Humulus Premiere “Seventh Sun” Feat. Stefan Koglek; Flowers of Death Out Sept. 1
Revamped Italian heavy rockers Humulus will release their new album, Flowers of Death, on Sept. 1 through Taxi Driver Records and Kozmik Artifactz. Running seven tracks/43 minutes and varying from the heavy psychedelic post-stoner earthiness of opener “Black Water” to the blasted-into-space finale in “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth,” it is the fourth full-length overall from the Brescia trio, who made their self-titled debut in 2012. It follows a not unreasonable three years behind 2020’s The Deep (review here), and is consistent with theme that emerged there of progressing outward from their heavy rock foundation. Flowers of Death has the additional distinguishing factor of being the first Humulus outing since guitarist/vocalist Thomas Mascheroni joined the band late last year, taking the place of Andrea Van Cleef alongside bassist Giorgio Bonacorsi and drummer Massimiliano Boventi.
In some ways, that change is the story of the album. It’s not the story of the songs, but if one heard The Deep or 2017’s Reverently Heading into Nowhere (review here), there’s been incremental growth all along from the band’s beery beginnings, and that’s true here too. Swapping in Mascheroni — who also fronts garage’d psych-blues rockers Thomas Greenwood and the Talismans and did the covers for the “Seventh Sun” single (premiering below) and the LP — accounts for the shifts in sound beyond that, whether that might be manifest in the way second cut “Secret Room” follows the fluid and modern roll of “Black Water” with a faster, riffier push, turns on a dime drawn from “Misty Mountain Hop” and winds up in pastoral psych that puts one in Arbouretum-style sunshine ever so briefly, and finishes by hinting at the cosmic launch to come at Flowers of Death‘s end as it fades out.
Not only is there variety in terms of where a given song might go, but structurally between them as well. “Shimmer Haze” essentially follows one righteously swinging progression for most of its five minutes, with a guitar-led mellow break in its second half that builds back up and some groovy kick drum in its earlier verses, and when they bring back that main riff at 4:47 with barely half a minute left, they gracefully and unhurriedly tie it together as a grounded heavy rocker while holding to the exploratory atmosphere of the first two tracks. I don’t think “Shimmer Haze” is anything particularly new from Humulus, but it’s greatly to their credit that they make it come across like it is. As the centerpiece, “Buried by Tree” moves into a slightly faster tempo and is marked by the tom work behind Mascheroni‘s vocals and guitar starts and stops, coming to a head as the guitar aligns with Bonacorsi and Boventi and shoots into the chorus, departing from there into a spacious midsection that gradually jams back to another round through the verse and hook, both efficient in execution and laid back in presence.
At 7:30, “Seventh Sun” is the second longest piece on Flowers of Death and is something of a landmark for Humulus. As the band explains below, it was the first track written with Mascheroni, and its languid rollout through an extended intro positions it directly into heavy psychedelia in a way that the additional guitar from Colour Haze‘s Stefan Koglek (who also apparently leant a hand in songwriting as well) very much fits when it arrives near the song’s middle. By the time they get there, Humulus have already hypnotized the listener with the flow built around the bassline, guitar starting off, leaving, then fading back in as the track sleeks into its verse. Koglek‘s lead will be recognizable to Colour Haze fans, and its end marks a change into a more active solo and ending section, and where “Shimmer Haze” turned back from its shorter excursion to finish with reinforcement of structure, “Seventh Sun” willingly lets itself go instrumental into that good night, its residual hum seeming to last right until the snare snap of the title-track announce it’s time to boogie.
And so it may be. Surf boogie at that. Taking ’60s garage and modern heavy psych and, yeah, some surf in that guitar line, the three-piece skillfully bring the listener back from the trance of “Seventh Sun” with physical (relative) urgency in the short cut that precedes the takeoff of the 10-minute “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth” — one imagines a document with three words all-caps: “PLANT MORE TREES” — which follows suit from “Seventh Sun” in not coming back once it goes into its jam, but is resolute in its cosmic feel. Once more to the credit of Humulus‘ songwriting, the initial verses are more than a formality en route to the extended instrumental finish, which comprises the last six-plus minutes and brings subtle dynamic in its moments of digging in loud or quiet, but definitely saves its biggest thrust for last, a coursing wall of interstellar fuzz nova-blasted by a star about to be recycled.
I’m not sure one could really hope to summarize the totality of Flowers of Death in a single track anyway, and as an alternative, space rock works to emphasize the open stylistic nature of Humulus at this stage in their career, more than a decade on from their first record and with a one-third-new lineup. I’ve said on multiple occasions that swapping a guitarist — let alone a guitarist/vocalist — from a power trio is a major change for a band to make. It’s had a significant impact on Humulus as well, but they haven’t lost the thread from where The Deep was leading, even as they’ve thrown open new and exciting creative avenues to traverse.
“Seventh Sun” premieres below, with more comment from the band, preorder links, and so on after.
Please enjoy:
Humulus, “Seventh Sun” track premiere
https://youtu.be/i-QhVYwFxF0
Humulus on “Seventh Sun”:
“The idea of this song came from an old bass riff that Giorgio used to play to check his sound in rehearsal, studio, live, etc. We never built up a song on this riff, so when Thomas joined the band in November 2022 was the first idea we started to jam on. This is the first song that we wrote for the new LP and during the months we’ve spent writing the rest of the songs, it changed a lot and we added and cut different parts. Also under the supervision of Stefan from Colour Haze who played an additional guitar part. For sure is one of the most psychedelic and atmospheric song of this LP and more than the others represents well the transition from the ‘Old Humulus sound’ to the new one.”
Song Name: Seventh Sun
LP Name: Flowers of Death
Music by Humulus, Lyrics by Thomas Mascheroni
Additional guitar by Stefan Koglek (Colour Haze)
Artwork for the Single by Thomas Greenwood
‘Flowers of Death’ preorder: http://www.kozmik-artifactz.com/ & http://taxidriverstore.com
Tracklisting:
1. Black Water
2. Secret Room
3. Shimmer Haze
4. Buried By Tree
5. 7th Sun
6. Flowers Of Death
7. Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth
Humulus:
Thomas Mascheroni – Guitar and Voice
Massimiliano Boventi – Drums
Giorgio Bonacorsi – Bass
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Tags: Bergamo, Brescia, Flowers of Death, Humulus, Humulus Flowers of Death, Italy, Kozmik Artifactz, Taxi Driver Records
