A fitting union and another solid pickup for Argonauta Records as the label welcomes German sludgecore rockers High Fighter to its seemingly ever-expanding roster. The Hamburg-based band released their debut album, Scars and Crosses (review here), in 2016 on Svart and worked to blend a number of genres for a style they’ll look to continue to expand after a number of tours in support. Spring 2019 would seem to be the intention, and I’m sure there’ll be more info and audio out before then.

Kudos to band and label both. This should work out nicely when it comes to the album, the title for which remains TBA.

From the PR wire:

HIGH FIGHTER SIGNS WITH ARGONAUTA RECORDS! New album coming in the Spring of 2019!

Hamburg-based Sludge and Stoner Metal unit High Fighter have signed a worldwide deal with Argonauta Records. Currently putting together the final songwriting touches, the band’s hotly anticipated second album will be released in the Spring of 2019!

Says Argonauta’s CEO Gero Lucisano:
“Today I’m beyond stoked to welcome HIGH FIGHTER in the Argonauta family. I remember how their album “Scars & Crosses” has been on heavy rotation here in our head-quarters for many months, and still is an “evergreen” listening these days. Moreover, thanks to the fact they are an hard working band always on tour, I got the chance to see them on stage, where I saw a captivating band with an uncontrollable energy, top professional attitude and awareness of their own means. Speaking with the band, I immediately got we are both moved by the same type of enthusiasm and it’d be such a lack of synergy to not join forces for their new album, which I can already grant it will be totally massive!”

After their critically acclaimed debut EP ‘The Goat Ritual’, self-released in the end of 2014, followed by numerous shows all over Europe including festival appearances at Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze, Desertfest Berlin & Antwerp, Sonic Blast, Stoned From The Underground, Up In Smoke and many more, gigs on tour with bands alike Ahab, Conan, Crowbar, Mantar, Corrosion of Conformity, Elder, Downfall of Gaia, Mammoth Storm, Brant Bjork or Earth Ship to name just a few, HIGH FIGHTER released their first full-length ‘Scars & Crosses’ in June 2016 with Finland’s cult label Svart Records.

“We have met Gero a few years ago at a show in Italy, and we immediately felt his passion and love for the underground heavy music scene.“ HIGH FIGHTER vocalist Mona Miluski comments. „Over the past few months, I also got the chance to work closely with Gero due to my daytime job in the music industry, and I have probably not met many people like him before in this very tough business. His passionate but also very professional hard work for versatile, heavy bands not only impressed me but the entire band, when Gero made us an offer we could not refuse. We have and always will be very grateful for what Svart Records did for us and our first album, but musically we feel a step to sunny Italy with a label that represents the direction we currently go with our new album has been a great choice and move. We can’t wait to start recording in Berlin at the Hidden Planet Studio with our dear friend Jan Oberg (Earth Ship) in the beginning of 2019, and unleash our second full-length baby with Argonauta Records next Spring!“

HIGH FIGHTER are:
Mona Miluski – Vocals
Christian Pappas – Guitar
Ingwer Boysen – Guitar
Constantin Wüst – Bass
Thomas Wildelau – Drums / Backing Vocals

www.highfighter.de
www.facebook.com/highfighter
www.instagram.com/highfighter_official
www.highfighter.bandcamp.com
www.argonautarecords.com
www.facebook.com/ArgonautaRecords

High Fighter, Scars and Crosses (2016)

Italian heavy rockers Ananda Mida will start out 2019 strong with the release of their second album, Cathodnatius, on Go Down Records and Vincebus Eruptum Recordings. The album is clearly intended to be a complement to the band’s 2016 debut, Anodnatius (review here), which not only shared a similar title but artwork on which the striking new cover builds, facing an arm the opposite way and turning from organic to inorganic components thereof. The approach to the tracks themselves seems to have shifted as we go from songs like “Aktavas” to “Blank Stare,” but I’ve yet to dig into the record to hear if there’s a corresponding shift in sound. The teaser at the bottom of this post seems to be culled from opener “The Pilot” though, and that’s pretty right on, either way.

Preorders are up now if that’s your thing, and the album features some collaboration with singer-songwriter Conny Ochs, known for his solo work as well as his duo with Wino of The Obsessed et al.

Info from the PR wire:

Ananda Mida – Cathodnatius

Go Down Records / Vincebus Eruptum Records
out on 2019.01.12
LP, CD, digital

Pre-orders start 2018.11.24: https://www.godownrecords.com/product-page/ananda-mida-cathodnatius-LPx

CATHODNATIUS is the second chapter of the psychedelic undertaking of Ananda Mida through our cosmos, trying to investigate the soul of the tricerebral beings of our planet, this time examining in particular all the negative forces and the relative subtle vibrations lying outside and inside everything.

Recorded at the Teatro delle Voci Studios in Treviso, it sees the collaboration of singer Conny Ochs, a valid explorer of the mythological cosmos created by the band. Cover by eeviac artworks.

“The pilot turns his head and checks on the controls,
lights turn through green and red, ignition, there he goes.”

TRACKLIST:
1. The Pilot
2. Blank Stare
3. Pupo Cupo
4. Out Of The Blue
5. Doom And The Medicine Man [part I – IV]:
I- Towers And Holes
II- Opening Hours
III- Rude Awakening
IV- The Medicine Man Is Looking For A Cure

https://www.facebook.com/anandamidaband
https://anandamidaband.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/GoDownRecords/
https://www.godownrecords.com/
https://vincebuseruptum.bandcamp.com/
http://www.vincebuseruptum.it/

Ananda Mida, Cathodnatius album teaser

I’m not trying to toot my own horn here or anything, but I’ve been posting about Desertfest lineups pretty much since the whole thing started. And to me, this already looks like a Desertfest. The first lineup announcement for Desertfest NYC 2019 has been made, and the inaugural New York incarnation of the festival brand in partnership with Sound of Liberation and Tee Pee Records seems to represent multiple sides well. Windhand and their new Relapse labelmates Monolord are given prominent showing, as are Elder — because, let’s face it, if you’re running the first-ever Desertfest on US soil and you don’t get Elder to play, you’re fucking up — and Tee Pee Records is well represented with the likes of The Skull, The Atomic Bitchwax, Danava, Mirror Queen and Worshipper.

Rounding out the bill are L.A.’s Dommengang, who would seem to be the odd band out, but one listen to their Love Jail album that Thrill Jockey put out and you’ll see it’s no mystery why they’re here. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wound up touring east with another West Coast band — Danava come immediately to mind — but of course nothing to that effect has been announced and I’m just speculating.

Point is it’s already a solid bill and in addition to the bands, we now know that the venues involved will be the Saint Vitus Bar and The Well. I’ll have more on the lineup and whatnot as soon as I see it, but early bird tickets are on sale now at the long link below.

Dig it:

FIRST ACTS ANNOUNCED FOR DF NYC + EARLY-BIRDS NOW ON SALE! We are stoked to welcome Windhand, Elder, Monolord, The Skull, The Atomic Bitchwax, DANAVA, Mirror Queen, Worshipper & Dommengang to the first edition of Desertfest New York – Taking place at Saint Vitus Bar on Friday 26th April and The Well on Saturday 27th April + Sunday 28th April.

A limited amount of 3-day early-bird passes are available for $65 via the below link – https://www.ticketweb.com/event/desertfest-nyc-2019-the-well-tickets/8942735?pl=thewell&fbclid=IwAR28zNtuppWWRVoi3vCXRkeGIg4wOD4FShfPgjbIPDGiOGPDOzbL2vj_UWE

Artwork by the wildly talented Mercerrock (Brian Mercer Design)

https://facebook.com/Desertfestnyc/
http://www.desertfest.nyc/

Monolord, Rust (2017)

Playing before a monolithic wall of citrus-hued amps and cabinets, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, five-piece Rifflord give a taste of their tonal-worship vibes and catchy songcraft in their new video for “The Other Side,” an early cut from their forthcoming second album, 7 Cremation Chant / Meditation, which is no less at home tapping into David Eugene Edwards-style Americana than it is digging into High on Fire gallop or Electric Wizard riffing with Fu Manchu-esque vocals. By the time “Seven” has made its way into “Dead Flower Child” — note the veer into Sabbath‘s “Hand of Doom” in the latter — and “The Other Side” itself, there’s no question why STB Records would pick them up for the vinyl. Shit, somebody was bound to do it.

Rifflord work quickly across the album, almost deceptively so. To wit, “The Other Side” is one of only three out of the total 13 tracks to top four minutes in runtime, and other pieces like the 2:16 “BB Gun” is a sharp boogie that takes the murderousness out of its underlying prairie feel, while “Lucid Trip” brings together acoustic guitar and underlying keyboard/voice drones that lead into the charging second half of the album with the immediacy of “Poison Mother,” a vocal change bringing keyboardist Tory Jean Stoddard into the foreground with guitarist Wyatt Bronc Bartlett stepping back after the more aggro chug of album centerpiece “Transcendental Medication.” Momentum is swiftly built and rigorously maintained throughout, but the songs themselves don’t feel rushed in either their composition or delivery. The keys help flesh out the melodic presence of the vocals and Bartlett and Paul Pinos‘ guitars, while bassist Matthew Mcfarland and drummer Tommy Middlen carry through the molasses-thick tones with a sense of movement that continues even into the lumbering “Electric Grave” — as opposed to, yes, an “Electric Funeral” — or the aptly-named “The Riffman Cometh,” which is a cold-ending celebration of all things heavy rock, doom and otherwise Iommic.

The blend of Western and heavy principles on “Dead Flower Child” or “Coyote Fodder” and “Holy Roller” early on adds depth to the personality of 7 Cremation Chant / Meditation — the number in the title is still something of a mystery and I suspect that’s intentional — and as the closing pair of “Hou Dou Vou Dou” and “Thunder Rider” present the record’s most fervent boogie and a corresponding shove to respond to that of “Transcendental Medication” earlier, the variety in Rifflord‘s songwriting would seem to undercut their moniker. That is, they’re by no means simply a “riff band.” Certainly riffs are a factor, but the roles they play throughout the material run in different if still cohesive directions, and the organ and other key sounds throughout come off as no less of a focus. ‘Keylord’ or ‘Choruslord’ wouldn’t necessarily make for a great band name, but the point is don’t go into “The Other Side” thinking it’s just about the riffs, because there’s a lot more to Rifflord, and a lot more to 7 Cremation Chant / Meditation, than might at first be implied.

PR wire with vinyl info, preorder link, etc., follows the video below.

Please enjoy:

Rifflord, “The Other Side” official video premiere

Battle-scarred heavy rockers RIFFLORD are set to release their second album, 7 Cremation Ground / Meditation, via STB Records in the coming weeks. This follow-up to their self-released 2010 debut 26 Mean and Heavy is the product of mushroom-induced brawls, dashed expectations, and a band that’s coming back stronger than it ever was before.

RIFFLORD was founded in 2007 by vocalist/guitarist Wyatt Bronc Bartlett and guitarist Tom Davoux after discovering a love affair the two had with vintage tube amps, Hammond organs, and tinnitus-inducing volume. Today RIFFLORD is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, reanimated by Bronc and a wall of Orange amps. Bronc says of the band’s music and journey:

Some things are the result of calculated decision making. Other things drag you face down through the dirt by virtue of their own momenta. RIFFLORD, for me, has been a combination of both. The album […] is a visceral product of struggle, mottled with the fingerprints of both terrible and glorious human beings. It is the sound of countless trips across rural South Dakota and hours of refinement in one studio session after another. The album was mixed five separate times, and remastered three. It is the true and living testament of the Riff. Thank you for waiting.

7 Cremation Ground / Meditation will be released digitally on November 27th, 2018 with a variety of personalized vinyl options coming out on December 1st.

https://stbrecords.bandcamp.com/album/7-cremation-ground-meditation

Vinyl Pressing Information
-Test Press: Limited to 15. Comes with a Handmade leather LP jacket hand whip stitched and branded by Wyatt Bronc Bartlett of RIFFLORD
-Die Hard Edition: Limited to 100 units on black smoke and transparent brown vinyl comes with a special high-density high-quality LP jacket that is foil stamped with “die hard edition” as well as some other foil stamping and Spot UV upgrades on the jacket. Each die hard edition also comes with Special edition band specific tarot cards exclusive only to the die hard pressing. Exclusive booklet with “The Story Of Rifflord” and Picture outtakes.
-OBI Series: Limited to 100 units hand numbered alternate art work spine wrapped OBI strip. Vinyl is a clear base with silver center and brown and white splatter. Jacket comes with floor UV effects.
-Not So Standard Edition: Limited to 150 units on white and brown swirl. Jacket comes with floor UV effects.
-Band Edition / Distro: Limited to 150 Units on Cloudy White vinyl. Jacket comes with floor UV effects.

Rifflord is:
Lead Guitar and Vocals: Wyatt Bronc Bartlett
Guitar: Paul Pinos
Bass: Matthew Mcfarland
Keys: Tory Jean Stoddard
Drums: Tommy Middlen

Rifflord on Thee Facebooks

Rifflord on Instagram

Rifflord website

STB Records BigCartel store

STB Records on Thee Facebooks

Salt of the Earth Records website

Salt of the Earth Records on Bandcamp

Roadburn 2019 has announced a second commissioned project for its lineup. Following word that Tom G. Warrior would complete Celtic Frost‘s ‘Requiem’ triptych at the festival to be held next April, as always, in Tilburg, the Netherlands, details of a new project entirely have emerged that seems to have come about at least in part at Roadburn‘s behest. Molasses hits close to home in the native Dutch underground, bringing together members of The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley, Birth of Joy, Astrosoniq and Donnerwetter. On vocals is Farida Lemouchi, formerly of The Devil’s Blood and whose brother, Selim, was regarded as a figurehead in the scene around Eindhoven prior to his death in 2014 — one remembers the tribute in his honor at Roadburn 2014 and still feels like an intruder for having watched something so personal, even on such a large stage as it was — and on drums is no less than Marcel van de Vondervoort of Astrosoniq, who’s Roadburn fest-family in that it’s under his watch as engineer that so many sets are recorded, resulting in the glut of live albums that have surfaced over the years.

With Oeds Beydals of the newly-hiatused Death Alley and other The Devil’s Blood alumni Job van de Zande and Ron van Herpen, as well as Birth of Joy‘s Bob Hogenelst and Matthijs Stronks of Donnerwetter in the lineup, it’s bound to be a formidable showcase — their first live date — and it may not be a one-off by any means. You’ll note it says “a new beginning” below.

From the PR wire:

Second commissioned project for 2019 announced; MOLASSES will debut at Roadburn

Roadburn is ecstatic to announce the second commissioned piece of music to be performed at the 2019 edition of the festival. Following the recent announcement of Tom G. Warrior’s Celtic Frost/Triptykon Requiem which will be performed by Triptykon and the Dutch Metropole Orkest in April, and the success of the first commissioned pieces earlier this year – the series continues.

It’s time to redefine a bond that never ceased to ascend. Loosen the valve and let the blood flow!

A little over ten years since The Devil’s Blood made its live debut at Roadburn Festival, something is stirring once again in the souls of many of those involved in pulling that first performance together. The last track on Selim Lemouchi’s post-TDB album, Earth Air Spirit Water Fire, titled Molasses has lent its name to a burgeoning, specially commissioned project. An ensemble bound together by a unwavering thread, a shared bond and a definitive presence in their lives. The fragmented pieces of The Devil’s Blood are piecing themselves back together, bereft of a very specific physical form but enriched by his spiritual company.

Farida Lemouchi, Oeds Beydals, Job van de Zande, and Ron van Herpen – all former members of The Devil’s Blood – are joined by kindred spirits, Marcel Van De Vondervoort of Astrosoniq, Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy) and Matthijs Stronks (Donnerwetter) to form Molasses.

Those hoping to hear some tracks from The Devil’s Blood back catalogue will come away empty handed; if you’re keeping an ear out for some Astrosoniq, it won’t come. Molasses may be shot through with the DNA that made those bands tick, but this is very clearly – and definitively – a new beginning.

Artwork by Max Rovers.

Artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers comments: “When we started to commission music for Roadburn, it was a given that I wanted to reconnect Farida, Ron, Oeds and Job, along with Marcel from Astrosoniq, as they are such a gifted musicians, who simply belong on stage together. Plus, I wanted to give them the opportunity to grow into a new space as artists, and really hope that Molasses will help them personally as well, giving them strength to embrace the future – whatever that holds.”

Molasses will be embracing the future on Thursday, April 11.

It reaches out to neverending times
Eats itself to be born again
There is just space but it holds the lines
For an ever growing love and deep affection
To rise and rise and rise and rise

TICKETS:
Single day tickets will go on sale on Thursday, December 13. Weekend tickets are on sale now

Tickets are be priced as follows:
3 days ticket (Thu-Sat) €181 + €4,50 service fee
4 days ticket (Thu-Sun) €204 + €4,50 service fee
Day ticket (Thu, Fri or Sat) €62 + €4,50 service fee
Sunday ticket €55,50 + €4,50 service fee

Click here for more ticketing information.

https://www.facebook.com/Molassesofficial
https://www.instagram.com/molassesofficial/

https://www.facebook.com/roadburnfestival/
http://www.twitter.com/Roadburnfest
http://www.instagram.com/roadburnfest
http://www.roadburn.com

Selim Lemouchi & His Enemies, “Molasses”

Nobel laureate Bob Dylan once told us that everybody must get stoned. Poland’s Belzebong would seem to proceed from the assumption that they already have. The instrumentalist four-piece of guitarists Alky Dude and Cheesy Dude, bassist Sheepy Dude and drummer Hexy Dude present four lumbering tracks of stoner sludge on their third album, Light the Dankness — released by the band as well as Emetic Records and Abraxas Records — and if one is a sucker for weedian themes and puns, the record’s titles are sure to please, from the name of the thing itself through component cuts “The Bong of Eternal Stench,” “Pot Fiend” (okay, not so much wordplay there), “Doperganger” and “Roached Earth.” Riffs lead the plodding charge through a 35-minute, two-sided LP that could hardly be more smoked out if it covered itself in hash oil and self-immolated.

It is a crust of tone and vibe that one can trace back to bands like Bongzilla and Dopethrone, but the fact of the matter is Belzebong have been at this for a decade now and over the course of their 2009 demo (discussed here), 2011’s Sonic Scapes and Weedy Groves (discussed here), 2015’s Greenferno and this album, they’ve made the style their own and brought a sense of character to the familiar addled-ism of the overarching aesthetic. Light the Dankness, which is vocalized only with periodic samples, is nonetheless able to convey its sensibilities not only through its titles, but through the bare riffs and grooves themselves.

That is, even without knowing the name of the band, record, or any of the songs, one would hear “Doperganger” and realize the Dudes who made it were bombed out of their collective gourd. And they may or may not have been at the time of recording — they may or may not be right now; infinite universes of infinite possibilities, folks — but the point is they want to sound that way and they do, so by the time the ur-lurch of “Roached Earth” takes hold, all rumble and searing fuzz leads and crash cymbal-washout, their victory in meeting that goal is complete.

Belzebong are not strangers to this way of life, and they don’t come off like it. Over the course of their decade together, they’ve toured steadily with Sheepy, Alky and Cheesy as founding members and Hexy coming aboard in 2014, and that has helped fuel the reputation that at this point precedes their work, but regardless, Light the Dankness has no trouble making an impression on its own. The album begins with a homemade sample introducing “The Bong of Eternal Stench” as a disgusted woman’s voice pleads, “Oh god, what is it?” only to be answered by the creature itself, “It’s the bong of eternal stench!” And so it is. The mood and tone for the record is quickly set in the opening track, which is also the shortest of the four at 6:07, and while Belzebong‘s material has always seemed to leave room for verses — as though they wanted the listener to bring their own supply — the crashing, lumbering, downward riff seems to speak out the song’s title as it thuds away into the murky cannabinoid abyss.

Searing leads crop up and dissipate like the smoke they are, and the underlying rhythm makes the most of the band’s penchant for repetition without redundancy, seeming to change not necessarily predictably but just when a part has worn itself into the consciousness fully. The bass tone is must-hear and well present in the Skyhammer Studios mix, and “The Bong of Eternal Stench” gives over to “Pot Fiend” with a sample announcing the change, but otherwise is immersive enough that one might get lost in the vibe after just the first six minutes. That’s obviously the idea, and it’s worth keeping in mind just how conscious these decisions are for a band who otherwise so successfully sound like fuckall incarnate. The placement of the samples. The shifts from one part to the next. The push to and through solo parts. All of these things come together to form the resin-caked nod that is Light the Dankness, and as on-message as Belzebong are, they never lose sight of actual song construction as they go.

And man, they go.

“Pot Fiend” rounds out side A with nine and a half minutes of filthy swing, pitting slow-motion shuffle and massive riffing against each other and seeing who wins en route to its final crash and fading feedback, and another sample begins “Doperganger” on side B. The second half of Light the Dankness is longer than the first, with “Doperganger” at 7:50 and “Roached Earth” at 12 minutes flat, but the method is largely the same: Riff unto oblivion. “Doperganger” picks up the tempo somewhat from “Pot Fiend” in a kind of winding central progression born of a dirtied-up Sleep influence, but they tool around with it effectively throughout and seem to explore the reaches where the song might go, a solo arriving after five minutes in just as the song seems to start tearing itself apart. A longer sample emerges as they pull it back together and trash their way into a stretch of silence preceding “Roached Earth.”

The sample at the start of the closer comes from 1957’s Curse of the Demon, if you’re wondering how steadily obscure Belzebong‘s horror-aficionado status runs, and following its narrator warning of supernatural creatures and demons and whathaveyou, the track unfolds into a particularly bleak, almost mournful gruel, a solo as it approaches its midsection weaving in and out of the mix on long-held notes that border on melodic but seem overwhelmed as much by the surrounding mountainous riffage as by the depressiveness drove their creation. Resolution, such as it is, comes in the crashing final section as “Roached Earth” rings out its final distorted gurgle, feedback once again serving as the last remaining element to go.

I would not speculate on what tales of terror may yet be forthcoming from Belzebong as they push ever deeper into the plunge that is their hydroponic-grown methodology, but their craft has only grown more virulent with time and for all of Light the Dankness‘ weedery, the album is actually a pretty efficient execution. It’s clear Belzebong‘s decade hasn’t been misspent in developing their style, and while they may be playing to the tenets of crusty stoner sludge, it’s easy enough to argue they’re adding to them as well.

Belzebong, Light the Dankness (2018)

Belzebong on Thee Facebooks

Belzebong on Instagram

Belzebong on Bandcamp

Emetic Records website

Abraxas Records website

I’m not even going to pretend to know how many full-length albums Norway’s Motorpsycho have at this point released in their almost 30-year history, but The Crucible is the latest of the bunch, and it will follow behind 2017’s The Tower (review here), which marked a more rocking turn from the long-established progressive stylings of the band. Sort of a return to roots without forgetting the lessons learned along the way. Stickman Records, which released that album and will again stand behind this one, seems to posit The Crucible as pushing forward along those lines, and I’d believe it, given both the relatively quick turnaround (at least on general terms; Motorpsycho aren’t strangers to putting out multiple releases in a year, but they’ve also been touring) and the band’s penchant for moving ahead with ideas from one LP to the next.

Easy pick for your most-anticipated-of-2019 list, as well as my own, so keep an eye out for more to come as we get closer to February. I streamed a track from The Tower at the time, and I expect I’ll go begging for one for The Crucible as well to go with a review, if only because these guys are fun to write about, being such a nuanced kind of brilliant and all.

Stickman sent the following down the PR wire:

New Motorpsycho album The Crucible to be released February 15th

We are beyond pleased to announce the coming arrival of a new Motorpsycho album, titled “The Crucible”! Release date is set for February 15th, 2019 on vinyl, CD and digitally. More details will follow, but here’s a little taster for you:

—
Crucible

noun

cru·?ci·?ble | \?krü-s?-b?l

1: a severe test

2 : a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development

Both visually and musically, The Crucible starts where the last album The Tower ended, but it soon takes on its own hue, and it is clear that it cannot be called a ‘sequel’ as such: this is very much a step further out than anywhere the band ventured on The Tower. While it is broader lyrically speaking, it is even sharper focused musically and, if possible, even more idiosyncratic and insular than ever. Unarguably a Motorpsycho album, it is one that is going to make the novice Psychonaut’s head spin, but feel comfortingly unfamiliar to the acolyte. Motorpsycho was always too gnarly for prog nerds as well as too musically unwieldy for punks, and as their appeal becomes ever more selective, they are still proudly falling between all cracks, stools or chairs one might think of putting in their way. ‘Prog rock’? Call it Motorpsychodelia!

The Crucible was recorded at Monnow Valley Studios in Wales in August 2018 by Hans Magnus Ryan (guitars, vocals), Bent Sæther (bass, vocals, sundry) and Tomas Järmyr (drums), with co-producers Andrew Scheps and Deathprod. To these ears, and to the band’s satisfaction, this co-production ploy worked out wonderfully, and has resulted in a beautifully crafted record, smaller in size but at least equal in ambition to its celebrated predecessor. It is somehow both more focused, and denser in content, but also compositionally more ambitious than The Tower. One would perhaps think that this necessarily results in a diminished sonic assault, but the album still packs a wallop like a good rock record should. And – ‘for once’ some waggish tongues would say – does not outstay its welcome.

Motorpsycho is: Bent Sæther, Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan, Tomas Järmyr.

https://www.facebook.com/motorpsycho.official/
https://twitter.com/motorpsychoband
http://motorpsycho.no/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940/
https://www.instagram.com/stickmanrecords/
https://www.stickman-records.com/

Motorpsycho, “In Every Dream Home There’s a Dream of Something Else” Live at Bruis Festival 2018

Ego Therapy is the second solo outing of the year from prolific Samsara Blues Experiment guitarist/vocalist Christian Peters under his Surya Kris Peters and it finds him experimenting with the interplay of guitar and synthesized melody in instrumentalist fashion as well as working with his old Terraplane bandmate, Jens Vogel, who contributes drums to half of the tracks, including 15-minute opener and longest song (immediate points) “Angels in Bad Places.” Fuzzy guitar seems to be in conversation with itself on the layered “Wizard’s Dream,” whereas “A Fading Spark” is pure synth reminiscent of a 1980s vision of the future — is that you, Mega-Man? — and the subsequent “Every Master Has a Mother” brings together synth tension, organ and a sweet line of melody to affect a kind of wistfulness rare for something so outwardly proggy. Earlier cuts like the title-track present a full wash of tone with Vogel‘s drums pushing the proceedings forward, while “Beyond the Sun” brings Goblin-style atmospherics — I’ll assume that’s the John Carpenter influence noted below — together with a more rocking undertone that creates a standout vibe.

Or is it “Gemini IV (The Sky is Open)” that sounds like Mega-Man?

Either way, clearly it’s a varied collection, but the adventurousness of Peters‘ sonic palette and the effective nature of his collaboration with Vogel brings something new to this purposeful departure from familiarity.

You can hear the album in its entirety below, or grab a download as you will.

Enjoy:

New SURYA KRIS-album feat. Jens Vogel on drums and percussion in 5 of 10 new tracks! OUT NOW for your plaisir, or a most appreciated donation. (My ice cream habit is quite costly.)

A promotext looks like this:

“Possible and impossible influences may have been John Carpenter, and also Carpenter Brut, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, The Pink Floyd, The Desert Sessions 1&2, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Isao Tomita and Reinhard Lakomy, but also early computer- and video games and spaced-out cartoon series like Saber Rider.”

This is music for nerds. Enjoy!

Tracklisting:
1. Angels In Bad Places 15:00
2. Ego Therapy 04:48
3. Beyond The Sun 06:06
4. Voices In The Distance 04:10
5. Wizard’s Dream 02:25
6. Gemini IV (the sky is open) 03:25
7. Sleeping Willow 04:20
8. A Fading Spark 01:56
9. Every Master Has A Mother 02:51
10. Atomic Clock 08:14

https://electricmagicrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ego-therapy

https://www.facebook.com/sunchylde
http://electricmagic.bigcartel.com/
https://electricmagicrecords.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/electricmagicrecords/

Surya Kris Peters, Ego Therapy (2018)