Dually-fronted Swedish six-piece Mud Walk recorded their latest EP, The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore, in San Francisco earlier this year. Released by Ella Music Nation, it’s a five-track collection of unpretentious retro heavy rock, fervent in its groove and varied between the warm low-end vibing of “I’m Good When I Hear the Guns” and the unmitigated shuffle of “On the Loose,” which has enough early ’70s swagger in its execution to live up to its title. Put to tape at the US Women’s Audio Mission, it’s a thickened garage stomper with bluesy thrust and soulful vocals vying for prominence in a way that only adds to the excitement of the listen.

The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore is Mud Walk‘s second EP behind 2011’s Barefoot Band, and is more than cohesive enough to make me wonder what the band might be able to do with a full-length release. Much of the focus inevitably is going to be on vocalists Johanna Bayard (also harmonica) and Anna-Stina Jungerstam — one can almost see the line forming to make mostly inaccurate comparisons to Heart circa Dreamboat Annie — but on opener “Alaska” (also the longest track at 4:47; points), guitarists Stina Årman-Assargård and Liv Platzer lack nothing for presence or prominence, and throughout the release, the double-Jonna rhythm section of bassist/backing vocalist Jonna Wikblad and drummer Jonna Karlsson consistently provide the foundation that keeps it all together.

To wit, “Sole Times” seems to be a moodier waltz at first, with vocals further back in their analog echo, adding to the psychedelic vibing, but in the final third, Wikblad underscores a start-stop riff with some classic funk and the sense of movement so prevalent throughout The Drifter’s Forgotten Lore is revived. Likewise, though Bayard‘s harmonica features heavily in the 2:50 closer, “Hounded,” it’s the rolling groove that emerges near the halfway point that makes the track such a landmark to end the EP. It’s a strong release from a young band with a firm handle on their aesthetic, more fully produced than the first, but still natural-sounding, and however much bell-bottomed worship seems to emerge from Sweden, acts like Mud Walk seem to be able to maintain their own spin on the style even as they affirm the tropes of the burgeoning subgenre.

The EP is available now from Ella Music Nation — I don’t have Spotify, but apparently Mud Walk is on Spotify — and they’re on Thee Facebooks and Twitter as well. The EP isn’t streaming publicly anywhere to the best of my knowledge, so here’s the video for the title-track to Barefoot Band, which should still give some idea of what Mud Walk are all about.

Dig it:

French trio Mars Red Sky will begin their next round of tour dates tonight. The band did a few shows in September, mostly in France, but as of tonight, they’ll be hooking up with the likes of Samsara Blues Experiment and Kadavar and playing gigs in advance of their next recording, about which they’ve let slip some more info. The plan seems to be to lay down some songs in November for an EP that’ll come to light early next year. Something to look forward to for sure.

Hopefully I’ll have more on that when the time comes. Until then, the band sent the following news down the PR wire:

We’ll be in studio in november to record a couple of new song for a new EP early 2013 !!!

We end this week off with French stoner rockers Wheelfall, whose new album, Interzone, is out next month via their own Sunruin Records imprint. They made a decent introductory impression with their 2010 EP, From the Blazing Sky at Dusk (review here) and if the bevvy of press quotes they’ve included on their Bandcamp page are anything to go by, the new record’s already been pretty well received. Good for the band. Listening through now, so far I dig the extreme elements vocally on “Holy Sky,” and as I’ve said too many times to count, unpretentious riffing is always welcome by me. Same applies almost universally to desert fuzz.

Today was my birthday. I celebrated with The Patient Mrs. this evening by eating popcorn, drinking wine, and watching season three of Arrested Development, which — outside of the opportunity to stay up late blogging about stoner rock on a Friday night — is about all I can ask for out of life. The day was tiring, and I kind of rushed my way through the live review of the Heavy Planet CMJ show, but if you skimmed through and thought it looked like a good time, you got the point. Next week offers no letup in shows. Thursday, Elder hit Brooklyn with Reign of Zaius and Thinning the Herd and Pants Exploder (about whom I hear good things) and Friday, Hour of 13 play the St. Vitus bar, and I don’t want to miss that. I hear Fistula are coming through on Tuesday as well, and that could be fun. I haven’t seen a really abrasive show in a while, and if Fistula are going to provide anything, it’s that.

I also failed to get that Neurosis interview up this week. I tried, but just didn’t have time to transcribe it. Wednesday, there was a Clutch thing that I took 2,000-plus pictures at (five or six of which I’ll hopefully be allowed to post here at some point), and then Thursday was that show, and today I left the office early to sit in three and a half hours of traffic on I-95 up to Connecticut, where I’ll be for the weekend. It’s supposed to be warm, but we’ll see. This place isn’t insulated, so when it’s cold, you know it. Right now, the rain on the roof is louder than Wheelfall, but other than that, no complaints.

So anyway. Look for that Neurosis this week. I’ll also have an interview with Ice Dragon in which they reveal their five favorite cult horror flicks — note to self: Ask Ron from Ice Dragon if he wants to start a horror column — and that’ll come packaged with two brand new, never-before-heard tracks from a new single they’ve put together that I think are really going to surprise a lot of people. Very ethereal stuff, in a different vein even from what they did on the Dream Dragon full-length. It’s very cool and I’m already stoked to be able to bring it to you. That’ll be Tuesday with the Steve Von Till piece to follow later in the week. Any of the aforementioned shows I go to, I’ll be reviewing, and I have a couple other things in the works there as well.

As always, I hope you have a great and safe weekend. If you’re around, I’ll be checking in on the forum, and maybe at some point tomorrow or Sunday with a news story or two I didn’t get the chance to put up today. In any case, thanks as always for reading.

I was stoked for this show. If I hadn’t been, I probably wouldn’t have gone. Still, there was a point early into the evening at which I stood back and had the thought, “I’m at a CMJ showcase.” It’s been years. Like a lot of the overblown hoopla in the music industry, I usually skip out on NYC’s CMJ fest — because here’s the thing no one tells you: It’s no different from NYC every other night. Oh, there are 100 shows and industry types lurking around in suit jackets and jeans? Sorry, that happens every single week. It’s a big part of why the last show I went to in Manhattan was in March.

This, however, was the Heavy Planet CMJ showcase, and if something was going to get me to drive my jaded, been-in-this-business-too-long ass across the self-proclaimed greatest city in the world, it was the chance to see Borracho, Valley of the Sun, Eggnogg and Summoner on the same bill. Shock Radar opened and the show was at Fontana’s — a place that, if I’ve ever been there, it was probably when I was in college, and then probably a CMJ show — and after being kept late at work, I got there early into Shock Radar‘s set, having parked outside at the same time Borracho arrived and seen them get into a parking altercation with another driver. They were right to not want to give up that spot. It was prime.

Much like the show itself. Here’s how it all went down:

Shock Radar

New York natives and apparently somewhat responsible for lining up Fontana’s as the venue for the gig, it was my first experience with Shock Radar in a live setting after checking out some of the tracks from their Live Like Lions 10″ in advance. Admittedly, I didn’t catch the whole set, but I must have gotten most of it, and in any case, it was enough for the band’s post-grunge affected East Coast noise crunch to make an impression. The vocals had that kind of throaty 1995 vibe like when everyone realized they couldn’t be Layne Staley and had to think of something else to do, but they were solid — the kind of moody act you’d happen onto on one of those nights stumbling through the city, winding up in some hole with more liquor in your system than you intended. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything.

Summoner

I could tell right away that Boston’s own Summoner were used to playing on stages this size because every time vocalist/bassist Chris Johnson turned around, he pulled the neck of his bass in toward himself so as to avoid a collision with guitarist Joe Richner. The four-piece had impressed at SHoD, so I wasn’t necessarily surprised by the vitality they brought to their performance or the appealing interplay of Richner and AJ Peters‘ guitars, but their new-school crush satisfied nonetheless, and both Peters and drummer Scott Smith went out of their way to mention they’ll be recording a new album next month. Their latest, Phoenix, is still pretty fresh, but I look forward to hearing the intensity they bring to new material in the studio. In the meantime, “The Interloper” from Phoenix was a highlight and they went back to their early days as Riff Cannon to close out with the title-track to 2009’s Mercury Mountain, a last-minute burst of energy that made for a raucous finish. I could’ve done with a longer set, but Summoner made every second count, and the smoothness with which they execute their changes and the sheer joy they seem to take in playing these songs made them a pleasure to watch. Again.

Eggnogg

My second Eggnogg gig and I’ve no doubt I’ll be back for thirds. The Brooklyn trio included two new songs in their set from their forthcoming and mostly completed new album, including the eponymous “Eggnogg,” which seems to revive the elephantine stomp of “The Gods Will Destroy the Hive” from their prior EP compilation, The Three. Their methods are simple, but their employ more than effective. They riff and groove — tonal thickness is a must — and bassist Bill O’Sullivan‘s bluesy delivery took a turn for the shoutier on the newer material. Especially seeing them right after Summoner emphasized the stark contrast between the two young acts. Both are very good at what they do and cohesive beyond their years, but Eggnogg‘s patience and relatively simplistic songwriting modus and Summoner‘s intensity and rampant dual lead-work seemed to be coming from different places entirely. I liked that, though. Eggnogg are getting their bearings as a live act, but between this gig and the show at the St. Vitus bar in August that I was lucky enough to catch, they’ve affirmed what I dug so much about their recorded material and given me something to look forward to on the next one. Time for them to start piling up amplifiers and get their tones to room-shaking volume.

Valley of the Sun

The lesson of Cincinnati’s Valley of the Sun — and this is a lesson I’m happy to learn anytime the opportunity presents itself — is “oh what a difference a great drummer makes.” You know the scene. You’ve seen those bands that seem to have it all together, and there’s just that one missing element. In my experience, what can really put a good band over the top is a killer, creative drummer, and Valley of the Sun have one in Aaron Boyer. Guitarist/vocalist Ryan Ferrier and bassist Ryan McAllister had their shit together, no doubt about it, but together with Boyer, they hit a level of professionalism that’s road-ready and completely attuned to its aesthetic. Valley of the Sun also played some new tunes, as well as a few highlights from 2011’s The Sayings of the Seers (review here), which I was stoked to be able to pick up on vinyl, and it was crisp American-style heavy rock, desert-fuzzed and in the Kyuss tradition, but fluid in its ’70s worship and presented with the utmost confidence. This being my first time seeing them, what I got was exactly what I’d hoped to get. For having just two EPs out, their sound is remarkably mature, and that speaks to Ferrier, McAllister and Boyer having a clear idea of what they want to do musically, which can only serve them well leading into their next studio outing. Good band, man. A name to watch for.

Borracho

In another flashback to this year’s Stoner Hands of Doom, the three-piece incarnation of Washington D.C.’s Borracho — or, as I’ve come to call them, Borratrio — took the stage at Fontana’s with barely so much as a hello. Led by guitarist Steve Fisher (who seems to have an inexhaustible supply of classic rock t-shirts — awesome) in the absence of guitarist/vocalist Noah, who is out of the country on what I can only assume is a dangerous spy mission, they once again let the riffs do the vast majority of the talking, though vocals showed up in what would otherwise be the backing lines toward the end of “All in Play” and in “Concentric Circles,” which remains viciously catchy no matter who’s fronting it. Overall, Borracho were much tighter here than at SHoD, not only for the lack of technical difficulties, but in general on the level of chemistry between Fisher, bassist Tim Martin and drummer Mario Trubiano, who seemed only too happy to pick up the gauntlet Aaron Boyer threw down in Valley of the Sun‘s set. The two bands are reportedly headed back to D.C. tonight for another gig. They worked well together, so hopefully this isn’t the last time they join forces. Despite Noah‘s continued MIA-ness, Borratrio have new songs in progress as well.

Ultimately, I think that’s what made last night special — the fact that Borracho, Summoner, Valley of the Sun and Eggnogg all have new stuff on the horizon that hasn’t yet been released. Maybe Shock Radar too, I don’t really know, but to have everyone on board playing fresh material alongside a few familiar tracks was awesome, and in true showcase fashion, I felt like I was watching acts each in their own way poised to hit the next level in what they do. Kudos to Heavy Planet for putting together an excellent bill (I got to meet Toby at the show and he seemed like a good dude), and to the bands for kicking ass.

More pics after the jump.

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Ohio sludge! The nastiest of the nasty, Cleveland-based Fistula have a new record out called Northern Aggression, and to support it, they’re hitting the road starting tonight, Oct. 19, at The Foundry in their hometown. You’ll notice they’ve also got a house show scheduled in Lansing. Could it be the Postmansion? I’ve seen a couple choice gigs there myself.

Wherever you catch them — I’m considering hitting Brooklyn on Tuesday; Cleanteeth and Generation of Vipers make that a bill worth crawling out from under my rock to see at The Acheron — make sure you do so and consider it a litmus test for how much abrasive sludge you can stand in a live setting. Fucking a.

The PR wire cometh:

FISTULA: Cleveland Sludge Henchmen Release New LP And Take It To The Streets

Cleveland’s long-running sludge kingpins FISTULA have just filthified the planet with their latest dose of resin-coated low-end antagonism.

One of the most constantly productive bands of the modern sludge scene, FISTULA have tortured live audiences abroad and boast a lengthy discography of LPs, EPs, demos, split releases and more since their 1998 inception. Recorded in May and June with Eric Braunschweigerat Rogue Mobile Recording in Massachusetts (the vocals were recorded with Big Metal Dave at Broken Back Studios in Cleveland), the band’s latest caustic crusher, Northern Aggression, is out now via PATAC Records. The LP version of the offering is loaded with eight ceaselessly brutal anthems — including an album-closing cover of The Mentors’ “Going Through Your Purse” — while the CD version includes a bonus of FISTULA’s 2010-released six-song Loser EP, adding an additional 28-minutes to the aural beating.  For ordering info, point your browser HERE. For limited vinyl and merch pre-orders, go HERE.

In commemoration of the album’s release, FISTULA will take to the streets this week on the Northern Aggression 2012 tour. The melee begins Friday October 19th (today!) in Lakewood, Ohio and will roll through Indianapolis, Chicago, Brooklyn and Cambridge, along the way sharing the stage with Vulture, Coffinworm, Black Goat, Cleanteeth (ex/members Goes Cube, Hull), Generation of Vipers (members of US Christmas) and more.

FISTULA’s Northern Aggression Tour 2012:
10/19/2012 The Foundry – Lakewood, OH w/ Vulture, Mockingbird, Deathcrawl, Pissmongrel
10/20/2012 Indy’s Jukebox– Indianapolis, IN w/ Coffinworm, Black Goat of the Woods, Conjurer
10/21/2012 Double Door – Chicago, IL w/ Coffinworm, Drug Honkey, Cog
10/23/2012 Acheron – Brooklyn, NY w/ Cleanteeth, Generation of Vipers
10/24/2012 Cambridge Elks – Cambridge, MA w/ Nachzherer, Insult

The B-side to a new limited 12″ EP that Samsara Blues Experiment will release to mark their fall tour, “Midnight Boogie” starts out with a UFO cover (that’d be the “Boogie” part, as in “Boogie for George” from the band’s 1970 debut, UFO 1), and the band promptly use the low-end groove of the track as a bed for an 11-minute jam. And well, it’s awesome. The Berlin outfit begin the aforementioned run of shows tomorrow, Oct. 19, and they’ll mostly be in their native Germany, but plan to hit up Belgium, Switzerland and Austria as well, sharing the stage along the way with Mars Red Sky, Cherry Choke and Kadavar.

Dates are below and more info is at Samsara Blues Experiment‘s website. Here’s the video for “Midnight Boogie,” which the band put together themselves using fest footage and clips from 1935’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Please enjoy:

Samsara Blues Experiment on tour

19.10.12 – GOETTINGEN, GER – STILBRUCH
20.10.12 – FRANKFURT/MAIN, GER – DAS BETT – Sky High Festival
21.10.12 – ERFURT, GER – MUSEUMSKELLER
22.10.12 – MUNICH, GER – FEIERWERK
23.10.12 – PRATTELN, CH – GALERY
24.10.12 – BONN,GER – HARMONIE – WDR Rockpalast
25.10.12 – BELGIUM – TO BE ARRANGED
26.10.12 – WUERZBURG, GER – IMMERHIN
27.10.12 – VIENNA, A – ARENA
03.11.12 – HALLE, GER – ROCKSTATION

It seems strange to think that three years would pass before Revelation put out another record. The trio of John Brenner (guitar/vocals), Bert Hall (bass) and Steve Branagan (drums) released For the Sake of No One (review here) late into 2009, and it was the third of three full-lengths issued in a 16-month span (not counting the …Yet So Far reissue on Shadow Kingdom, but counting the previously unreleased self-titled from 1988). Still, it’s been three years and that time has brought some changes in Revelation. Not in lineup, or in their general writing ethic, but like much of Revelation’s music itself, the shifts the band is making stylistically are subtle. Their new work, Inner Harbor (free download through Bland Hand, CD forthcoming on Shadow Kingdom, vinyl through Pariah Child), is a full 10 minutes shorter than was For the Sake of No One, but more pivotally, its six tracks find the long-running Baltimore trio pushing into new, progressive territory, with keyboards featuring heavily in line with the guitars on tracks like “Rebecca at the Well” and closer “An Allegory of Want.” At the same time, Inner Harbor presents both the most active songs of Revelation’s new tenure – marking the middle of the last decade the point at which they got back together after disbanding after 1998’s Fourteen Inches of Fury four-way split – with the surprising upbeat motor-thrust of “Eve Separated,” and the most subdued tracks in terms of production, the opening title-track being no less a signal of a shift in modus than the aerial photo of Baltimore’s inner harbor is set when set against the classic art and sculpture that served as covers for For the Sake of No One, 2008’s Release, or Revelation. Additionally, as the band’s alter ego, Against Nature, has begun to distinguish itself from the three-piece’s work in Revelation by adding vocalist Ron “Fez” McGinnis for their latest album, Fallen Rock, released earlier this year, Revelation has in turn stepped out from its morose past to become something more aesthetically complex. Of course, they remain doomed, and when they want to, Revelation can elicit a plod second to none within the sphere of Maryland doom – see the early moments of “Jones Falls” – but they’re by no means limited to just that here. Less so than they’ve ever been.

Seems silly to put it in some kind of “casting off expectations” narrative, since Bland Hand is the band’s own label and it’s not like they’ve ever been shooting for having their songs used in car commercials or the reflective moment in your favorite sitcom, but one way or another, Inner Harbor is less tied to genre than anything Revelation has put out previously. It remains tonally gorgeous, with Brenner and Hall emitting rich warmth to match Brenner’s quiet vocal style and the often soft, straightforward drumming of Branagan, but “Rebecca as the Well” has a darker atmosphere and thicker pulse, and second track “Terribilita” comes as close to a shuffle as I’ve ever heard from Revelation in its intro before keyboard sirens – if I find out that’s a guitar, I’ll be genuinely surprised, but Brenner reportedly a big Rush fan, so anything’s possible with layering – underscore a fervent verse nod. Many of these shifts in approach and/or method can be chalked up to simple comfort. Revelation did not rush to get Inner Harbor out – if they had, it probably would’ve dropped in 2010 and been a much different album – and that extra time seems to have served the songs well. In particular, Hall’s performance on bass throughout these tracks is stellar. The final moments of “Terribilita” make a striking example, but no more or less so than the second half of “Eve Separated,” on which the bassist weaves a rhythm under Brenner’s guitar solo that proves no less engaging than that solo itself. Even in the slower stretches of “Rebecca at the Well,” Hall is forward in the mix and a huge part of carrying across Revelation’s emergent prog fetish – though in that regard, the synth really is at the core and it’s not so much that Hall is putting on a clinic technically as much as he’s playing thoughtfully and artfully on these tracks. With a more dynamic production, the ending swirl of “Rebecca at the Well” might be even more of an apex to close out the album’s first half, with layered solos, synth and Hall’s bass and Branagan’s drums holding down the rhythm beneath, but they’ve retained an element of DIY in their recording, while also staying true to their live sound. In any case, they more than get their point across.

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I always liked Ichabod. It had been years and years since I last saw them when I was fortunate enough to catch their set at Stoner Hands of Doom XII, but still, my impression going into their set was favorable. However, even with some relative idea of what I was getting, I was taken aback by the force of the current lineup that founding guitarist Dave Iverson has assembled, particularly vocalist John Fadden, who made short work of tradeoffs between cleaner melodic singing and throat-ripping screams.

All the better to lead into their new album, Dreamscapes from Dead Space. Some info went up on the forum late last month, but the PR wire sent over particulars, and I couldn’t help but include the stream from the Ichabod Bandcamp page:

ICHABOD: Boston Psyche/Sludge Act Drop Most Expansive Album To Date

Entire Record Streaming Now

Following more than a decade of perpetually mutating and expanding their unique style of rock/metal, Boston-based ICHABOD release their most progressive album to date with Dreamscapes From Dead Space this month.

Conceived and founded in 1998, ICHABOD quickly formed an immediately diehard audience with several awesome demos before the turn of the century. Sporadic but steady live shows have constantly helped the band retain a solid fanbase, and since 2000 they’ve summoned forth four massive and ever-expanding studio full-lengths, culminating with the diversified 2012, released by Rootsucker Records in 2008.

Amidst praise of 2012 from internationally-based media outlets, vocalist Ken MacKay decided to part ways with ICHABOD. Remaining members Greg Delaria (bass), Dave Iverson (guitar), and Phil MacKay (drums) inducted longtime friend John Fadden as new throat to help them finalize their newest material, what was then penned as the band’s swansong. Fadden’s style brought on newfound inspiration for the entire unit, and the band recruited friend Jay Adam on second guitar. Instead of disbanding, ICHABOD forged an entirely new path of musical exploration.

ICHABOD’s fifth full-length, Dreamscapes From Dead Space, visits new territory for the band’s already expansive sound, melding elements of their sludge/doom metal roots with a more prog/psyche ‘70s vibe, adding a lot more rock to how they already triumphantly roll. Featuring nearly fifty minutes worth of otherworldly, free-flow, heavy-ass rock, recorded, co-produced and mixed by Glenn Smith at Amps vs. Ohms Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with final mastering done by Nick and Rob at New Alliance East Mastering. The artwork bears original paintings by Mike Kent and layout but Aaron D. C. Edge.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space showcases the broad range of a proficient musical force in a renaissance era.

The digital download of Dreamscapes From Dead Space is on sale now, the album to see a proper CD release via Rootsucker Records/Black Lotus Entertainment on October 30th, 2012. Official info on even more new ICHABOD material pending release, and new gigs being booked now and through the New Year, will be announced over the months ahead.

Dreamscapes From Dead Space is streaming now via the ICHABOD Bandcamp page.

ICHABOD Live:
11/01/2012 Ralphs Rock Diner – Worcester, MA w/ Witch Mountain, Castle, Second Grave

Dreamscapes From Dead Space Track Listing:
1. Huckleberry
2. Looking Glass
3. Baba Yaga
4. Epiphany
5. Hollow God
6. All Your Love
7. 108
8. Return of the Hag