Posted in Whathaveyou on November 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Olympia, Washington, sludgers Grim Earth posted in October they were looking for a new second guitarist, so I don’t know if the lineup listed below with Eaon Forgash alongside guitarist/vocalist Craig Moore is current or what, but that was the version of the band that put out last year’s Stash of the Damned three-song pummeler anyhow, and well, that certainly gets the point across, whatever personnel changes may have taken place since its issue.
How about Desert Records going on a bit of a tear lately, hmm? Wasn’t even a week ago I posted word that the Albuquerque-based imprint had picked up Phog, and now here we are again. Label honcho Brad Frye (also of Red Mesa) better be careful or he might just turn into the American Argonauta. Which now that I think about it wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.
Info cobbled together from various social-type sources, slightly edited:
Grim Earth – Desert Records
Welcome Grim Earth to Desert Records! We are happy they’re joining the DR family!
Grim Earth is a sludge metal band out of Olympia, Washington. They formed, as so many other bands do, out of the ashes of previous projects. Longstanding musical partnerships come together within the band as they seek to craft the heaviest riffs known to man. Grim Earth seeks to fuse the influences of legends like Iron Monkey or High on Fire. However, they aren’t afraid to experiment with touches of Nails or even Autopsy making their way into the sound. And so, years of DIY metal have percolated into a twisted whole.
After initially coming together in 2017 and recording a demo, it wasn’t until 2019 that the band started to put together a more serious lineup committed to touring and recording. Their hodgepodge of backgrounds, ranging from stoner rock to hardcore by way of underground death metal means that the band has a distinct take on the genre. Simultaneously, the fact that drummer Austin Peterson and frontman Craig Moore have been playing together for half a decade means that the band has gelled on a level that borders on the spiritual. It also means that relative newcomers Elmer Saez (bass) and Eaon (guitars) have been able to immediately find their roles in this unique sonic texture.
After releasing the Stash Of The Damned in the fall of 2019 the band has started to prepare for their next phase. With new music constantly being written, Grim Earth have the bitter determination it takes to bring their band to the next level. Sludge metal fans of the world stand back – the riff worshippers in Grim Earth are ready to take your head.
Grim Earth are: Craig Moore – Vocals and Guitar Elmer Saez – Vocals and Bass Eaon Forgash – Guitar Austin Peterson – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Hey, I’d watch two All Them Witches sets in a day. Different setlists? Yeah, that’s cool too, but honestly even if it was the same songs it wouldn’t be the same set, so I’ll take it as it comes. The clever name the Nashville three-piece have given the performances, ‘Live on the Internet,’ is of course a play on “Guess I’ll Go Live on the Internet” from 2017’s Sleeping Through the War (review here). The band also recently posted a video for “Rats in Ruin,” the consuming, subdued-until-it-isn’t closer of their latest LP, Nothing as the Ideal (review here) — which, judging by the results I’m seeing thus far from the year-end poll, you’ve already heard but is streaming at the bottom of this post anyway, along with said video.
The band previously announced a slew of Fall 2021 European tour dates as well, and they were just confirmed as part of the first batch of adds to SonicBlast Fest in Portugal in mid-August. Whether that means more dates are to be added, I don’t know, but if their tack is to sign on to as much as humanly possible now and see how it shakes out next year, one could hardly blame them. These live streams will be, as they note, their only shows of 2020. Among other things this wretched fucking year has stolen from humanity, it stole my chance to see them together with BlackWater HolyLight this past Spring, and for that, I will never forgive it.
Stream info from the PR wire:
ALL THEM WITCHES – ONLY SHOWS OF 2020!
Catch All Them Witches LIVE ON THE INTERNET Dec 19 TWO SETS: 2PM EST and 9PM EST
Join us on Dec 19 at 2PM EST and/or 9PM EST for our only shows of 2020! We will be LIVE ON THE INTERNET performing 2 shows with 2 different set lists at Veeps.
The performance will remain available to view for 3 days following the livestream.
ALL THEM WITCHES 2021 EUROPEAN TOUR SEPTEMBER 27th UK – BRIGHTON, Chalk Venue Brighton 28th UK – NOTTINGHAM, The Bodega 29th UK – GLASGOW, Saint Luke’s & The Winged Ox 30th UK – LEEDS, Brudenell Social Club OCTOBER 1st UK – LONDON, Electric Ballroom 2nd Netherlands – AMSTERDAM, Paradiso Amsterdam 3rd Belgium – ANTWERP, Trix 6th Spain – MADRID, COOL Conciertos 7th Spain – BARCELONA, Sala Razzmatazz 2 9th Switzerland – LANGENTHAL, OldCapitol 10th Italy – MILAN, Santeria Toscana 31 11th Switzerland – ZURICH, Mascotte Club Zürich 12th Germany – MUNICH, Backstage Werk 13th Czech – PRAGUE, MeetFactory 14th Poland – WARSAW, Progresja 15th Germany – BERLIN, Huxleys Neue Welt 17th Germany, COLOGNE, Die Kantine 19th Germany, HAMBURG, Uebel und Gefährlich 20th Denmark, COPENHAGEN, Pumpehuset 22nd Norway, OSLO, Vulkan Arena 24th Finland, HELSINKI, TAVASTIA-klubi
All Them Witches is: Charles Michael Parks, Jr – bass, vocals Ben McLeod – guitar, vocals Robby Staebler – drums, vocals
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
New Dread Sovereign. No-brainer. Listened to it once; already stuck in my head. Can’t wait for the whole record.
It’s really as simple as that. The upcoming third album from Dublin-based Dread Sovereign, titled Alchemical Warfare, will arrive Jan. 15, 2021. That’s nearly four years after its 2017 predecessor, For Doom the Bell Tolls (review here), and prior to its slow-down-and-rip-yourself-apart finish, first single “Nature is the Devil’s Church” is actually speedy enough to warrant the Slayer pun in the album’s title. Bassist/vocalist Alan “Nemtheanga” Averill (also Primordial), guitarist Bones Huse (also Morass of Molasses) and drummer Johnny King (also Conan, among a slew of others) bring together classic, dark heavy metal swirlings and a worship-ready hook with “Nature is the Devil’s Church,” and if you weren’t already looking forward to this album just by knowing that it exists, the video for the single is at the bottom of the post here.
But like I said at the outset: No-brainer. Can’t wait.
From the PR wire:
Dread Sovereign reveals details for new album, ‘Alchemical Warfare’; launches video for first single, “Nature Is The Devil’s Church”
On January 15th, Dread Sovereign will release their third full-length, Alchemical Warfare, via Metal Blade Records. For a first preview of the record, a video for the new single, “Nature Is The Devil’s Church”, can be viewed at: metalblade.com/dreadsovereign – where Alchemical Warfare can be pre-ordered in the following formats:
– digipak-CD – 180g black vinyl (EU exclusive) – slate blue / grey marbled vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 200 copies) – raisin rouge marbled vinyl (EU exclusive – limited to 150 copies) – gold / black dust vinyl (Kings Road exclusive – limited to 100 copies) – white / black marbled vinyl (US exclusive)
Dread Sovereign was formed in Dublin, Ireland in 2013 by Primordial vocalist Nemtheanga to give praise to filthy cult old doom, black and heavy metal. Their first EP – 2013?s Pray to the Devil in Man – came out on Roadburn/Burning World Records to coincide with the band’s live debut. Soon after, two full-lengths were released by Van Records: All Hell’s Martyrs (2014) and For Doom the Bell Tolls (2017). And now, in early 2021, the band will release their new album, Alchemical Warfare, through Metal Blade Records.
“Our motto when we started was ‘The World is Doomed’…and it seems life is imitating art…as we are looking like filthy prophets!” says vocalist/bassist Nemtheanga. “Several years in the making, the new Dread Sovereign is ready for the End of the World, which might be next year in case you didn’t know! A bit more reckless and up-tempo than the previous releases, yet the template remains doom, ‘Alchemical Warfare‘ just has a bit more Venom and Motorhead thrown into the mix. If it’s the end of days we might as well go out with middle fingers raised right?”
“Alchemical Warfare” track-listing 1. A Curse on Men 2. She Wolves of the Savage Season 3. The Great Beast We Serve 4. Nature Is the Devil’s Church 5. Her Master’s Voice 6. Viral Tomb 7. Devil’s Bane 8. Ruin Upon the Temple Mount 9. You Don’t Move Me (I Don’t Give a Fuck) *CD+digital bonus track only
Dread Sovereign line-up: Nemtheanga – vocals/bass Bones – guitars Johnny King – drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 30th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
If you were going to come ‘back to Earth’ at any point, 2020 has been a (hopefully) singularly shitty time to do it. Nonetheless, Verona, Italy’s Kayleth issued their third long-player, 2020 Back to Earth, earlier this year through Argonauta Records, and as is their wont, the synth-laced five-piece take straightforward riffing and blast it into decidedly more cosmic reaches, keys and effects creating a palpable swirl in songs like “Lost in the Canyons” and “The Avalanche” later on. That comes coupled with a crunching style of riffery that should hit home with those who’ve seen the desert grow beyond the desert — a full-toned push taking hold from the outset of “Corrupted” and “Concrete,” the album’s clearly-designated-for-punch-and-groove opening pair.
2020 Back on Earth isn’t necessarily new terrain for Kayleth as compared to 2018’s Colossus (review here), but to be perfectly honest, neither does it need to be. The band have already had their approach more or less on lockdown, and as they throw in some handclaps amid the synthy spaciousness and careening L-class-planet dune-riding riff of “Lost in the Canyons,” who the hell is going to argue? They know what they’re doing and they’re doing it. That holds true as Kayleth‘s sci-fi flirtations take them into more electronic-sounding fare on “The Dawn of the Resurrection” and “Electron,” and as the more open-vibed, slower-rolling “Sirens” gives way to the last shove of “Cosmic Thunder.” Kayleth are by no means stagnant creatively, but neither are they trying to fix what was by no means broken in their sound their last time out. They’ve already come a long, long way in their 15 years together.
So, while the narrative of their return to the planet is based around human corruption and climate change — because, yeah, well, okay — and of course would’ve been recorded before one might have added an ongoing plague to that already-much-longer-than-I’ve-listed list of reasons one might instead want not to be here, the video for “Delta Pavonis” instead finds the band as portrayed by CGI astronauts blasting off into unknown realms of the multi-dimensional universe. In short, they find themselves on another planet and as Neil Armstrong said when he first stepped on the moon: “Hey everybody, we’re all gonna get laid!” Something like that anyway.
At least somebody gets to become one with the great cosmic ether.
The album is streaming in full at the bottom of this post, and you can see “Delta Pavonis” below, followed by some comment from the band.
Please enjoy:
Kayleth, “Delta Pavonis” official video premiere
Kayleth on “Delta Pavonis”:
Delta Pavonis talks about dualism. Specifically of the division within us. Since childhood we have always been taught to see the world divided between good and evil, me and the world, me and others, me and the universe, me and my soul… everything is separate from us, we can not live things fully. The video shows the astronauts on the road for many years, eventually arrive in an alien planet.
When they meet aliens (something they don’t know) merge with them and become one with the universe.
They are celebrated as heroes on Earth, but they’re actually still alive, somewhere else, united in the depth of existence.
After years of travelling through space looking for new worlds, May 8, 2020 seen Italian stoner rockers Kayleth return to their home planet with the band’s third full-length album, titled “2020 Back to Earth”, via their mothership Argonauta Records. While each of the band’s records tell a story, this time Kayleth found the earth in a disastrous condition, a planet mutilated by its humans. But Kayleth won’t give up. The wish to understand how life works and express it through music is a springboard to change the world with their sound. And this is a heavy dose of the Doom, Psychedelic and Stoner hailing of the realms of Space Rock.
Posted in Features on November 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
My favorite post of the year, every year. I’ll spare you (for now) the wax philosophy on what a year it’s been in general terms, but I genuinely believe we’re existing in a golden age of heavy music that, years from now, subsequent generations of fans will look back on the diversity of sounds and talent and geography and ideas and will wonder at the time that was, much as younger fans do now of the ’90s, and older fans of the ’70s.
You know the drill for the poll. There are 20 slots below. Fill out as many as you want — 20 should be easy to fill, but if you only feel strongly about five records, that’s fine — and hit enter. Your email is asked for to prove you’re human and will not be stored or added to any list or sold or whatever.
Same rules as always: Anything from Jan. 2020 to whatever’s coming out between now and Dec. 31 is eligible. Two lists are tabulated; one of the raw votes, and one in which a 1-4 ranking is worth five points, 5-8 worth four, 9-12 worth three, 13-16 worth two and 17-20 worth one.
Results are compiled and painstakingly checked to account for typographical anomalies, then beamed into a spreadsheet to go up Jan. 1, along with everybody’s individual list in one massive explosion of love for music that, if it doesn’t fill your bucket, you may not have a bucket to begin with.
Let’s do it:
The year-end poll would never be possible with the diligence in technical coordination of Slevin, whom I miss dearly in these days of social distancing. I hope my thanks travels virtually since I can’t buy him bread and beer to show my love.
Thanks for your participation. Please share the link if you can.
Posted in Radio on November 27th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
It’s Thanksgiving here in the US as I write this post. The early morning thereof, to be more specific. There’s one voice break in this episode of The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal, and I cut it yesterday afternoon. I had just put The Pecan down for his afternoon nap and was in the process of getting dinner started (slow cooking) ahead of crashing out myself for about an hour.
The point of my telling you this? Maybe I wasn’t at my best.
Maybe I was a little harried, a little distracted, a little uh-oh-um. I did my best. I didn’t talk at all last time, so it seemed like a good idea at least to jump on and say thanks for listening and offer some setup for the second half of the show, which plays out in a succession of long, increasingly far-out cuts. But it’s not my best vocal work. Not gonna put it on my audition tape for KROQ.
Does KROQ still exist?
Anyway, I know it doesn’t matter, but still. Thank you for checking the show out if you do. For what it’s worth — plenty, to me — the playlist kicks ass.
If you tune in, I hope you enjoy. Thanks again.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmemetal.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 11.27.20
Samsara Blues Experiment
End of Forever
End of Forever*
Onségen Ensemble
Stellar
Fear*
Sun Crow
Quest for Oblivion
Black it Out*
VT1
Lykantropi
Kom ta mig ut
Tales to Be Told*
Urtidsdjur
Vandringssång
Urtidsdjur*
Murcielago
Blues for the Red Lobster
Casualties*
Switchblade Jesus
Red Plains
Death Hymns*
DVNE
Omega Severer
Omega Severer*
Dark Buddha Rising
Sunyaga
Mathreyata*
Morpholith
Monocarp
Null Dimensions*
Tomorr
The 1001 Windows Village
Tomorr*
Phog
Hillside
Whole Horse Both Barrels*
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is Dec. 11 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
[Click play above to stream ‘What Needs Must Be’ from Dead Meadow’s Live at Roadburn 2011 on Burning World Records. Preorders go live next Friday through Bandcamp.]
It was the most fuzz. And Roadburn wasn’t exactly light in that regard circa 2011. The renowned Dutch festival that year featured the likes of Zoroaster, Quest for Fire, Naam, Acid King and The Atomic Bitchwax… on the first day. L.A. by way of D.C. three-piece Dead Meadow played the last day, what was then called the Afterburner (review here), and their slot could not have been more appropriate. Sandwiched between Coffins and evening headliners Black Mountain on the Main Stage, they offered a mellow-heavy hour that was utterly consuming. People in the back sat down. Not out of fatigue, though it has been a long weekend by then, but just to let the warmth of Jason Simon‘s buzzing guitar wash over them. Joined by Steve Kille on bass and Mark Laughlin on drums, Simon‘s urfuzz and unfailingly drifting vocals filled that space with a laid back vibe and groove that that Burning World Records‘ Live at Roadburn 2011 presents in all its Sasquatch-inclusive righteousness.
Of course, Dead Meadow by then were on their way to being veterans already. More than a decade into their career, they’d released Three Kings (discussed here) in 2010 as a semi-live album/video, and that followed their fifth album, 2007’s Old Growth. Their Peel Sessions collection would show up in 2012, but as regards live records, they’d also done Got Live if You Want It! in 2002 following their 2000 self-titled debut and 2001’s Howls From the Hills (discussed here). Strangers neither to performance nor captured-performance, then, and Live at Roadburn 2011brings that spirit to bear. Though the Alexis Ziritt cover art offers a glorious mania of colors and lines, planets, stars, an undead wizard and hooded mandrill acolytes, the 53-minute set itself is more about what Dead Meadow do within that abiding sense of mood, seeming to go deeper and deeper into nod until finally, with “Sleepy Silver Door,” it engulfs everything.
That set-closer was also the opener of the self-titled, and if Dead Meadow have a signature riff, that might be it (they’d revisit it in 2005 as part of a 13-minute jam), but on Live at Roadburn 2011 it’s also part of the larger story of side B and of course the LP as a whole. After launching with “Good Moanin'” and “Let’s Jump In” from 2003’s Shivering King and Others and 2005’s Feathers, respectively, their course is set between dense Orange-toned riffing and open-stretch psychedelia, and even as “What Needs Must Be” from Old Growth pulls back from the farther reaches of ‘far out’ to bring a bit of boogie to the proceedings, the ethereal sensibility remains in the solo even though the overarching rhythm is tight in its stops and starts, a kind of rolling swing that reminds that Washington D.C. was once the funk capitol of the US as well as the seat of government.
I’m trying really hard not to say the word “vibe” too many times, but that’s really what it’s all about. Heavy chill. As side A plays out, Dead Meadow speed things up through the first half of “Indian Bones,” bliss out in the middle and bring it back around in time to squeeze in “September,” which would close 2013’s Warble Womb, and “Rocky Mountain High” from the self-titled ahead — if nothing else, you’ll know it by the repurposing of the riff to Black Sabbath‘s “Iron Man” — of the big turn to “Beyond the Fields We Know.” One doubts Dead Meadow were thinking of putting the set out on vinyl at the time — you can’t ever be sure — but as regards the LP, it’s telling that side A features six tracks and side B only three. The band structured their set to follow a linear path outward. That’s not to say it lacks dynamic along that. Certainly as “Beyond the Fields We Know” hits nearly 10 minutes and “Sleepy Silver Door” nearly 11, for all the jamming going on, those two songs still come with the relatively straightforward strum of “At Her Open Door” from Feathers in between.
And just as certainly, that song trips out far and wide in its second half, riding its solo jam to the finish, so Live at Roadburn 2011 isn’t just one thing or the other, but the let’s-get-gone is palpable, and they invite the crowd along with them on their way. The performances of “Beyond the Fields We Know,” “At Her Open Door” and “Sleepy Silver Door,” compiled together on a single vinyl side, would be enough to justify this release. That they happen to occur at the end of an already right-on set is a bonus. I don’t remember at what point it was they brought out Sasquatch, but I remember whoever it was in that hairy, had-to-be-really-really-hot costume sleeked out onto the stage with the trio, sort of slow-’70s groove-walked around, checking things out. Went behind the drum riser. Went over by Kille and by Simon. Kind of hung out in the middle and danced for a bit.
But the thing about that moment — yeah, it was a novelty — but it was also a perfect fit. You stood there and, oh, here comes Sasquatch. Well of course. In the interest of full disclosure, I took the picture that appears on the inside gatefold of the LP of the elusive North American Skunk Ape hanging out with the band on stage (no money changed hands), but in the interest of fuller disclosure, no one gives a crap. What’s important for you to know is that the vibe — there’s that word again — was such that when it happened, you just went with it. It was unexpected, and hilarious, but it just became another part of what Dead Meadow already had going on that Sunday evening in Tilburg. And so, incredible.
Maybe it’s 2020’s effect of making one extra nostalgic for live music, the festival spirit, but the intervening nine years have done nothing to dull the luster that Dead Meadow show on Live at Roadburn 2011. I can only speak as someone who was fortunate enough to be there to see it, but that set was something special, and not just because of the ‘squatch. Dead Meadow sounded glad to be there, like they were rising to the occasion, like they realized it was more than just another gig, and Live at Roadburn 2011 resonates all the more for documenting that so well.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 25th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
The enviably prolific Tony Reed issued his solo acoustic debut, Funeral Suit (review here), earlier this month as the second installment of Ripple Music‘s ongoing ‘Blood and Strings’ series. It is just one of several Reed-related offerings to surface this year, but among the albums and whatnot from the goth-tinged Constance Tomb and his main band, Mos Generator, the mostly-unplugged of course stands out both by eschewing the heavy riffs and driving classic heavy grooves that Reed‘s known for, and for instead allowing him to begin a new exploration as a songwriter.
Mos Generator has only grown more progressive over the last couple albums, and Reed follows that trail onto Funeral Suit as well, as can be readily heard in the lush melodies and diversity of arrangements throughout as Reed layers his vocals, self-harmonizes, and switches between various guitars, keyboards/synthesizers and piano. The title-track, unassuming in its central strum, still bears the clarity of Reed‘s own production, and brings a wistful Mellotron progression to its midsection, integrating it fluidly with the acoustic guitar that surrounds. I’m not sure one would be correct to call it straightforward, but it’s one of Funeral Suit‘s more intimate stretches, and the video works in kind, with Reed presenting the track close on the camera in emphasis of the personal nature of the expression.
The stream of Funeral Suit is at the bottom of this post, and Reed‘s “Funeral Suit” clip follows here.
Please enjoy:
Tony Reed, “Funeral Suit” official video
Seattle songwriter and producer TONY REED (also frontman of Mos Generator) debuts an intimate monochrome video for the title track of his solo acoustic album ‘Funeral Suit’, available now on Ripple Music as part of their ‘Blood And Strings: The Ripple Acoustic’ series.
TONY REED is known for being the driving force behind Seattle’s heavy rock trio Mos Generator, as well as one of the most prolific songwriters and respected producers of the American underground rock scene. While he released his solo debut with ‘The Lost Chronicles Of Heavy Rock Vol. 1’ in 2018, never had he found the right occasion to sit down, grab a guitar and lay himself bare as freely and soulfully as he does on his acoustic debut ‘Funeral Suit’. With ‘Funeral Suit’, Tony Reed delivers his most personal work to date, pushing the experience further than the standard “man with a guitar” approach. Whether it’s the delicate arrangements, soulful vocal harmonies or piano-based escapades, this is a dense and multifaceted folk rock album with a strong progressive edge that will resonate with any listener.
