Birnam Wood Post “Early Warning” Video; Wicked Worlds out Nov. 19
Filtering circa-’75 Sabbath through the grit of Sunlight Studios tonality, Massachusetts four-piece Birnam Wood are getting ready this month to release their new album, Wicked Worlds. Set for issue Nov. 19, the record collects seven blown-out rollers in 34 minutes of heavy fuckery with “Time of Purification” and “Richard Dreyfuss” opening in blasted fashion — bonus points for including a What About Bob? sample — and unfolding Northeast aggro-stonerist doom rock from there whether it’s the swinging “Dunsinane” or the seven-and-a-half-minute, harmony-laden capper “Return to Samarkand,” slow, massive and written in homage to the ancient Uzbek city once along the key trade route between China and Europe. It’s the East Coast’s version of a good time — which means someone might get punched — and fluidly trades between tonal onslaught and more atmospheric stretches, like the opening of centerpiece “Early Warning” or the quick psychedelic departure in the subsequent “Greenseer.”
Accordingly, whether one wants to categorize them as stoner, doom, or something else, I don’t think it matters. Birnam Wood, who made their self-titled full-length debut late in 2014 and have issued two EPs since, seem far more 
concerned with general sonic badassness than genre adherence, though they’re well within the realm of capital-‘h’ Heavy. As their first audio-visual representation of Wicked Worlds, their new video for “Early Warning” captures the doom at root in their sound and the combustion they bring to their riffing from that foundation. There are some samples in the song to help the clip earn its VHS-style grain, and no small amount of bombast happening around them to represent well the album from whence it comes, which answers back on similar ground later with “A Song for Jorklum” ahead of the finale.
I have a hard time imagining that in today’s climate there wouldn’t be some label itching to pick Wicked Worlds up for a vinyl pressing, either in the US or abroad, so if it happens later, this is me saying I called it early. I don’t always say that kind of thing, but by the time you make your own “Return to Samarkand,” I think you’ll understand where I’m coming from. That’s a couple weeks off yet — they play the release show Nov. 23 at O’Brien’s in Allston with Leather Lung and Sundrifter also on the bill — but go ahead and dig into “Early Warning” in the meantime, which indeed serves just that for the record as a whole.
Please enjoy:
Birnam Wood, “Early Warning” official video
Birnam Wood- “Early Warning” from the album ‘Wicked Worlds’
Wicked Worlds available on bandcamp 11/19/18
https://birnamwood.bandcamp.com/
Cinematography – Rick Dorrington
Editor/VFX – Matt Wagner
Birnam Wood is:
Shaun Anzalone
Dylan Edwards
Matt Wagner
Adam McGrath
