Domkraft to Release Sonic Moons Sept. 8; New Single “Slowburner” Streaming
Their 2021 album, Seeds (discussed here) was still fresh in memory when in 2022, they partnered with Slomatics for the best short release of last year, the split Ascend/Descend (review here) on Majestic Mountain Records. They covered each other’s songs. The art ruled. I did the liner notes for it and I think I wound up with three copies — at least two — of the vinyl because of the generosity of all parties involved, both bands and the label. If you’re me — and good on you that you’re not — there was nothing not to like. Accordingly, the news that the Göteborg three-piece will issue their fourth long-player, Sonic Moons, on Sept. 8 in continued cooperation with Magnetic Eye has just about made my day, and all the more so since the single they’ve unveiled along with the details of the album, the centerpiece “Slowburner,” is such a banger.
Just dive in. You won’t regret it. The vocals in the first couple minutes remind me of something. Something older, throaty, kind of a gruff bub-bub-bub I’m hearing in my head that I can’t place. Something American, maybe UK. It’s not Mark Lanegan, something more underground. Was it the 2011 Amebix record? I can’t figure it out and it’s driving me up a fucking wall. I’ll be sure to either chase it down or forget the entire question before I review the record, which I’m already looking forward to doing after hearing the single. [EDIT: It was Beastwars on the vocals.]
Also, check out that friggin’ cover art. Domkraft covers are always awesome. I think I fought this thing yesterday in Zelda. The PR wire sent this one with the info:
DOMKRAFT reveal first single ‘Slowburner’ and details of forthcoming new album “Sonic Moons”
Release date: September 8, 2023
Swedish psychedelic doom masters DOMKRAFT have released the relentless new track ‘Slowburner’ as the first single from their highly-anticipated fourth album “Sonic Moons”, which is slated for release September 8.
DOMKRAFT discuss the forthcoming album: “The theme of ‘Sonic Moons’ is not as much space as the title might suggest, it is essentially all about escapism”, singer and bass player Martin Wegeland writes. “To find that spot in your head and body where you can feel liberated and, if only briefly, escape the constant flood of burden that is life in the real world. Think of ‘Sonic Moons’ as a pill blister pack, where each song has its own active ingredient. Or an imaginary solar system where each track is its own planet. A galaxy of tunes, with different gravity, different temperatures. A riff- and rhythm-fueled exploration of inner and outer space. It’s about longing, hope, frustration, relief, and some plain old mindfucking. All by means of heavy rock.”
DOMKRAFT elaborate about the single: “Of all the songs on the new album, ‘Slowburner’ is probably the most straightforward, as it revolves around a grinding yet kind of catchy riff”, Martin Wegeland continues. “It’s a straight-up heavy rock song about suddenly realizing that you’re drifting into an expanding black hole, be it in a physical or spiritual sense. It could be a fragmented stream of thoughts from someone who is in and out of consciousness, adrift in a galactic escape pod, or it could be what keeps an insomniac earthling awake, given the state of everything.”
Tracklist
1. Whispers
2. Stellar Winds
3. Magnetism
4. Slowburner
5. Downpour
6. Black Moon Rising
7. The Big Chill
Recorded by Kalle Lilja and Per Stålberg at Welfare Sounds, Gothenburg, Sweden
Mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén
Cover artwork & layout by Björn Atldax
Line-up
Martin Wegeland – vocals, bass
Martin Widholm – guitars
Anders Dahlgren – drums
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I think you’re on the right track with Amebix, but to me it’s more like Rob Miller’s stuff with Tau Cross. Either way, it’s fucking awesome.