Here’s one to fry your friggin’ brains: Saviours released their Warship EP a decade ago. 2005. In fact, the upcoming Palace of Vision, which also serves as their debut on Listenable Records after a long stint on Kemado, will be their fifth full-length album. Also their first in four years, but five records in a decade — actually nine years, as their debut LP, Crucifire, arrived in 2006 — is still a more than solid track record, and while I think the Oakland, CA, heavy thrash rockers remain a somewhat underrated entity on the East Coast, their material has remained consistent in its level of impact over that span, growing more complex without giving up its hard-hitting feel.

Their newly-unveiled “Burning Shrine” is the centerpiece of the Billy Anderson-recorded Palace of Vision, so presumably it will give a decent sense of where Saviours are a decade later. Release date for the album is Oct. 30.

From the PR wire:

SAVIOURS To Release Palace Of Vision Full-Length This October Via Listenable Records

This Fall, California metallers, SAVIOURS, will drop the molten fruits of their new full-length this Fall via a new partnership with France’s Listenable Records. Titled Palace Of Vision, their first full-length in four years was captured at Type Foundry in Portland, Oregon with the inimitable Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Brothers Of The Sonic Cloth, Eyehategod, Taurus, Ommadon etc.) and boasts nine tracks of SAVIOURS’ signature brand of towering riffs, colossal rhythms, infectious guitar harmonies and an obsession with the end of times, the occult, psychedelics and the arcane. “It’s a natural and logical continuation of where we left off with [2011’s] Death’s Procession,” said drummer Scott Batiste of the offering. “There are some doomy crushers and faster ragers.” As an added bonus, the record comes sheathed in the fittingly dark, intricately transfixing cover renderings of Derrick Snodgrass (Obliterations, Lecherous Gaze).

Palace Of Vision Track Listing:
1. The Mountain
2. Flesh Of Fire
3. Devil’s Crown
4. Palace Of Vision
5. Burning Shrine
6. Hell’s Floor
7. The Beast Remains
8. Cursed Night
9. The Seeker

In related news, SAVIOURS will bring their riffs to the stage with a pair of east coast/west coast fest performances with additional live incursions to be announced in the coming weeks.

SAVIOURS:
9/05/2015 Cosmic Sonic Rendezvous Festival @ The Wick – Brooklyn, NY
11/1/3015 Day Of The Shred Festival @ The Observatory – Santa Ana, CA

Still building upon the foundation that Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and Motörhead laid, SAVIOURS enters their second decade in a new partnership with French label Listenable Records. Rooted in hardcore punk but preferring to cruise in outer space, the lysergic of SAVIOURS hessians have always brought a ton of swing and swagger to their forward-charging heavy metal. The band melds sounds from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, progressive rock, and proto-doom, and delivers it all with a snarling West Coast hardcore edge. The result is an absolute beast of a sound that is all SAVIOURS’ own.

Since the 2005 release of SAVIOURS’ debut EP, Warship, the band has worked relentlessly, touring North America, Europe, and Japan with the likes of Mastodon, Corrosion Of Conformity, The Sword, High On Fire, Saint Vitus and Clutch. In a few short years, SAVIOURS have risen to become stalwarts of the world’s metal scene, ambassadors of an aggressive-yet-stoned West Coast vibe, inspired by the ’70s but totally real and relevant in 2015.

SAVIOURS:
Austin Barber – guitar, vocals
Sonny Reinhardt – guitar, vocals
Scott Batiste – drums
Andy Anderson – bass

Palace Of Vision will be released via Listenable Records on October 30th, 2015. Preorders to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Saviours/142771603462
http://www.killforsaviours.blogspot.com
http://www.saviours.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/listenablerecs
http://www.listenable.net

Saviours, “Burning Shrine”

Helmed by brothers Wayne and Joseph Rudell, the Arizona-based Borderland Fuzz Fiesta has announced its second installment will take place on Feb. 26 and 27, 2016. The Rudells, who double (and triple, I suppose) in Sierra Vista outfits Powered Wig Machine and Fuzz Evil hosted the first Borderland Fuzz Fiesta earlier this year and pulled in the formidable likes of Wo Fat, Mos Generator and Fireball Ministry to headline the bill, which also had Powered Wig Machine, Goatroper, Skulldron, Yeti Ender, Asimov, Conqueror Worm and Methra on its packed one-day lineup.

Immediately the next Borderland Fuzz Fiesta will expand the scope. Doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that the Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show will make a return appearance — schedule permitting; that dude gets around — and while no bands have been announced yet, already we know that the fest is going from one day to two, so you might say it’s twice as big. Like its predecessor, the 2016 edition will be held in Tucson, which also plays home to the autumnal Southwest Terror Fest, and Wayne Rudell sent along the following announcement confirming the dates.

With the caveat of more to come, here’s what he had to say:

Borderland Fuzz Fiesta Announces Dates for 2016

Tucson, AZ 8/28/2015

“My brother Joseph and I are very thankful for how great the first year of Borderland Fuzz Fiesta turned out. We want to thank all the bands and all the fans from Tucson and afar who helped to make the first year so successful.

“Our goal is to keep making strides with the festival to make it bigger and better each year. We have begun planning next year’s fest; it will be a two day event that takes place in downtown Tucson Feb 26th-Feb 27th. Announcements to come for early band confirmations in the following months.”

Wayne Rudell

https://www.facebook.com/Borderlandfuzzfiesta
BorderlandFuzzfiesta@gmail.com

Fireball Ministry, Live at Borderland Fuzz Fiesta, Feb. 21, 2015

I had been looking forward all week to talking to Monster Magnet‘s Dave Wyndorf for the simple reason that, of anyone you might talk to on any given day, chances are he’s the guy who’s going to have the most interesting story to tell and chances are he’s going to get to telling it with the least amount of bullshit possible. We last spoke in 2013 when Monster Magnet released Last Patrol (review here), what was at the time their strongest outing in more than a decade by my estimation, marked by a return to prominence of the band’s psychedelic and space rock influences. In short, they got weird again. And not a moment too soon.

Their prior outing, 2010’s Napalm Records debut, Mastermind (review here), certainly had its moments but ultimately came across as playing to formula both in songwriting and aesthetic. For a band who’d been so brazen earlier in their career on records like their classic 1991 debut, Spine of God, or even 1998’s fourth outing, Powertrip, which set the tone in one way or another for nearly everything Monster Magnet would do until Last Patrol arrived. Prior to that album, it seemed like a changing heavy rock climate had left them behind, and so it was even more encouraging when, instead of pressing ahead after Last Patrol and essentially working under a new formula, Wyndorf and his studio partner, guitarist Phil Caivano, got even weirder, reworking material from Last Patrol, tripping it further out and pushing even deeper into space on last year’s unexpected release, Milking the Stars (review here).

If Milking the Stars proved anything at all, it was that anyone who thought they knew what Monster Magnet were going to do next — fans, critics, whoever — were dead wrong, and the upcoming Cobras and Fire (out Oct. 9 on Napalm; review pending) follows that impulse even deeper. In concept, it does to Mastermind essentially what Milking the Stars did to Last Patrol; it reimagines the songs and gives them a new context. The difference is the songs from Mastermind had a much longer way to go to get to where they are on Cobras and Fire, which between the brand new sleazed-out opener “She Digs that Hole” and the Temptations-gone-Hawkwind cover “Ball of Confusion” makes even the most whacked-out jams on the last album seem tame.

Reworking cuts like “Time Machine” and “The Titan Who Cried Like a Baby” — now just “The Titan” — as instrumentals broadens the context further, but the strength of Cobras and Fire is as much about the quality of what’s there as what’s done with it. “When the Planes Fall from the Sky,” “Gods and Punks,” and “Hallucination Bomb” were strong tracks to start with — had good bones, you might say if they were a house you were interested in buying — but their stretched, twisted, morphed into new identities for themselves and the album as a whole, the headphone-worthiness of which bleeds from every minute of its hour run, right down to the Joe Barresi-assembled mashup, “I Live behind the Paradise Machine,” which rounds out on a boldly atmospheric note, sending Cobras and Fire out not with a bang, or with a whimper, but with the realization that there’s a whole world out there and as much as ever, something about it just doesn’t fit.

Wyndorf has a keen talent for phrasing, as anyone who’s ever read his lyrics can attest. In the interview that follows, he talks as much if not more about the conditions in which artists create today as about these songs or bringing Chris Kosnik in on bass for the live incarnation of the band with lead guitarist Garrett Sweeny, Wyndorf, Caivano, and drummer Bob Pantella, but I consider it all relevant to not just this record, but to where Monster Magnet are headed from here as they continue to move forward to their inevitable next full-length, next tour, etc. Basically, each ramble is a fucking treasure, and as much as you want to dig in, you can. In the end, if you can’t get down, it’s your loss.

Complete Q&A is 9,200-plus words. It follows after the jump. Enjoy.

Read more »

Well, there go those Melvins boys, reunitin’ with Jared Warren and Coady Willis from Big Business to go tour Europe and the UK. Doin’ stuff that’s unexpected and probably puttin’ out records that despite being experimental as hell still sound just like the Melvins. You know how they do. Probably better than me.

I didn’t realize the Midi Theater in Tilburg was reopened. Shows what I know.

And oh hey, the Melvins. They also have an unreleased album from 1998 or sometime thereabouts coming out I saw something about the other day. I don’t know. The rest of the world keeps up on the Melvins so hard, sometimes I feel redundant for even a minimal effort to try.

But anyway, here. Have fun, kids:

MELVINS EUROPEAN TOUR COMMENCING SEPTEMBER 2015

The Melvins shall be welcomed back to Europe with open arms this September and October, with a series of live dates commencing Sept 13th in the UK in Bristol. The band shall be performing as a four-piece, joining forces again with Jared Warren and Coady Willis of Big Business. Having released three full-length LP’s together, Warren and Willis also performed on the band’s The Bulls & The Bees EP, which was recently re-leased as a split alongside Electroretard. This 13 song album features both releases on one CD, available for the first time as a package. The quartet also collaborated with a series of guest stars on their 2013 covers album Everybody Loves Sausages.

Confirmed tour dates include performances across Europe, with more shows, and support, still to be announced. See below for the dates that have been confirmed so far:

Melvins European Tour
Sept 13, 2015 – Bristol, England – Exchange
Sept 14, 2015 – Brighton, England – Concorde 2
Sept 15, 2015 – Tilburg, The Netherlands – Midi Theater – Incubate Festival
Sept 16, 2015 – Tilburg, The Netherlands – Midi Theater – Incubate Festival
Sept 18, 2015 – Angers, France – Le Chabada (Levitation France Festival)
Sept 19, 2015 – Paris, France – Le Bataclan
Sept 20, 2015 – Belfort, France – La Poudriere
Sept 21, 2015 – Cologne, Germany – Underground
Sept 22, 2015 – Hamburg, Germany – Logo
Sept 23, 2015 – Bremen, Germany – Lagerhaus
Sept 24, 2015 – Berlin, Germany – Berghain
Sept 25, 2015 – Leipzig, Germany – UT Connewitz
Sept 26, 2015 – Prague, Czech Republic – Futurum
Sept 27, 2015 – Budapest, Hungary – A38
Sept 28, 2015 – Vienna, Austria – Arena
Sept 29, 2015 – Zagreb, Croatia – Mochvara
Sept 30, 2015 – Bologna, Italy – Locomotiv
Oct 01, 2015 – Milan, Italy – Leoncavallo
Oct 02, 2015 – Feyzin, France – L’Epicerie Moderne
Oct 03, 2015 – Pratteln, Switzerland – Z7 Konzertfabrik (Up In Smoke Festival)
Oct 05, 2015 – Munich, Germany – Feierwerk/Hansa 39
Oct 06, 2015 – Frankfurt, Germany – Zoom
Oct 08, 2015 – Reading, England – Sub 89
Oct 09, 2015 – Manchester, England – Gorilla
Oct 10, 2015 – London, England – Electric Ballroom

The Melvins also released Hold It In last October, the 12-song album pairs Osborne and Crover with Butthole Surfers’ JD Pinkus and Paul Leary.

www.facebook.com/melvinsarmy
www.twitter.com/melvinsdotcom
http://ipecac.com/

Melvins, Live in Louisville, Kentucky, 2015

If it seems like a lot of records are hitting right at the end of October, you’re right. Add Corrections House to your list with Vhöl, Baron, Saviours, Hooded Menace, All Them Witches, and With the Dead and Kylesa earlier in the month — as well as seven or eight others I’m sure I can’t think of off the top of my head — as the dark, semi-industrial supergroup will issue their second album, Know How to Carry a Whip, via Neurot on Oct. 23. And if you think there’s any chance Corrections House will have trouble sticking out from the pack, you probably didn’t hear their debut, Last City Zero. I won’t even feign an attempt at speculation as to what the second record might sound like, but it doesn’t seem daring in the slightest to imagine it’ll make its impact felt.

The PR wire brings art and album details:

CORRECTIONS HOUSE To Unleash Know How To Carry A Whip Full-Length This October Via Neurot Recordings; Artwork + Track Listing Undraped

“Who made Hell… Hell made Who…” – “I Was Never Good At Meth,” CORRECTIONS HOUSE

CORRECTIONS HOUSE will unleash their long-anticipated, sophomore full-length, Know How To Carry A Whip, this October via Neurot Recordings. Darker, denser, and more despairing than their 2013-issued Last City Zero predecessor, the nine-track, forty-five-minute audio apocalypse was captured by the band’s own Sanford Parker (Minsk) and recently institutionalized minister of propaganda, Seward Fairbury, in Vietnam. The record boasts a guest appearance by Negative Soldier and finds CORRECTIONS HOUSE – which features the fiery lineup of Parker, Fairbury, Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) and Mike IX Williams (Eyehategod) — at their most punishing, painting electronic mosaics of deviance and decadence with brushes made of bristles of the damned.

Immersed in experiences of longing and loneliness from the depths of their collectively decaying hearts, each movement contained within CORRECTIONS HOUSE’s Know How To Carry A Whip reveals a new, unsettling sentiment of danger, paranoia and looming defeat. An underlying theme of confinement and release bridges each track. Atmospheric and haunting; hypnotic and pulsing, songs writhe and wither, decay and peel. Distorted, doomed and oft static sodden, discordant and tribal, twined around Williams’ unassailable manic street preacher prose and intermittently juxtaposed by the smooth, cradling sounds of Lamont’s lingering saxophone, Know How To Carry A Whip is at once bleak, grey, glacially devastating and metaphysically cathartic. “The music is simultaneously suffocating and freeing,” expounds Kelly, “but it also has the energy of a whirling dervish.”

In a rare, lucid skype transmission from the mental facility in which he currently resides. Fairbury further elaborates of the production, “the songs typically originate from the loops and beats that are generated from Sanford, then the skeleton of riffs are built by Scott and Bruce. Mike IX adds his profound observations and I do the final production. These new songs are far more developed and fluid then the first record. There is a prevailing groove that dominates.” (Fairbury, who was missing briefly last year, obsessed with seeking clarity and understanding beyond Who, What and Why we are to ultimately expose The Truth, continues his downward spiral towards madness and despair. Allegedly plotting an elaborate escape, Fairbury plans to rejoin CORRECTIONS HOUSE in their systematic propagation of auditory abuse later this year.)

Know How To Carry A Whip Track Listing:
1. Crossing My One Good Finger
2. Superglued Tooth
3. White Man’s Gonna Lose
4. Hopeless Moronic
5. Visions Divide
6. The Hall Of Cost
7. When Push Comes To Shank
8. I Was Never Good At Meth
9. Burn The Witness

CORRECTIONS HOUSE methodically creates and destroy through sonic disease and transcendent musical deconstruction. All things in all ways. There is nothing else. Know How To Carry A Whip will be released worldwide on October 23rd, 2015 via Neurot Recordings.

http://www.facebook.com/CorrectionsHouse
http://www.neurotrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/neurotrecordings

Corrections House, “Bullets and Graves” official video

King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)

An observation by King Crimson, and a brilliant one at that. The first time I heard King Crimson‘s 1969 debut, In the Court of the Crimson King was on the flight home from my honeymoon. I was 23, and while by some standards that was late to encounter the record, it’s a setting I wouldn’t have traded a decade for, returning from my first time out of the country, The Patient Mrs. sitting next to me as I loaded the disc into the bulky CD player I’d continue to use for years afterwards — 23-year-old me is a little disappointed every time 33-year-old me plays a song on my phone — the swells of the closing semi-title-track “Court of the Crimson King” matching the puffy whites and greys of clouds outside the aircraft window. It’s an association I’ll always have with the first King Crimson record, and that may well be part of why I consider it among the best albums I’ve ever heard, but sentiment aside, I think even the most objective observer would have to be taken aback by just how much ground the UK band — the lineup of Robert Fripp (guitar), Michael Giles (drums, backing vocals, percussion), Greg Lake (vocals, bass), and Ian McDonald (flute, clarinet, sax, keys, harisichord, piano, vibraphone, backing vocals, etc.) — were able to break on their debut release. Out through Island Records in the UK and Atlantic in the US for its original pressing, its 44 minutes continue to serve as a blueprint for the founding consciousness that typifies nearly every strain of progressive rock. It’s the higher consciousness that all those acid-heads were trying to attain.

King Crimson are probably more known for 1974’s Red, or their 1981 post-hiatus return, Discipline, which in many ways set the tone for everything that followed it, but In the Court of the Crimson King makes for an even more striking listen because it’s as much about its melodies as its experimentalism. From the jagged insistence of “21st Century Schizoid Man” — a landmark in itself and a defining moment for the band — through the closer’s spacious roll and minimalist interplay, King Crimson were beyond just freaking out. Every texture in the mellotron-infused “Moonchild,” and every pseudo-militaristic drum stop in “Epitaph” has its companion sense of melody, and the work as a whole is as gorgeous as it is complex. The dreamy wisps of “I Talk to the Wind” are much stronger for it, and while King Crimson would ultimately become more of a show of technicality and genre-defining progressive rhythms under various lineups incorporating the likes of guitarist/vocalist Adrian Belew, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Bill Bruford — nothing against that band, those players or anyone else who might have “I played ‘x’ in King Crimson” on their resumé — this earliest incarnation of the group was unafraid to complement all that distinguishing class with simple sweetness, and that was something that they’d never quite do in the same way again. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen to the early part of “Moonchild.”

Of course, that’s not to belittle the band’s subsequent accomplishments or what Greg Lake would go on to do with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, or what Fripp continues to do with the modern version of King Crimson — which if I recall correctly featured no fewer than three drummers on their most recent US tour; I was sorry I missed it — just to highlight the fact that In the Court of the Crimson King is something special and it was a shortlived moment in the band’s ultimate trajectory. I can’t imagine this post is anyone’s first time hearing it, but if it is or if you’re just revisiting, fair enough. I can’t imagine this version posted on YouTube will be there all that long before it gets taken down, so if nothing else, consider this a recommendation to take your copy off the shelf — CD, vinyl, whatever it might be — and give it another look, or if you don’t have a copy, to get one. It’s one of those records that goes a long way toward making a house into a home.

Either way, enjoy.

—

I’ve been thinking this week about the idea of curating. Announcing that I’m putting together that all-dayer for next August in Brooklyn has got me thinking about the various ways in which we curate our existence, the choices we make, the little things we do every day. My conclusion? I’m way fucking in favor. You know what the tradeoff is for all the privacy we’ve thrown out the window in the last two decades, all the data we’ve let be gathered and sold back to us, all the compromises we’ve made on our relationships to media and the relentlessly-cloying-yet-somehow-also-all-controlling corporatocracy in which we live? The tradeoff is the “I don’t want to see this” button.

It’s not quite my favorite thing in the world, but it’s definitely on the list. Imagine a real-life bullshit detector. I used to abhor willful ignorance, as though everyone should make an effort to expose themselves to everything, all the time — the least realistic of expectations. Our brains would explode. Fuck that shit. Life is short, and yeah, you should get out and see the world, but when you come across something you just know is garbage, “I don’t want to see this” comes in real, real handy.

The Patient Mrs. asks me all the time if I’ve seen this or that floating around, the latest horrific thing some Republican candidate said or did. There was a time where the answer would be yes, but now? Not a chance. I barely even pay attention to mass shootings, suicide bombings, war, greed, corruption, etc., anymore. Not when there are show flyers to check out! Is my being interminably beaten down by the needless cruelties we perpetrate on each other going to fix them? Nope. Am I improving myself by being upset by these things? Nope. Okay then.

I’m not saying compassion has no value — unless we’re measuring in terms of pure real-world productivity, which in most cases it does indeed have no value — or that the news isn’t worth keeping up with, but I’m saying that, like the news organizations, we’re fortunate to live in an age in which we’re also able to engage in what media studies calls “agenda setting.” I don’t know what Donald Trump said about Mexican immigrants. I don’t know how many people were blown up today in Baghdad. I do know Baroness have a new album coming out, and I know that the new Graveyard record kicks ass. And I’m perfectly okay with that balance. My agenda has been set.

Perhaps complemented by the revelation of a somewhat troubling tendency to gravitate toward ’90s television (Star Trek spinoffs, MST3K, etc.) and videogames, being able to curate my own life has proven a massive win, and it’s made me more conscious (again, for better and worse) of my decisions and habits, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The rest? Well, I don’t know about it, because I choose not to know. Other people can fret over the fact that nobody’s willing to do anything about climate change, that people on the internet say, write and do stupid, racist, sexist shit, and so on. Other people can protest wars like that’s ever going to stop them. It’s not like meaningful debate is a thing that exists or anyone’s interested in having. So yeah, beat your head against the wall of someone else’s dumbassery. Let me know how many years that adds to your life.

Next week, stay tuned for a Funeral Horse track stream, an initial announcement from Desertfest, reviews of Thera Roya and Uncle Acid and an interview with Monster Magnet‘s frontman, the inimitable Dave Wyndorf. There’s copious news already to go up on Monday about a new record from Saviours and the Melvins‘ next European tour, and I hear there’s an announcement coming from the Borderland Fuzz Fiesta as well, so stay tuned. Much goodness en route.

And if this site is one of the things to which you choose to expose yourself on a regular basis, please know you have my thanks and best wishes.

Great and safe weekend. Please check out the forum and radio stream.

The Obelisk Forum

The Obelisk Radio

I don’t mind telling you I’m going to miss doubly-bassed Portland trio Lamprey. They played their final show on July 25 at what was apparently the birthday of bassist/vocalist Blaine Burnham, and they’ve newly released their last batch of recordings under the simple title of III. Their last album, EP, whatever, it follows behind 2012’s The Burden of Beasts (review here) and 2011’s Ancient Secrets (review here) and rounds out their tenure on a decidedly powerful note of low-end heavy sludge. Comprised of Burnham, bassist Justin Brown and drummer Spencer Norman, they worked in raw form throughout their time together, but III still sounds huge, and it’s an easy argument to say it’s the best work they’ve done.

From the unmitigated stomp-fest of “Iron Awake” (video here) on down to the leads that close “Gaea,” Lamprey remain a standout of Portland’s massively crowded sphere of heavy, and for more than just their extra helping of thick strings. As for the where-are-they-now thing, you won’t have to look too far to find Brown, as he’s stepped into the bassist role for Witch Mountain — they’re on tour this fall with a little band called Danzig — and Burnham is playing drums in Mane of the Cur. Seems likely Norman will resurface at some point too if he hasn’t yet. When, if and what I hear, I’ll let you know.

For now, bye Lamprey and all the best. Glad III got to come out.

Here’s the release info and stream:

They say you should always go out on a high note. Well, even our low notes were pretty fucking high…

Engineered, mixed, and mastered by Adam Pike at Toadhouse Recording Studios.

Cover photo and layout by Spencer Norman.

1. Iron Awake 01:36
2. Harpies 07:35
3. Golden Mean 05:59
4. Nokken 02:57
5. Lament of the Deathworm 06:03
6. Gaea 05:27

Blaine, Spencer and Justin would like to say THANK YOU!!! to JJ Koczan of The Obelisk, Adam Pike of Toadhouse Recording Studio, and June No of the Interwebs for being so excellent to us over these past five years.

https://www.facebook.com/lampreypdx
https://lamprey.bandcamp.com/album/iii

Lamprey, III (2015)

Hey, you know who saw Anathema earlier this year? Me. I did. It was frickin’ great. It wasn’t at a cathedral, but it was at Roadburn, which is about as close as I come to a house of religious worship, so there. The long-running, long-progressing UK outfit had played Liverpool Cathedral only about a month before, however, and it’s that show that will be released as A Sort of Homecoming on Oct. 30 via Kscope. The material is mostly recent, but they manage to sneak a couple older cuts in there too, and if the cover is anything to go by, it looks like the setting is half the point. Look at that ceiling. I’d record a live album too if presented the opportunity.

And the title? Well, they’re from Liverpool, so there you go. Also, I love that Vincent Cavanagh compares it to Erebor. Fantastic.

The PR wire brings copious info and a trailer for the release:

KSCOPE PRESENTS: ANATHEMA’S “A SORT OF HOMECOMING,” A CONCERT FILM BY LASSE HOILE FROM ANATHEMA’S LIVERPOOL CATHEDRAL SHOW

“A Sort of Homecoming” to be released on Blu-ray, 2CD + DVD-V, LP and digital download on October 30

Anathema, one of the U.K.’s most cherished and critically acclaimed rock bands, will release a live Blu-ray/audio collection entitled A Sort of Homecoming on October 30 via Kscope. Directed by Lasse Hoile (Steven Wilson, Katatonia, Opeth), A Sort of Homecoming is a stunning concert film of Anathema’s homecoming show on March 7, 2015 in the spectacular setting of the Liverpool Cathedral. The concert was described by Prog Magazine as “a once in a lifetime experience that words can barely do justice.”

“I’m really happy that this night in particular has been preserved,” commented Anathema guitarist/vocalist, Vincent Cavanagh. “As anyone from Liverpool will tell you, to be given the chance to play the Anglican Cathedral is monumental and a huge honor. The place is absolutely huge. Just look at the cover, it was like doing a gig in Erebor!”

Having previously worked with Anathema on the acclaimed Universal concert film, Lasse Hoile captured the 100 minute acoustic set in high definition against the sensational backdrop of Liverpool Cathedral. Featuring 15 songs selected from the albums Distant Satellites, Weather Systems, We’re Here Because We’re Here, A Natural Disaster and Alternative 4, the ‘Anathema Acoustic’ trio of Daniel Cavanagh, Vincent Cavanagh and Lee Douglas were joined by rhythm section John Douglas and Jamie Cavanagh, alongside their very talented close friend David Wesling on cello who also played on Hindsight (2009) and A Moment In Time (2006). For this exclusive performance the band was also joined by the renowned violinist, Anna Phoebe, on a haunting rendition of “Anathema.” The audio has been produced and mixed by Christer-André Cederberg who worked on Distant Satellites, Universal and Weather Systems, with the cover and booklet artwork featuring the stunning photography from the show and behind the scenes by long time collaborator Caroline Traitler. This is the first Anathema live release to feature a 5.1 audio mix, engineered by Bruce Soord.

Kscope will release A Sort of Homecoming as:

– 4 disc box set: 2 CD concert audio (100 mins), DVD with full concert plus an additional behind the scenes film “A Temporary Peace” and concert on Blu-ray disc. In a deluxe rigid media book with 36 page booklet, presented in a slipcase

– 2CD + DVD-V: The set features the full 100 minute audio and DVD-V of the concert with 5.1 audio mixed by The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord

– Blu-ray disc: The full 100 minute concert plus an additional behind the scenes film “A Temporary Peace” with 5.1 audio mixed by The Pineapple Thief’s Bruce Soord

LP: A gatefold triple 180g black vinyl LP including MP3 download code

Digital: Concert audio only

All formats, excluding digital download, are available to pre-order via the Kscope web-store at: www.kscopemusic.com/store.

1. The Lost Song Part 2
2. Untouchable Part 1
3. Untouchable Part 2
4. Thin Air
5. Dreaming Light
6. Anathema
7. Ariel
8. Electricity
9. Temporary Peace
10. The Beginning And The End
11. Distant Satellites
12. Take Shelter
13. Internal Landscapes
14. A Natural Disaster
15. Fragile Dreams

Anathema will continue to tour throughout the remainder of 2015. A full list of dates can be seen below.

Anathema live…
8/31 – Tokyo, Japan @ Liquid Room
9/01 – Tokyo, Japan @ Liquid Room
9/05 – Sao Paulo, Brazil @ Overload Music Festival
9/07 – Porto Alegre, Brazil @ Opiniao (w/ Paradise Lost)
9/08 – Rio, Brazil @ Circo Voador (w/ Paradise Lost)
9/11 – Atlanta, GA, USA @ Prog Power Festival
10/01 – Moscow, Russia @ Volta
10/02 – Minsk, Russia @ Re:Public
10/03 – St Petersburg, Russia @ Avrora
10/23 – Christchurch, NZ @ Dux Live
10/24 – Auckland, NZ @ Kings Arms
10/27 – Adelaide, AUS @ The Gov
10/29 – Brisbane, AUS @ Triffid
10/30 – Sydney, AUS @ Metro Theatre
10/31 – Melbourne, AUS @ Corner Hotel
11/01 – Perth, AUS @ Rosemount Hotel
11/04 – Manchester, UK @ Manchester Cathedral
11/05 – Paris, France @ Église Saint-Eustache (acoustic)
11/06 – Bochum, Germany (acoustic)
11/07 – Leipzig, Germany @ Täubchenthal (acoustic)
11/09 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg
11/10 – Mannheim, Germany @ Capitol (acoustic)
11/11 – Sofia, Bulgaria @ Royal Bulgaria Hall (acoustic)
11/15 – 11/19 – Miami, FL, USA @ Cruise To The Edge

www.anathema.ws
www.facebook.com/weareanathema
www.twitter.com/anathemamusic
http://www.kscopemusic.com/artists/anathema/

Anathema, A Sort of Homecoming trailer