It’s a somewhat rare between-tour moment for Clutch. They just wrapped up a Fall tour that was their return to the road after frontman Neil Fallon‘s back surgery — they were great as usual in New Hampshire — and it’ll be another month before they’re back out again for the annual holiday tour. The Maryland masters of groove are never really at rest, however, and today they’ve released the Earth Rocker Live double-vinyl, which couples the studio version of their 2013 full-length, Earth Rocker (review here), with live renditions of the same songs, presented in the same order as on the album, recorded earlier this year in the Midwest.

The vinyl’s a limited edition and when Clutch do releases like this, they always go quick, so if you’ve got an order to place, my suggestion is to place it. Here’s the latest from the PR wire:

CLUTCH Earth Rocker Live Double Vinyl Picture Disc – In Stores Now!

CLUTCH’s Earth Rocker Live is now available in stores and online at the CLUTCH Merch Store. This special and limited collectors’ item is a double vinyl picture disc set. The first LP is the studio version of Earth Rocker. The second LP consists of live versions of the same tracks in the same sequence as the original. This is not a live recording of one show. The individual tracks of the live version were recorded at different shows throughout the band’s May 2013 US tour: Houston and San Antonio (TX), Lincoln (NE), Indianapolis (IN) and Fargo (ND). The stunning artwork displays the four Indian heads from the original package in all their colorful beauty: one for each side.

In December, between Christmas and New Years, CLUTCH will be back on the road for their traditional holiday shows. Support on the holiday shows will come from Into Another, The Mike Dillon Band and Lionize. Touring will continue in January with dates set from the 2nd in Asheville, NC to the 19th in Flint, MI. All dates and links to purchase tickets can be found below. The Sword and Crobot will provide support on these dates.

February 2014 will see CLUTCH will head down under to Australia as they take part in the 2014 Soundwave Festival. In addition the Soundwave dates, CLUTCH has confirmed a handful of headlining Australian shows. These shows are set for February 20th in Sydney at The Metro, February 21st in Brisbane at The Zoo and February 27th in Melbourne at Prince Bandroom.

Drummer Jean-Paul Gaster is looking forward to the band’s return to Australia:

“Can’t wait to get back to Australia. It’s been a while… The band is looking forward to the Soundwave Festival as well as the headline dates. We ready to rock any stage Down Under: big or small.”

CLUTCH has confirmed one final date for their January tour. The show will be in Flint, MI at The Machine Shop on January 19th. Tickets for fan club members go on sale tomorrow and to the general public this weekend.

Check the link HERE for your chance to purchase a very limited Earth Rocker Charity Snare Drum signed by the band. Only five of these were produced and 100 % of all the proceeds will go to charity.

Holiday Tour Dates:
With Into Another and The Mike Dillon Band
12/26: Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
12/27: Sayreville, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
12/28: Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater

With Into Another and Lionize
12/29: Rochester, NY @ Montage Music Hall
12/30: Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
12/31: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

2014 Dates:
With The Sword and Crobot
1/2/14: Ashville, NC @ The Orange Peel
1/3/14: Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theater
1/4/14: Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Theater
1/5/14: Jacksonville, FL @ Freebird Live
1/7/14: Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
1/9/14: South Bend, IN @ Club Fever
1/10/14: Buffalo. NY @ Town Ballroom
1/11/14: Port Chester, NY @ Capital Theater
1/12/14: So. Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
1/13/14: Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street
1/15/14: Stage College, PA @ Levels
1/16/14: Charlottesville, VA @ The Jefferson Theater
1/17/14: Wilmington, DE @ World Café Live**
1/18/14: Huntington, WV @ V Club
** The Sword not on this date **

SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL 2014
2/22/14: Soundwave Festival Brisbane
2/23/14: Soundwave Festival Sydney
2/28/14: Soundwave Festival Melbourne
3/1/14: Soundwave Festival Adelaide
3/3/14: Soundwave Festival Perth

http://pro-rock.com/index.cfm
https://www.facebook.com/Clutchband

Clutch, “Cyborg Bette” Live in Vancouver, 2013

Oft-touring Southern heavy rockers ASG have joined the lineup for the 2014 Desertfest in Berlin. The four-piece, who released the album Blood Drive this year on Relapse to much hullabaloo, were also previously announced for the London edition of the festival, and they’ll be playing a couple weeks earlier at Roadburn as well. Since it doesn’t seem likely they’ll fly to Europe for that, then fly back to the States only to return to Europe two weeks later, I’d expect full European tour dates are forthcoming sometime in the near future.

ASG also recently premiered a new video for the song “Scrappy’s Trip.” Desertfest had this to say about them being added to the Berlin lineup:

*** DESERTFEST BERLIN 2014 – ASG ***

Hey Desert-Folks !

We go on with another amazing announcement ! Today, North Carolina’s finest psychedelic stoner-punks ASG join the DESERTFEST BERLIN’s line-up !!

This year has been a triumphant one for ASG whose success with their last release “Blood Drive”, and we can’t be more excited to have these guys on board at DESERTFEST BERLIN !!

LIMITED HARD-TICKETS can be ordered by sending an email at TICKETS@DESERTFEST.DE (85€ + shipping costs) !!

Full announcement on : www.desertfest.de

************************************
24th, 25th, 26th April 2014 : DESERTFEST BERLIN
************************************
SPIRIT CARAVAN* Asg* Black Rainbows* Causa Sui* Elder* Gozu* Huata* Prisma Circus* Radar Men From The Moon* Sardonis* and many more tba !

https://www.facebook.com/asgnation
http://www.desertfest.de

ASG, “Scrappy’s Trip” Official Video

Whether or not Black Skies had Richard Strauss in mind when they put together the introduction of “Lifeblood” that opens their second full-length, Circadian Meditations, I don’t know, but there’s a definite resemblance to that composer’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” AKA the main theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey. That would be fitting as well with the North Carolina three-piece’s space-themed artwork and the overall more psychedelic approach that comes up throughout the album, but life is rarely that neat. Still, the Circadian Meditations opener arrives with enough circumstance to make the actual start of the song feel like an event, and as the rest of the 37-minute LP plays out, it gets easier to think of it that way. “Lifeblood” is the longest track on the record at 10:08 (immediate points), and together with closer “The Dusk/Invisible Fingers” (9:21), forms an apparent bookend around shorter songs that had me searching the final moments for similar crashes and guitar noise. I didn’t find them, but what was there satisfied anyway, as does entirety of Circadian Meditations, as the Black Skies core duo of bassist/vocalist Michelle Temple and guitarist/vocalist Kevin Clark (also synth and shruti box drones) — joined here by drummer John Crouch, imported from somewhat likeminded North Carolinian outfit Caltrop in apparent place of Tim Herzog, who played on 2011’s On the Wings of Time debut LP — have gracefully expanded their aesthetic reach without sacrificing either the spaciousness of the recording (helmed like the last one by Kyle Spence of Harvey Milk) or losing the impact of the songs to excessive indulgences. Not that the album doesn’t have any, it’s just that as Temple and Clark trade vocal lines back and forth once “Lifeblood” gets underway, they’re quick to engage with warm tones, hypnotic riff repetitions and the aforementioned vocal tradeoffs. The sense of movement is palpable throughout “Lifeblood” — knowing his work in Caltrop, part of that credit has to go to Crouch — and still the band is able to hone in on a contemplative, exploratory feel. In that way, the opener sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album to follow.

A smooth build brings “Lifeblood” to an apex topped with wah-soaked guitar leads propelled by Crouch‘s punctuating snare and held steady via Temple‘s rumbling bassline. The rush toward the end, the cycles it goes through, sound a bit like space rock, but that’s a designation that would seem to pull away from the earthiness of their tones, which isn’t to be understated. “Celestial Coronation,” which follows the opener, features one of the album’s best choruses, with shades of what always worked best about Kylesa being repurposed into a structure that loses none of its appeal for telegraphing its moves through the first two verses, whereupon it departs to a brooding instrumental stretch that in turn shifts back first to a solo over the chorus riff and then to the hook itself, rounding out in traditional fashion a construction given a more avant feel by the subdued psychedelic wandering of the last minute-plus which devolves as the drums get softer into a kind of measure-by-measure lull, ultimately ringing out to silence. On a lot of records, this would be standard trickery. The band puts you to sleep in order to wake you up again. Black Skies, to their credit, play it differently. “The Dawn,” which would seem to be the end of a vinyl side A, is a two-minute pastoral exploration led by Clark‘s guitar, and even when Temple and Crouch crash in after about 40 seconds, the serene vibe is maintained, a patient sway holding some tension but keeping steady to a sustained final rumble and another few seconds of quiet. There isn’t a physical pressing of Circadian Meditations yet, though one can only imagine it’s bound for the aforementioned vinyl if not both that and CD (I’ll be the last holdout hoping for CD), but it’s worth noting that the experience of “The Dawn” into “Black C” would be completely different were the album to be broken up onto two sides. In the linear, digital version, it’s a sudden kick after a moment of peace. If one had to flip a record between, to be pulled out of that moment by the physical act might play into the effectiveness of “Black C”‘s swaggering launch.

Read more »

I had to look up how long it’s been since Mammatus last released an album. According to the Excel file in which I carefully log each new addition to my collection according to artist, title, year of release, label, method of acquisition (promo or retail, sometimes gift), format and label catalog number, The Coast Explodes, their second album, came out in 2007 on Holy Mountain (catalog number 8516, if you’re curious). As it was preceded in 2006 by Mammatus‘ self-titled debut, it’s all the more striking that it’s taken six years for the band’s third album to manifest. Nonetheless, the day has arrived, and Heady Mental has been released on LP via Spiritual Pajamas for public consumption.

Mammatus had some decent momentum in the works coming off the second record, but six years is a long time. Heady Mental brings three new, probably extended tracks, and can be ordered through Spiritual Pajamas here by anyone inclined.

Here’s more info on the LP:

Mammatus / Heady Mental

Spiritual Pajamas

If you’ve seen mammatus clouds in person, you probably noticed the way those massive formations hang heavy like wilting and bulbous gray-blue sacs, bubbling from heaven towards us. Curiously, as monstrous as they look, these gentle giants are not portents of a storm; they cradle the sky, high above where they belong. How can something so heavy float?

If you’ve seen Mammatus the band in concert, you probably noticed how visual their sound is. Guitarist Nicholas Emmert sports a one-piece full-body flight-suit, bassist Chris Freels dons a space cape, and drummer Aaron Emmert steers the ship, staring straight ahead with flashing laser eyewear. The homespun wizard-cum-trippy-dad-at-a-campfire look that they’ve adopted softens the blow of the heavy aural trickery afoot.

Heady Mental is the perfect title for the third Mammatus album, for it rests heavily in the moldy caverns of heavy metal history, but doesn’t get too comfortable before revealing its true colors. This is music for flight, music for the sky, and music for the things that lie beyond. These men are searching for the source through sound. Repetitions of themes with variants spread over four separate songs that act as a whole. Heady Mental functions as a soundtrack to the Mammatus Brain: Heavy / Airy, Earth / Sky, Man / Creator, Complete and Grok’d.

For the obligatory band reference, one could start by imaging what The Fucking Champs’ IV would have sounded like if they had been more into the McLaughlin / Santana LP Love, Devotion, Surrender instead of Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind.

1. Brain Drain
2. Main Brain
3. Brainbow / Brain Train

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mammatus/78621323321
http://midheaven.com/item/heady-mental-by-mammatus-lp

Mammatus, “The Coast Explodes” from The Coast Explodes (2007)

For over half a decade, Dallas, Texas, doom metal trio Elliott’s Keep have paid homage to fallen comrade Glenn Riley Elliott, the three-piece of Kenneth Greene (bass/vocals), Jonathan Bates (guitar) and Joel Bates (drums) having made their debut with 2008’s In Medias Res (review here). In some ways, that album has proven to be the blueprint for everything Elliott’s Keep have done since. Released on Brainticket, it established Elliott’s Keep as a powerfully metallic act running an electric current of Solitude Aeturnus-style traditional American doom metal through their songs. The ensuing follow-up on the same label, Sine Qua Non (review here), was more cohesive and more metal, but crucially, more confident in establishing its darkened course.

Elliott’s Keep‘s third album, the forthcoming Nascentes Morimur, holds to some of the band’s established traditions. It has a Latin title (meaning, “From the moment we’re born, we die”), as well as artwork with a castle keep on the front cover, and it sure enough taps into trad doom and metallic elements from what I’ve heard of it, but like last time around, there’s also progression on the part of the band. And since they returned to record with J.T. Longoria (Solitude Aeturnus, Absu, Mercyful Fate), that progression comes through with clarity and a professionally crisp presentation that’s still heavy as all hell. For example, take the closing track of the CD’s total nine, “Gates Beyond.”

What impresses most about the song isn’t necessarily that it expands the band’s sonic palette by incorporating violin alongside Greene‘s mournful vocals, but how well that expansion blends with the strength in the songwriting. Yeah, “Gates Beyond” is interesting, but it’s also quality doom, and I feel like all too often the one is sacrificed in service of the other (or the other to the one, as it were). Elliott’s Keep have been able to hold firm to the parts of their processes they want to maintain and at the same time bring in new ideas and ultimately change the output in a natural way. “Gates Beyond” proves that, five-years on from their first record, Elliott’s Keep are able to bend their sound to their will. They’re the masters of their own fate.

And that being the case, all the better that I have the opportunity to premiere “Gates Beyond” in advance of the album release. Check it out on the player below, and please enjoy:

[mp3player width=480 height=150 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=elliotts-keep-gates-beyond.xml]

Elliott’s Keep‘s Nascentes Morimur is due in December and will be available on CD/digital. More info at the following links.

Elliott’s Keep on Thee Facebooks

Brainticket Records

Their debut demo in the works since 2011, Little Rock, Arkansas, four-piece Napalm Christ released 2012 Demo just last month on tape through the UK’s Goatprayer Records (info here). Well, I guess the world was just waiting for it, since in addition to getting picked up by that label for release, the band has also signed to A389 Recordings to issue the demo — which presumably will get a retitling of some sort, or, you know, not — and their full-length debut, both of which can be expected in 2014.

More to come, but for now, here’s the PR wire with the latest:

NAPALM CHRIST: Little Rock Underlords Sign With A389 Recordings

Vinyl Issue Of Malicious 2013 Demo & Debut LP Slated

A389 Recordings proclaims their new liaison with Arkansas-based underlords, NAPALM CHRIST.

Formed in late 2010, NAPALM CHRIST unites a crew of longtime henchmen who have helped shape the Little Rock area extreme music scene over the past two or more decades. Since the early 1990s, the four horsemen who form NAPALM CHRIST have collectively spent time at war with the mainstream in Rwake, Shredding Corpse, Pale Unearthed, Shitfire, Witch’s Tit and others. In this cult they unify their hateful ways and debauchery-ridden tactics into a volatile brew of charged-up, doom/grind-influenced death metal, reeking of days past, yet with enough potency to give fair warning of much darker days to come.

Initiated as a side-project, things got out of control, and NAPALM CHRIST began infecting the planet with recorded material, thus far accumulated in a series of random online demos, singles and comp inclusions. The latter of said demos was released via Bandcamp in June 2013, and that’s when A389 caught a whiff of the band’s trail. Recorded by Alan Wells with assistance from Keith Bracy in Little Rock, and mastered by Collin Jordan at Boiler Room Mastering in Chicago, and masked with illustrations by Dennis Lee Hughes, A389 will manifest this half-hour of disturbing anthems into an official 12″ vinyl release, followed by their debut LP later in the year. Exact street dates on both pending releases will be announced in the coming weeks. For now stream the entire 2013 Demo HERE.

NAPALM CHRIST:
Kiffin Rogers (Rwake) – guitar, vocals
Michael Lawrence (Witches Tit, Shitfire) – guitar
Alan Wells (Shitfire, ex-Rwake) – bass, vocals
David Sroczynski (Shredded Corpse) – drums

2013 Demo Track Listing:
1. Idols of Evil
2. Life is Dimming
3. Reclaimed by the Earth
4. Nuclear Holy War
5. Despoilment of Will
6. Burning Away the Scourge

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Napalm-Christ/155428467808655
http://napalmchrist.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/napalm-christ
https://www.youtube.com/user/NapalmChristAR/videos

Napalm Christ, 2013 Demo

Whatever else Legion of Andromeda are, they’re fucked. Chances are, even just from reading that, you have an impression in your head of what it means. Chances also are that that impression isn’t nearly fucked enough. We’re talking megafucked. The Tokyo duo of  vocalist -R- and guitarist/programmer -M- have clearly crawled out of some desolate hellscape and they arrive at the surface armed with psychotic churn, pig grunts, a Christophe Szpajdel logo (remind me to sit down one day and tell you about my dream of asking him to design an art deco logo for this site) and brutality rarely endeavored in doom. The four tracks of their self-released, self-titled debut will simply be too much for some, maybe most, listeners, but for a select few, the oppressive tones and front-and-center bludgeoning will fit just right.

The included songs, “Cosmo Hammer,” “Overlord of Thunder,” “Sociopathic Infestation” and “Fist of the Galaxy,” are placed in order from shortest to longest, and the most discernible vocals throughout are the quick grunts between lines of “Cosmo Hammer” and the 10-minute closer. Beyond that, it’s either super-low growls or higher, still mid-range screams, and what words there are are reduced to their basic syllables much the same way percussion is reduced to bell hits, programmed kick thud and cruel repetitions. Make no mistake: Legion of Andromeda‘s self-titled only runs about 31 minutes long, but you feel every second of it. There’s no zone-out option — the two-piece want you awake to feel every inhumane moment. There’s no letup, no ambient moment to let listeners catch their breath. Nothing of the sort. From the moment it starts until it’s over, Legion of Andromeda is an exercise in aural sadism. By the time “Fist of the Galaxy” rounds out, you’ve been duly punched by it.

As to what might drive a person to this kind of madness, I won’t dare speculate, but suffice it to say that the backpatch-worthy tortures that Legion of Andromeda conjure have an underlying psychic violence that might even be more unsettling than the music itself. They vary the pace some, though “Cosmo Hammer” and “Sociopathic Infestation” seem to be using the same tempo — the sound is full, but the elements involved are minimal, so it stands out — and “Overlord of Thunder” might be more death than doom as a result of being the fastest of the bunch, while “Fist of the Galaxy” is the slowest right up until the end, but really, these are minute distinctions. What’s on tap with Legion of Andromeda is a front-to-back ride through the darkest recesses of violent thought. It’s not about what they’re doing in a given moment so much as the extreme and overwhelming terrors they concoct with the whole.

And those are fittingly nightmarish. I don’t know how Legion of Andromeda might expand on this form and still manage to keep the minimalist sensibility that pervades the self-titled, but for the oppressive atmosphere created across these four cuts — gouges, really — they warrant the attention to find out. Again, it’ll be too much for most, but those who are up to it will appreciate having their consciousness chiseled away that much more.

Legion of Andromeda, Legion of Andromeda (2013)

Legion of Andromeda on Thee Facebooks

Legion of Andromeda on Bandcamp

Trading singers and covering industrial pioneers, Kowloon Walled City and Batillus have united in a bi-coastal split 7″ that will be the third in a series put out by Brutal Panda Records. Fade Kainer of Batillus joins Kowloon Walled City for a rendition of “Anthem” by Godflesh — no word on whether it will synch up with Jesus Christ Superstar as well as the original, but one can hope — and Scott Evans will join Batillus to take on Ministry‘s “Lava.” Sound like a neat idea? It is.

The PR wire has more info, band links and the goods on where a pre-order for the 7″, due out on Dec. 10, can be placed, so get up if you wanna get down:

KOWLOON WALLED CITY / BATILLUS Announce Split 7″

San Francisco’s KOWLOON WALLED CITY and Brooklyn’s BATILLUS have teamed up for a split 7″ of cover songs as part of the the third release in Brutal Panda Records’ split 7″ series.  Recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, CA and mixed by Scott Evans at Antisleep, the split features KWC playing a cover of the Godflesh classic “Anthem” with Fade Kainer of BATILLUS on vocals.  Side B features BATILLUS covering Ministry’s “Lava” with Scott Evans of KWC on vocals.

The split will be officially released on December 10th and is available for pre-order here.  Also released in the 7″ series were splits from BLACK TUSK / FIGHT AMP and HELMS ALEE / LADDER DEVILS.  The fourth and final release will be a split between WHORES and RABBITS with details to emerge soon.

Kowloon Walled City on Facebook
Kowloon Walled City on Bandcamp

Batillus on Facebook
Batillus on Bandcamp

Kowloon Walled City, Container Ships (2012)