Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Leipzig-based heavy rockers Godzilla in the Kitchen will tour their native Germany in October and November, getting out to meet up with Greece’s Godsleep for a few shows and supporting their 2022 album, Exodus (review here), while probably starting to think about what comes next as well. They offered Live at Break Out earlier in 2023 and you can stream that below, along with the studio LP because thoroughness.
The run is 14 shows, one day off, all in Germany, and seeing shows booked in just Germany I guess shouldn’t seem weird, since most broader European tours feature at least two or three dates there along with stops in other countries. But fair enough. They’ll roll through their hometown the second night and proceed through Nov. 11, where the final show is in Hildburghausen.
Poster, info/dates, links and audio, courtesy of the PR wire:
GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN are touring Germany in autumn!
GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN announce their “Future of Mankind” tour for the fall. After the release of their 2nd album “EXODUS”, the first released live album “Live at Break Out” and their 2nd appearance at the Wacken Open Air, the Leipzig based heavy psychedelic rock band is touring Germany again.
The trio consisting of guitarist Eric Patzschke, bassist Simon Ulm and drummer Felix Rambach already inspired 2022 and 2023 at the WACKEN OPEN AIR. Almost a year after the release of their 2nd album via Argonauta Records and subsequent tour, EXODUS will be in the spotlight again. The “Future of Mankind Tour 2023” is targeting 14 cities in Germany.
The trio of guitarist Eric Patzschke, bassist Simon Ulm and drummer Felix Rambach already thrilled 2022 and 2023 at the WACKEN OPEN AIR. Almost a year after the release of their 2nd album and subsequent tour, EXODUS will be in the spotlight again. The “Future of Mankind Tour 2023” is targeting 14 cities in Germany.
As a follow-up to the impressive debut album GODZILLA IN THE KITCHEN, EXODUS also presents itself as an authentic and lively instrumental work, which invites you to dive in and enjoy. With a refreshing mix of melodic recognizability and rhythmic complexity, Godzilla In The Kitchen provide excitement in their live performances.
If you’re still not convinced, you can check out the band’s live album “Live at Break Out” in advance and come to one of the 14 dates.
As they make ready for an apparent threepeat appearance at Ripplefest Texas next month, having also played in 2021 and 2022, San Antonio’s Thunder Horse are at about six weeks’ remove from the release of their third album, After the Fall (review here). My understanding is the weeks after release are something of a comedown for bands. You’ve put everything into making this work the best you can, from writing and arranging to recording, artwork, singles, videos, social media labor, on and on and on. Then it’s out, and release week is a big ‘hooray!’ leading to Friday’s release — in Thunder Horse‘s case, it was July 21 — and then the next week the fickle internet is on to that Friday’s thing and you’re suddenly in the position of trying to chase down distracted ears. Kind of sounds like a bummer, even with a fest to look forward to.
But as After the Fall demonstrated, Thunder Horse have no trouble translating downerism into heavy, semi-aggro vibes, and the band present a lyric video for side B opener “Apocalypse,” in which they do that very thing. Some of the lyrics lean toward right wing conspiracy theories — there’s a line about eating children, which it seems absurd to say but is a Republican talking point about Democrats being cannibalistic devil worshipers, and the lyrical perspective is christian — but I don’t know the political positions either of the band or anyone in it, so I won’t speculate whether it’s professing an ideology or critiquing a particularly ridiculous example of why America should pay teachers more.
I wouldn’t bring up the politics, if only because it’s so fucking exhausting and exhausted a subject, but, well, it’s a lyric video, and so one might consider the lyrics relevant to it. In any case, it’s kind of funny how the left and right in the US both think the world is ending, blame each other for it, and then change nothing. You’d almost swear the entire thing was rigged to make sure the same five people stay rich and the rest of humanity hates each other for no reason until we die and our kids learn in school that capitalism is the natural order like no animals ever teamed up. A pack of wolves awaits with counterpoint.
Whatever the band’s individual and collective politics may be, I’ll risk actual honesty and tell you it doesn’t matt, and talking about it either way will do nothing to upset the trajectory that both sides and those in between seem to think the country is on. But what caught me about After the Fall was the organic interpretation of rhythms born out of guitarist/vocalist StephenBishop‘s time in Pitbull Daycare, riffs that otherwise might be electronica turned to densely distorted guitar. It’s an interesting blend, and after you check out the video below, the other two they’ve done from the record are down near the bottom of the post, along with the album stream. Plenty to dig into if your interest is piqued.
PR wire info follows “Apocalypse” right here. Please enjoy:
Thunder Horse, “Apocalypse” lyric video
Texas-based doom metal foursome THUNDER HORSE release their brand new “Apocalypse” video today. The song is taken from their third studio album “After The Fall”, out now on Ripple Music.
Texas-based THUNDER HORSE has a genre that is hard to pin down, but there are definitely influences of doom, psych, occult, and a smattering of classic rock and NWOBHM. Their third studio album and second Ripple Music release “After The Fall” cements the band’s reputation of delivering titan-sized songs in the form of a refined formula: doomier, sharper, but also stronger. Finding the perfect balance between their timeless and masterful southern-baked heavy metal and a strongly emotion-driven purpose, “After The Fall” unwaveringly stands as THUNDER HORSE’s turning point and should drag more and more heavy music lovers in their path in their fierce conquest of the underground doom scene. Watch their latest videos “New Normal” and “After The Fall”!
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s the multi-generational cult doom tour of the year! Though I say that and have no idea how many other multi-generational cult doom tours have happened throughout 2023 — it’s been a busy nine months. But uniting cult rock legends Coven with doom rockers Lucifer to apparently co-headline with classic doom upstarts Early Moods — who are about to meet a whole lot of friends they didn’t even know they had — in the opener spot is a celebration of heavy forms past, present and future, and probably a killer show besides. There’s little here not to like, I guess is what I’m saying.
Assembled at the behest of Nanotear Booking, it’s an especially strong package of bands and will hit major markets coast to coast throughout most of November. I’m not sure what else you’d need to know. Anytime Jinx Dawson hits the road it’s an event, and Lucifer is the perfect support act, with Early Moods in the opener’s slot with their own hard-hitting style and ready stage presence.
Could go on here but what’s the point? Seeing Coven is a must, seeing Lucifer is a should, and seeing Early Moods is a potential years-down-the-line regret if you don’t. Can’t make it any simpler than that.
From Nanotear on socials:
At long last, we can announce the unholy alliance of Coven & Lucifer, touring America this November with support from Early Moods. \m/
Tickets on sale this Friday.
THE SATANIC PANIC TOUR with LUCIFER & COVEN Special Guest: Early Moods
Nov 8, Los Angeles, Teragram Ballroom Nov 9, San Diego, Brick By Brick Nov 10, Santa Cruz, The Atrium Nov 11, Berkeley, The Cornerstone Nov 13, Portland, Star Theater Nov 14, Vancouver, Hollywood Theatre Nov 15, Seattle, Substation Nov 18, Denver, The Oriental Theater Nov 19, Omaha, The Waiting Room Nov 21, Minneapolis, Fine Line Nov 22, Chicago, Bottom Lounge Nov 24, Toronto, Lee’s Palace Nov 25, Montreal, Le Studio TD Nov 26, Cambridge, The Sinclair Nov 28, Philadelphia, Underground Arts Nov 29, New York, Le Poisson Rouge Nov 30, Baltimore, Soundstage †
Begun with the seething, dying-to-get-heavy acoustic swamp blues tension of “The Strong Place,” Massachusetts-based sludge-plus metallers Ichabod released their sixth full-length, Merrimack (discussed here, review here) in 2014. One more time for those in the back: 2014.
That’s pre-Trump, pre-covid, pre-AI, before the war in Ukraine. Shit, it’s even before Lemmy died. I’m not saying it was a golden age — it wasn’t — but yeah. I was living in Massachusetts, having moved north the year before from my beloved Garden State — that’s New Jersey, for anyone outside the US or not familiar with state nicknames; it’s also my beloved Fuck-Off State’ — worked from home and was getting settled after moving again from one town around my wife’s work to East Bridgewater, where we’d spend, I guess the next five years or so. I was glad I got to see Ichabod a few times in that span.
Am I nostalgic for it? Not really. I love being anywhere with my wife, and it was nice to go into Boston and have friends there every now and again, but we were otherwise fairly isolated with our nearest family two-plus hours south in Connecticut. Once we had the baby, the course came into focus and we started to think for real about heading back down south to the Mid-Atlantic, but I distinctly recall putting on Ichabod‘s Merrimack a lot during that time. That record is so Massachusetts. In everything. In its title, in the sharpness of its production, the purity of its autumnal, New England-style intensity in its heaviest moments and vocalist John Fadden‘s clean/harsh vocal swaps. It was beautiful and the weather was punishing and the people were as proud and dug into being from there as people are everywhere. It was a great many things, just not my home.
With the distance of the over four years since we moved into the house in NJ where we are now, and in no small part because we made money when we sold the condo and we didn’t move into that house that had the underground gas leak our lawyer found (which was incredible of her), there are things I miss, and part of the appeal of this nine-years-later multimedia indulge is that wistfulness, since I have to wonder if maybe Ichabod themselves — Fadden on vocals, founding guitarist Dave Iverson, guitarist Jason Adam, bassist Greg Dellaria, and drummer Phil MacKay; the latter made the video — is precisely that. The song and record are about remembering the place you’re from, especially the opener “The Strong Place,” which is mashed up here with the song that follows on Merrimack, “Two Brothers Rock.”
It’s a real place, of course. Ichabod interpret it and tell a story through a sort of psychedelic sludge metal that I haven’t heard from anybody else in the last nine years — and I’ve heard a fair amount of sludge, psych and not, in that time — and the video takes performance photos and video from an age before camera phones were pro gear, and still represents the band, album and song(s) fluidly. Some of the mountains in the clip look too pointy to be the Blue Hills and the sleepy, ancient and eroded, rolling Appalachians of New England, but it works to capture the idea of a storm to match the later volume surge in “Two Brothers Rock,” and serves as a visual reminder of “Squall,” which is track three.
And if they wanted to do a video for that nine years after the fact, or get a whole visual album together to celebrate the 10th anniversary next year, I’m here for it. Thematic or conceptual LPs are rarely so memorable on a song level while still proving so expansive and tumultuous.
So please, enjoy:
Ichabod, “The Strong Place/Two Brothers Rock” official video
The first two songs from the Merrimack album, performed by Ichabod.
New produced video for the opening act of our 2014 concept album MERRIMACK by Ichabod. Produced and edited by Phil MacKay.
Written by Ichabod & John Fadden. Recorded at Amps vs Ohms by Glen Smith. 2014 Rootsucker Records.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 31st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I’m glad there’s a new Conny Ochs on the way. I don’t care if it’s in German or English or anything else. If you can get down with Trialogos, there’s probably not much in Ochs‘ folkish solo work that’s going to alienate you. The PR wire informs of that below, and I can’t help but be taken aback by Ochs‘ last record, Doom Folk, having come out four years ago. Time has gone all wonky in my head. True of more and more things, I guess.
And looking at that four years, I guess maybe the Trialogos record, Stroh Zu Gold (review here), of which Ochs was a driving force, coming out in 2021, and the noted mountaintop performance in 2022 — the video is at the bottom of this post; too good not to include, since it was mentioned — take a bit of the sting out of that stretch, and certainly Ochs has been active in terms of live performance as much as anyone since 2019.
There’s a book of poetry being released concurrent to Wahn Und Sinn, and there are two release shows booked in Germany and no doubt a stretch of tour dates will follow, along with some music ahead of the release. Plenty to go on at the bottom of this post, though, if you’re looking for a fix.
From the PR wire:
CONNY OCHS: Singer/Songwriter To Release German-Sung Wahn Und Sinn LP Through Exile On Mainstream In October; Artwork, Track Listing, And Preorders Posted
Four-and-a-half years have passed since CONNY OCHS’ most recent album, Doom Folk. While new music from the man was rare in the record store, he was quite active on stage. In addition to some solo tours and very intensive concerts including the online Roadburn Festival 2020 and two touching performances in the Dolomites in 2021 and 2022, which fans could follow via livestream, the artist, who works and lives in Germany and Italy, surprised us especially with the band Trialogos, whose 2021 debut album Stroh Zu Gold presented a completely new side of CONNY OCHS. Working with multi-instrumentalists Kiki Bohemia and Sicker Man, the band delivered a musical collective improvisation based on Tony Conrad’s concept of minimal music as maximalism that was acclaimed worldwide.
During the Corona lockdowns, CONNY OCHS had the time to go through a collection of notebooks that he had amassed during his time in Hamburg, Berlin, and while traveling as a singer in various bands. He reveals, “I always had the feeling that in these lyrics there was a kind of connection between my time as a band member and the moment my solo journey began, the release of Raw Love Songs and my meeting with Andreas of Exile On Mainstream and with Scott ‘Wino’ Weinrich. I felt like there was a before and after, and I wanted to give the before its place in the story.” The idea of publishing selected poems as a book became an affair of the heart. “I hope it can illustrate the trip that I made at the time, that led to the songs and life decisions I took later. To me, it’s thoroughly cathartic, but I’ve tried to find a dynamic that gives the book its own right to be a collection of stories, thoughts, and ideas.”
Initially, the poetry collection Wahn Und Sinn was to be published independently. However, an idea had already started to develop. “I had written some new lyrics in German while working with the notebooks,” explains the singer/songwriter the experimental approach that illustrates the beginnings of the album Wahn Und Sinn. From the collaboration with Tobias Vethake aka Sicker Man at Trialogos also arose the desire and the idea to work together another time. CONNY OCHS developed rough melodies for the lyrics, “Still without really knowing what to do with it. But I had the feeling that there was the same energy in the resulting songs as in the book. I was fascinated by Tobias’ work at Trialogos and as a producer and suddenly felt the urge to ask him to produce these songs. We did it in a radical way: I sent him my unedited demos and asked him to throw away the instruments and just keep the vocals and harmonic arrangements.” The aim was to avoid the singer/songwriter approach that had previously characterized CONNY OCHS’ music. The initial experiment turned into an album whose cover, for the first time, does not feature artwork by the artist himself but a picture by Scottish artist Abi Salvesen. Here, too, a departure from his usual way of working is manifested.
As an experimental excursion and reflection, Wahn Und Sinn thus forms the transition to a new chapter in CONNY OCHS’s creative work, which is to be followed by a new official album as early as Spring 2024.
Wahn Und Sinn will be released on LP with a CD included. The book will also be available as a limited edition with a bundled CD at concerts. In the Exile On Mainstream webshop, the record and book will be available individually or as a bundle. Finally, the content of the record complements the content of the book, inspired by the confrontation with the poems from the years 2000-2010: “If I look at both together now, I find that also Wahn Und Sinn tells the story which until now seems to be the core of my songs: getting lost in order to find yourself.”
The book and the insert included with the album contain all texts in German and English. Also on the album is Conny’s longtime friend and companion Hannes Scheffler, who also handled the final production, mixing, and mastering of the record, as well as Anna Ochs as the singer on the track “Lumos.”
Exile On Mainstream will release Wahn Und Sinn on October 20th.
Watch for audio previews, an official video, and more on CONNY OCHS’ Wahn Und Sinn to be posted over the coming days.
Wahn Und Sinn Track Listing: 1. Turin 2. Risse 3. Ding 4. Hickhack 5. Taub Und Laut 6. Welle 7. Grimassen 8. Melancholia 9. Lumos
CONNY OCHS is also booking live excursions surrounding the release of Wahn Und Sinn, including two record release shows for the album and more. Expect further live announcements to post as the album draws near.
CONNY OCHS Live: 9/09/2023 Spazio 211 – Torino, IT 9/28/2023 Ostpol – Dresden, DE *record release show 10/06/2023 Objekt 5 – Halle/Saale, DE *record release show
Posted in Questionnaire on August 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.
Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.
Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.
The Obelisk Questionnaire: Steve Austin of Today is the Day
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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?
I play music. Music that I feel inside. I was alone a lot as a kid and lived out in the country. A friend of mine showed me AC/DC “Back In Black” and I was hooked the minute I heard it.
Describe your first musical memory.
Going to Square Dances with my Mom and Dad and my Dad jamming out on his Gibson ES-175D and Twin Reverb. I didn’t know that rock music existed until I was around 13 years old.
Describe your best musical memory to date.
Playing Hellfest for the second time, in 2023, and bringing both my sons, Hank and Willi with me. It was a dream come true.
When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?
Throughout my entire career. Music has its ups and downs. Especially if you stay true to your musical vision. Especially if that musical vision isn’t trendy and goes against the musical norms. Van breakdowns, injuries, music business madness, missing band members that were dear to me.
It’s a tough business to be in and everyone is not cut out for it. I’ve wanted to quit my band probably five times, and like a deranged masochist, I just can’t let it go. It means way too much to me. Music is my life, it’s real and I can’t imagine living life without it.
Where do you feel artistic progression leads?
You gotta play what you feel in your heart. How you really feel. I always want to make a new song that I have never ever heard before. Life is ever changing. If you are being true in your writing, then your songs should reflect the evolution that you are living through.
How do you define success?
My wife Hanna, my sons Hank and Willi, my dog Abi, my friends, my fans, my home.
What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?
I saw a man that was Dead, sitting behind the wheel of his car yesterday at Home Depot. EMT’s were gently trying to remove his body from the car. He was very old. It made me extremely sad to think that his last moments were by himself in a shitty Home Depot parking lot.
Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.
I would like to write and direct a film sometime and then do a score for it.
What do you believe is the most essential function of art?
To share the human condition with others and hopefully provide shelter from the storm and inspiration to keep moving forward for others and myself.
Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?
I’m looking forward to deer season this year. I hunt every year to provide food for my family. When I am out in the mountains hunting, there is a certain tranquility that really is special. Nature, only nature and me. No bullshit, no problems, no pain or suffering. Just me and all that being in the wilderness holds.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Portland-based psych-turned-heavygaze outfit Blackwater Holylight will launch a month of European touring at Desertfest Belgium in the company of Amsterdam’s Iron Jinn. The band presented a comparatively grim thesis with 2021’s Silence/Motion (review here), taking the atmospheric penchant of their first two albums and, in part, using it as a means to explore the drear of its time, not that either the time or the drear are necessarily over.
I finally got to see the band after wanting to since their debut about a year ago at Psycho Las Vegas (review here), and they took to the main stage there with according mastery of their sound and approach. The latest album put them on their first US headlining tour, and they’re headliners internationally now too, their outward growth in sound greeted with a corresponding uptick in listenership. Well met, and all that.
If you didn’t hear it, Iron Jinn‘s 2023 self-titled debut (review here) is a dark-prog smorgasbord, which makes this a good pairing. Plus, Iron Jinn will have just been out in September supporting Alain Johannes and doubling as his backing band, so they should be plenty warmed up.
Blackwater Holylight posted the dates as follows:
BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT- (#128165#)EUROPE(#128165#) WE COMING FOR YA(#128165#)
Cannot wait to return to so many countries and friends we’ve missed dearly. Please join us and @iron_jinn for a month a mayhem LETS GO!
@doomstarbookings and BWHL present CHAPEL OF ROSES TOUR: 20.10.23 Antwerpen (BE) – Trix / Desertfest 23.10.23 Paris (FR) – Supersonic 24.10.23 Nijmegen (NL) – Merleyn 25.10.23 Eindhoven (NL) – Stroomhuis 26.10.23 Bochum (DE) – Die Trompete 27.10.23 Dresden (DE) – Chemiefabrik / Heavy Psych Sounds Festival 28.10.23 Berlin (DE) – Urban Spree / Heavy Psych Sounds Festival 29.10.23 Malmö (SE) – Plan B 30.10.23 Gothenburg (SE) – Skeppet GBG 31.10.23 Stockholm (SE) – Bar Brooklyn 02.11.23 Helsinki (FI) – Kuudes Linja / Sonic Rites Fall Fest 03.11.23 Tallinn (EE) – Hungr 04.11.23 Riga (LV) – Vagonu Hall 05.11.23 Vilnius (LT) – Narauti 06.11.23 Warsaw (PL) – Chmury 07.11.23 Krakow (PL) – Zascianek 08.11.23 Prague (CZ) – Modra Vopice 09.11.23 Vienna (AT) – Arena 10.11.23 Budapest (HU) – Instant 11.11.23 Ljubljana (SI) – Channel Zero 13.11.23 Munich (DE) – Feierwerk 14.11.23 Zürich (CH) – Klub Komplex 15.11.23 Frankfurt (DE) – Nachtleben 16.11.23 Lille (FR) – La Bulle Café
* Ljubljana date has been changed to Channel Zero.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 30th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Aiwass will release their second album, The Falling, on Oct. 13 through King Volume Records. The Phoenix, Arizona-based atmospheric doom metal outfit began as a solo-project of multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter Blake Carrera with 2021’s Wayward Gods (review here) but toured this summer as a full band, just last week released a split with AAWKS, and last month added Eddy Keyes on bass as a seemingly permanent member; change is afoot. And fair enough, since Carrera‘s vision for what Aiwass will be and do is also expanding. With five songs running 40 minutes, Carrera — functioning alone in conjunction with engineer Edsel Holden and co-producer/mixer Grant Husselman, who’s best known for his work across multiple King Buffalo releases but has done plenty besides — guides the listener with a steady hand through a course of expansive heavy craft, beginning its world-creation with “Prometheus” (premiered below) featuring guest vocals from Niuvis Martin along with Carrera‘s own.
“Prometheus,” which takes its title from the Titan who gave fire to mortals and thus earned Zeus-decreed a daily disembowling from an eagle while tied to a rock — Heracles eventually let set him free — begins to explore the wash at which The Falling derives some of its fullest and strongest moments. In the later “Be Not a Man,” Carrera will turn that toward almost cultishly sinister ends with a mellow vocal laced with effects over organ, guitar, programmed drums, bass, and so on, but in “Prometheus” with Martin‘s voice added, the album is given an almost operatic beginning.
It is immersive to the point of the listener almost not realizing it’s being moved along by the drum sounds, and it smoothly glides through its eight and a half minutes with airiness of melody and density in the underlying heft. The subsequent “Gnosis” is bleakly psychedelic — a gray swirl — and uses open space fluidly with volume surges and a last build that’s masterfully executed, while centerpiece “The Light of Evil” feels more grounded in its procession. Maybe it’s the drumming more forward in the mix, or more clarity in the rumble beneath the organ of its chorus, or maybe it’s that chorus itself, but it’s a well-placed landmark around which The Falling can function. I’d call it the heart of the record, but the record is all heart. I’m sorry, but you don’t make this kind of music unless there’s something inside telling you that you need to do it.
The aforementioned “Be Not a Man” follows with apocalyptic overtones and vibrant lead work layered in along with its early chug, the wash in the chorus, and an organic stretch-out of doomly vibes, and closer “Crossing the Veil” begins with standalone acoustic strum and pluck, vaguely Western, but too trippy to be aping country. There’s a layer of maybe-ebow guitar and the vocals topping all this ambient breadth would call to mind “Planet Caravan” by rote, but “Crossing the Veil” moves into a march after two minutes — still acoustic — with organ and far-off drumming, keys, a chorus of voices almost in echo of “Prometheus” holding until right at the six-minute mark the song sweeps into a grandiose heavy rolling finish, with hard cymbal hits, a scorching guitar solo, and a payoff no less satisfying than the realization of ambitions has been throughout.
By the next time Aiwass puts out an album — hell, by the time Aiwass puts out this album — the band might have a completely different configuration around Carrera. That’s one more reason to appreciate the moment captured here, and the reach of the creativity brought to bear on The Falling, which no matter what follows will have built effectively on Wayward Gods and revealed a depth to Carrera‘s intention that is an accomplishment in itself, never mind the actual execution of the thing, which resides in a place between styles and is confident, poised and sincere there. A more than solid fit for King Volume‘s varied roster.
Please, feel free to stream the premiere of “Prometheus” while you peruse the PR wire info below, and please, enjoy:
Blake Carrera on “Prometheus”:
“Prometheus rise up from your lone grave”
The song “Prometheus” was born of pain, strife, and uncertainty. It is a reflection of one artist crying out his reality to the world. It is also a declaration of strength and resiliency before the avalanche of life. On a personal level, “Prometheus” is one of my greatest achievements as an artist, one that was helped massively by the contributions of Niuvis Martin (Amenorrhea) and my producer Grant Husselman, both of whom helped me put forward my nightmares into musical form.
As the first single off of a concept album focused on grief and strength, “Prometheus” is the foundation upon which The Falling resides. It is the setting of the play, the locus of invention, the spring from which the parched wanderer satiates their thirst. Unearthly voices mate with the crush of bombastic guitars to create a spell meant to transfix the listener, situating them in a world of discomfort and examination. I hope that, through my work, listeners are able to gain a better understanding of both myself and themselves.
Aiwass, the Aleister Crowley-obsessed psychedelic doom project out of the American Southwest, has stretched beyond the soul-shaking soundscapes of its highly revered debut album Wayward Gods to deliver The Falling, a genre-bending experience with towering riffs, heart-wrenching melodies, layered instrumentation, and meticulous attention to detail through King Volume Records on October 13.
The Falling demonstrates marked growth in the Aiwass sound—a sonic tapestry that was already complex and mature enough to push 2021’s Wayward Gods to No. 11 on the Doom Charts upon release. In The Falling, Aiwass reaches further outside the psychedelic doom template to incorporate influences from classical music, black metal, country, and other genres.
“When I started The Falling,” Aiwass founder and solo musician Blake Carrera says, “I felt like doom was getting played out. I didn’t want to be another copycat. I wanted to be me. As a result, this album is much more exploratory and experimental.”
In charge of capturing the new vision for Aiwass was Grant Husselman, the album’s co-producer and long-time King Buffalo collaborator. “This record wouldn’t have happened without Grant,” Carrera says. “When we first started collaborating, The Falling was raw and scattered, even though the ideas were there. He helped shape them and give them new depth and space. He gave me the belief in myself to push beyond what I created in my early demos.”
The Falling exhibits renewed confidence in Carrera’s songwriting, which was also partially sparked by experiences during the Aiwass 2022 summer tour with Twin Wizard. “Being on the road really helped me figure out what works and what doesn’t, and I started enhancing the things that people really responded to while we were on stage. They loved the bludgeoning choruses on Wayward Gods, so I double-downed on that in The Falling. But I also looked for opportunities to do something unexpected, like adding in acoustic guitar on songs like ‘Crossing the Veil.’”
With so many different influences, The Falling is a risky album—but it’s one that shines even more brightly because of it. The themes of Aleister Crowley and Thelema are still prominent, but they’re woven into lyrics that explore Carrera’s personal struggles and thoughts around mental illness, philosophy, and psychology. The album also features greater doses of black metal and new vocal harmonies—something Wayward Gods avoided.
The result is an innovative, jaw-rattling slab of layered harmonic doom that pushes the genre forward into new, exciting directions—becoming a complex album that should appeal to a wide variety of metal fans.
Aiwass – The Falling Release Date: October 13, 2023 Label: King Volume Records Runtime: 40:48
Additional Vocals: Niuvis Martin (“Prometheus”) Mixing/Co-Producer: Grant Husselman Engineering: Edsel Holden Cover Art: Justyna Koziczak
Track List: 1. Prometheus 2. Gnosis 3. The Light of Evil 4. Be Not A Man 5. Crossing the Veil
