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Throat Premiere “Clean Cleaner” from Eolian Empire’s (We’ve Got) Fiends in Low Places: Heavy Vibes Internationale Compilation

throat (Photo by Heikki Tuomas)

The first various artists release from Eolian Empire was 2013’s (We’ve Gotta) Keep Our Heads, a 26-track look at the unrealistically fertile creative ground in the label’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. Having covered Portland, all that’s left is the rest of the world, so with the promise and delivery of “Heavy Vibes Internationale,” Eolian is planning on Feb. 3 to issue (We’ve Got) Fiends in Low Places, which brings together bands from the US and Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and elsewhere, 15 decimation-prone cuts of noise and doom that more than make for a fitting answer to Keep Our Heads thanks to inclusions from the likes of ArabrotMeadowsThe Great SabatiniThroat and others.

It’s the 30th release for Eolian, and they don’t seem to have made it easy for themselves. (We’ve Got) Fiends in Low Places, aside from the nightmarish task of drawing together an international cast of bands toward a singular purpose, pounds and seethes with various forms of extremity and heavy, a punkish undercurrent and spirit pervading in attitude if not always in sound.we've-got-friends-in-low-places There is, it probably doesn’t need to be said, no shortage of sludge, but when it comes to Turku, Finland, four-piece Throat, their “Clean Cleaner” sounds more geared toward boiling sludge down to its component punk, heavy rock and tonally-weighted doom than simply plugging in, playing slow and screaming.

What comes across initially somewhere between Rollins-era Black Flag and squibbly grunge shifts into increasingly malevolent purposes as the five minutes plays out, finally arriving — via feedback — at a thrillingly excruciating, tube-melting crawl that makes up most of the song’s second half before closing out. Most impressive is the fluidity of the tempo shift, and how Throat don’t stop, don’t play it up. How they just slow the fuck down, riff out and work hard to make it sound as vicious as possible. It’s one of more than several admirable examples of genre transmigration on (We’ve Got) Fiends in Low Places, but as a general example of what the powers behind Eolian are into, I think it works well to show there’s more to do with noise than simply beating listeners over the head with it.

(We’ve Got) Fiends in Low Places: Heavy Vibes Internationale is out Feb. 3 on Eolian Empire. More at the links and in the PR wire info that follow Throat‘s “Clean Cleaner,” which you can find on the player below:

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This special collection marks a new low for the Eolian horde, since the entire roster to date has yielded only Portland-centric audio carnage, while FIENDS IN LOW PLACES features a glut of output from the Eolian clan’s caustic cronies from around the globe; a gnarled calling card, with more than fifty minutes of champions of the international heavy underground in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Fifteen bands bash away on fifteen stark, aggressive, noise-laden tunes worked over with smarts and wicked humor on this compilation of exclusive tracks, an eclectic and electric collection of heavy, noisy, weird, outsider, and underground music from around the world. THROAT (Finland), ARABROT (Norway), HEALTH PROBLEMS (USA), MoE (Finland), THE GREAT SABATINI (Canada), DEAD (Australia), BASTARD OF THE SKIES (England), HOMBRE MALO (Norway), SAME-SEX DICTATOR(USA), TEEPH (USA), CYBERNE (Japan), TIMEKILLER (Japan), ELEPHANT RIFLE (USA), BATPISS (Australia), and MEADOWS (England) take you on a wild trip through twisted noise rock, bludgeoning sludge, psychotic metal, blackened hardcore, and damaged punk, each act’s warped worldview in full effect. Taken together, FIENDS paint an ugly, multidimensional portrait of the darkness lurking wherever you may go.

FIENDS IN LOW PLACES is the sequel and companion compilation to Eolian’s (We’ve Gotta) KEEP OUR HEADS: Heavy Vibes from Portland, Oregon, which featured twenty-six heavy Portland bands. Like on KEEP OUR HEADS, the “fiends” on FIENDS IN LOW PLACES were drawn from friends playing off-the-wall heavy music in overlapping scenes, scenes this time spread throughout the world. Interrelated through shows, tours, and friends, these bands have passed each other in the night for years, slowly worming their way through the underground via interconnected tunnels deep below the mainstream, an independent global network of heaviness beholden to no one. Comforting or discomforting, FIENDS IN LOW PLACES at least affirms that the Eolian heads are not the only ones this fucked up, and in an age when many are looking back with nostalgia for the lost and forgotten weirdo bands of yesteryear, it’s good to know we can find pigfucking goodness all around the world right now and no doubt for years to come. So find your “fiends” and support the lost underground of tomorrow, today.

FIENDS IN LOW PLACES is available for will see cassette and digital release on February 3rd, 2015.

FIENDS IN LOW PLACES: Heavy Vibes Internationale Track Listing:
1. MEADOWS “Gobshite”
2. SAME-SEX DICTATOR “Mass Krusader”
3. ARABROT “The Libertine”
4. THROAT “Clean Cleaner”
5. CYBERNE “Pozes”
6. HEALTH PROBLEMS “A Stuck Horse”
7. BASTARD OF THE SKIES “Brass Cattle”
8. THE GREAT SABATINI “Slow Jam”
9. BATPISS “Heavy Smoke (Stoned to Death)”
10. TEEPH “Church Vape Sesh”
11. HOMBRE MALO “The Fall”
12. TIMEKILLER “Sick of Myself”
13. MOE “Where’s the DJ”
14. ELEPHANT RIFLE “Frat Poison”
15. DEAD “Rabbits”

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Throat’s website

Eolian Empire’s website

Eolian Empire on Bandcamp

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