Posted in Whathaveyou on June 19th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
You would be hard pressed to find a better week for Spiral Grave to announce the release of their second album, Ill Repute, since this weekend their hometown of Frederick, Maryland, performs the annual rite of the Maryland Doom Fest, and, well, one more thing to celebrate there isn’t going to hurt. You may recall the four-piece earlier this year dropped the single “The Death of Ronnie M.” (posted here) as a soft-launch preface to revealing the actual details of the sophomore LP. Those are here — tracks and art, etc. — accompanied by another new song, “Lungful of Blood,” which the band deliver with their usual sunny disposition.
Release date is July 12, once again on Argonauta Records, and both videos can be found below. Dig in and doom on:
SPIRAL GRAVE Announce New Album; New Official Music Video Out Now
Spiral Grave, the esteemed US doom metal ensemble comprised of veterans from Iron Man and Lord, is set to unveil their highly anticipated new album ‘Ill Repute’ via Argonauta Records on July 12th.
Album tracklisting and cover art are as follows:
1. Watching From the Sky 2. Eulogy for Queen City (21502) 3. My Angel Comes Tonight 4. The Death of Ronnie M. 5. Lungful of Blood 6. Ill Repute 7. (Raising the) Chalice 8. To Stare Down God
“Many artists have their COVID album, and this is ours. Once lockdowns started we just hunkered down and started writing. The emotions that we were all feeling during that time are very evident in these songs. The legendary Frank Marchand was at the helm for recording, and brought the absolute best out in us.” – says the band
Additionally, the band is premiering their new official music video for ‘Lungful of Blood’ today, watch here: https://youtu.be/2tpM3aTL0Vc
Spiral Grave formed in late 2018 following the demise of two legendary mid-Atlantic bands, Iron Man and Lord. The band quickly hit the live circuit and recorded their debut album, Legacy of the Anointed (release delayed until 2021 due to COVID). Since that album’s release Spiral Grave has continued to tour, playing live dates and festivals in and around their home area of MD/VA, going as far west as Texas. In addition, the band has recorded their sophomore effort Ill Repute, which is scheduled for a 2024 release from Argonauta Records.
SPIRAL GRAVE: Screaming Mad Dee – voice Willy Rivera – guitar Louis Strachan – bass Jason “Mot” Waldmann – drums
[Click play above to stream Shadow Witch’s Eschaton (The End of All Things) in its entirety. Album is out Friday on Argonauta Records and the band play their release show at Maryland Doom Fest 2024 this weekend.]
All things end, and Shadow Witch‘s songwriting is suited to endtimes, with a gospel feel and theme amid the doom rock groove and an intermittent metallic severity. Eschaton (The End of All Things) is the fourth full-length from the Kingston, New York-based four-piece fronted by Earl Walker Lundy with Jeremy Hall (since replaced by Jesse Cunningham) on guitar/keys, bassist David Pannullo and drummer Justin Zipperle (also piano/Hammond) making his first recorded appearance since coming aboard following the tracking of 2020’s Under the Shadow of a Witch (review here), which until now was their most realized outing to-date. Clocking in at an easily manageable 36 minutes, the eight self-recorded pieces of Eschaton (The End of All Things) ask little — not nothing — in terms of indulgence and reward the listener in the diversity of their approach, starting with the quick 80-second motor-riff of “Speedy Goes to Sludgetown” that is deceptively complex as it builds to the finish with synth and vocals worked in around the centralized forward push. It’s not nearly as atmospheric as “Dominu Sanctus Oblivion,” which leads off side B with its hard-hitting cycles of drumming and layered vocal chanting, references to The Exorcist on guitar and so forth, but that song is six minutes long and it probably wouldn’t work as an album intro. No time to waste. Shadow Witch have places to be and the songs to get them there.
Eschaton (The End of All Things) of course begs the question whether the ending being discussed in its title is that of the band itself. Best I can do in terms of an answer after listening is: “maybe?” One never knows generally and I won’t make any definite predictions, but between the departure of Hall, the plague that happened between the third album’s recording/release and this one, and the creative progression undertaken since Lundy, Hall and Pannullo set forth in 2016 with their debut, Sun Killer (discussed here), if this was to be the final Shadow Witch release, they certainly don’t owe anyone anything, and they sound like they’ve put everything they have into this record. From “Speedy Goes to Sludgetown” into the melancholic starts and stops of “Satellites” touching later on Southern rock as it brings acoustic and electric guitars together with keys and the first of several standout performances from Lundy, whose lyrics recast manmade spacetrash as falling angels and/or stars, namedropping a burning bush and serpent along the way to emphasize the being-raised-baptist-is-a-trauma religious undertones that have been a part of Shadow Witch all along but that also find a fresh point of view throughout Eschaton (The End of All Things). A melodic soulful dig in “Tell Me,” which follows, is burly but almost desert rocking in its tone, shifting from the sweeping crescendo of “Satellites” with organ and backing vocals to a more rigid stomp that grows fervent in its later gallop without any real threat of derailment to the momentum the band have already built.
The subsequent “Nobody” leans into insistent punk-metal with a hook that reminds me (and this is a ‘me’ thing rather than a likely influence) of Midwestern pushers Bloodcow as Lundy takes on the voice of some of masculinity’s more toxic gaslighting in the unfortunately-not-post-Trump era: “Nobody knows more about you than me/Nobody does more for you than me… I’m the man/And you all must do as I command,” and so on. Discussions of power and the abuse thereof aren’t necessarily new for Shadow Witch — the third album had “Wolf Among the Sheep,” and a cut like “Cruel” from 2017’s Disciples of the Crow (review here) saw its subject through a social justice lens — but the craft on Eschaton (The End of All Things), the subtle turns in the instrumental arrangements and the heart poured into the belted-out delivery of the vocals over top, frame the conversation and exploration of ideas in an accessible, heavy rock and roll that has never been both so broad in reach or so outwardly sure of its path.
Recorded on their own, as noted above, with a mix and master by Paul Orofino, the material feels divergent but is structurally sound and aware of its audience, with “Nobody” giving over to the big-nodding side A finale “Let it Out” giving willful contrast to “Tell Me” earlier — directly: the repeated line of the backing vocals is “Don’t tell me…” which Lundy answers in call and response — in a tight three-and-a-half-minute course, moderately placed like if KISS had ever given a damn what their songs were actually about. They’ve got some according swagger there, but Shadow Witch have never been just darkness stylistically. In terms of aesthetic, there’s as much light as black under their blacklights.
With a hook that’s downright vibrant and swing to spare, “Let it Out” is for sure present-tense in its frustrations, and it ends with Zipperle‘s drums on a fade before giving over to the immediate riff introducing “Dominu Sanctus Oblivion,” which is based around a chorus that becomes a kind of thanatos/destruction-worshiping chant and a lead-in for the apocalyptic narrative fleshed out across “The Lion and the Lamb” and closer “The Fallen.” The last three cuts, all over six minutes long (nothing on side A touched five), retain the intentionality of, say, “Satellites” and “Tell Me,” but are focused on a distinct procession. “Dominu Sanctus Oblivion,” then, is both the moment where that turn happens and the beginning of the story perceived, told in fire-and-brimstone preach and sharp streaks of guitar soloing, a manifestation of the Judgment Day being referenced in the album’s title. They still make it move and have a quieter break in the second half to offset the song’s cyclical pattern before they restart for one more hypnotic, willfully grandiose time through, finishing riffier and edgier before the cold stop brings standalone guitar at the start of “The Lion and the Lamb.” Marked by its inclusion of organ and evocative lead guitar, the penultimate cut on Eschaton (The End of All Things) is both a lead-in for “The Fallen” and a landmark in itself for the band, reminiscent of some of Dio-era Black Sabbath‘s more sprawling fare, whether that’s “Heaven and Hell” or “Falling Off the Edge of the World,” neither of which it’s actively emulating.
A synthy wash of noise eases the transition to the urgent opening build of “The Fallen,” and if there is some autobiographical aspect to Eschaton (The End of All Things) — that is, if part of what’s ending is the band itself — no one will be able to say they didn’t go out on top. A career performance from Lundy around a get-in-punk-we’re-taking-Heaven lyric and the corresponding manner in which the song unfolds instrumentally is stately in a way that both accounts for “The Lion and the Lamb” and the detail and arrangement flourish Shadow Witch have basked in throughout. But the closer is singular in its character and caps with a vision of doom that is bluesy, classic, gospel-informed and progressive without pushing so far as to lose the plot of which it is still only one piece set forth in the two songs prior, culminating with layered vocals and organ in complement to the final lines as the song resolves: “Fold your wings around me/We’re going home.” Those wings are leather, and “home” is a march of the fallen on capital-‘p’ Paradise, but the emotion behind the delivery is sincere and palpable, and as Shadow Witch do on their fourth album front-to-back, they depart with the sense of purpose that Eschaton (The End of All Things) has so roundly highlighted. Like I said at the start, all things end. Not all things are fortunate enough to do so with such resonance. I don’t know that this will be the last Shadow Witch record or not — and for what it’s worth, I hope not — but what they bring to fruition in these songs should be considered nothing less than a definitive work today, and today is what matters.
Shadow Witch, “The Lion and the Lamb” official video
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 17th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I have a couple things booked along the way, but my family and I are traveling between today, June 17, and next Friday, June 28, and I’m honestly not sure how much time I’m going to get to write. Does that mean no posts? No. But it probably means fewer, and if I have time and inclination maybe some writing about the travel itself. We’ll be in the Southwest to see Moab and Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon, National Parks, etc., so if there are pictures, at least they’ll be nice.
It’s not quite a vacation — the thing about being a stay-at-home parent is you’re never really completely off work — but we’ll be out hiking and whatnot and I wanted to let you know in case you were wondering where all the reviews went for the next 10 days. If you’re dying for ‘content,’ I urge you to dig into the recent 100-album Quarterly Review. No shortage of gems in there, and I packed it accordingly knowing this trip was on the horizon.
Also, for the first time in years I’ve been able to access the hard drive hosting The Obelisk Radio and have put more than 100 new albums on that playlist. Click here to listen.
This post is going to stay at the top of the page during the trip and I’ll archive it thereafter. New posts will appear underneath. If it’s confusing, just check the date under the headline. In any case, thanks for reading if you do/did/are. Much love and all that.
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 17th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
As Stoned Jesus move forward with a new lineup and head toward their 15th anniversary tour of Europe this Fall, the Ukrainian heavy rock forerunners will this August revisit 2012’s Seven Thunders Roar (review here) and 2015’s The Harvest (review here), reissuing the two albums through Season of Mist, which also put out their 2023 long-player, Father Light (review here). That record, in being both post-plague and arriving in the context of Russia’s ongoing attempt to eat Ukraine with murder, was almost defiantly rocking, but encompassed a lot in terms of sound that Seven Thunders Roar and The Harvest put forth, nodding to the… uh… nod… of the former and the willfully progressive spirit that kept the latter from being more than a retread of riffy glories. Three extra minutes of “I’m the Mountain?” I think I’m not the only one who’s ready to sign up for such a thing.
Kind of kills me I’ve still never seen this band. With the trio revamped around founding guitarist/vocalist Igor Sydorenko, that would be interesting to catch playing new songs or old. My understanding is — which is to say, don’t quote me on this — they’ve dropped the intention to follow Father Light with the hopefully-they’ll-put-it-out-someday Mother Dark, instead focusing on touring and presumably a fresh start for a next record whenever they get there.
The PR wire brings news of the reissues:
STONED JESUS Re-Issue Two Classic Albums in Seven Thunders Roar and The Harvest
Strap in, magnificent souls, because we’re diving deep into the kaleidoscopic universe of STONED JESUS, trailblazers of the European psychedelic progressive rock scene. The ever-ambitious trio is re-issuing their groundbreaking albums, the monolithic Seven Thunders Roar (2012) and the revolutionary The Harvest (2015).
Forged in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2009 by singer-songwriter Igor Sydorenko, Stoned Jesus began as an audacious experiment. United by a shared passion for the almighty riff, seismic grooves, and boundless creativity, the band bulldozed their way through the barriers of the genre, crafting a legacy that has since become the stuff of modern mythology.
“After years of waiting we’re finally reissuing two of our most-beloved albums, the heavy prog stalwart The Harvest and the already-legendary psychedelic classic Seven Thunders Roar!” Sydorenko states. “It’s funny now to think how surprised people were hearing The Harvest for the first time – a lot of them possibly expected Seven Thunders Part Two, but as a songwriter I’d never been into repeating myself. And with Seven Thunders, what else could I say about this overlooked-then-and-praised-now record, its importance and influence for the genre?
“This was our first release with our then-manager, Vlad Lyashenko, the man who helped to shape the Ukrainian rock and metal underground into the force it is today. Both reissues are dedicated to his memory, since he passed away last year – hauntingly, on the very same day we’d released our fifth album, Father Light. So please enjoy both The Harvest and Seven Thunders Roar with extended bonus tracks and have one for the guy to whom we owe our career”
Season of Mist is reissuing Seven Thunders Roar and The Harvest on August 16, 2024.
Seven Thunders Roar Digital Download CD Digipack 2X12″ Vinyl Gatefold (Black) 2X12″ Vinyl Gatefold (Gold with Black Splatter)
Tracklist 1. Bright Like The Morning (7:47) 2. Electric Mistress (9:21) 3. Indian (5:00) 4. I’m The Mountain (13:01) 5. Stormy Monday (8:43) 6. Bright Like The Morning (Extended) (8:43) 7. Stormy Monday (Extended) (9:32) 8. I’m The Mountain (Extended) (16:02) Total runtime: 1:18:09
The Harvest Digital Download CD Digipack 12″ Vinyl Gatefold (Black) 12″ Vinyl Gatefold (Red with Black Splatter)
Tracklist 1. Here Come The Robots (3:18) 2. Wound (3:14) 3. Rituals Of The Sun (7:01) 4. YFS (5:10) 5. Silkworm Confessions (9:07) 6. Black Church (14:45) Total runtime: 42:37
STONED JESUS will be heading out celebrating their 15 year anniversary across mainland Europe. Expect a setlist full of Seven Thunders Roar and The Harvest classics, along with tracks from their latest album, Father Light.
Tagging alongside them will be San Francisco’s Mondo Drag, Polish doom-giants Dopelord as well as label mates The Abbey on 21 European dates.
STONED JESUS XV ANNIVERSARY TOUR: 10 October: Berlin, DE @ Frannz Club 11 October: Copenhagen, DK @ Lille Vega 12 October: Hamburg, DE @ Headcrash 13 October: Haarlem, NL @ Patronaat 14 October: Arnhem, NL @ Willemeen 16 October: Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club 17 October: Bristol, UK @ Fleece 18 October: London, UK @ Garage 19 October: Cologne, DE @ Club Volta 20 October: Antwerpen, BE @ Desertfest Belgium 22 October: Munich, DE @ Feierwerk 23 October: Milano, IT @ Legend 24 October: Bologna, IT @ Freakout 25 October: Aarau, CH @ Kiff 26 October: Schweinfurt, DE @ Stattbahnhof 27 October: Innsbruck, DE @ PMK 29 October: Brno, CZ @ Kabinet Muz 30 October: Warsaw, PL @ Hydrozagadka 31 October: Krakow, PL @ Kwadrat 1 November: Poznan, PL @ Klub 2progi 2 November: Leipzig, DE @ Werk 2
Line-up: Igor Sydorenko – Lead-Vocals & Guitar Andrew Rodin – Bass & Backing Vocals Yurii Ciel – Drums & Percussion
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 17th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Ça va, Endless Floods?
It’s been a minutes since last we heard from the Bordeaux-based doom-plus heavybringers, and Breathe Plastic has their fourth album, Rites Futurs, set to release July 12. The lead single is “Décennie,” likewise laced with melodic breadth and fervent crash, and while I wouldn’t necessarily expect the band to be doing the same thing on all five of the record’s tracks, the space in the production is encouraging and you won’t hear me argue with the nod as they transition to a minimalist contemplation and then, gloriously, surge back to life and use feedback like triumphant horns en route to a jazz-folk ending. So yes, the scope is pretty open.
This is a band I’ve intended to listen to way more than I’ve listened to — you know how that goes sometimes; only so many hours in the day, week, year, life — but I’ve never heard anything from them and not wanted to hear more. The same applies now, I hope you’ll agree.
From the PR wire:
ENDLESS FLOODS: new album “Rites Futurs” coming next month!
French doom metal trio ENDLESS FLOODS shares new single “Décennie”; new album “Rites Futurs” out on July 12th.
Bordeaux, France’s doom metal experimentalists ENDLESS FLOODS return after five years with their fourth studio album “Rites Futurs”, to be issued on July 12th through Breathe Plastic Records. Stream the new single “Décennie” now!
It’s a new era for ENDLESS FLOODS. Between consecutive lockdowns and various other musical projects, it took the band two years to complete “Rites Futurs”. Now reunited around vocalist Louise Dehaye, Stéphane Miollan (guitar, bass, vocals) and Benjamin Sablon (drums, synths, vocals) have spanned through the crepuscular and droney doom landscapes of their first three records to reveal in a prodigious blaze of post-metal, doom and shoegaze driven by the aerial choirs of the three musicians.
✙ Listen to Endless Floods’ new track “Décennie” ✙
About the new album “Rites Futurs”, the band comments: “On Rites Futurs, we built a mythology around the idea of the rite of passage. The five tracks symbolize this tipping point into the unknown by evoking ancient traditions where fires extinguished everything in their path.”
The album was recorded and mixed by Thibault Laisney at a/b box studio (Lestiac, France) and mastered by Ben Jones. Cover art and graphic design by Louise Dehaye. The album will be released this July 12th on cassette tape via Breathe Plastic Records, as well as on all digital streaming services.
Bordeaux, France’s doom metal experimentalists ENDLESS FLOOD formed in 2015 in Bordeaux around Stéphane Miollan (ex-Monarch, Bombardement, Faucheuse), Benjamin Sablon (ex-Monarch, Bombardement, Shock, Mégot) et Simon Bédy. With “no boundaries in heaviness” as a motto, they raise a prodigiously dense wall of sound by blending drone and doom metal aesthetics with mind-expanding ambient structures, like a sorrowful procession arising from the limbo…
The trio released their self-titled debut in 2015, quickly followed by their sophomore album “II” in the winter of 2017. This drone-sounding assault saw the band sinking deeper into bleakness and minimalism, immersing the listener in a monolithic and feedback-laden sonic experience. Their third album “Circle The Gold” epitomized a fresh start in their creative process: between chaos and light, the Bordeaux trio transcended genre boundaries while unveiling a more melodic and cathartic aspect of their music. After a five years hiatus, ENDLESS FLOODS now returns with a new lineup and their fourth record “Rites Futurs”, to be released in July 2024.
ENDLESS FLOODS on “Rites Futurs” Benjamin Sablon – Drums, percussions, synths, vocals Louise Dehaye – Vocals Stéphane Miollan – Guitars, bass, vocals Thibault Laisney – Additional guitars
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Some news from raw heavy punkers Boozewa, who’ve been kicking around the last couple years even as drummer/vocalist Michael Rudolph Cummings put out a solo record and toured for it, etc., in that a new offering, Bon Vivant, will see release on July 9. No audio yet, but if you caught the Pennsylvania-based Backwoods Payback-offshoot’s 2021 EP, Developing Good Health (discussed here) or last year’s single “Maybe I’m a Bird” (video posted here), you should know to expect an elbow or two thrown in your direction. The three-piece of Cummings, bassist/vocalist Jessica Baker and guitarist/vocalist Rylan Caspar — whose mother I believe drew the picture above, while the cover art below/on the tour poster is by Tony Trease — are reliably brash, and if you don’t believe me, they’ve got A/V to demonstrate same at the bottom of this post.
Shows? Of course shows. They apparently just played with CKY — still a thing; good for them — and have dates lined up concurrent to Bon Vivant coming out and a couple weeks after, so yes, shows. Before I turn it over to what I culled from socials, I’ll just note that I have no idea whether Bon Vivant is an EP or a full-length. Based on what they’ve done to this point and since they don’t mention it, I’d guess an EP, but you never know for sure until you get there. If it’s a whole album, it would be their first, is the only reason I even bring it up. Any newswa is welcome newswa as far as I’m concerned.
Information for perusing:
It’s finally time! Our brand new record BON VIVANT will be released on Tuesday July 9th 2024!
Recorded/mixed/mastered once again at the always inspiring @noisylittlecritter by Mike Bardzik, with INCREDIBLE cover art done by our dear friend @tony_rocknroll
What ya say we jam a record release show for celebrate?
What ya say we hit a little tour to mark the occasion?
All the news that’s fit to hear coming today…and it’s only the beginning of what we have in store for the rest of 2024!
07.12 The Crown Wilmington DE (Release Show) 07.23 The Cave Chapel Hill NC 07.24 Sly Grog Asheville NC 07.25 Magbar Louisville KY 07.26 Westside Bowl Youngstown OH 07.27 Comedy House State College PA 07.28 Alkemy Flemington NJ
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Steve Von Till‘s experimentalist project Harvestman will release Triptych Part Two on July 21 through, of course, Neurot Recordings. Like the preceding Triptych Part One (review here), which came out this Spring, also through Neurot, its release is tied to a specific full moon, in this case the Buck Moon. Significance of the Buck Moon? It is reportedly when male deer begin to grow antlers. We’ve got babies in my backyard now — little slice of suburban paradise that it is — so I’ll have to keep an eye out.
While in the spirit of Triptych Part One, the upcoming collection has a bit of dub and surely other ambient-textured whathaveyou throughout, the lead single arrives with the sinewy synth lines of “Damascus,” which somehow becomes a percussive delve by the time it’s done. At some point today, presumably once whatever cooler-than-I-am site has done its premiere, the visualizer for “Damascus” will be streamable below. Preorders are also available, as the PR wire makes clear.
Dig:
HARVESTMAN (STEVE VON TILL) TO RELEASE THE SECOND OF THREE RELEASES THROUGHOUT 2024
TRIPTYCH PART TWO WILL BE RELEASED VIA NEUROT RECORDINGS TO COINCIDE WITH THE BUCK MOON ON 21ST JULY
Throughout 2024, and marking three full moons, Harvestman (a.k.a. Steve Von Till) will be presenting his ambitious Triptych project, a three-part album cycle. This album trilogy is a distillation of a unique approach that finds a continuity amongst the fragmented, treating all its myriad musical sources and reference points not as building bricks, but as tuning forks for a collective ancestral resonance, residing in that liminal space between the fundamental and the imaginary, the intrinsic and the speculative.
Today, Harvestman share “Damascus” from the upcoming Triptych Part Two, which will be released on 21st July via Neurot Recordings to coincide with the Buck Moon. Part One was released on 23rd April on the Pink Moon, and Part Three will be coming on 17th October’s Hunter Moon.
“This is Damascus.” says Steve Von Till. “Both a steel forged of different layers and a city of ancient origin. And it was the result of fortunate serendipity. The track was born of my first experiments with software utilizing loop based composition. After years of using the same linear process as analog recording, I wanted to branch out into being able to manipulate rhythms, analog phrases, delay and modulation effects to a set tempo. I invited my friend, Sanford Parker, over to coach me through my entry into that world. While this began as a tutorial of sampling, cutting and syncing percussion loops, it quickly led to him guiding me through looping my fuzzed out guitar improvisations with it. We moved on and walked away from it. It might have become a throwaway work sample had something in those beats and fuzz guitars not peaked my imagination later. After several months, out of curiosity, I opened the session and revisited the piece. I was immediately drawn into the vibe, put down a solid bass groove, synths, and found an organic sequence of the loops that gave it life and flow while still maintaining the loop based nature of the foundational tracks.”
At its heart, music has always been a questioning of inheritance – a dialogue with predecessors and forebears, the forging of one’s own perspective in relation to what has come before, and for some, a plunge into the boundless realms between. For Steve Von Till, that process has always taken on an added dimension to become the most sacred of tasks. Whether through the apocalyptic uprising of Neurosis, the sonic deconstructions of their sister project, Tribes of Neurot, the invocatory intimacy of his eponymous solo albums or his instrumental psychedelic reveries in the guise of Harvestman, that dialogue has never just been with musical influences, but with what underpins them: the primordial, elemental forces now banished to the peripheries of our contemporary consciousness, yet still broadcasting a signal for all who will listen.
Drawn to the megaliths, ruins and ancient sites mapped out along the British and European mainland’s geographical and psychic landscapes, the folklore and apocrypha forever resurfacing as portals from a rational world, Triptych is a meditation forged from traces and residues, and an hallucinatory recollection of artists who have tapped into that enduring otherworldliness embedded within us all. It’s a dream diary narrating a passage through Summer Isle where Flying Saucer Attack are wafting out of a window, a distant Fairport Convention are being remixed by dub master Adrian Sherwood, celestial scanners Tangerine Dream are trying to drown out Bert Jansch and Hawkwind are playing Steeleye Span covers, all prised out of time yet bound to its singularity.
Woven together from home studio recordings that span two decades, this latest outing as Harvestman finds parallels with nature’s cycles not just in its release dates but in the repeated structure that binds each album, like an imprint refracted though three separate strata. As with April’s Part One and the forthcoming Part Three, Part Two, starts on a collaboration with Om bassist and long-term friend of Steve’s, Al Cisneros, with a dub take opening the B-Side. Here, the opening track, “The Hag Of Beara Vs The Poet”’s languid, tribal groove expands into a chromatic wash, like an endless drip of oil spreading out under a midsummer haze.
If Triptych is a multi- and extra-sensory experience, it extends to the remarkable glyph-style artwork of Henry Hablak, a map of correspondences from a long-forgotten ancient and advanced civilization. As with Triptych itself, it’s an echo from another time, an act of binding, a guide to be endlessly reinterpreted, and a signpost to the sacred that might not indicate where to look, but how.
TRIPTYCH PART TWO TRACK LISTING:
Side A The Hag of Beara vs the Poet The Falconer Damascus
Side B The Hag of Beara vs the Poet (Forest Dub) Vapour Phase Galvanized and Torn Open The Unjust Incarceration
Harvestman Triptych Part Two album credits:
Steve Von Till – guitars, bass, synths, percussion, loops, filters and mutations. Dave French – drums on The Hag, stock tank percussion on Galvanized, frequency consult. Al Cisneros – bass on The Hag and Dub John Goff – bagpipes on The Unjust Incarceration Sanford Parker – live assistance on Damascus Narration on The Hag of Beara – “The Lake of Innisfree” by W.B. Yeats
Recorded and Mixed at The Crow’s Nest, North Idaho by SVT Mastered by James Plotkin Artwork and layout by Henry Hablak
Thinning the Herd in a social media post not so long ago referred to their style as “lawnmower metal.” It was a joke, but clearly the New York band is enjoying the upstate life and all the richness not-the-city has to offer as they inch toward the release of their new album, Cull, sometime this year. “Sarcophagus Dust” is the follow-up single to “Trampled by Deer” (video posted here), which was posted in February, and if it’s a case of the band putting out songs as they’re finished, building the full-length as they go, well, they’d hardly be the first. It’s 2024. What the hell even is an album, anyway?
They’ve teased a few other songs from Cull to come as well — the third single is apparently called “Harley Davidson”; I haven’t heard it yet — but the snarl and swagger of “Sarcophagus Dust” speak for themselves, with a professed lack of sleep and the roll of Gavin Spielman‘s riff punctuated by Rob Sefcik‘s crash, lo fi in the production but clear enough to get their point across to be sure. It doesn’t sound like a lawnmower, but it does layer in a noisy lead to coincide with the downer bounce of its finish before fading out. There’s no pretense, no proggy indulgences to be made, nothing overly showy about it except maybe in the soloing where it should be, and its attitude is less about itself than the song but still heavy in mood. It’ll make sense when you hear it, and “Sarcophagus Dust” makes a solid teaser for the record as well since it’s under four minutes long.
I haven’t seen an exact release date for Cull yet, but that’s life, and I honestly don’t think Thinning the Herd need to or even really should be working to anyone’s schedule other than their own. Whenever it arrives, Cull will be the band’s first album in more than a decade, in addition to the first with the Spielman/Sefcik configuration, and as both of the to-date songs they’ve dropped from it hint, it’s gonna be a rocker. So much the better.
Enjoy:
Thinning the Herd, “Sarcophagus Dust” video premiere
“Sarcophagus Dust is the second single off the upcoming album “Cull” by New York’s own Thinning the Herd. TTH’s brand of heavy blues is often described as Doom, Sludge or Grunge and are often compared to Black Sabbath. TTH’s style incorporates elements of early NY/HC, traditional Blues and Stoner Rock.
Stay tuned for the next single entitles “Harley-Davidson” out at the end of June, marking the third single off of the antic aped album “Cull.
Video by Bert Crosby
Thinning the Herd are: Gavin Spielman on Guitar and Vocals. Rob Sefcik – Drums
Thinning the Herd, “Trampled by Deer” official video
