the instrumental “Les Regrets,” which not only echoes a musical theme, but shows the depth of Les Discrets’ commitment to structure – maintained no matter how far into indulgence they may seem to be wandering at any given moment.

Foremost, the album is beautiful, and – like Teyssier’s graphic work – masterfully intricate, carefully woven and precise in its execution. With layers of guitar playing off each other even in the most subdued moments of “La Traversée,” it’s clear maintaining a live sound isn’t the intent of the band, but it’s worth noting that nothing feels unnatural or overly processed on Ariettes Oubliées…, and instead, the melody that seems to be always at the fore is presented as organically assembled. Winterhalter has the delicate charge of grounding the material, and seems almost relieved to break into blast-beats at the end of “La Traversée,” but his work here is no less complex or engaging than either Teyssier or Hadorn’s. “Le Mouvement Perpétuel” continues the background ambience that pervades most of the tracks, but makes its greatest impact following a subtle but undeniably heavy build/apex and quiet part, where the guitars seem to stand tall on top of the rest of the song’s density at about 4:40 and anchor the remaining two minutes, during which Les Discrets embark on a long fade that’s all the more a march for the time it consumes, finally leaving just the strong current of notes that has backed the whole progression. The semi-titular “Ariettes Oubliées I: Je Devine à Travers un Murmure…“ begins acoustically with Teyssier’s solo vocals before Winterhalter and Hadorn join in, and seems as though it’s going to work within heavy/quiet tradeoffs after double-bass drumming and squiggly guitars take hold at 1:50. I’d have nothing to criticize if that’s the case, since Les Discrets never seem to just work within one sphere at a time, but the track finds a sort of middle ground in its final third, with more active acoustic guitar up front and a flowing river of electric guitar melody behind.

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I shit you not, this is a lot of news. But it’s High on Fire, and if they’re anything at all at this point, it’s familiar with the epic. Below you’ll find album release info for the Kurt Ballou-produced De Vermis Mysteriis and tour dates for the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival, which seems bent mostly on hitting amphitheaters no less corporately-monikered. I feel like I’m giving away an awful lot of free advertising by even posting some of these names.

Nonetheless:

World-renowned hard rock band High on Fire will release its new studio album De Vermis Mysteriis on April 3 via eOne Music. Recorded in Salem, Massachusetts’ GodCity Studios with producer and Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou, the 10 song effort — touted as “direct, eye-opening and powerfully supernatural” — is the band’s sixth studio recording and the follow up to 2010’s Snakes for the Divine.

De Vermis Mysteriis (or “Mysteries of the Worm”) takes its title from a fictional grimoire created by Psycho author Robert Bloch and incorporated by H. P. Lovecraft into the lore of the Cthulhu Mythos (Lovecraft mentioned De Vermis Mysteriis as one of the books that “repeat the most hellish secrets learnt by early man”). The album carries a deeply mystical undercurrent, incorporating fantastical themes and lyrics detailing, among other things, time travel, a serum called liao that is made out of a black lotus and “a Jesus twin who can see the past through his ancestors’ eyes.” And that’s just scratching the surface!

Musically, De Vermis Mysteriis is absolutely explosive, showcasing the California power trio’s thundering roar and expanded harmonic and rhythmic palettes while the songs move confidently through multiple riffs and movements. High on Fire construct tough, burly stoner metal that is at once devastatingly epic and mercilessly metallic as superstar guitarist Matt Pike‘s sizzling ax and avenging-angel riffs fuse with Des Kensel‘s double-kick-drum onslaught and Jeff Matz‘s concrete crushing, Burton-esque bass guitar. Over the course of forty-five minutes, High on Fire have created an amalgamation of fantastical lyrical ideas and brute force musicianship anchored in an endlessly captivating, punkishly frantic sound. Simply put, the band generates awesome on demand and has a virtual chokehold on monolithic-sounding, masterfully crafted epic music. High on Fire is a savage bull in the china shop of modern metal.

When asked for comment on De Vermis Mysteriis, Pike somewhat cryptically replied, “Prepare for your dark journey.”

The track listing for High on Fire‘s De Vermis Mysteriis is as follows:
1. Serums of Liao
2. Bloody Knuckles
3. Fertile Green
4. Madness of an Architect
5. Interlude
6. Spiritual Rites
7. King of Days
8. De Vermis Mysteriis
9. Romulus and Remus
10. Warhorn

On June 30, High on Fire will join Slayer, Slipknot, Anthrax and more as part of the 2012 Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour. The 26-city jaunt will kick off in San Bernardino, CA and run through August 5 in Hartford, CT. The itinerary for the monster trek is as follows:

06/30 San Bernardino, CA San Manuel Amphitheater
07/01 Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
07/03 Auburn, WA White River Amphitheatre
07/04 Nampa, ID Idaho Center Amphitheatre
07/06 Phoenix, AZ Ashley Furniture HomeStore Pavilion
07/07 Albuquerque, NM Hard Rock Casino
07/08 Greenwood Village, CO Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
07/10 Dallas, TX Gexa Energy Pavilion
07/11 The Woodlands, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
07/13 Tampa, FL 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre
07/14 Atlanta, GA Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood
07/15 Noblesville, IN Klipsch Music Center
07/18 Oklahoma City, OK Zoo Amphitheatre
07/20 Maryland Heights, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
07/21 Tinley Park, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
07/22 Clarkston, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
07/24 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
07/25 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center
07/27 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Center
07/28 Burgettstown, PA First Niagara Pavilion
07/29 Bristow, VA Jiffy Lube Live
07/31 Saratoga Springs, NY Saratoga Performing Arts Center
08/01 Corfu, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
08/03 Mansfield, MA Comcast Center
08/04 Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
08/05 Hartford, CT Comcast Theatre