Philly astral jazz-of-death instrumentalist duo Sarattma — Sara Neidorf and Matt Hollenberg, from whose given names that of the band derives — will release their debut album, Escape Velocity, through Nefarious Industries on Aug. 12. It’s not every band that can pull the skronk out of extreme metal and use technical wizardry to turn it into something that speaks to an avant garde history of fuckery, but Escape Velocity trades between longer and shorter tracks across seven songs — starts longer, ends longest with the 15-minute finale “Twilight Realm of Imaginary Notes” — and offers the frenetic intensity of its opening title-track (premiering below) as a beginning burst of intention, carrying djent riffing and Fredrik Thordendal-esque lead work to a place of atmospheric openness that clues the listener on the quick that anything can and just might happen throughout the proceedings that follow, save perhaps for vocals, though who the hell knows where they’d go anyway.

But if “Escape Velocity” begins the record that shares its name with only the most urgent of tech-jazz-metal shenanigans, that’s a fitting representation of ethic if not the complete sound of what follows, as “Theraphosidae” reinvents Primus‘ “John the Fisherman” as perhaps what would’ve happened if Mr. Bungle-era Trevor Dunn wrote it instead of Les Claypool and the subsequent “Sublingual Excavation” — which I’m not even going to look up perchance I might see an image of one — digs into on-its-own-wavelength-and-dares-you-to-get-there atmospheric range, breaking almost at its halfway point into a comedown that if nothing else gives the listener a moment to realize that Hollenberg and Neidorf have been running circles around them as suits their respective pedigrees playing with John Zorn, the thrashier Aptera, and so on.

A solo-on-top, skillfully-layered, and relatively un-manic stretch reminds of fellow Philly residents Stinking Lizaveta, but while Sarattma might find a home on a bill with that outfit, the purpose across Escape Velocity is the band’s own, as the turn toward the sweeter and wistful dystopian melody of centerpiece “To Touch the Dust” unveils. I won’t call it straightforward, since structurally speaking it’s not, but its ebbs and flows emphasize dynamic in a way that stands it out and makes the entire album experience of Escape Velocity richer, so that when its post-crescendo quiet finish gives way to the echoing resonant guitar at the outset of “Socotra,” the duo are even less predictable than they already were. Is the next punch coming? From where?

I mean, yes, obviously the next punch is coming. It would be a fun adventure if Sarattma went ambient drone for the entire second half of their debut LP — unexpected, if nothing else — but even on their own level it wouldn’t make sense. “Socotra” is eight minutes long, and there’s plenty of room for it to make you feel like you’re being crunched between oddly-shaped gears, all hexagons and intertwining trapezoids and whatnot, so that when “Sciatic Haze” takes over and soon enough runs backward and forward at the same time in Blind Idiot God knows only what rhythmic pattern before it resets and launches face-first into a red giant star and you feel like they just dropped Advanced Calc II on your head, it’s well earned.

And that 15-minute capper? It’s there, lurking, waiting. A goodly portion of it sees Neidorf and Hollenberg on relatively stable and serene ground, though its peacefulness is a reshaped clay of reality, urbane and sharp-cornered without necessarily being brutalist, but even the proggier landing spot for Escape Velocity would be inevitably bent in the brazen spirit of what’s preceded it. That it holds attention until unveiling its final metallic roll at about 12:20 into its 15:02 is a credit to the versatility of the players involved, though clearly if they couldn’t pull this stuff of technically, the band wouldn’t have happened in the first place. Some late forward bass rumble is welcome and continues the less-than-onslaught vibe that Sarattma have worked into, and I more than a little bit feel like I should be applauding when the song ends, so I suppose that’s probably a good sign.

Recorded in 2019, Escape Velocity won’t speak to everybody. It’s a challenging, demanding listen, and its rewards are in appreciating the level of performance and the substance as well as the controlled chaos of styles which it inhabits. But if you can keep up with it, those rewards are easily worth the effort.

PR wire info and preorder link follow the player below.

As always, I hope you enjoy:

Sarattma on “Escape Velocity”:

“The title track of the album is meant to feel like a cross-species motherboard takeover, the terror of spotting an oasis only to realize it’s a wormhole, a crash-landing into an unknown ecosystem. The album’s overarching theme is the alien within the body, in the form of pain and illness. We know this at different intensities at different points in our own lives and in witnessing the experiences of loved ones. Though we can’t necessarily take the reins on this process, there’s some reprieve in depicting it.”

Nefarious Industries presents Escape Velocity, the debut LP from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based experimental instrumental post-metal duo SARATTMA.

The follow-up to their 2017-released Inner Spaces EP, SARATTMA creates an entrancing, psychedelic, apocalyptic journey through extraterrestrial landscapes on their debut album Escape Velocity. Drummer Sara Neidorf (Mellowdeath, ex-Brian Jonestown Massacre, Aptera) and guitarist Matt Hollenberg (Cleric, John Frum, John Zorn) weave an intricate fusion of modern improv, punk, jazz, djent, avante-psych-rock, and prog, evoking Frank Zappa, John Zorn, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dysrhythmia, Don Caballero, and Stinking Lizaveta. Their visually arousing music is a cinematic space punk anthem for those grimy enough to have survived the end of days.

Dedicated to Jill Neidorf (1957-2020), Escape Velocity was recorded in July 2019 at Black Spine Studios in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, mixed and engineered by Matt Hollenberg with additional mixing from Steve Roche, guitar re-amping engineered by Kevin Antreassian at Backroom Studios in Rockaway, New Jersey, and mastered by Colin Marston at The Thousand Caves in Queens, New York. The striking cover artwork was created by Caroline Harrison and the layout handled by Erich Kriebel.

Escape Velocity will be released digitally and on LP in a run of 250 copies on Black vinyl on August 12th. Fine preorder/presave options at the Nefarious Industries shop HERE: https://www.nefariousindustries.com/collections/sarattma-escape-velocity

Escape Velocity Track Listing:
1. Escape Velocity
2. Theraphosidae
3. Sublingual Excavation
4. To Touch The Dust
5. Socotra
6. Sciatic Haze
7. Twilight Realm Of Imaginary Notes

SARATTMA:
Sara Neidorf – drums
Matt Hollenberg – guitars, bass VI, bass

Sarattma on Facebook

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Nefarious Industries website

Nefarious Industries Bandcamp

Nefarious Industries on Facebook

Nefarious Industries on Instagram

Nefarious Industries on Twitter

God damn this EP is good. It’s basically three songs plus an intro, probably would fit on a single 12″ vinyl side — Svart is pre-selling it in an edition of 500 ‘mini-LPs,’ which I took to mean a 10″ but don’t quote me on that — but in the melodic doom drawl of its riffing, in Phil Swanson‘s vocals and in the procession of hurt that unfolds rhythmically, the doom-schooled-in-doom, by-doom-for-doom sensibility pervades, giving vibes reminiscent of Apostle of Solitude‘s earlier work with a sharper edge of its own, Solemn Lament‘s self-titled EP (review here) earns its place on one of the underground’s most respected imprints.

The actual signing to Svart happened last October, and it’s easy enough to chalk the delay from that to releasing the EP on CD and vinyl on Aug. 19 up to pandemic-born pressing delays, supply chain this and that, and so on. Even better news arrives with the band’s plan to unveil a proper first album in 2023, which is enough for me to start my list of next year’s most anticipated albums in the Docs sheet of notes by which I essentially run my life. Here’s looking forward, in other words.

Of course, you can stream Solemn Lament‘s Solemn Lament on the player at the bottom of this post. It might not perk up your day, but you’d still be doing yourself a favor.

From Bandcamp updates and various social sources:

Solemn Lament present a limited edition of their debut recording. 4 tracks of somber yet heavy, crushing and melodic doom metal.

Blending early UK doom influences with a nod to stateside doom, Solemn Lament is a bicoastal collaboration of vocalist Phil Swanson (Hour of 13, Sumerlands, Vestal Claret, Briton Rites, Smith & Swanson, Seamount), drummer, Justin DeTore (Dream Unending, Innumerable Forms, Magic Circle, Sumerlands, Mind Eraser, & more), bassist, Drew Wardlaw (Blind Dead, Dry-Rot, Uranium Orchard), lead guitarist, Adam Jacino (Blind Dead) and rhythm guitarist, Eric Wenstrom.

Physical copies (Vinyl & CD) of the debut EP will be released on August 19th via Svart Records.

Pre-Order (North America) http://svart.ochre.store/release/309453-solemn-lament-solemn-lament
Pre-Order (Europe) http://svartrecords.com/product/solemn-lament-solemn-lament-ep/
Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3F2BP3J?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_XVF1AYXA9KJZTGCQKAC0

Shirts are also available here: http://solemnlament.bandcamp.com/merch
(Apologies for the absurd shipping costs outside of the US)

New material is in the works with a full length expected in 2023 via Svart Records. Thanks again for the continued support!

In the meantime, several of Justin’s other projects have releases and tours scheduled in the coming months:

Sumerlands is releasing “Dreamkiller” on September 16th
http://store.relapse.com/b/sumerlands

Innumerable Forms is releasing “Philosophical Collapse” also on September 16th
http://linktr.ee/innumerableformsdeath

Innumerable Forms will also be making their live debut in Europe as they embark on an EU tour with Faceless Burial.

https://www.facebook.com/solemnlament
https://www.instagram.com/solemnlamentmusic/
https://solemnlament.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrWvrLIkGZEmsJwRx2_Plmw

https://www.facebook.com/svartrecords
https://www.instagram.com/svartrecords/
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https://svartrecords.com/

Solemn Lament, Solemn Lament (2021)

[Click play above to stream the premiere of Freedom Hawk’s ‘Seize the Day’ from their new full-length Take All You Can. Album is out Sept. 23 on Ripple Music (Bandcamp preorder).]

Reliability be thy name. For over 15 years, Virginia Beach heavy rockers Freedom Hawk have dug into a style that has only become more their own with time, offering songcraft that’s straightforward in structure and almost invariably led by its two guitars, while also digging deeper into their own presentation of ideas and methods and remaining unflinchingly honest in their purposes. Such is to say, when guitarist/vocalist T.R. Morton opines, “We all need rock and roll,” in the love song of the same name, you believe he means it.

Take All You Can is the four-piece’s sixth long-player and second for Ripple Music behind 2018’s Beast Remains (review here), as well as their second with guitarist Brendan O’Neill, whose addition to the lineup has clearly resulted in some shifts in style, pushing an already-there penchant for NWOBHM-inspired heroics — recontextualized into driving fuzz, naturally — more to the forefront in songs like “Take All You Can,” the centerpiece “Never to Return” and the never-not-be-soloing (not quite but you get the point) “From the Inside Out,” while allowing the band to explore atmospheres and moods that feel new at the same time. To wit, the aforementioned “We All Need Rock and Roll” arrives with a mellow grunge strum and spacious lead overtop and unfurls itself in a not-inactive fashion — Mark Cave‘s bass and Lenny Hines‘ drums assure there’s never a sacrifice of groove — and it’s not until Hines starts on the cowbell that the band signals the shove to come. And the two guitars get together, raise a toast of what is presumably celebratory homemade mead, and reaffirm said universal need, but so much to their credit, they don’t abandon that opening progression.

To be clear, “Age of the Idiot” and “Take All You Can” open Take All You Can at a fervent clip. The lead cut brings raucous shove and vitality as one would hope, and the title-track behind it prefaces the ’80s metal swagger of “From the Inside Out.” The arrival of “We All Need Rock and Roll” likewise is a preface to the expansion of sound that follows “Never to Return” and “From the Inside Out,” as Take All You Can wraps its nine-song/45-minute run with the salvo of “Skies So Blue,” “Comin’ Home” and “Desert Song,” transitioning from the dead-ahead urgency of the centerpiece and “From the Inside Out,” unfolding at more of a middle pace across the build of “Skies So Blue” while bringing hooks instrumental as well as vocal and a groove that is neither staid nor wanting for motion, nestled right into the vibe and where it wants to be as the band so often are. “Comin’ Home” pushes further along similar lines while broadening the atmospheric side, finding a more tranquil place from which its verses emanate, and keeping even its chorus consistent with this spirit, somewhat melancholy but treating its declaration of the title-line as a point of victory if the guitars are anything to go by.

Cave‘s bassline under the soaring guitar makes it — credit to Ian Watts, also of Ape Machine, who mixed at The Magic Closet in Portland, Oregon (Chris Goosman at Baseline Audio in Michigan mastered) — but the shift is so smoothly done by the band that it’s easy to follow along into the mellower terrain, which even without the dead-giveaway clue of “Desert Song” gives some hint of Pacific Coast purveyors like Yawning Man or Brant Bjork while filtering those impulses through its own, be it the harder riff of the chorus or the solidity of the structure beneath the jam. Freedom Hawk have done more than dipped toe into this kind of mood during their years and across their six-to-date LPs, but for a band defined in no small part by a nothin’-too-fancy, rock-like-they-used-to-make heavy riff ethos, the movement between “Skies So Blue,” “Comin’ Home” and “Desert Song” comes through as particularly bold; the group’s reach revealed all the more on repeat listens.

Thinking further of the shifting dynamic within the band, it’s noteworthy that they recorded with O’Neill at the helm and input from everyone, rather than an outside engineer. Their 2021 single, “Liftoff” (premiered here), was perhaps a test of method and there’s no sacrifice of production quality for going fully DIY for the first time on a full-length outing. Rather, “Desert Song” arrives at the conclusion with a sweetly fuzzed-out pastoralism, the bass and drums with just an edge of East Coast shove as Freedom Hawk even at their most subdued have always maintained, and demonstrates plainly to the audience where it’s coming from and the outward ride it’s ready to take. It’s not rushed, but neither is it really slowed down, but it serves as further evidence of the band to do whatever they want around a four-plus minute runtime and make a song out of it.

And whether that song is “Age of the Idiot” — the socially conscious lines of which are a misdirection to some degree of Take All You Can‘s more personal aspects, as best as one can tell without the benefit of a lyric sheet — or “Never to Return” or “Desert Song,” the purpose is the same. Freedom Hawk have never wanted anything more than to write the best material they can, record the best versions of the songs they can, and play them in front of human beings as often as they can.

It’s a simple formula, and to look at “verse chorus verse solo verse chorus end,” that’s a simple formula too on its face. The depths Freedom Hawk bring to Take All You Can remind that just because something is accessible, that doesn’t mean it lacks personality or individualism. Longtime listeners will recognize much of what Take All You Can has to give, but those same listeners should likewise be aware of how the band has grown and are still growing as veterans, and as one of the American Eastern Seaboard’s most vital presences in heavy rock.

If you need rock and roll, as I’m told we all do, trust well that Freedom Hawk will be on hand to deliver. They certainly do in these tracks.

Freedom Hawk, Take All You Can (2022)

Freedom Hawk on Facebook

Freedom Hawk on Instagram

Freedom Hawk on Bandcamp

Freedom Hawk on Twitter

Freedom Hawk website

Ripple Music website

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Facebook

Kind of an interesting reframing happening here of Monster Magnet‘s 2007 album, 4-Way Diablo. Originally released like its exclamatory 2004 predecessor, Monolithic Baby! (discussed here), through SPV/Steamhammer, and set to issue through Napalm Records on Sept. 16, 4-Way Diablo was all but disowned for years, its making and release having coincided with founding frontman Dave Wyndorf‘s getting sober, stint in rehab, and so on. Clearly not a highlight time of the long-running New Jersey heavy rockers’ tenure, though perhaps even as its most addled, Wyndorf‘s songwriting is still unfuckwithable, and the leadoff title-track proves that handily. It ain’t Powertrip, and it ain’t Spine of God, but 4-Way Diablo still has something to offer on a fresh listen.

I had hoped that, as Monster Magnet dug back into their own catalog to reboot albums that they’d take on 4-Way Diablo and produce it as raw as possible, like barebones, band-in-garage-on-4-track demo style. Go back and listen to 1990’s Monster Magnet and that’s what I’m talking about. Even just on a lark, issued DIY or something like that, but alas. If you squint hard enough — with your ears, of course — you can hear where it would work, though I’ll readily admit that the weirder and more out-there Monster Magnet get, the better a place I think the universe gets in general. If you doubt that, return to their 2021 covers collection, A Better Dystopia (review here), or 2015’s Cobras and Fire (review here), which reworked songs from 2010’s pointedly hard rock Mastermind (review here).

In any case, not knowing what’s coming next has always been a big part of Monster Magnet‘s appeal. Four years after their most recent new studio LP, that is still very much the case.

From the PR wire:

MONSTER MAGNET to Reissue Classic Albums Monolithic Baby! and 4-Way Diablo on Limited Edition Vinyl

Physical and Digital Versions out September 16, 2022

Pre-Order HERE: https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/monstermagnet

Psychedelic rock icons MONSTER MAGNET are pleased to announce the reissue of two seminal albums in their vast discography on limited edition vinyl – 2004’s Monolithic Baby!and 2007’s 4-Way Diablo – both of which have been out of print and unavailable digitally for years! Pre-orders for both the digital and vinyl editions of both albums are available now, set for release on September 16, 2022.

MONSTER MAGNET mastermind Dave Wyndorf says about the reissues:

“It’s great to see these two albums back in circulation again. The MONSTER MAGNETuniverse isn’t complete without them! Monolithic Baby! is a big, glitzy (and purposefully cynical, but aren’t they all?) rock and roll record, and listening to it now reminds me of that time – the beginning of the 21st century. Even then I knew things were gonna get weird!

4 Way Diablo is a collection of songs I wrote between tours in the early 2000s but couldn’t find a place for. They piled up fast, and pretty soon, there was an album. It turns out there’s some of my favorite Magnet songs there!”

Pre-Order your MONSTER MAGNET Reissues HERE: https://www.napalmrecordsamerica.com/monstermagnet

2004 saw the release of MONSTER MAGNET’s sixth studio album Monolithic Baby!, the follow-up to 2000’s God Says No, which cemented the Red Bank, NJ rockers in the world of space rock and roll. This 14-track journey of masterful hard rock features 11 ripping originals and three cover songs recorded in true classic Magnet style, including covers of The Velvet Underground, David Gilmour and Robert Calvert.

Monolithic Baby! is being reissued on orange vinyl with white and black splatter, as well as in a limited glow in the dark vinyl variant!

Monolithic Baby! Track listing
1. Slut Machine
2. Supercruel
3. On The Verge
4. Unbroken (Hotel Baby)
5. Radiation Day
6. Monolithic
7. The Right Stuff
8. There’s No Way Out Of Here
9. Master Of Light
10. Too Bad
11. Ultimate Everything
12. CNN War Theme

Recorded in four different studios (Sound City Studios, American Studios, The Sunset Lodge and Hydeaway Studios) throughout 2006-2007, 4-Way Diablo is the seventh offering from legendary riff masters MONSTER MAGNET. Featuring rippers such as “Wall of Fire,” “You’re Alive,” and a cover of an obscure Rolling Stones song “2000 Lightyears From Home,” 4-Way Diablo is a true gem in the MONSTER MAGNET catalog.

4-Way Diablo is being reissued on white vinyl with gold and black splatter, as well in a limited, special glow in the dark vinyl variant!

4-Way Diablo Track listing
1. 4-Way Diablo
2. Wall Of Fire
3. You’re Alive
4. Blow Your Mind
5. Cyclone
6. 2000 Light Years From Home
7. No Vacation
8. Thanks I’m Calling You
9. Solid Gold
10. Freeze And Pixillate
11. A Thousand Stars
12. Slap In the Face
13. Little Bag Of Gloom

Considered one of the most creative, diverse, and hard-rocking of contemporary American bands, MONSTER MAGNET is credited with pioneering “stoner rock”. They’re noted for the uniqueness of their sound, their authenticity as a band, their ability to grow musically, and the intelligence and wit of their songs – fusing garage rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, punk and psychedelia. In addition to musical influences, the band has always been inspired by comic book, science fiction, horror movies, and B-movies by filmmakers such as Roger Gorman and Russ Myer.

http://zodiaclung.com
https://www.facebook.com/monstermagnet/
https://www.instagram.com/monstermagnetofficial/

www.napalmrecords.com
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Monster Magnet, “Monolithic” official video

Monster Magnet, “4-Way Diablo”

At the risk of actual honesty, I’ll tell you that my anticipation for the new Clutch album, the title of which was revealed last week as Sunrise on Slaughter Beach, is not unalloyed. I don’t get the band’s press releases anymore if they’re being sent out, and that one stings. Clutch are a heavy rock institution, and they by no means need press from me, but after being in touch with the band and covering them for the better part of 20 years, to think this is the first record since Pure Rock Fury that I’m on the outs in terms of coverage is kind of a bummer. The music industry, such as it is, offers perennial opportunities to be humbled. If you think this sounds like privileged whining, fine, I don’t care. Nobody’s out here asking for a signed 2LP or whatever, I just feel like a rube chasing down the PR.

Still, as noted, I am very much looking forward to the Sept. 16 arrival of Sunrise on Slaughter Beach — got my preorder in for the CD and whenever they do whatever special edition they hopefully will I’ll get that too — and the singles they have out so far are choice. Expect more place-names to be dropped and ultra-groove to come, and rejoice, there’s new Clutch on the way. And of course they’ll be hand-delivering it to their waiting fanbase on tour, as is their wont.

Art (which is fantastic), info, dates and videos follow. The band are in Europe now for fests and more, as you can see:

PRE-ORDER NOW!
Sunrise On Slaughter Beach
Available World Wide on Sep 16.
Pre-Order Now at
ClutchMerch.com

Produced by @tomdalgety
Art by @jaredmuralt

Sunrise On Slaughter Beach, the band’s thirteenth studio album – a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great and another giant leap forward into career longevity.

Track Listing:

1. Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone)
2. Slaughter Beach
3. Mountain Of Bone
4. Nosferatu Madre
5. Mercy Brown
6. We Strive For Excellence
7. Skeletons On Mars
8. Three Golden Horns
9. Jackhammer Our Names

TOUR DATES:
ClutchOnTour.com

UK/Europe:
Jul 23 – Nordfjordeid, NOR – Malakoff Festival – Fly
Jul 26 – Belfast, N.IRL. – Limelight – SOLD OUT – Bus pickup Manchester UK
Jul 27 – Dublin, IRL- Academy – SOLD OUT – Bus
Jul 30 – Gijon, SPA – Tsunami Fest Xixon – Fly
Aug 1 – Porto, PRT – Hard Club – Van
Aug 2 – Lisboa, PRT – Cineteatro Capitólio – Van
Aug 4 – Kostrzyn nad Odra, POL – POL’AND’ROCK, CZAPLINEK – Bus rest of tour
Aug 5 – Wacken, GER – Wacken Open Air Festival
Aug 6 – Leipzig, GER – Re Generation Fest.
Aug 7 – Erlangen, GER – E-Werk
Aug 9 – Jeromer, CZE – Brutal Assault Festival
Aug 11 – Eschwege, GER – Open Flair Festival
Aug 12 – Le Locle, CHE – Rock Altitude Festival
Aug 13 – Puttlingen (Saarbrücken), GER – Rocco del Schlacko
Aug 14 – Rottenburg o.d Tauber, GER – Taubertal Festival
Aug 15 – Budapest, HUN – Sziget Festival
Aug 18 – Saint Nolff, FRA – Motocultor Festival
Aug 19 – Charleville-Mezieres, FRA – Cabaret Vert Festival
Aug 20 – Hasselt, BEL – Pukkelpop Festival
Aug 21 – Luxemburg, LUX – Den Atelier
Aug 23 – Copenhagen, DNK – Store Vega
Aug 24 – Oslo, NOR – Sentrum Scene – SOLD OUT
Aug 25 – Goteborg, SWE – Liseberg Festival (Headliner)
Aug 26 – Stockholm, SWE – Grona Lund Festival (Headliner)
Aug 27 – Malmo, SWE – KB

Clutch w/ Helmet, Quicksand & JD Pinkus
Sep 13 Toronto, ON @ Rebel
Sep 15 Boston, MA @ House of Blues
Sep 16 New York, NY @ Palladium Times Square
Sep 17 Baltimore, MD @ Hammerjacks
Sep 18 Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
Sep 20 Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
Sep 21 Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall
Sep 23 Louisville, KY @ Louder than Life*
Sep 24 Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works
Sep 25 Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
Sep 27 Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues
Sep 29 Houston TX @ Warehouse Live
Sep 30 Dallas, TX @ The Factory in Deep Ellum
Oct 01 Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
Oct 02 Austin, TX @ Emo’s
Oct 04 Phoenix, AZ @ Van Buren
Oct 05 Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
Oct 07 Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock*
Oct 08 Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House
Oct 09 Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
Oct 10 Seattle, WA @ Showbox SODO
Oct 12 Salt Lake City, UT @ the Depot
Oct 13 Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
Oct 14 Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
Oct 15 West Des Moines, IA @ Val Air Ballroom
Oct 16 Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
*Clutch only

More dates here: https://linktr.ee/clutchofficial

CLUTCH:
Neil Fallon – Vocals/Guitar
Tim Sult – Guitar
Dan Maines – Bass
Jean-Paul Gaster – Drums/Percussion

www.facebook.com/clutchband
www.instagram.com/clutchofficial
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www.youtube.com/user/officialclutch

Clutch, “We Strive for Excellence”

Clutch, “Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone)” official video

Quality bands doing the thing is always a win as far as I’m concerned. Cypriot sludgers Stonus and Germany’s Swan Valley Heights have a stretch of dates lined up together for the bulk of September. The former reached out to me, asked if I’d like to be included among presenters for the tour, and while I’ve said no plenty of times in the past to that kind of thing, this was an easy yes.

First of all, I’ve never seen either of these bands but I wish I had. Second, it’s not a huge tour, there’s no major corporate push behind it, and when it’s over, I assume at least most of those involved will go back to their jobs and regular day to day lives. But doing a tour like this means you believe in what you do enough to put your ass out there and do it for real, and if you can’t support that idea, you can’t support music. At least not in any way that involves actually showing up.

Since I can’t show up, I’ll do this instead. Stonus sent the below info over about the tour, and I’m sure I’ll be plugging it again before they launch the proceedings, but I want to make it clear how killer I think these shows will be, even before you factor in the whole two-years-no-shows thing between 2020-2022 thing. If you’re in their path, go:

Stonus in collaboration with DAREDEVIL RECORDS and Fuzzorama Records’ psychedelic heavy rockers Swan Valley Heights are proud to present the European Co-headline Tour: Portals To the Sun

This time the five piratonauts join forces with the three amigos from Swan Valley Heights on a mission to spread their Sunny fuzzy riffs around Europe!!! Germany, Austria, Czech republic, Cyprus and UK are you ready for the most fuzzed-up mediterranean party?

3 September: Larnaca, Cyprus
13 September: London, UK
16 September: Berlin, GER
17 September: Dresden, GER
18 September: Lubbenau, GER
20 September: Salzburg, AUS
21 September: Munich, GER
22 September: Prague, CZ
24 September: Backnang, GER

More dates to be announced soon!
art by the one and only Soares Artwork

Few words from the band:
“It’s been a rough couple of years, forced to be isolated, desolated and alone. We would never have imagined that the release of our debut album would be followed by a pandemic… But that didn’t stop us from dreaming and we are finally touring Europe for the first time, with fuzzed-up tunes from “Aphasia”, “Seance” as well as older favourites! It’s a dream coming true and we are looking forward to sharing these experiences and connecting on a more personal level with all of you, who keep pushing and supporting us no matter what!
See you all on the road…

Loads of fuzzy love,
STONUS”

For further information visit our website: www.stonusband.com

STONUS “Mediterranean Fuzzed Up Heavy Rock” Stonus are a desert heavy rock quintet originating from Nicosia, Cyprus since 2015 and currently based in London. Their sound can be described as a mixture of desert, psychedelic, alternative and doom rock with pyrotechnic guitars, fuel firing solos, powerful drumming and raw dirty riffs held together by the melodic vocals and coloured by analogue equipment, complimented by high-energy live performances. To date Stonus have released three extended plays, building up to their debut album ‘Aphasia’ released in 2020 which made it into several AOYT lists and getting them a deal with Electric Valley Records and Daredevil Records . Stonus have shared the stage with bands including Conan, Elephant Tree, Riverside, Sunnata, Planet of Zeus and Nightstalker and participated in festivals such as Riffolution Fest in Manchester UK and Soundart Fest in Roumania.

SWAN VALLEY HEIGHTS A fat baby is born in Germany: The Heavy Seed, second album of Munich and Berlin based three-piece Swan Valley Heights. Ranging from three-minute-long instrumental bangers with no other intention than smashing heads to massive psych journeys that almost reach the quarter-hour mark; from big, ugly dissonances to acoustic guitar driven beach vibes – this eclectic piece of fuzzrock found its right home on Fuzzorama Records, even being mixed and mastered by no other than Truckfighters’ Mr. Dango. Releasing their debut album back in 2016, Swan Valley Heights quickly found their booth within the scene. Heavy, unique riffing and a semi-serious take on stoner rock’s clichés are fusing with a fascination for the psychedelic aesthetics and big spaces of the many branches the genre has to offer. Swan Valley Heights has been labeled progressive stoner, psychedelic fuzzrock and space grunge, birthing music that is far away from simply riding standard patterns into oblivion.

Stonus, Séance (2021)

Swan Valley Heights, The Heavy Seed (2019)

Stonus on Facebook

Stonus on Instagram

Stonus on Bandcamp

Swan Valley Heights on Facebook

Swan Valley Heights on Instagram

Swan Valley Heights on Bandcamp

Some bands are never going to be for everybody, and the extremity of noise and pummel wrought by Suma places the Swedish four-piece distinctly in that category. All the more impressive, then, is the fact that they are preparing to tour celebrating their 20th anniversary — actually their 21st, since the tour was delayed like everything else — flying in the face of accessibility with volume on loan from that thunderstorm you remember from when you were a kid. I finally saw Suma at Høstsabbat 2019 (review here) in Oslo, and they delivered every bit of the synth-affected harshened crunch I had been hoping for. Good show? Good show. That was quite a day, looking back at it.

Their most recent studio LP, 2016’s The Order of Things (review here), continues to resonate its disaffection, and while there was talk of a new album in the works as far back as 2020, they seem to have been spending more time doing shows than recording — as one does — and with the upcoming run of shows, one imagines that’s where their heads are at now, though if they wanted to sneak into a studio and put together another five or six or seven tracks of their particular noise-atmosludge-aggro-your-arms-off kind of crunch and downer vibe, you wouldn’t hear me complain. Whenever, if ever, such a thing shows up, it’ll be welcome.

From the band via socials:

SUMA 20 years of noise tour October 2022

NEWS & UPDATES >>TWENTY YEARS OF NOISE tour in OCTOBER.

new venue in LJUBLJANA, BERLIN moved to 10/10 and we’ve been added to the DESERTFEST ANTWERP lineup… great times ahead!!!

04/10 HAMBURG (de) – hafenklang
05/10 DRESDEN (de) – chemiefabrik
06/10 WIEN (aut) – arena
07/10 ZAGREB (hr) – mocvara
08/10 LJUBLJANA (si) – channel zero
09/10 LINZ (aut) – kapu
10/10 BERLIN (de) – schokoladen
11/10 LIEGE (be) – la zone
12/10 PARIS (fr) – le klub
13/10 BRUXELLES (be) – magasin 4
14/10 BREMEN (de) – zollkantine
15/10 ANTWERP (be) – desertfest

SUMA:
>P. guitar
>J. bass/vocals
>E. drums
>R. samples/noise

https://www.facebook.com/sumanoise/
https://www.instagram.com/sumanoise/
https://sumanoise.bandcamp.com/

Suma, The Order of Things (2016)

One assumes that next year, YOB‘s Catharsis will see a duly deluxe reissue for its 20th anniversary, just as the band’s 2011 outing, Atma (review here), was recently re-pressed to mark 10 years, and Catharsis itself saw reissue for its own first decade in 2013 through Profound Lore and Relapse Records (that is the version above). Seems only the Metal Blade albums — 2004’s The Illusion of Motion (discussed here) and 2005’s The Unreal Never Lived (discussed here) — sit untouched. But every 10 years is fair. If it was every five, I doubt I’d complain. If there was a way to just ultimate-forever-preorder and receive a new edition of every record every time one happened, into perpetuity, you would only be able to call it an investment. A debt paid in installments.

This album changed my life. I mean that. I happened into YOB, like so much else at the time, through StonerRock.com’s All That is Heavy store — both of those things are still missed; call me sentimental — and bought the Abstract Sounds jewel case CD as a new release. It reshaped what I understood the word ‘heavy’ could mean. I’d never heard something that managed to be riff-based, psychedelic, metal, doom, beautiful, crushing and fun all at once, and aside from the novelty of the track lengths — three songs on Catharsis: “Aeons” (18:10), “Ether” (7:16) and “Catharsis” (23:39) — I’d never heard a clean/harsh vocal shift like that from Mike Scheidt in my life, despite the turn of the century’s rampant scream-verse-sing-chorus metalcore ethic.

That eerie, effects-soaked voice, complemented by brutal growls or shouts, whispers as in “Aeons” or pure gutturalism near the end of the title-track — helped expand my definition of genre and form. I’d heard long songs, I’d heard weird songs, but YOB took the tenets of sludge via Neurosis and the stoner metal of Sleep, the it’s-doom-at-any-speed attitude of Cathedral and from all of this and more harnessed once-in-a-generation individualism. I didn’t quite understand it, and I’m still not sure I do, to be honest, but I loved that about it. It seemed like no matter how deep you listened, there was always something new. That funky break in “Aeon!” They’re taking it for a walk! 19 years after the fact, I still feel there’s more to find.

I’ve never written about Catharsis like this before in no small part because I feel so strongly about it. I find I’m nervous doing so now, like all the words want to come out of my brain at the same time and none can squeeze through. Whether it’s the lumbering spaciousness of “Aeons,” or the daring of both speed and a hook in “Ether” — there’s more Matt Pike in that riff than I ever realized; even now I hear something I hadn’t heard before — and the outright emotive expanse of “Catharsis” and the way it throws itself open for its chorus, “The tyranny built upon our philosophies/Not for me in solitude again,” the way those lines aren’t about defiance or a middle finger, not even angry, just knowing of place and self, Catharsis speaks to a timeless sense of not belonging, of seeing differently, while creating reaches in which to dwell.

For the trio then comprised of Scheidt, bassist Isamu Sato and drummer Travis Foster — Aaron Rieseberg (Norska, Simple Forms) took over bass when the band came back from a four-year hiatus with 2009’s blistering The Great Cessation (review here; discussed here) — it was formative, part of an ongoing realization of sound that is inarguably still happening in Scheidt‘s songwriting as of the band’s most recent album, 2018’s Our Raw Heart (review here). But the manner in which soul is manifested on Catharsis was legitimately new for heavy-anything at the time, and it turned the weight of the tracks themselves into a ceremony suited to the lyrical searching, that outsider perspective looking in with a kind of resigned disappointment and understanding that something else is needed. This point of view, honest, personal, continues to inform YOB‘s work, and while the band’s prior 2002 debut, Elaborations of Carbon, had spent plenty of time in the cosmos, Catharsis internalized that journey in a manner no one else has since, though plenty have tried.

And “Catharsis” itself would set forth a pattern of ‘the YOB epic’ that spans across their catalog. The Illusion of Motion had its closing title-track, The Unreal Never Lived had “The Mental Tyrant,” The Great Cessation had its closing title-track, Atma disrupted the pattern by making “Adrift in the Ocean” the finale but not the longest song but still followed the quiet-guitar-intro-then-all-hell-breaks-loose modus, while 2014’s Clearing the Path to Ascend (review here) offered the once-in-a-lifetime “Marrow”(discussed here), and Our Raw Heart dared to disrupt, putting “Beauty in Falling Leaves” as fifth of seven cuts. “Catharsis” was the predecessor to them all with its meandering but ever-purposeful procession, its undeniably metal culmination, its drone, thrash ‘n’ bash harvesting of the titular ideal and culmination that seems to find even another level of blast and spiritual release, ending almost while still in progress as if to remind us as listeners that our lives and our worlds will inevitably do the same.

YOB went on after this album to produce some of their generation’s most crucial heavy music, transcending even the cosmic doom that Catharsis helped define, delivering iconic performances in studio and on stage ever driven by passion and correspondingly influential and incomparable. It was by no means the start of the band, preceded by their demo (discussed here) in 2000 and the aforementioned Elaborations of Carbon, but I count Catharsis as the beginning of that process, the Eugene, Oregon, three-piece having discovered their sound and purpose to a degree such that the pursuit and growth across the nearly two decades since has had these three songs at its foundation.

A popular answer to the Obelisk Questionnaire question, “What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?,” is that all life experience is valuable because it has led that individual to become the person they are. Not judging anyone else’s self-assessments — including Scheidt‘s nine years ago — but I don’t agree. I’ve seen and experienced things in my life that I feel like I’d be better off without, whatever ‘character-building’ I might’ve missed out on as a result. When “Catharsis” hits that change as it enters its last seven minutes, though, I’m a believer. I’m ready to accept everything; the good, the bad, the up, the so, so many downs. All of it. To hear that progression, the turns and the push and riff that has just an edge of light coming through all the barrage, feels like a true exhale, low and deep from the center of one’s being. It’s all worth it, if only for a while.

I love this album like family.

As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.

—

So why now, if I’ve never been able to write about it before? Fair enough.

I was loafing on the couch the other day, broiling in climate change comeuppance, and I suddenly had to ask myself the question of whether these might be the best days of my life.

I am reasonably healthy, physically, at 40 years old, and nowhere near my lowest of lows mentally. I don’t work outside of taking care of my son and doing this, plus odds and ends in other freelance writing/editing. I write for Creem, which feels weird to say. I’m on Gimme Radio — today, 5PM Eastern (playlist here). I finally went to Freak Valley Festival. People say nice things about me on the internet sometimes. My wife still speaks to me. Every now and then we get to make out, which is always nice. My family is close by. My mother is alive. My father is not. My wife’s mother is alive. Her father is not. My wife’s grandmother is alive. My sister and her husband and their two sons, my wife’s sister and her daughter and son are all around, healthy, well, challenging in their tween/teenagerdom, but vibrant people who make any day better and give hope for the future. My own son is four and a half years old and I don’t think we’ve ever spent more time together.

His getting kicked out of camp as part of the all-plans-blown-to-smithereens Summer of Pivot ’22 has resulted in my running point parenting — with about two hours’ break when the don’t-call-her-a-babysitter-she’s-just-his-friend-who-shows-up-to-play-and-gets-paid-for-it comes, that I almost invariably spend writing — more than I ever have. In the last two weeks, he’s gone from swearing he’ll never take off his diapers to playing ‘the cereal game’ aiming his pee in the potty, and he’ll now use a toilet in places that aren’t his house — yesterday at his speech therapist’s and Bed Bath and Beyond, today doing what we call a ‘bush wee’ (that’s what they call it on Bluey) at the nearby park — and he’s amazing and infuriating and just everything all at the same time. He is such, such an asshole, completely overwhelming and hits harder than the riff to Neurosis’ “The Doorway,” but I can’t get away from loving him.

We have this house, in this neighborhood. I eat Jarlsberg cheese like every day. After the kid goes to bed, I can sit on the couch in my garage like a teenager, light up a joint that I bought at the smoke shop right next to the pizza place — pure Jersey — and marvel at the fact that even my next door neighbor who’s a cop can’t do shit about it. That novelty may never go away.

Inside, the air conditioning works. The ice maker works. The shower works. The kitchen isn’t done, but it works too. The coffee pot works, and the Nespresso. I have shit days, often — having one today, in fact — but when was that not the case, and as time goes on into the imperfect stretch of memory, I look back on life events and mundane afternoons of years gone and remember them at least as much positive as negative, times worth being in. I wonder what I’ll say about now if I’m fortunate enough to live another two or three decades, which right now there’s no reason to think I won’t. The world is going to hell. My country is falling apart. Sometimes I need a xanax just to get me over until bedtime. But I’m okay right now, today. When I stand back and look at it, I’m okay. Doesn’t that count too?

I hope that, if these are the best days of my life, if this is the pinnacle, that when I remember them, I remember as well that I tried my best to appreciate them at the time. And that sometimes I even managed to do so.

It was in that spirit that I decided Catharsis was the record to close out this week.

Thank you for reading. Great and safe weekend. Drink water. It’s hot out there.

FRM.

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