Full Album Premiere & Review: Burning Sister, Mile High Downer Rock
Denver, Colorado, heavy fuzz rollers Burning Sister are set to release their debut album, Mile High Downer Rock — and hearing that bassline after the chorus of opening cut “Leather Mistress,” it’s a title wanting nothing for accuracy — tomorrow, Nov. 4. That comes after about a year of waiting. If you look at the timeline of singles posted before the release, the first of them, “Acid Night Vision,” was issued as a single on Nov. 11, 2021. According to their Bandcamp, the recording for the album took place between September and October 2021. Single releases for “Cloven Tongues” and the aforementioned “Leather Mistress” followed this year in Feb. and June, respectively, and it’s been since then that the self-releasing trio have been sitting on it. Pretty god damned patient, if you ask me. Even with trickling out songs over a period of months.
I’m not too sure about the moniker, the more I think about it — what did Sister ever do to you? — but the sound wrought by bassist/vocalist Steve Miller (also synth), drummer Alison Salutz and guitarist Drake Brownfield (since replaced by Nathan Rorabaugh) is surefire classic stonerized heavy. Guitar and bass are fuzzed from the get-go and stay that way, and six of the eight included tracks are between six and seven and a half minutes long — the other two are interludes — so yes, Burning Sister dig in. Deep. Coming off “Leather Mistress,” the drawl in the vocals of “Acid Night Vision” remind a bit of Dali’s Llama, but the rumblechug the Denver trio conjure is more definitively addled. Like, it probably has an opinion on terpenes. And if you’ve ever believed in calling songs ‘slabs,’ the largesse just before the midsection of “Acid Night Vision” should qualify, but they’re not just about any one thing, necessarily, save perhaps for riffs. Those are up front and at the foundation both, and well they should be.
Two songs, break, two songs, break, two songs. Got it? “The Messenger” is the first interlude. It’s after “Acid Night Vision” and before the massive, Sleep-derived “Cloven Tongues,” which is a highlight for its slowed-down-classic-metal riffing, the way the bass keeps going when the guitar stops and the lead that’s worked in overtop. On a record of nodders, “Cloven Tongues” might be Master Nod, but it’s by no means the last one. Organ or organ sounds run alongside the guitar, creating a droning melody that helps fill the space set by the guitar and bass tones as well as the echoing vocals — they’re there somewhere, though they seem to come and go — and the drums, though not nearly as up-front in the mix, are still enough of a factor to feel genuinely righteous in their cutting through. The second half of “Cloven Tongues” grows noisier, and rightly so, setting up the harsher distortion/smoother ride of “Dead Sun Blues,” which by the time it devolves into its guitar solo has made it perfectly clear it’s not coming back. All the better to lead into “Seraphim,” the next synth interlude, with its Slomatics-style sci-fi grandiosity and organ accompaniment, and through its cinema-drone into the ultra-swagger of “S.I.B.,” the penultimate inclusion.
It’s the kind of riff that, if this were 1972 instead of 2022, would probably be played at twice the speed, but its twists and strut aren’t necessarily lost for the half-century of tempo drain. Straightening out to a chugging hook, the track is understated but too swinging to leave out, like Hendrix in Sabbath with shoegaze vocals. The synth from “Seraphim” makes a brief return before “S.I.B.” jams itself full circle back around to the chorus and ends with a ringout of fading feedback as though it knew closer “Stars Align” will make its own bed of fuzz on which to lay out its roll. And so it does. Also longest track (not by a lot) at 7:34, “Stars Align” is a finale true to form for the preceding proceedings; Burning Sister don’t seem like the type for last-minute surprises. But there’s some shuffle as it plays through and deft changes in speed and an opening up for a chorus after about three minutes in that signals a momentary departure from the lumber of the verse. They build to a fervent push and the capping solo that takes hold at 5:54 and runs through the finish is a ripper that earns its place.
So “mile high?” Any way you want to look at it, literally or figuratively, altitude or attitude, yes. “Downer rock?” Yeah, I hear that too. The vocals have a kind of depressive edge at times and there are moments that toe the line between Man’s Ruin-style, post-Acid King idolatry-o’-riff and darker, definitely-doomed fare. In any case, it’s not party rock — unless you happen to be having precisely my kind of party — and as a debut it is both declarative and exploratory, setting out the band’s intentions for future growth in melody, in consuming tones, in synth integration and expansiveness of craft and structure, while kicking a good bit of ass in the here and now. If saying that makes Mile High Downer Rock seem preliminary, hindsight through future releases may (or may not, I guess) indeed make it feel that way, but whatever stylistic rawness exists in it is put to aesthetic use and becomes a part of the personality. There was a time when bands like this roamed the earth, 90 feet long and in packs visible from space. I wonder if, 20 years later, it’s safe to call such a thing ‘retro?’
In any case, the prospect of aural progression is bolstered by the current self-awareness as demonstrated in the title. And the patience they’ve shown in not just, say, putting the whole thing out themselves over the summer, will likely continue to work its way into their songwriting as well. They know what they’re doing. Perhaps, then, the best thing to do is stand back and let them do it. You’ll find Mile High Downer Rock streaming in its entirety in the YouTube embed below, followed by some PR-wire type preliminaries on the record, which was mastered by none other than Tad Doyle. As if you needed another excuse to listen.
Please enjoy:
Burning Sister, Mile High Downer Rock premiere
‘Mile High Downer Rock’ is the debut full-length album by Burning Sister. The album showcases the band’s love of doom, heavy psych, acid rock, 90s noise rock, and classic underground heavy music.
Tracklisting:
1. Leather Mistress
2. Acid Night Vision
3. The Messenger
4. Cloven Tongues
5. Dead Sun Blues
6. Seraphim
7. S.I.B.
8. Stars Align
Steve Miller – bass, synth, vox
Nathan Rorabaugh – guitars
Alison Salutz – drums
This recording:
Steve Miller – bass, synth, vox
Drake Brownfield – guitars
Alison Salutz – drums
*recorded and mixed at Module Overload.
*mastered by Tad Doyle at Witch Ape Studio – Skyway Audio
Tags: Burning Sister, Burning Sister Mile High Downer Rock, Colorado, Denver, Mile High Downer Rock, Unsigned bands
Can’t wait to get it. They are amazing live!