Boston progressive melodic heavy rockers Sundrifter go big on their third full-length, An Earlier Time, set for release Feb. 16 on Small Stone Records. From the triumphal chugs and declarative rhythm of opener “Limitless” (premiering below), the album will make you believe music and just about anything else you want can fly, the band’s songs honing character through atmospheric riffing, and the theatrical, unafraid-to-reach vocals of Craig Peura.

The follow-up to 2018’s Visitations (review here) shares its predecessor’s penchant for minimalism in its closer, as An Earlier Time departs the willful grandiosities of “Limitless” or “Prehistoric Liftoff” — one is reminded of Torche‘s “Tarpit Carnivore” — or the escape-velocity charge of “Space Exploration,” the “Way out here is where I belong” lyrical perspective of which is consistent with the breaking-out of “Not Coming Back” from their 2016 debut of the same name or “I Want to Leave” from Visitations, for the relatively subdued open space of “Last Transmission” at the finish. But to get there, Peura, bassist Paul Gaughran and drummer Patrick Queenan careen and lumber through material that takes the tonal largesse of bong metal and puts it to an emotive purpose all the more affirming for the heft behind it.

Sundrifter‘s sound has blossomed, which is not to say Big Bang’ed. But ‘big’ should be an operative word here if its place in the first sentence wasn’t enough of a clue, and as heavy as Peura‘s guitar and Gaughran‘s bass might be, the distance perceived between them and the echoing of Queenan‘s drums is essential in crafting the open feel that makes “Limitless” such a powerful preface to what follows on An Earlier Time, whether it’s the reverb-cavern roll of “Nuclear Sacrifice” or the emotional charge given to side B across “Begin Again,” “Want You Home” and the penultimate “Final Chance,” the latter of which ends with drawn-out crashes to give a smoother transition to “Last Transmission.” Informed in part by the sweeping pop of Muse, and more spread out in sound than Forming the Void but with a modern-prog-heavy patience to their execution, Sundrifter manifest style in service to songwriting, and their material carries vitality in performance as well as its effects-born sprawl.

What’s perhaps most admirable about Sundrifter circa An Earlier Time, aka now, is that as much as “Limitless” or “Final Chance” or “Want You Home” seem to reach out, the band are never out of control. To be sure, Peura is a soulful vocalist and part of that is the push of his delivery, but the band never leaves their comfort zone without making sure their audience is along for the ride, and the six years since their last album has obviously given them time to focus on their craft. Not overthought, these songs find a hard balance between their emotive crux and expansive sound, and Sundrifter come through as vibrant, sincere and uplifting without the saccharine toxicity of 2020s internet platitudes; all heart (plus songwriting, plus aesthetic, etc.) at a moment where that could hardly be more necessary.

Sundrifter, “Limitless” video premiere

Craig Peura on “Limitless”:

‘Limitless’ is about knowing in your heart where you belong and not being afraid to jump from the highest point to find it.

Paul Gaughran on “Limitless”:

I recall this tune being the first to gain serious form during the writing for “An Earlier Time”. The style and feel of the initial riff that Craig presented us was a combination of all my favorite aspects of the previous record, but from an instrumental perspective also gave more room to work with and be creative within. The song starts from a very grounded, almost tribal sounding straight-forward arrangement and by the end is so densely orchestrated and spacial. It closes sounding elevated, even heavenly. Sort of an attempt to convey an earth-to-sky experience I suppose. I think it sets the tone for the record well.

Patrick Queenan on “Limitless”:

“Returning to Futura Studios to track drums with our engineer Dan is always a no brainer. The former masonic temple converted recording studio provides not only the best expansive space to track epic sounding drums in but on a metaphysical level provides a certain energy or vibe to the recording process. Drums being the first tracks to be recorded followed by a global shut down in 2020 this video along with the record “An Earlier Time” serve as a real time capsule. Over the past four years a lot has changed for us individually and as a group but now here in 2024 we are feeling quite LIMITLESS.”

An Earlier Time will be released on CD, limited edition LP, and digitally. Find preorders at the official Small Stone Recordings Bandcamp page HERE: https://smallstone.bandcamp.com/album/an-earlier-time

An Earlier Time Track Listing:
1. Limitless
2. Space Exploration
3. Nuclear Sacrifice
4. Prehistoric Liftoff
5. Begin Again
6. Want You Home
7. Final Chance
8. Last Transmission

SUNDRIFTER Live:
2/01/2023 Widowmaker Brewery – Braintree, MA w/ Swamphead, Bone Church, Earthlore</span

Sundrifter are:
Craig Peura – vocals, guitar
Paul Gaughran – bass
Patrick Queenan – drums

Sundrifter website

Sundrifter on Facebook

Sundrifter on Instagram

Small Stone Records website

Small Stone Records on Facebook

Small Stone Records on Instagram

Small Stone Records on Bandcamp

Dark Tooth Encounter‘s Soft Monsters was released in 2008 through Lexicon Devil, and is one of any number of projects in the oeuvre of guitarist Gary Arce of Yawning Man, who around this period was also collaborating with UK prog instrumentalists Sons of Alpha Centauri as Yawning Sons for the first time, as well as getting Yawning Man together as a touring act — they’d release Nomadic Pursuits (review here) in 2010 and enter more of a traditional-band existence rather than the vague-desert-legend status they’d enjoyed prior — demoing with Big Scenic Nowhere, who are now a real band much different than that demo, jamming with Ten East for the first two LPs in 2006 and 2008, collaborating with Hotel Wrecking City Traders out of Australia, on and on. I think even the Zun demo happened right around then too.

Arce‘s not exactly hard up for projects these days either, between Yawning Man actively releasing and touring, Yawning Balch bringing a similar lineup plus Bob Balch of Fu Manchu for two LPs in 2023, and a new LP on the way next week from Big Scenic Nowhere, which also has Arce and Balch paired, and whose drummer, Bill Stinson, also plays on Dark Tooth Encounter‘s Soft Monsters and holds the jams together in both Yawning Man (until last year) and the two Yawning Balch albums.

And I could be wrong about this, but I don’t think Stinson was in Yawning Man circa 2008 (original drummer Alfredo Hernandez played on Nomadic Pursuits), but Yawning Man also weren’t as active as they would be a few years after the fact, so while I’m not sure exactly how Dark Tooth Encounter happened, it might just have been a step-aside for Arce to work with Stinson alongside Ten East, whose second album, The Robot’s Guide to Freedom, surfaced concurrent to Soft Monsters.

Is that weird? Well, a little, but listening to Dark Tooth Encounter, it makes a little more sense since the mission on Soft Mirrors — seven songs/39 minutes, as if “ready for LP reissue” could be an actual runtime — is also a bit of a sidestep from either Yawning Man or Ten East. Mario Lalli — Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, lately Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers and the Brant Bjork Trio — sits in on bass for centerpiece “Radio Bleed,” but handles guitar on side A’s “Weeping Pines” and the finale “Engine Drone,” both of which have a subtle touch of the West Coast speaking to the East as regards ideas of ‘Southern’ in rock, Lalli and Arce‘s guitars allowing different textures to take hold than in, say, even the melancholy layers of keys and guitar in the penultimate “Hyper Air,” which feels prescient of All Them Witches in its full-room spaciousness, or opener “Alloy Pop,” wherein Arce (on guitar and bass) and Stinson (on drums and more drums, but always with class and a willingness to rest in a part while the guitar fleshes out) set the course for what Soft Monsters will be.

Part of that, as with most of Arce‘s work, comes from post-rock and post-punk more than the psychedelic subset of heavy with which Yawning Man are often lumped. Dark Tooth Encounter offers this with a feel that’s more worked on and structured, while still instrumental — though, is that a yell in the fade of “Alloy Pop?” did someone turn on a table saw? — giving a sense of the jams likely to have spawned the material in the first place but at the same time building more on top of those jams and refining them to be ‘songs’ in a verse/chorus sense; Arce is no stranger to proliferating instrumental hooks, and Dark Tooth Encounter takes advantage of its opportunities to showcase that in “Honey Hive,” with Stinson‘s snare accenting the rhythm of the guitar or the psych-jazz of “Deep Sleep Flower,” with Arce on keyboard, bass and lap steel in addition to standard guitar, the necessary layering process of which has me wondering which was recorded first, the bass or guitar.

Either way, “Deep Sleep Flower” resonates with more tonal heft than much of Soft Monsters, and that seems to be by design. Compared to the spaces left between the slow strums of “Weeping Pines,” on which Scott Reeder (currently Sovereign Eagle; see also Kyuss, Fireball Ministry, The Obsessed, Goatsnake, and Across the River with Mario Lalli and Alfredo Hernández [also later of Kyuss], who were kind of a precursor to Yawning Man and desert rock more generally in the mid-1980s; the Across the River demo tape is the stuff of legend) takes up bass as Lalli moves to guitar.

Reeder also contributed to Ten East. Nobody’s a stranger here, and nobody sounds like one. That’s to the advantage of Soft Monsters generally, since as an instrumental offering it’s inherently going to benefit from the chemistry between the players involved; to be found in ample supply through “Radio Bleed” at the album’s center, spacey and weirdo proggy and so irrevocably desert hued in no small part because Arce and company have set those associations forward in the genre to start with. Maybe it’s a footnote or a one-off, but one might have said the same thing until just a few years ago about Big Scenic Nowhere, and that band came to be something completely different than when the name first showed up.

So maybe at some point there will be another Dark Tooth Encounter, but I’d expect if so, at least if it were to happen somewhere amid Arce‘s already-detailed list of current projects — which I’m just going to go out on a limb and say is incomplete — it would also take a different form than on Soft Monsters, since Arce, Lalli and Stinson spent most of the 2010s as Yawning Man. But one never knows — anything, ever — and neither Stinson nor Lalli are ‘in’ Yawning Man at the moment, so perhaps bringing Dark Tooth Encounter back in some form at some point would be a way to reignite that collaboration among the many others all these players past and present. You won’t hear me predict. You will hear me recommend this one for a Yawning Man or hypnotic-instrumental fan looking for a fix or a post-rocker looking for a bridge to something of heavier tonal presence. In other words, as always, I hope you enjoy.

Thank you for reading.

—

If you tuned in last Friday, you probably caught the bit at the end where I talked about my laptop getting busted. Kid fell off the side of the couch — she runs on furniture when she gets an idea; it’s not something we encourage, but it’s something we live with, because theoretically you want a kid to be excited about ideas and movement is part of how she processes things intellectually and emotionally — and landed on my computer while also dumping my full iced tea cup on the same computer. Somehow she didn’t get wet, I assume because all the tea actually went inside the laptop, as if by now-is-the-time-for-this-thing-to-die magic.

A week later, I have perspective enough to see it could’ve been much worse. The Pecan wasn’t hurt; that’s always a plus. The laptop was going on six years old; it had a cracked case, couldn’t run unplugged, keys got stuck, on and on. Crucially — this is the one that makes it okay — the repair guy I use (TelStar Computers, Denville, NJ; a local small business I’m glad to support) was able to save the data on the hard drive, so I have that ready to go. From there, the hardest part has been accepting that because I’m using our own money rather than glut from the life-affirming crowdfunding campaign that got me that now-ex-laptop after I was robbed in the UK in 2018, I have to settle for a smaller screen with less desktop real estate to organize records, and give up an internal optical drive along with other bells and whistles. Still, a new laptop will allegedly be here on Tuesday, and I can’t look that gift horse in the mouth. I am privileged to be able to get another computer at all — the emergency backup Chromebook I call ‘Little Red’ is fine to visit, but nowhere I want to live — and I thank The Patient Mrs. for her getting-my-ass-in-gear efforts and her price-comparison research. My new one will be a Lenovo, which somehow makes me feel like a businessman. Expect copious corporatespeak, all synergisms and disruptional action assets and whatnots.

But this was kind of a bumpy, by-the-seat-of-my-pants week and I guess I made it through. I have a bio project for a death metal band (frickin’ a) to bang out this afternoon, so I’m going to leave it there and go immerse myself for a little bit in pummeling, bludgeoning extremity, and that’ll be a lot of fun I have no doubt.

Monday, a Sundrifter premiere. Tuesday I think a full-album stream for The Black Flamingo, though I need to check that. Wednesday I’m doubled up with premieres for Goat Major and a full-album stream for Troy the Band. Thursday is a full-album stream for Kariti, and next Friday I want to review the Guhts record, though it might be Monday, Feb. 5, before I get there. Either way, that’s what’s in my notes for next week, plus news posts, other videos that come up and whatever else catches the eye.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. We’re in Connecticut tomorrow and are having company (like a double-playdate/brunch? oof, adulthood) on Sunday, so it’ll be busy, but I’m around if anyone needs me for anything. Don’t forget to hydrate, watch your head, all that stuff.

FRM.

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Surprised at new stuff from Clouds Taste Satanic? I think that’s how you get to nine records in 10 years. The New York instrumentalists are set to issue 79 A.E., their latest full-length, through Majestic Mountain Records on March 1. The band were recently heard from with the late-2023 holiday-themed covers EP, All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul, which if you can stand holiday music in any context whatsoever was surely a fine argument for its existence.

It was not far behind Tales of Demonic Possession (discussed here), their last long-player — again, nine records, 10 years; their debut was 2014’s To Sleep Beyond the Earth — which came out in Feb. 2023, so this is perhaps their resuming of their pre-pandemic just-about-annual clip. Fair enough. The last album also found them with time to play Europe for I’m pretty sure the first time, and no doubt the thematically-constructed 79 A.E. — the intended soundtrack to a screenplay — will see their attentions return across the Atlantic.

From the PR wire:

CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC: NYC Post-Doom Quartet to Soundtrack the Apocalypse with New Album 79 A.E.

Following the recent release of their All I Want for Christmas Is Your Soul EP, the doom instrumentalists are back this March with their ninth studio album
79 A.E. is released on 1st March 2024 on Majestic Mountain Records | Pre-order HERE: https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/product/clouds-taste-satanic-79-a-e-pre-order

Majestic Mountain Records is thrilled to announce the official worldwide release of 79 A.E., the new album from revered underground doom quartet, Clouds Taste Satanic.

Ever since their formation in Brooklyn in 2013, the quartet’s penchant for harnessing deviant riff wizardry has taken listeners on countless voyages through the psychedelically charged realms of metal. The band melds the minimalist and heavy approach of bands such as Sleep and Earth with the instrumental fervour of Pelican and Bongripper.

Returning this March with their follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed Tales of Demonic Possession, 79 A.E. is a monumental offering from the accomplished four-piece who have a long and prolific history of committing music on the dynamic long-player format.

Serving as a soundtrack to an unmade post-apocalyptic movie, also named 79 A.E., the album is a tale of doom following the Days of Extinction, where the remnants of humanity fight to survive amidst the devastating aftereffects of an asteroid strike.

“After the density and scope of our last record, we wanted to make an album that felt more open and spatial,” explains guitarist Steve Scavuzzo. “Still heavy but with plenty of room to breathe. Luckily this concept was perfect for a film score”.

Fast forward six months and with plans for the film shelved and the screenplay filed away, doubts over whether the film will be made at all didn’t stop the band pushing on with the recording:

“The nature of the instrumental music we make has always demanded a certain level of imagination. It’s key when you don’t have a singer laying out the concepts for you. While imagining a film that doesn’t exist may seem like a difficult task, imagining a post-apocalyptic world should come naturally to anyone who has been to the movies. This album just happens to be our version of that movie.”

79 A.E. by Clouds Taste Satanic is released 1st March 2024 on Majestic Mountain Records and can be pre-ordered HERE: https://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com/product/clouds-taste-satanic-79-a-e-pre-order

CLOUDS TASTE SATANIC:
Steve Scavuzzo – Guitar
Rob Halstead – Bass
Greg Acampora – Drums
Brian Bauhs – Guitar

https://cloudstastesatanic.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CloudsTasteSatanic/
https://www.instagram.com/cloudstastesatanic/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5QidF8yXlvTyGkDy24JImY
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvVu8mcXrE2eVjq_ApcGBmw

http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

Clouds Taste Satanic, All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul (2023)

Cheers to Swedish hard ‘n’ heavies Deville on the new video for ‘Serpent Days’ from their 2022 album, Heavy Lies the Crown (review here), but double-cheers to the band on marking the 20th anniversary of their inception in 2024. Two decades of riding around the Continent (and beyond) for gigs continues this very evening, as the band undertake a weekender to start off this special year. They’ve got other shows booked through the next few months that you can see listed below as well.

And of course there’s the video too. Since their start, Deville have never stopped progressing, and as their sound has grown sharper and more aggressive in the delivery, their songwriting has grown correspondingly tight, and their niche is more their own now than it’s ever been. After 20 years, that doesn’t strike me as a terrible place to end up.

From the PR wire:

DEVILLE 20 Years and New Video!

“Serpent Days” Official Video is out from today. Taken from the 2022 album “Heavy Lies the Crown”.

And also!!

Celebrating 20 years as a band in 2024, an anniversary album containing some of the most played songs, some new tracks and surprises will be released. After touring Europe and Australia in 2023 the band will start of the new year with some shows in Sweden and around.

In 2004 in Malmö, faith united four musicians to form Deville, a heavy rock band with infectious energy. Armed with their authentic fusion of rock, metal and stoner, they got their first release out in 2006 and started to tour. Since 2004, they released five albums, played more than 500 shows and festivals all over Europe, Australia and the United States and shared the stage with great acts as Red Fang, Fu Manchu, Sepultura, Torche, Mustasch and many more.

UPCOMING SHOWS

01/26/24 DRAMMEN(NO) AT KOMETEN
01/27/24 ÖREBRO AT BJÖRNES PUB
02/16/24 HÖGANÄS AT GARAGE BAR
02/17/24 MOTALA AT BOMBER BAR
03/15/24 STOCKHOLM AT GAMLA ENSKEDE BRYGGERI
03/16/24 HOUSE OF BLUES AT BORLÄNGE
04/19/24 TBA AT GOTHENBURG
04/20/24 TRANÅS AT PLAN B

Deville:
Andreas Bengtsson – Vocals, Guitars
Michael Ödegården– Drums
Andreas Wulkan – Lead Guitar,Vocals
Martin Nobel – Bass

http://www.deville.nu
http://www.facebook.com/devilleband
http://www.youtube.com/devilleband
http://www.instagram.com/devilleband

https://www.facebook.com/sixteentimesmusic
https://sixteentimes.bandcamp.com/
https://www.sixteentimes.com/

Deville, Heavy Lies the Crown (2022)

Deville, “Serpent Days” official video

As one would, I expected the new Dool single to be heavy, but it’s nonetheless heavier than I expected it to be, and I’m not complaining. The darkly-progressive Netherlands outfit fronted by Raven van Dorst had a live record out last year that I completely whiffed on because I suck at this, and their last studio LP was 2020’s Summerland (review here). If you heard that at all, you know that one song doesn’t necessarily tell the tale of a whole offering, and no doubt that’s true of “Hermagorgon” as relates to the impending The Shape of Fluidity too, but at least the new track lets you know the spaces the band are working in, and it opens the discussion of the breaking-out-of-gender-binaries-as-a-concept theme, as laid out by the PR wire below.

Dool‘s sound is so dug in, and given the weight of tone here I’m not sure mass appeal would be possible, but there’s definitely a conversation happening with pop and broader culture in sound as well as with modern atmospheric heavy and the Dutch tradition of innovation in same.

One way or the other, I’ll hope to review this one when the time comes. For now:

DOOL announce new album “The Shape of Fluidity” and release lyric video single ‘Hermagorgon’

Preorder link: http://lnk.spkr.media/dool-fluidity

DOOL are now unveiling the lyric video ‘Hermagorgon’ as the first single taken from their forthcoming third full-length “The Shape of Fluidity”. The new album is scheduled for release on April 19, 2024.

DOOL comment: “As one of the first songs that we had woven together for ‘The Shape of Fluidity’, ‘Hermagorgon’ gave us a very clear direction on where we wanted to go musically”, singer Raven van Dorst explains. “The track is about reclaiming space, breaking out of binary constraints, and facing the world head on. This is something that everyone can relate to one way or another. However, this is one of the most personal songs on the album. It describes the internal journey that I’ve gone through over the past few years. The song also displays the birth of the collective songwriting spirit on which this whole album is based, as well as producer Magnus Lindberg’s unique craftsmanship. We’ve been waiting a long time to share this with you.”

Tracklist
1. Venus in Flames
2. Self-Dissect
3. The Shape of Fluidity
4. Currents
5. Evil in You
6. House of a Thousand Dreams
7. Hermagorgon
8. Hymn for a Memory Lost
9. The Hand of Creation

Everything flows, nothing ever stays the same. This notion of the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus applies to all of us as life itself is in a constant state of change. The same can be said about the third studio album of the fast-rising Dutch rock band DOOL.

Aptly entitled “The Shape of Fluidity” there is not just musical innovation but the full-length revolves around themes of personal change, physical change, psychological change, and the ever-changing world around us. DOOL and particularly singer and guitarist Raven van Dorst ask questions: How does change affect us? How do we keep being ourselves in a world that is so incredibly demanding and aggressive towards the individual? We must be as fluid as water to navigate ourselves through this ocean of possibilities and uncertainties – and make peace with chaos and impermanence.

Musically, DOOL continue on the path laid out on the two previous studio recordings of heartfelt rock music with added metal elements, while displaying a maturity and focus in songwriting that has grown out of experience. “The Shape of Fluidity” exhibits an eclectic yet seamless amalgamation of progressive and post-rock as well as doom and heavy metal in combination with an inherent catchiness and a dynamic backdrop.

What sets this album apart from its predecessors is the collective endeavour that went into it with the combined forces of songwriting trio Raven, and guitarists Nick Polak and Omar Iskandr. In the rhythm section, bass player JB van der Wal has been joined by the abundant creativity of new drummer Vincent Kreyder. On the technical side of the production, the outstanding engineering and mixing skills of Magnus Lindberg (CULT OF LUNA, RUSSIAN CIRCLES, TRIBULATION) and the excellent mastering by Ted Jensen (AC/DC, TALKING HEADS, MUSE, GHOST) have created the perfect crisp and transparent as well powerful sound for “The Shape of Fluidity”.

It is hardly surprising that the theme of the album that pitches the concept of identity against the backdrop of a world in constant flux connects the album’s lyrics to the biography of lead vocalist Raven. Born intersex, doctors at the time assumed that they could surgically determine which kind of life the infant should lead and decided that the child should be a girl. This has led to a life full of soul searching, fighting taboos and breaking boundaries, until recently Raven decided to reclaim that which others have tried so hard to take away from them, and finally embrace their hermaphroditic nature.

This much more personal approach than before does by no means become self-centred. The lyrics of “The Shape of Fluidity” can easily be read as universal stories about finding oneself, swimming against the stream, and facing the world head on. We are all affected by questions of change and identity, but it is only legitimate and natural that art also reflects the artists as well as the world around them.

The band derived the name DOOL from the Dutch word for ‘wandering’. When their debut album “Here Now, There Then” was released in 2017, it became an instant success. Their fresh and wild rock and metal sound received “Album of the Month” titles in the renowned German magazines Metal Hammer and Rock Hard as well as the “Best Debut Album 2017” award from the former, while Vice (US), Aardschok (NL), and De Volkskrant (NL) happily chimed in with heaping praise on the young Dutch band.

DOOL also established a reputation as an excellent live act that loves to rock stages around the world. They have meanwhile played several tours and often in sold-out venues and performed at all the main festivals such as Wacken Open Air (DE), Graspop (BE), Hellfest (FR), Metal Days (SL), Lowlands (NL), Fortarock (NL), Wave Gotik Treffen (DE), Rock Hard Festival (DE), Stoned from the Underground (DE), Metalitalia Festival (IT), and North of the Wall (UK) among many others.

With their sophomore full-length “Summerland” released in 2020, DOOL successfully exceeded the already sky-high expectations and scored even more “Album of the Month” awards in German Rock Hard (10/10) and Sonic Seducer magazines as well as #2 soundcheck positions in Metal.de, Metal Hammer (DE) and another #1 in the Polish edition – with a pile glowing reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Having been barred from extensive touring due to the global pandemic, DOOL were finally able to play shows again in front of sold out houses and decided to release the live album “Visions of Summerland” as a gift for their huge following that had patiently waited for the band’s return to the stages.

Last but not least, it is well worth to note the cover art, which completes the Gesamtkunstwerk (synthesis of all arts) of “The Shape of Fluidity”, by physically embodying the concept. Renowned French artist Valnoir (Metastazis) has created a semi-transparent flag through hardening a liquid in a metamorphosis by reducing temperature, which is shown on the cover. Imagery, lyrics, and music all flow together and pose questions about identity, freedom, life, and the will to change things that hold more than just one finger straight at the pulse of the Zeitgeist – but without ever pointing or raising it.

With “The Shape of Fluidity”, DOOL offer so much more than just damn cool music. These extra dimensions of depth and meaning are all part of their unique appeal and come out clearly on the new album. May all those who wander gather under the fluid flag of DOOL!

Release date: April 19, 2024
Style: Dark Rock
Label: Prophecy Productions
Review impact date: March 25, 2024

“The Shape of Fluidity” is available as a 36-page hardcover CD artbook, Gatefold ltd. crystal clear vinyl LP, Gatefold black vinyl LP, and as a Digipak CD.

Recording by Magnus Lindberg & JB van der Wal at DAFT Studios, Malmedy (BE)
Mixed by Magnus Lindberg at Redmount Studios, Stockholm (SE)
Mastering by Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, Nashville (US)
Artwork & Layout by Valnoir (Metastazis)

Line-up:
Raven van Dorst – vocals, guitar
Nick Polak – guitar
Omar Iskandr – guitar
Vincent Kreyder – drums
JB van der Wal – bass guitar

https://www.facebook.com/allthosewhowanderaredool/
https://www.instagram.com/allthosewhowanderaredool/
https://dool-nl.bandcamp.com/
http://allthosewhowanderaredool.com/
http://www.allthosewhowanderaredool.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/prophecyproductions
https://www.instagram.com/prophecypro/
https://prophecy-de.bandcamp.com/

DOOL, “Hermagorgon” official video

Montreal extreme sludgers Dopethrone — they call it ‘slutch’, presumably because the harder consonant sound makes it nastier, which it kind of does — have a Western Canadian tour coming up with Severed Arm that will take them from British Columbia through Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba before it’s done, and apparently a new album for Totem Cat Records. The latter will be the three-piece’s first since 2018’s Transcanadian Anger (review here), and for proof of life, the band have posted “Life Kills You” — also the name of the tour, either will or won’t be the name of the LP — to sate the disaffected masses yearning for their particular brand of fuckall.

When’s the album coming? I don’t know. They make a point of not saying. Maybe tomorrow, maybe yesterday, as Ben Sisko once put it. But knowing such a thing is in their pocket is a comforting discomfort, and one imagines they might want to take a few records to the UK with them when they go to headline Masters of the Riff III (info here) as an exclusive appearance, so it could be that the pressing is in the works for March, could be April for the tour dates listed below, or could be never because fuck you anyway it’s Dopethrone and that’s just how it is. I won’t pretend to know the future, but if I see a definite date or more details, I’ll post accordingly.

Till then, the track’s at the bottom of the post, just under the tour dates and album-existence announcement:

“LIFE KILLS YOU” by DOPETHRONE

Our slutchiest album is ready to shart blood in your eardrums.

No, we’re not telling you when.

Recorded and mixed by Jean-Baptiste Joubeaud
Mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege

Videoclip by Vincent Houde, Marianne Martinez and Rodolphe Tremblay

Music by Dopethrone, Lyrics by Vincent Houde

New album coming out 2024 on Totem Cat Records: https://totemcatrecords.bigcartel.com

NAME YOUR PRICE DL: https://dopethrone.bandcamp.com/

DOPETHRONE “LIFE KILLS YOU” – WEST COAST 🍁 TOUR
HOP ON THE NIGHT TRAIN – 100% HELL – ZERO SHAME.

19/04/24 Victoria, BC – Wicket Hall
20/04/24 Vancouver, BC – Green Auto
21/04/24 Kelowna, BC – Jackknife Brewery
22/04/24 Nelson, BC – The Royal
24/04/24 Edmonton, AB – The Buckingham
25/04/24 Calgary, AB – Modern Love
26/04/24 Regina, SK – The Exchange
27/04/24 Winnipeg, MB – Handsome Daughter

Artwork by Max from The Death Wheelers

Dopethrone is :
Vince : Guitar / Vocals
Vyk : Bass
Shawn : Drums

https://www.facebook.com/dopethrone.mthell
https://www.instagram.com/dopethroneband/
https://dopethrone.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/totemcatrecords/
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http://totemcatrecords.bigcartel.com/

Dopethrone, “Life Kills You”

Emitting psych-revelry vibes in transluscent shades from Rolling Stones, Samsara Blues Experiment and the sunny acid folk of Tao and the Drones of Praise, Malmö weirdos Nepal Death offer “She Demon (The Exorcism of the Rakshasi)” as the follow-up single to the video they did for “Sister Nirvana” (posted here), which surfaced this Fall. And like that track, the new one marries classic pop ideologies with mushroomy oddball psych, a traditionalism based on shirking tradition, at least aesthetically, in favor of something more freeing. It wants you to sing along. Maybe you will or maybe not.

So let’s have a dream gig with Nepal Death and fellow outsider-art Swedes Toad Venom, shall we? Could add some cosmic strangeness from the UK in Codex Serafini if you want. Good bill, though I don’t know that it would or wouldn’t ever happen. In any case, a pocket of strangeness tucked away in the recesses of genre is welcome, and Nepal Death answer that call with a duly individualized sound. As to an album, I won’t speculate except to remind that we live in a universe of infinite possibility. Something perhaps to keep in mind as you listen.

From the PR wire:

The Musical Collective of Nepal Death ­now unleash their latest sonic story upon the world. “She Demon (The Exorcism of the ­Rakshasi)” will take you on a mind-­bending trip spanning over nine ­glorious minutes.

The song echoes the rhythms of The Rolling Stones’ ­”Sympathy for the Devil” and the vibes of Primal Scream’s “Movin’ on Up”. Feel the trippy seventies, featuring psychedelic guitars, infectious basslines, drum grooves, magical flute melodies, bells, singing bowls and massive choirs. The lyrics draw inspiration from Hindu legends of the Rakshasi-demons wielding supernatural powers for evil acts. Picture fierce beings with flaming red eyes and hair, savoring the scent of human flesh.

Listen on Spotify HERE: https://open.spotify.com/album/73bW14oc7E38wysA76Fz3o

“Embark on a cosmic odyssey with ‘She Demon’ – Our tribute to ’70s psychedelia, blending the eerie with the energetic. Picture fierce Rakshasi demons and join us in this nine-minute sonic journey featuring amazing guest artists. It’s more than a song; it’s a direct line to the cosmic vibrations of fierce demons!” – says the band.

She Demon is written and performed by Nepal Death, ­featuring guest ­artists Pontus Torstensson ­(Exorcist GBG/Tentakel), Lisa Isaksson (Second Oracle/Me And My Kites), and Anders Kjellberg (Fontän/Tross).

­Recorded at Studio Katakomb, Kali Kitchen Studios and ­Konrad Tönz Klangwerk.
Released by Kali Psyche Records.
Mixed and mastered by Mikael ­Andersson at Soundport ­Music.
Artwork painted by ­enigmatic ­psychedelic performance artist Zephyr Wycorn.

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https://nepaldeath.com/

Nepal Death, “She Demon (The Exorcism of the Rakshasi)”

Tomorrow, Jan. 26, is the arrival of Greengoat‘s conceptual debut album, A.I., which is out through Argonauta Records. The Madrid two-piece formed in 2021 and have been working their way toward this release since then, dropping hints in singles “The Seed” and “A.I.,” which appear in succession following the ambience-backed spoken recitation of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ in the intro “Void,” along with the late-2022 EP Unleash the Fire and initial single “The Mist” the prior May. For drummer/lyricist Ruth “Kalypso” Moya and guitarist/vocalist Ivan Flores it is a moment of realization and still the beginning stages of a longer-term exploration. Having begun as a trio, the guitar-and-drums ethic brings rawness to elements wrought from progressive metal, grunge and ’90s alternative.

The eight-song/37-minute outing centers on the singularity — the theoretical moment at which a programmed artificial intelligence becomes sentient, conscious — and the fallout therefrom, and pairs that with an instrumental scope tied together in part through the spaces left open where bass, keys, etc., might otherwise dwell, emerging with a more distinct presentation as a result. A Down-y verse riff in “A.I.” and the Sabbath chug of finale “Burn the End” have no trouble coexisting, as one would expect, and with some of Helmet‘s discordance, “Human” contrasts the pointedly YOB-style guitar that begins “Naraka II,” while a strong undercurrent drawn from Tool pulls the material together and sometimes harsh (though I don’t fully trust the speakers I’m hearing it through because of a busted laptop; bear with me) wah lead-layer injections that remind of Jerry Cantrell circa Dirt are peppered through the span, coupled with a vocal melody in “The Seed” that brings to mind Stoned Jesus.

As a record with a story would and probably should, A.I. ends up in a different place than it starts, but Moya and Flores establish their own tonal presence and intricacies in the drumming, extra hits around the snare here and there or the creation of a roll like that in “Naraka I,” further solidify their individuality. Of course, one would be remiss not to note the boom in heavy and particularly progressive heavy happening today on the Iberian Peninsula, and Greengoat strike as being aware of the modern heavy sphere — I think you probably name your band something else if you’re not — but on their own course, and while the subject matter is oft-discussed, at a certain point, hooks are hooks, and “Human,” the atmospheric “The Seed,” “Awake” and “A.I.” demonstrate a purposeful songwriting modus beyond just telling or describing the narrative of this LP. That is to say, as they move forward, that sense of craft will move with them.

I won’t pretend to understand how A.I. works beyond ‘computer eats data and tells you about it,’ which is a modern kind of technological corpse-puppetry. But I use it and would love to be able to tell a robot “go find me all of Greengoat‘s album info and social media links and lay them out in a post so I can write their album premiere” and have it happen. For now that kind of thing is still a manual operation.

PR wire info follows said premiere on the player below. Please enjoy:

Greengoat, A.I. album premiere

Spanish Psychedelic Stoner/Doom band GREENGOAT is pleased to unveil long-awaited details about their upcoming album “A.I.,” scheduled for release on January 26th, 2024, through Argonauta Records.

The band says, “Hey, friends! Brace yourselves for the rollercoaster of emotions we’ve poured into our new album “A.I.,” which will finally be available on the 26th of January 2024. It’s not just music; it’s a piece of our hearts, a ride through our dreams about Humanity’s relationship with artificial intelligence. From the depths of its first tune “Void,” this album tells a story where AI takes consciousness with “The Seed,” meets its creator in “A.I.,” the creator claims its control in “Human,” goes through the dilemma of “Awake” to the outcome of “Naraka I and II” and “Burn the End.” We hope you feel every note as we did creating it.”

“A.I.” tracklisting:
01 Void
02 The Seed
03 A.I.
04 Human
05 Awake
06 Naraka I
07 Naraka II
08 Burn The End

Formed in 2021, the band goes through changes in their ensemble until it consolidates as a duo with guitarist/singer Ivan Flores (Dsgarre, Magnus Ficus) and drummer/lyricist Ruth “Kalypso” Moya (Suevicha, Dashara, Magnus Ficus).

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