Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Word just came in from Nashville’s All Them Witches that they’ve finished recording their yet-untitled fourth album. The four-piece hit the road tonight for a few quick dates as a preface to head to Europe for two-hour sets as they herald the coming LP and continue to support last year’s Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), also their debut on New West Records. This is the first I’m hearing about the new All Them Witches, but obviously it’s one to look forward to coming off of their previous outing, so when I get word of a release date, I’ll for sure pass it along. Not sure if it’s mixed/mastered or where they might be in that process, but early 2017 doesn’t seem like an unreasonable expectation going by what we know now.
They sent along this update:
Fall Tour Starts Now!
We are beyond excited for our upcoming headlining tour across the UK and Europe. It has been such a pleasure finally making it overseas, not once, but twice already this year. October will be our third time and we have an amazing set to play for you guys and gals. Expect our set each night to be around 2 hours. Also, we are bringing out Tel Aviv band, The Great Machine. They are insane.
We have all vinyl and cd, plus brand new t-shirt and hoodie designs.
Lastly, we wanted to let you know we just finished our 4th studio album! Can’t give you any more info than that, but we are extremely proud of it and we hope you will listen to it again and again and again. Honestly. We will play at least 2 new ones from the new record this tour.
– ATW 2016 FALL DATES SEPT 27 JJ’s Bohemia Chattanooga, TN SEPT 28 The Earl Atlanta, GA SEPT 29 Marathon Music Works Nashville, TN
UK & Euro tour: OCT 2 Thekla Bristol, UK OCT 3 Deaf Institute Manchester, UK OCT 4 Scala London, UK OCT 6 The Haunt Brighton, UK OCT 7 Brudenell Social Club Leeds, UK OCT 8 The Classic Grand Glasgow, UK OCT 9 Bodega Nottingham, UK OCT 10 Maroquinerie Paris, FR OCT 11 Essigfabrik Koln, DE OCT 12 Logo Hamburg, DE OCT 14 Doornroosje KZ Nijmegen, NL OCT 15 White Trash Berlin, DE OCT 16 Arena Vienna, AT OCT 17 Backstage Halle Munich, DE OCT 18 La Mascotte Zurich, CH OCT 19 Le Romandie Club Lausanne, CH OCT 21 Zappa Antwerpen, BE
OCT 27 The Syndicate Lounge Birmingham, AL OCT 29 Voodoo Music Experience New Orleans, LA
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Do your Tuesday drear a favor and treat it to a run through ‘Broken Movements,’ the new track streaming now to go with the announcement of Oakland atmospheric doomers Worm Ouroboros‘ upcoming third album, What Graceless Dawn, which will be out this winter on Profound Lore. I think you’ll find it’s a more than fitting complement in its pervasive melancholy, melodic resonance and ambient weight. It gets heavy, yeah, or at very least it gets spacious — I wouldn’t call even its loudest moments “crushing” or intended to be so — but even the quiet stretches seem to bear down on you, the unsuspecting listener, who’s just sad because Friday is still so far away. I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, having missed out on their last outing in 2012, so please be on the lookout for more to come.
For now, art and info and audio, courtesy of the PR wire:
WORM OUROBOROS: Dark Ethereal Doom Alchemists To Release What Graceless Dawn Full-Length Via Profound Lore This Winter; New Track Posted
With their third full-length, What Graceless Dawn, dark ethereal doom alchemists WORM OUROBOROS have brought into existence their deepest and most moving work to date. Set for release this December via Profound Lore, the follow-up to 2012’s critically-lauded Come The Thaw LP finds the Oakland-based trio of bassist/vocalist Lorraine Rath (ex-The Gault, Amber Asylum), guitarist/vocalist Jessica Way (Barren Harvest), and drummer Aesop Dekker (Vhol, ex-Agalloch, Ludicra) elevating the WORM OUROBOROS sound to a new echelon of sophistication through their amalgam of morose, 4AD-esque doom, introspective death rock, dark ambient, and enchanting chamber music. Through obsessive bass lines, ambient guitar movements, layers and overtones, the alluring vocal intertwining between Rath and Way, and Dekker’s subtle-yet-procession-like percussion What Graceless Dawn is a sonic vision of tragedy and despair, one of the saddest, most crippling, and gut-wrenching releases in the realm of heavy, dark, introspective music to bring the curtain down on the year.
Recorded and mixed at Oakland’s Earhammer Studios by Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Pallbearer, Noothgrush) Graceless Dawn will see official unveiling on December 2nd, 2016. In the meantime, hear the forlorn sounds of second track, “Broken Movements,” via Profound Lore’s Soundcloud page at THIS LOCATION.
What Graceless Dawn Track Listing: 1. Day 2. Broken Movements 3. Suffering Tree 4. Ribbon Of Shadow 5. (Was It) The Cruelest Thing 6. Night
WORM OUROBOROS formed in June 2007 by Lorraine Rath and Jessica Way. With both musicians already having experience within the Bay Area heavy music scene — Way was previously part of metal band World Eater and Rath being a part of the influential Amber Asylum lineup as well as being co-mastermind of The Gault — WORM OUROBOROS set out to create music which explores the lines between fragility and strength, darkness and light, harmony and discord. Drawing inspiration from many places, including metal, doom, folk, progressive, and dark ambient genres, WORM OUROBOROS creates its own space; a creeping, dark landscape full of murky dreams and emotions. The band would see the inclusion of drummer Aesop Dekker in 2010 who would replace original drummer Justin Green.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Tonight’s the night. Or at least it’s a night. One of 26 on the current European tour of San Diego heavy psych rockers Joy and Vancouver strutters Black Wizard, but it also happens to be the first one, so, you know, that’s not nothing. Joy head overseas supporting their sophomore full-length for Tee Pee, Ride Along! (review here), while Black Wizard made their debut back in February on Listenable Records with their third offering overall, New Waste (review here). I would not at all be surprised if these two wound up jamming onstage together at some point on this trip — if not at all points on this trip — and not that you’d really need another reason to show up, but surely that would be one.
They’ll hit Desertfest Belgium 2016 along the way. Tee Pee posted the dates thusly:
JOY is touring Europe with Black Wizard – mark the dates!
Joy & Black Wizard on tour: 27.09 DE / Oldenburg, MTS Citysound 28.09 DE / Berlin, Urban Spree 29.09 NL / Tilburg, Little Devil 30.09 FR / Caen, Portobello Club 01.10 FR / Tours, TBA 02.10 FR / Bordeaux, TBA 03.10 SP /Oviedo,TBA 04.10 SP / Madrid, Maravillas Club 05.10 SP / Bercelona, Incivic Zone 06.10 FR / St. Etienne, Thunderbird 07.10 CH / Olten, Le Coq D Or 08.10 CH / Kreuzlingen, Horst Klub 09.10 IT / Treviso, Punky Raggae Pub 10.10 SLO / Ilirska Bistrica, Mknž 11.10 SLO / Lubiana, beltinci 12.10 DE / Wurzburg, Immerhim 13.10 DE / Köln, Sonic Ballroom 14.10 BE / Antwerp DESERTFEST 15.10 NL/ Den Haag, Bazart 16.10 DE / Freiburg, White Rabbit 17.10 DE / Karlsruhe, AKK 19.10 AT/ Innsburck, Decentral 20.10 DE / Leipzig, LIWI 21.10 DE / Dresden, Chemiefabrik 22.10 AT /Linz, Kapu 23.10 DE / Halle, Hünermanhattan
Award-winning California psych rock band JOY released its new album, Ride Along!, Friday, April 29 via Tee Pee Records. Produced by vocalist / guitarist Zachary Oakley and recorded at San Diego’s Audio Design Studios (Earthless, Rocket From the Crypt), the album contains nine new JOY compositions and a searing cover of ZZ Top’s “Certified Blues”. Ride Along! features guest contributions from an all-star lineup of Cali psych rock heroes, including Earthless drummer Mario Rubalcaba, Radio Moscow guitarist Parker Griggs and guitarist Brenden Dellar, of Tee Pee labelmates, Sacri Monti.
[Click play above to stream Seremonia’s Pahuuden Äänet in full. Album is out Sept. 30, 2016, on Svart Records.]
Even if one doesn’t speak Finnish, as I most certainly don’t, it’s hard to ignore the engaging oddity that Seremonia have become. Pahuuden Äänet (on Svart) is the fourth album the dark-psych rockers — working with the returning lineup of vocalist Noora Federley, guitarists Teemu Markkula and Ville Pirinen, bassist Ilkka Vekka and drummer/flutist Erno Taipale — have released since their 2012 self-titled debut (track stream here), and it follows last year’s Kristalliarkki (review here, stream here), which only upped the bizarro quotient from 2013’s second offering, Ihminen.
There have been elements consistent throughout their work in songwriting and a penchant for catchy bounce, but each record has found its own personality as well, and the 10-track/40-minute Pahuuden Äänet is no different. While roughly produced with a vintage sound in mind, as all their work has been, and given to a classic sense of boogie in “Sielun Kuolema” (“the death of the soul”) and “Me Kutsumme Sitaä” (“we call it”), there’s a sense of pushing “far out” as far out as far out will go on the brief “Sähkolintu” (“electric bird”), and where Kristalliarkki had its greatest impact in its 15-minute, two-part title-track, Pahuuden Äänet spreads some of that vibe around, so that the seven-minute “Ne Ovat Jo Täällä” (“they are already here”) and the later, six-minute “Riivatut” (“possessed”) both come across as patient, rich in their cultish swirl and still fitting with the overarching flow of the album, which winds up being one of its greatest assets.
They begin with Federley‘s echoing proclamations on “Orjat” (“the slaves”), itself longer than cuts like “Sielun Kuolema,” which immediately follows, and given to a languid initial groove. No strangers to the otherworldly, Seremonia do well throughout Pahuuden Äänet to blend ethereal and terrestrial impulses, but “Orjat” opens the record with particularly hypnotic motion, its second half tripping out instrumentally on effects-laden guitar repetitions, growing washes of noise and a growing sense of the weird-worship to come as the album plays out. As noted, “Sielun Kuolema” plays against this impulse with a faster, more straightforward rush, but the interplay between Markkula and Pirinen and the layering of vocals still makes it a standout, only bolstering its memorable hook. The album’s title itself translates to “the sound of evil,” so it’s no doubt with a sense of irony that the title-track has some of the sweetest sounds to be found herein.
Aside from providing Taipale with a subtle showcase of far-back push, “Pahuuden Äänet” boasts a weepy guitar line and sense of consuming melancholy that suits its place on the record, picking up in its last minute to a space rock thrust that almost seems to be snuck in, like Seremonia were trying to get away with something. It’s that sense of playfulness that makes their material so dangerous and really gives the impression they enjoy what they do. Helps as well that both “Sähkolintu,” with its key/guitar freakout, and “Ne Ovat Jo Täällä,” with its slow-wah drift circa the halfway point and own shift into exploratory madness, are an absolute blast, the latter breaking before five minutes in to gleefully wander beneath a forest canopy of noise that presumably serves as the end of side A.
“Me Kutsumme Sitaä” starts the second half of the tracklisting at as full a speed as Seremonia move on Pahuuden Äänet, the thrust underscored by Vekka‘s bass and Taipale‘s drums nonetheless putting the guitars forward along with Federley‘s reverb-soaked voice. They’ve come to excel at this kind of 45RPM-ready burst, but there’s not much for which I’d trade the creepy bass/flute intro of “Riivatut,” or the forward build that it begins. Just before two minutes in, the song takes off and Seremonia revel in their class-M space impulses, seeming to draw together the various sides they’ve shown already — the boogie, the psych, the experimentalism — it’s all there even before they land in the engulfing wah wash march that ends the track, leading to the standout push of “Kuoleman Planeetta” (“death planet”), less of a speedy shuffle than “Sielun Kuolema” — another cut with a direct reference to “death” in the title; I learned something today — but no less rhythmically engaging in an easy groove ridden to a natural conclusion that in no way overstays its welcome, stopping short to move into the molten, flute-topped start of “Riudut Ja Kuolet” (“squares and killing”), with a spoken-word verse and thudding behind its chanted chorus.
That’s swapped out circa 2:30 in favor of a push derived either from classic rock, classic metal or both (or neither?) that seems to throw out the songwriting rulebook but works all the same, particularly with closer “Uusi Aamu Sarastaa” (“the new morning dawns”) behind it. Perhaps because one might expect Seremonia to finish with another turn of effects and improv-sounding strangeness, “Uusi Aamu Sarastaa” caps the record with a relatively straight-ahead feel — take that, expectation — which is also a noteworthy turnaround from the last album. There are a few here, further proving that while Seremonia have clearly established a sonic niche within quirky, heavy, and psychedelic cult-ish rock, they’re not at all content to rest on that in terms of creative growth. They’ve kept an impressive pace to this point and show no signs of slowing, so it seems only fair to look forward to their next one even while still enjoying Pahuuden Äänet.
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
Polish heavy rockers Sunnata have a new live video out captured at a recent hometown gig in Warsaw that found them opening for none other than Mastodon. Not a bad bill at all to be on. The extended cut “Beasts of Prey” opened Sunnata‘s latest album, Zorya (review here), earlier this year and was among its most striking impressions, and yeah, let’s just say it seems to carry over live as well. The four-piece head out on a European tour beginning Thursday, again in Warsaw, and will play Germany, Belgium, France and the Czech Republic in addition to other shows in Poland as they continue to support Zorya, their most progressive and weighted outing yet.
Dates and more background came down the PR wire:
Ritual heavy merchants SUNNATA on tour across Europe this fall; watch their new video for “Beasts Of Prey” now!
Poland’s ritual heavy unit SUNNATA will embark on their first European tour this fall. The band also released the live video for “Beasts Of Prey”, captured during their Warsaw show with Mastodon.
The band comments: “We are very excited about it! It’s been an awesome year already, but it seems that best is yet about to come. Upcoming european tour is the first result of our cooperation with the Dead Pig Entertainment crew, who are responsible for all our touring activities. They teamed us up with great acts on the road, so expect us to share stages with Yob, Elder, Cough, Black Cobra and local mates from post-metal Obscure Sphinx and Au-Dessus. Don’t miss it. Come, open your mind and experience the sound of Sunnata. Let there be noise.”
To come with this first European tour, SUNNATA will make available a limited LP version of their latest album “Zorya”, to be found at the merch table on each show. The “Zorya” LP comes in gatefold 180g gold vinyl, beautifully illustrated by Ascending Storm.
SUNNATA EUROPEAN TOUR: 29.09 – PL Warsaw, Proxima* 30.09 – PL – Lublin, Graffiti* 01.10 – PL – Kraków, Kwadrat* 02.10 – DE – Leipzig, Haifischbar** 03.10 – BE – Antwerp, Antwerp Music City** 04.10 – FR – Lille, El Diablo** 05.10 – FR – Paris, Glazart % 06.10 – FR – Bron, Jack Jack*** 07.10 – FR – Nantes, Le Ferrailleur*** 08.10 – FR – Tours, The Winchester 10.10 – CZ – Prague, Cross Club** 13.10 – PL – Pozna?, U Bazyla 14.10 – PL – Bielsko-Bia?a, Rudeboy Club*
*with Obscure Sphinx and Sounds like the end of the world **with Au-Dessus ***with Elder and Cough %)with Yob and Black Cobra
After a year and half wisely spent writing and experimenting, and a mere four days in Satanic Audio studios (Thaw, Belzebong, Weedpecker), SUNNATA delivered their second album Zorya, which they describe as “an exploration of impermanent nature of sound, full of rapid changes and distortion overdose” and will soon take over the European continent with a extensive bunch of dates. Let there be noise.
SUNNATA IS Szy – Vocals Gad – Guitars Dob – Bass Rob – Drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on September 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
As one might expect for those following experimentalist noise and space-themed drone impulses, Stupid Cosmonaut have worked at a pretty prolific pace. A single and an EP since last December have led the UK-based four-piece up to the release of Astral Transmissions this week on tape, CD and download, and splitting up the material across five broad, consuming and evocative cuts, they rise to the occasion of their debut album. The whole record is streaming ahead of the actual physical issue date on Friday, but if you want to get a feel for where they’re headed, all you really need to do is click play on the video below for “AT3: Hassium.”
The centerpiece of Astral Transmissions (third of the five inclusions; hence “AT3” in the title), “AT3: Hassium” has its abrasive moments, but at 16 minutes long, it’s the most sprawling single cut on the record from whence it comes. The first two songs have also been given videos, as has most if not all of Stupid Cosmonaut‘s work to-date, and like those, “AT3: Hassium” culls its push from old footage of moonwalks and space missions, voiceovers included over top of the wash of noise that emerges, consumes, and ultimately, recedes. Driven by synth and keys and electronics, it’s not going to be for everybody — there are some genuinely challenging moments — but those who can dig it are going to really dig it, and that kind of thing is always cool by me.
More info follows the video. Enjoy:
Stupid Cosmonaut, “AT3: Hassium” official video
Stupid Cosmonaut are a Bury, Uk-based pseudonymous musical entity consisting of Sam Read, Steven McNamara, Andy Hunt and Matthew Hattersley experimenting with electronic, ambient and psychedelic sounds.
‘Astral Transmissions’ is the dark follow up to Stupid Cosmonaut’s debut cassette release ‘Abstract Concepts’.
“We have arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces”. Carl Sagan
Full album available to download now. Official Cassette Tape/Spotify/iTunes/CD release on the 30th September 2016. Pre-orders being taken now for cassette and cd.
Stupid Cosmonaut are: Sam Read Steve McNamara Matthew Hattersley Andy Hunt
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2016 by JJ Koczan
UK heavy forest rockers Alunah are currently at Skyhammer Studios, embroiled in the process of putting to tape their fourth full-length, Solennial. Venerable purveyors Svart Records will release the album early next year as the follow-up to 2014’s excellent, why-don’t-I-just-go-ahead-and-put-it-on-right-now-okay-I-think-I-will Awakening the Forest (review here), which came out on Napalm, and if you’re not looking forward to hearing why Chris Fielding can bring to Alunah‘s tones, you’ve either never heard the band before, never heard one of his productions before, or both. This is one that will feature prominently on my 2017 most anticipated list. It’s already been on there for a while.
Art is by Adrian Baxter, and you’ll find that, the tracklist, and parts of a bio I wrote below, all filtered down through the PR wire:
ALUNAH UNLEASH FIRST DETAILS OF NEW ALBUM!
‘Solennial’ coming early 2017 on Svart Records!
Hailing from the English Midlands, its finest stoner doom outfit ALUNAH are finally back in the studio and have now unveiled first and exciting details about a brand new album, which is set to see the light of day in early 2017 on Finland’s cult label Svart Records!
The charismatic band with their nature inspired, psychedelic and doomish spirit are currently working in the Skyhammer Studios with CONAN’s Chris Fielding, to record their 4th studio album. But while they do, ALUNAH have now unleashed first and hotly anticipated details from their upcoming record titled ‘SOLENNIAL’!
Cover artwork by Adrian Baxter.
“Adrian Baxter is an artist that has been on our radar for a year or so, his work struck a chord with us as soon as we saw it and we just had to work with him. He took my lyrics and created a masterpiece which encompasses every theme and subject matter from “Solennial”, it was completed quite a while ago so we’re happy it is finally seeing the light of day. This week we will be heading up North to Skyhammer Studio to record the album with Chris Fielding; we always aim to try different things with our music but we’re stepping way outside of our comfort zone this time, in more ways than one. We are very proud of the songs and can’t wait for them to be released.” Vocalist & guitarist of Alunah, Sophie Day, comments.
The tracklist of Solennial will read as follows: 1. The Dying Soil 2. Light of Winter 3. Feast of Torches 4. The Reckoning of Time 5. Fire of Thornborough Henge 6. Petrichor 7. Lugh’s Assembly 8. A Forest
For 10 years, since first coming together back in 2006, Alunah have trafficked in a blend of the earthly and the unearthly. Over the course of their three albums – 2010’s Call of Avernus, 2012’s White Hoarhound and 2014’s Awakening the Forest – the four-piece have been a constant force of progression into an individualised take on psychedelic and organic heft. Their material has never lacked structure or groove, but with the melodic vocals of guitarist Sophie Day ever at the fore, they keep an eye toward the ethereal as well.
As they always do, Alunah are moving forward. Sophie, guitarist David Day, bassist Daniel Burchmore and drummer Jake Mason have just recently signed to Svart Records for the early 2017 release of their fourth album Solennial, which they are currently recording with Chris Fielding (Conan) at Skyhammer Studio, also owned by Conan’s Jon Davis. Following in the footsteps of Svart alums Hexvessel, or Jess and the Ancient Ones, Alunah arrive at Svart Records preceded by a reputation for blending nature worship and heavy vibes with a grace that few can match, basking in a sun-soaked spirit of beauty and decay, folklore and deeply personal expression.
Look for them to expand their sonic palette with their upcoming album Solennial, set to be released in early 2017 on Svart Records, and see them build on what they’ve accomplished before in their rich, engaging sound that seems to be always wandering and never, ever lost.
Alunah live: 20.10.2016 UK – London, Devonshire Arms 21.10.2016 NL – Tilburg, Little Devil 22.10.2016 NL – Into the Void Festival, Leeuwarden 28.10.2016 UK – The Coal Vaults, Coventry
[Click play above to stream ‘Key and Bone’ from Heavy Temple’s debut album, Chassit, out on tape Nov. 19 via Tridroid Records with preorders starting Oct. 3.]
Checking in at four tracks/28 minutes, I felt compelled to ask Heavy Temple whether their new release, Chassit, which is out in November on tape through Tridroid Records with other formats to follow, is a second EP or, in fact, their debut album. 28 minutes is short for a full-length — lest we forget that 30 years ago, Slayer pulled off Reign in Blood in that time — but part of the reason I thought I should ask was because of the flow the Philadelphia three-piece set up between their included tracks: “Key and Bone,” “Ursa Machina,” “Pink Glass” and “In the Court of the Bastard King.” The answer? An album, and I think that’s fair enough.
Since the release of their Ván Records self-titled EP (review here) in 2014 — the same year they formed — bassist/vocalist High Priestess Nighthawk has changed the band’s configuration entirely, and while bringing aboard drummer Siren Tempestas and guitarist Archbishop Barghest no doubt has affected the overall sound, lineup alone simply can’t account for the cohesion of aesthetic that has emerged in what they do. There’s legitimate growth here, and as Heavy Temple cast off some of the trappings of cult rock over time — others hold firm — what they’re finding is an individual presence and style between harder-edged fuzz, classic stoner swing, and more ethereal impulses. Principally though, their material hits with a firm sense of purpose on Chassit in a way that Heavy Temple had not yet found.
That’s not to trivialize the contributions of Tempestas — who rolls out a monster groove on “Ursa Machina” and is the foundation of the aforementioned swing, played with admirable vitality — or the tone of Barghest, which becomes a defining element here from the start of “Key and Bone” onward, rather to say that in the context of the first release, Chassit shows growth from Heavy Temple as a whole and not just because it’s different players making up the band.
It’s well worth noting that over the last couple years I’ve become a fan of their work, so that’s the perspective from which I’m writing — I invited them to play The Obelisk All-Dayer this past August because of that — but as much as the first EP turned heads in their direction, Chassit seems primed to take that a step further, and considering it as their debut full-length, the progression it establishes as already being in progress is both exciting for its future prospects and in its current execution, the shorter, catchier, punchier “Key and Bone” with its riotous thrust setting up the longer cuts that follow in “Ursa Machina,” a more patient push with stops culled from classic blues but hammered in feedback and spacious, leading to a fuzzed-out, you-are-here moment of arrival in the last two minutes, fluid and righteously heavy and full in its sound without any sense of being tentative about where it’s headed.
Confident. Assured. Powerful. These aren’t things one would necessarily expect from a band making their debut, or even one putting together a second EP to demonstrate their wares — and depending on what Heavy Temple does next, Chassit might indeed wind up being their second EP — but by the time they’re two verses into “Key and Bone,” it’s clear they’ve thrown the subgenre rulebook out the window and worked to become their own band.
This shift in approach only continues to suit them as “Ursa Machina” bleeds into the start of “Pink Glass.” As both tracks top eight minutes, they make up a significant portion of Chassit‘s total runtime, and it’s probably fair to call them the “meat” of the record, which is all the better for the blend of hooks and atmosphere they convey. Similar to the cut before, “Pink Glass” saves its largesse for the second half, but its beginning is perfectly paced in not rushing but still upbeat, with a catchy bounce in its chorus that sets up the latter portion, to which the transition begins at around the 3:30 mark as they work their way out of the last chorus.
Bass takes over complemented by sparse guitar, and for the next three and a half minutes, Heavy Temple show a quiet, patient side they haven’t yet displayed as they subtly build their way toward “Pink Glass”‘ explosive finish, an apex groove that builds its tempo smoothly as it arises and pays off the album as a whole as much as the song itself. Vocals return and soar in an ending chorus further marked out by an added layer of lead guitar — just a second or two of flash, but skillfully arranged — before the whole thing collapses into feedback and the start-stop beginning of “In the Court of the Bastard King.” Somewhat shorter at 6:03, the closer also pushes pretty far out, but in a different way, playing between an overarching thrust and hard-funk shuffle as it moves through its verses and layered chorus before departing the stomp in which it winds up via transitional tom work toward an ending wash of psychedelic noise.
There’s no coming all the way back this time, and having done so to such satisfying effect only one song prior, that makes the structure of “In the Court of the Bastard King” that much more engaging in how it ends the record. The underlying rhythm holds as the guitar freaks itself out and they do turn around to the central progression of the track in the last second or two, but by then the context has changed considerably, which is a further testament to their craft.
Part of the excitement of any impressive debut — or any impressive album at all, really — is imagining where the band’s creative growth might lead them in the years to come. To say as a fan already of their work that Heavy Temple exhibit significant potential to become something special on Chassit feels like underselling it, because to my ears, that moment is already happening here. Nonetheless, while they’ve set a high standard with these songs, I hear nothing in them to make me think Heavy Temple won’t keep growing and pushing forward from the elements presented here, and that their multifaceted but sonically consistent style will do anything other than continue to flourish. Here’s hoping.
