I’ve been fortunate enough to do some cool stuff in my quickly-increasing number of years, but being invited to a band’s practice space is no small thing. Even putting aside whatever clichés you want about inner-sanctums or where-the-magic-happens or that kind of thing, the fact is that a band in rehearsal is much different than a band on stage, and the practice space isn’t just where songs are run through, it’s where a band finds and develops their sound to then go and refine it live or in the studio. It is a personal place.

My brilliant-ass college professor wife, The Patient Mrs., has been leading students on a study-abroad trip for this past week. We were in Dublin and got up north to Belfast on Tuesday. I’m along basically to provide childcare for The Pecan — now 19 months old and screaming brutally enough to make every black metal band you’ve ever heard sound lightweight — and the first thing I thought of when I found out we were going to be in Northern Ireland was, “I wonder what Slomatics will be up to?”

The Belfast-native three-piece are on the cusp of releasing their new album, Canyons (review here), through Black Bow Records, and their rehearsal space is in an industrial park tucked away in a corner just off the city-center, above Jimmy’s TV Repair (and Allegedly Etc.), in a room with show posters and old Terrorizer foldouts put up. Guitarist David Majury was kind enough to pick me up at the hostel where we’re staying — that’s right: baby in a hostel; it’s going swimmingly — as he happens to live nearby, and we drove about five minutes to get to the spot through Belfast’s curvy, carved-by-livestock-then-industrialized streets, where guitarist Chris Couzens and drummer/vocalist Marty Harvey (who also plays in War Iron) were already waiting.

With the new record coming out, they obviously weren’t writing or working on anything new or anything like that, but they’re booked to fly to Siegen, Germany, next month to play Freak Valley Festival, so the task was to work out the set for that. Some debate ensued about focusing on new songs versus older material — I’m generally in favor of new — and they ran through the first half of Canyons in succession, with opener and longest track (immediate points) “Gears of Despair” leading to “Cosmic Guilt,” “Seven Echoes” and “Telemachus, My Son,” the last of which was a unanimous pick to feature at the fest. To the side of where I sat, a marker board was littered with potential setlists in what was clearly an ongoing conversation.

In between the songs, the banter was light and familiar. Chris had been all sinus’ed up earlier in the day, Marty had gotten his face scratched by a patient at work, Dave had some amp buzz that might’ve been input trouble, and so on. Everyone talked about family, and as I’ve had the pleasure to meet the band on two prior occasions, seeing them first at Høstsabbat 2016 (review here) in Oslo and then again the next year at Roadburn (review here) in The Netherlands, I knew going into it they were all friendly guys and my persistent, painful awkwardness would potentially have some manner of offset by their hospitality. Sitting in front of a drum kit that was either spare or some other band’s, laughing at some story or other, I was glad to be right about that.

They played through “Mind Fortresses on Theia,” again from the new album, and one other — was it “Beyond the Canopy?” — and then dipped back to older material, which sounded very much like a refresher as opposed to stuff they were still working out how to present live. That difference was palpable mostly in ways it wouldn’t have been on stage, in things like body language and during-song communication between Majury and Couzens, Harvey all the while devastating his already-cracked cymbals in go-hard-at-practice fashion while belting out lyrics with no less force than I’ve been lucky to see him do on stage.

Even without a mic, his snare cut through the extra-low low-end of the two guitars, and some of it was interesting to see him count through some of the ambient parts of the newer material, which indeed is even more atmospheric than what the band had on offer with 2016’s Future Echo Returns (review here), as both Couzens and Majury would periodically depart from the central lumbering riffs in which the band has long specialized to add keyboard-style effects that lent melody to the coinciding crush. I was glad that I make it a habit to travel with earplugs. The whole place seemed to rumble, or maybe it was just me.

All told, it was about two hours of time in the room, and while I don’t know what the final setlist will be for Freak Valley, it’s safe to say it’s going to be a powerful show. Slomatics have existed for 15 years at this point, and it’s clear Harvey, Majury and Couzens have known each other for longer than that. Harvey had to call it a night, but Majury, Couzens and I adjourned afterward to a coffee shop around the corner from where I’m staying — not the Nordic one with the espressos I’ve been habitually downing since we got into down, that’s across the street, but a different one that was also good — and spent some time shooting the shit about the band and laughing about family stuff, their embarrassing themselves in front of Goatsnake (I’ve still never seen them live, so not had the opportunity, of which I’d inevitably take advantage), the time Majury saw Ozzy on tour for The Ultimate Sin, and whatever else. It was pretty laid back, even with the late coffee, and I was no less glad to be there than I’d been at the rehearsal space. These are good people.

Coffees done and work/baby in the morning, we said goodnight and I headed back around the corner to crash out and wake up to another day today. I’ll be honest and say it took me a while to get to sleep, not just for that last espresso, but just from the excitement of doing something like that. It doesn’t happen every day, and to be not just brought in, but actually welcomed by Slomatics was something special I’ll long remember. I’m here for another week, but it already made my trip.

Slomatics, “Mind Fortresses on Theia” official video

Slomatics on Facebook

Slomatics on Bandcamp

Black Bow Records

Another day, another Heavy Psych Sounds Fest announced. This time it’s in the label’s hometown of Rome, and Black Rainbows will headline a lineup that also features Giöbia, High Reeper, Crypt Trip and Fvzz Popvli. The fest is set for Oct. 12, which puts it smack in the middle of a busy season in Europe, but with that lineup, they shouldn’t have any trouble getting heads in the room, whatever else might be going on at the time — it’s Keep it Low in Munich, which is plenty far enough away so that the two aren’t competing. Another good bill and another cool show for Heavy Psych Sounds, which already this year has done or announced fests on the US West Coast (a tour), Germany (Berlin and Dresden), and Austria. Shit is busy and logistically complex.

I’ll be honest, I’m having trouble keeping up with it all, but here’s what I think is the latest:

Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking and Metamorphosis are really proud to announce the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – ROME

– Artwork by Branca Studio –

!!! We are so stoked to announce the very first edition of the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST in ROME !!!

feat.
BLACK RAINBOWS
GIÖBIA
HIGH REEPER
CRYPT TRIP
FVZZ POPVLI

– SATURDAY 12th OCTOBER – TRAFFIC LIVE CLUB –

Headquartered in Rome, Italy, Heavy Psych Sounds specializes in presenting the best artists in the global heavy psych, doom, fuzz blues and space rock realms, and their Festival- series will be no exception, spotlighting the ever-growing label’s dedication to its craft. While the first HPS Fests were held in Italy, the label has since extended its live reach into the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and even the USA: The underground cult label is not only THE adress for all heavy rock record collectors, but has also become an important live and festival institution; with a brisk participation from heavy music fans all over the world.

Now, Heavy Psych Sounds is set to bring the ROCK to Rome with the just-announced special shows taking place this October 12th!

In cooperation with Metamorphosis, the very first HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST in ROME will feature bands like Black Rainbows, GiÖbia, High Reeper, Crypt Trip and Fvzz Popvli !!!

TICKETS PRESALE (active soon)
www.heavypsychsounds.com

official Facebook event here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/624855984662136/

https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com

Black Rainbows, Pandaemonium (2018)

The self-appointed slogan of Stockholm-based four-piece Alfavrak is “vanlig jvla rock,” which basically translates to “regular heavy rock” or something thereabouts. The message comes through pretty clearly on the band’s new single, “Gud, du har förpackat mej fel,” which, according to a major internet company’s translation matrix, runs somewhere near, “God, You Have Packed Me Wrong.” So clearly some colloquialism at work. Fine. I’m willing to roll with it, and I honestly think that if you listen to the track, which runs a regular-ol’ sub-three minutes, they’ll get the message across. Alfavrak aren’t shooting for anything fancy here, and I don’t think they really need to. Regular-type rock does them just fine, and in an age of hyper-specialization, it’s kind of refreshing to have a rock band call it like it is.

And it should probably go without saying that the lyrics, like the song title and the band’s name — which is “alpha wreck” in English — are also in Swedish, but the message comes through in the echoing jangle of guitar, the weight of the groove and the reverb-soaked vocals. It’s a modern sound with a classic and somewhat bluesy foundation, but again, Alfavrak aren’t splitting hairs, so maybe I shouldn’t either. The new track follows a 2018 two-songer that’s available to stream via Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. — basically where streaming happens, I guess — and while I don’t know what their plans are going forward, whether they’ll do more singles, an EP, album, whatever, they certainly have a sense of what they’re looking for aesthetically, and they manage to make ordinary happen without sounding, you know, too ordinary about it.

Their announcement of the single’s release was — of course — plain and simple:

New single out! Recorded in the dustward.

Alfavrak gives you raw rock ‘ n roll without frills a.k.a. ordinary jvla rock!

Photo by Zäta Zettergren

https://www.instagram.com/alfavraksthlm
https://www.facebook.com/alfavrak
https://alfavrak.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3lQQwzb4NoxMGzhM971aQp

Alfavrak, “Gud, du har förpackat mej fel”

‘The Vault’ is a quarterly subscription service from Third Man Records, the Nashville-based imprint, record store, studio and apparently live venue owned by Jack White, formerly of The White Stripes and currently of Jack White doing whatever the hell he wants, which would seem to include putting out Sleep records. The subscription fee is $60 per quarter, so not nothing, but the pull is that the releases are exclusive and limited, and at least in the case of Sleep‘s Live at Third Man Records, that $60 breaks down to $15 per each different-colored LP of a quadruple-LP box set release. It almost sounds sensible at that rate. I don’t know what releasing Sleep did for subscriptions, but the package in which Live at Third Man Records arrives is equal parts gorgeous and heavy — that is, you feel like you’re carrying records when you hold it, because you are — and with this kind of release, that’s definitely a piece of the experience, like the poster and patch also included.

The other part is a two-hour live set from Sleep — vocalist/bassist Al Cisneros, guitarist Matt Pike, drummer Jason Roeder — recorded in Dec. 2018, months after the release of their awaited album, The Sciences (review here), and its companion single “Leagues Beneath” (review here), that finds the landmark trio playing much of the record to a duly salivating audience, as well as classics from 2003’s Dopesmoker (discussed here) and the mega-influential 1993 sophomore outing, Sleep’s Holy Mountain (reissue review here). It is, essentially, a fan piece, special in hindsight for those who were there to see it and a work for the rest of us plebs to chase down however possible. For what it’s worth, I don’t imagine anyone who is a more than casual Sleep fan doing so would regret it. The sound throughout the 11-song set is raw in live-set-recorded-to-acetate fashion, but that does no disservice to the material, and the band of course sound spot on. If they didn’t, Live at Third Man Records probably wouldn’t exist. It’s about as close to a sure thing as you can get, again, if you’re a fan.

They open with “Leagues Beneath” and then go directly into the trimmed down version of “Dopesmoker” they’ve been playing live for however long. It’s broken up into “Dopesmoker Pt. 1” and a much-shorter “Dopesmoker Pt. 2” and when one factors in the subsequent “Holy Mountain,” that already covers sides A, B and C in basically three songs. Welcome to the Sleep show. It’s as though they knew their audience showed up wanting to get pummeled by riffs so they got it out of the way quickly so they could get down to the business of… more pummeling with riffs, I guess. But what a way to go. Cisneros‘ vocals sound right on in a way that demonstrates how much he’s found a way to meld the newer, less guttural vocal style of the more recent songs with his throatier past, and his vocal patterning in “Dopesmoker” only adds to that meisterwerk’s unique appeal.

Of The Sciences, only “Antarcticans Thawed” isn’t aired (or the title-track intro, if you want to be technical about it), and a slowed down version of “Sonic Titan,” particularly in following “The Clarity” (review here), which was released in 2014 as a standalone single and the band’s first studio work in more than a decade, which also hits the brakes on tempo to some degree, is a righteous highlight, with Roeder‘s march setting the pace via snare taps that do justice to original drummer Chris Hakius while adding his own sense of purpose to each crash that accompanies. Likewise, Pike‘s solo shred is a fitting reminder of his near-unmatched stage force. “Sonic Titan” accounts for side E all on its own after “The Clarity” and “Aquarian” on side D, and from there, the three-piece dig even deeper into The Sciences, with “Marijuanaut’s Theme,” “Giza Butler” and “The Botanist” one into the next.

The difference is a live version of “Sonic Titan” had appeared on the 2003 Tee Pee release of Dopesmoker, but the other three were exclusive to the new record. The band break into the manic groove of “Marijuanaut’s Theme” after “Sonic Titan,” and then follow with “Giza Butler”‘s mellow intro and omega-riff later. With the languid, solo-topped “The Botanist” as a comedown after that, it’s as dynamic as Sleep have ever sounded on a recording, and absolutely representative of what they do on stage, whether it’s Cisneros announcing “The pterodactyl flies again over emerald fields” as part of the weedian storytelling of “Giza Butler” or Roeder‘s final tom fill in “The Botanist.” Closing out with “Dragonaut” is essentially a victory lap.

One more full dose of fuzz overload is applied, and Sleep ride the dragon on Mars all the way to unmatched stoner supremacy. The recording ends with Pike‘s guitar feeding back while the crowd cheers, which is a pretty efficient way of saying it all. I don’t think Live at Third Man Records is a release for a novice Sleep fan, and I also think that if one hasn’t seen Sleep since The Sciences came out, something of the context here will be lost. However, I also don’t really think Sleep have casual fans. This isn’t a band you maybe put on every now and again because, eh, whatever. This is a band that incites worship, as the increasingly rabid response to their post-reunion run has shown.

As they’ve shifted back to being a working band promoting a new album, touring, headlining festivals, etc., they’ve not only harnessed a new generation of followers, but they’ve managed to give those who would pay homage a fitting altar to do so. They’re as much a community as a band at this point, and Live at Third Man Records is more than just a companion to The Sciences. It’s a document for and of that community at a pivotal moment, just months after the surprise release of that studio album, capturing the band as they set about that work. Not everyone’s going to get it, but isn’t that part of the appeal too?

Sleep, “Dopesmoker” live at Third Man Records

Sleep on Thee Facebooks

Sleep on Twitter

Sleep website

Scuzz-tone garage rockers Fuzzalicious have two songs out as of about two weeks ago and it looks like they’ve already been through at least two bassists since getting their start about a year ago. Currently consisting of Giacomo O’Neil and Francesco Panunzi, the duo release the track “Pockets” as a name your-price download accompanied by a cover of The Doors‘ “Hello I Love You” that’s been suitably kicked in the dirt. It’s a vibe-heavy release, but it shows immediately, in true first-7″ fashion, that Fuzzalicious have the distortion on overload and they would seem to like it that way.

I’ve no idea whether these guys are looking for someone else to handle low end, or if they’re going to go with the rawness of just guitar and drums, but lover of low-end that I am, I’m not inclined to argue with the results as they appear here.

The band offers a bit of background — always nice — and of course the tracks are streaming below. Enjoy:

Fuzzalicious is the brainchild of Rome’s masterminds and inventors of diabolical schemes, Francesco and I also sometimes referred to as io e Giacomo. The sheer level of noise and rawness in the sound is off the level with this one.

Picture this, first you’re walking down the street on a bright sunny day while listening to All Summer Long by The Beach Boys when boom! you suddenly get hit by a wall of disorienting distortion and chaos that send you in a downward spiral all the way to the realization that your life is a shit show and that you’re not in California but in some crappy, beat down and dirty suburb of this god forsaken town. We still love it and we really don’t give a shit anyway. Love

Fuzzalicious is:
Giacomo O’Neil – Vocals/Drums
Francesco Panunzi – Guitar

https://www.facebook.com/Fuzzaliciousband/
https://fuzzalicious.bandcamp.com/

Fuzzalicious, Pockets (2019)

Ukrainian aggro atmospheric noise specialists Soom have a new video for from their 2018 album, Djebars, which was a record that bridged gutter-sludge disaffection with an inhumane amount of bombast, landing somewhere between ’90s dark artrock and dirtier, more tonally weighted fare. Atmospherically, “Wheelchair” offers nine-plus minutes of fuckall assault, the coating of filth prevalent in a sense of overarching nastiness. No part of it is aiming toward accessibility, but there is an expressive purpose behind what the band are doing, and their spaciousness both on “Wheelchair” and Djebars as a whole comes coupled with a pervasive claustrophobia. It’s a big world and you are trapped inside yourself.

If the notion freaks you out, you’re probably in a proper headspace for digging into the track, though I’ll say that if you’re sensitive to flashing lights or quick cuts or anything like that, you might be better off hitting up one of the several Bandcamps available as Soom worked with multiple labels on the release of Djebars, among them Robustfellow Productions and Voron Nest. The story is somewhat opaque, but seems to revolve itself around a central character coming to grips with the fact that he’s stuck in time or something thereabouts. Rest assured, the actual video is way more horrifying than that description makes it sound, a cerebral and periodically demonic exercise and psychological fuckery.

But hey, maybe that’s your thing. If it is, go ahead and dig into “Wheelchair” below.

And enjoy:

Soom, “Wheelchair” official video

Slow machine of hate to soberness and impatience to objective reality from the city of Kharkiv (Ukraine), Soom proudly presents their own music video full of fear and loathing mixed with the love to their native city. Made by Anastasia Khomenko, the video tells the story about Djebars, who stuck forever in the moment when clock is working but has stopped on a 19:36 mark. Strong track about wasted spirit for the strong ears commented by the Soom’s frontman Oleksa Kovalov-Blidyi:

“Described story ?s based on a Pale aesthetics. It is neither light, nor dark, just immersed in its own Universe, the road to which lies through the searching of drug hiding place, using the “wheelchair” — bad quality synthetic drugs. For one it’s self-destruction, for another — salvation. It just exists and there is must be no attitude, like to anything in Universe, because everybody has its own way to All & Nothing. We see it like an ugly version of beautiful, let everyone of you see the same”.

Line-up:
Kova — guitar, vocals
Tomrer — bass
Amorth — drums

Soom on Bandcamp

Addicted Label Bandcamp

Robustfellow Productions Bandcamp

Voron Nest Bandcamp

Kvlt of I on Thee Facebooks

Last time I posted about Desertfest Belgium 2019, I apparently got the dates wrong. I was reading off the poster, which is usually pretty reliable, but it turned out to be the wrong poster. The fest is Oct. 18-20. A little slice of my life, folks. Fucking up dates, fucking up band lineups. Just generally fucking up. It’s a good thing I can update these posts later. Otherwise I’m pretty sure the site would’ve imploded from the inaccuracy of it all.

But now that I’ve got the dates straight for Desertfest Belgium 2019, I’m happy to post the update that the festival has added Big Business, Sixes and Un to the bill. It’s becoming increasingly packed, that lineup, but the fest says there’s more to come, so, you know, it’ll be more packed by the time they’re finished.

Here’s the latest announcement:

BIG BUSINESS PLAY DESERTFEST ANTWERP! SIXES & UN also added

Hot on the heels of our Pelican announcement from last week, here’s another quick bombshell: the dynamic duo BIG BUSINESS is heading for Desertfest Antwerp 2019!
Of course you’ve all seen them as part of the epic double drums Melvins line-up, but Jared and Coady have been slaving away at their own brand of supercharged metal rock for many years and six albums. They’re definitely a scene favorite, and any BB show is a most joyful thing to look forward to.

On the doom side of things, we have two epic additions to the line-up as well. Sixes is as sick slabdragging occult doom as they come – check their debut album Methistopheles from last year and you’ll soon find out what we mean. Un takes a more spiritual approach to the genre, expanding majestic dirges with blackened vocals and just a hint of melancholy. Fans of Yob and Pallbearer will find much to love here.

Keep your eyes peeled for a very exciting update coming to you very soon!

http://www.desertfest.be/tickets
https://www.facebook.com/desertfestbelgium/
https://www.facebook.com/events/2260579413999993/

Big Business, The Beast You Are (2019)

I couldn’t help but feel that, as I watched High Tone Son of a Bitch perform recently at Desertfest NYC (review here) that I had seen them before. I narrowed the possibilities down to some drunken afternoon at SXSW circa 2004 — I recall Paul Kott‘s past band, Kalas, played there one year, but the details are long gone. Hazards of the trade when it comes to drinking in the Texas sun, which, if I’m honest I’d probably be okay never doing again. At least the drinking part.

What matters more than whether or not I’d seen them before is the likelihood that I’ll see them again, what with the band pressing forward after a long absence with a new single release next month. The two-tracker is called Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky and it’ll be out June 21, along with back catalog reissues that are only fair enough for a band who wasn’t around for so long.

The PR wire has details, a preorder link and a new track streaming:

Reunited California Metal Band High Tone Son of a Bitch to Release New EP, ‘Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky’, June 21

Bay Area Group Featuring Members of Kalas, Noothgrush, Neurosis, Necrot, Saviours, Alaric, and More Returns!

Oakland, CA underground metal band High Tone Son of a Bitch (aka HTSoB) will release a new EP, titled ‘Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky’ on June 21.

The reunited Bay Area band, which features a core of Russ Kent (Noothgrush, Alaric), Chris Corona (Wildeyes), Joe Fucko (Strychnine), Paul Kott (Kalas, Cruevo), and Johann Zamora (Men of Porn, Totimoshi), along with studio and itinerant live contributions from HTSoB’s first singer, Scott Wagner, Dave Edwardson (Neurosis), and Sonny Reinhardt (Necrot, Saviours, Word Salad), and whose unique vision of heavy psychedelic hard rock breaks the genre box, recorded the new 2-track EP at Sharkbite Studios with famed producer Billy Anderson (Sleep, High on Fire). The EP features the herculean new song “Death of a New Day” along with a re-imagined, post doom metal take on the 1982 Alan Parsons Project classic “Eye in the Sky”. Pre-order ‘Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky’ at this location.

Fresh off a crowd-capturing live performance as part of the inaugural Desertfest New York — where the band shared the stage with Elder, Windhand, Worshipper, and more — and a U.S. tour run with Weedeater and The Skull, High Tone Son of A Bitch has fully returned and is firing on all cylinders. First formed in 2003 by the brothers Paul and Andrew Kott with bassist Ron Nichols (a veteran of Neurosis’ Noah Landis’ legendary punk band Christ on Parade), and named after named after the bumper sticker on an automobile from the Steven King novel, ‘The Dark Half’, HTSoB ultimately pulled together the talents of an all star cast, with the line-ups and contributing guests coming from and heading into bands like Kalas, Cruevo, Noothgrush, Hammers of Misfortune, Christ on Parade, Men of Porn, Neurosis, and others. The original lineup’s trajectory was cut short by tragedy when Andrew, who was struggling with addiction, died unexpectedly. In 2018, Andrew Kott’s step-son Juan, who plays in the Latin Grammy-nominated Mexican regional band Banda Troyana, urged Paul to start HTSoB up again. Paul then gradually re-formed a revised lineup of the band that has now fully arisen in triumph from the ashes of tragedy.

In its first outing as a band in 13 years, High Tone Son of A Bitch teamed up with old friend Billy Anderson to create a sprawling new vision of heavy music. The new original, “Death of a New Day”, features HTSoB vocalist Russ Kent joining forces with singer Scott Wagner (who sang on the group’s 2003 debut EP ‘Better You Than Me’) to set epic melodic vocal lines against a backdrop of titanic riffs that descend into and emerge from a synth and guitar-drenched psychedelic black hole. “Eye In the Sky” sees HTSoB put its spin on the Alan Parsons Project’s pop hit. Heavy and audacious, the song’s psyched-out “Vietnam helicopter” synth intro and sparse build-up crawl into an epic doom undertaking. Charting a new course that builds on its original direction, High Tone Son of a Bitch’s ‘Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky’ EP bends the possibility of the future of heavy music in a new direction, and sets a new course for the band’s bright future.

Track listing:

1.) Death of A New Day (6:43)
2.) Eye in the Sky (10:17)

Simultaneously upon the release of ‘Death of a New Day / Eye in the Sky’, High Tone Son of A Bitch will digitally reissue both of its previous releases, the aforementioned 2003 EP ‘Better You Then Me’ and the ‘Velocipede’ EP (2004). Both the Alex Newport-produced ‘Better You Then Me’ and ‘Velocipede’ will also see limited edition 2-on-1 vinyl release via Throne Records (Spectral Lore, Corrupted, etc.)

https://www.facebook.com/htsob.oakland/
https://www.instagram.com/htsob.oakland/