In addition to slots among the enviable lineups for Desertfest Belgium in Antwerp and Damnation in Manchester, UK, and other fests besides, Boston dark atmospheric noise metallers Morne will bring their brutalist heraldry to Europe for a full round of touring through the bulk of October. There are a couple TBA dates, and if you heard last year’s Engraved With Pain (review here) and you’re feeling up for a bit of methodical destruction, by all means get in on the action. Just because they’re absolutely crushing live doesn’t mean they won’t be grateful.

Tickets are on sale now at the Linktree, and the band posted the following update on socials with that and the routing. Have at it:

We return to Europe for the second time this year. Come and share those nights with us, buy merch support live music in any way you can. We hope to see you on the road. Cheers.

Tickets are on sale now via https://linktr.ee/morne.boston.

The band states: “We are preparing for our second trip to Europe this year. We will play a few festivals and a bunch of club shows. It’s a very busy season for touring bands and we would to encourage people to support us on this trip. Come to shows, buy merch and enjoy live music. We appreciate you all. Cheers!”

12-10-2024 – Nijmegen (NL) – Soulcrusher
14-10-2024 – Gdansk (PL) – Wydział Remontowy
15-10-2024 – Warsaw (PL) – Hydrozagadka
16-10-2024 – Poznan (PL) – Pod Minogą
17-10-2024 – Berlin (DE) – Reset Club
18-10-2024 – Leipzig (DE) – Bandhaus
19-10-2024 – Weimar (DE) – Gerber 3
20-10-2024 – Antwerp (BE) – Desertfest
21-10-2024 – Kassel (DE) – Goldgrube
22-10-2024 – Salzburg (AT) – Rockhouse
23-10-2024 – Ljubiljana (SI) – Klub Gromka
24-10-2024 – TBA
25-10-2024 – Bern (CH) – Reitschulen Festival
26-10-2024 – Montpellier (FR) – Ex Tenebris Festival
27-10-2024 – TBA
28-10-2024 – Paris (FR) – TBA
29-10-2024 – Lille (FR) – La Malterie
30-10-2024 – Leeds (UK) – Boom
31-10-2024 – Glasgow (UK) – Classic Grand
01-11-2024 – Manchester (UK) – Damnation Festival

MORNE:
Milosz Gassan – Guitar, Vocals
Paul Rajpal – Guitar
Morgan Coe – Bass
Billy Knockenhauer – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/mornecrust
https://www.instagram.com/morneband
https://morneband.bandcamp.com

http://www.metalblade.com
http://www.facebook.com/metalbladerecords
http://www.instagram.com/metalbladerecords

Morne, Engraved With Pain (2023)

Morne, “Wretched Empire” official video

The moral of the story here is go see The Atomic Bitchwax. I don’t have demographic numbers on how many people in Pittsburgh or Denver or St. Paul read this site, and frankly, I don’t want them. Once you start looking at ratings, you’re playing for ratings, and I’m here for the music. So in that spirit, whether you’re in Chicago — hi, Slevin! — or Basel, Switzerland, when you get the chance to catch The Atomic Bitchwax, I urge you to do it. Whenever, wherever.

Last I saw the Neptunian trio was in June (review here) as they shared a two-band bill with Virginia’s Freedom Hawk in a town called Clifton about 25 minutes from my house. They played a brewery and there were seats outside. It felt like a luxury experience because it was. Your situation might be different, but the Bitchwax will still rip, and you would benefit by being there. I’ll bet they’ll do “Coming in Hot.” Think of going as looking out for number one. Pure self-interest on your own part. Indulge, as the chocolate ads say.

They’ll be out with The Supersuckers, which is a fun pairing, and as much as I’m ready for a follow-up to 2020’s Scorpio (review here), it’s just reassuring to know the Bitchwax are getting out here and there to do a week of dates in places maybe they have or haven’t been in a while, I don’t know. Worry about the rest later. For now, here are those dates from social media. Really.

Also: KHAAAAN!

Really!
November 2024
Bitchwax & The Supersuckers!

11/05/24 Club Cafe Pittsburgh
11/06/24 Reggies Chicago Chicago
11/07/24 Turf Club St Paul
11/08/24 Cactus Club Milwaukee
11/09/24 Knuckleheads CMO
11/10/24 Saloon HQ Denver
11/11/24 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City

The Atomic Bitchwax are:
Chris Kosnik – Bass
Bob Pantella – Drums
Garrett Sweeny – Guitar

http://www.theatomicbitchwax.com/
https://www.facebook.com/The-Atomic-Bitchwax-86002001659/

http://teepeerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/teepeerecords/

The Atomic Bitchwax, Scorpio (2020)

Am I really going to sit here for this entire post and pine about how good the Ripplefest Texas lineup is and how I won’t be there to see it? Yeah, maybe. Can’t really say I wouldn’t be justified in doing so, what with Dozer and Mars Red Sky and Fatso Jetson and Gozu and Howling Giant and Domkraft and so on and such and oh here come the tears again. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry. Nah, that’s a lie. I made no such promises.

Ripplefest Texas 2024 is one of two events shaping the bulk of the heavy underground touring scenario for September and moving into the Fall. This is how it happens in Europe — check out how many Euro tours there are for October and where they’re going — and it’s encouraging to see it happening in the US as well. Particularly as both Ripplefest and Desertfest New York — that’s the other event I’m talking about, if it needs to be said — are continuing to grow, the sense of their growing together only makes each one stronger on its own.

If you’re going to this, fucking congratulations. Here’s the day splits for the final lineup. Imagine seeing all of it. You could. There’s no overlap in the schedule. Incredible:

DAILY LINEUPS ANNOUNCED! There’s nothing but amazing bands every single day of RippleFest Texas and with ZERO OVERLAPPING you can see them all!

Single day tickets now available at www.lickofmyspoon.com

LICK OF MY SPOON PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS:

DOZER
TRUCKFIGHTERS
BONGZILLA
MARS RED SKY
BELZEBONG
DOMKRAFT
LEGIONS OF DOOM
FATSO JETSON
GOZU
HOWLING GIANT
THE HEAVY EYES
HIGH DESERT QUEEN
KAL-EL
20 WATT TOMBSTONE
THE OTOLITH
TEMPLE OF THE FUZZ WITCH
LEATHER LUNG
THUNDER HORSE
HASHTRONAUT
ABRAMS
BORRACHO
SUN CROW
CRYSTAL SPIDERS
TIA CARRERA
ROBOTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
MR. PLOW
LA CHINGA
FOSTERMOTHER
BLUE HERON
BLACKWÜLF
TEMPTRESS
THE ABSURD
FORMULA 400
DEMONS MY FRIENDS
VERMILION WHISKEY
VIOLET RISING
HUDU AKIL
BUZZ ELECTRO
SHADOW OF JUPITER

GRAND FINALE w/ MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS “Desert Jam Session”

Plus the best light show in the business by @themadalchemistliquidliteshow

https://www.facebook.com/theripplemusic/
https://ripplemusic.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ripple-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LOMSProductions
https://www.instagram.com/LOMSProductions/
http://www.lickofmyspoon.com/
https://linktr.ee/Lickofmyspoon

Dozer, “Ex-Human, Now Beast” official video

Howling Giant, “Juggernaut” official video

Aussie troublemakers Mammoth Mammoth have self-released a live album, Warts n’ All, through their own Golden Triangle Records imprint. If you have a few minutes, the video they’ve made for “Love Gun” to mark the occasion is well worth your time, and its rawness speaks to the kind of impression the band have always made — namely a wild one. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing them live, at the Grammys or anywhere else, but the shenanigans speak for themselves.

The band’s most recent studio LP, Kreuzung, came out in 2019, and I think Warts n’ All — the full title is Volume VI: Warts n’ All, but you get the picture — might have been released through Golden Robot last year, but either way, the band have a version of it through their own, likewise golden label, and there are only 200 copies made of this vinyl edition, so there you go.

Have at it:

MAMMOTH MAMMOTH RELEASE NEW “WARTS N’ ALL” LIVE ALBUM ON LIMITED EDITION LP

Order: http://mammothmammoth.com

Australian hard rock juggermaught, Mammoth Mammoth have released their much anticipated live album, “Volume VI – Warts n’ All” on limited edition gold gatefold vinyl.

“We are a born and bred Australian rock n’ roll band. The only problem with that is that our fans in Europe don’t get to see us live as much as we’d like. So this album is the next best thing for those fans who need a dose of us doing what we do -warts n’ all” – Mammoth Mammoth guitarist Ben ‘Cuz’ Couzens.

The special package features artwork inspired by Deep Purple’s iconic 1972 album ‘Made In Japan’ and includes an inner sleeve loaded with fan photos and is limited to just 200 copies worldwide.

The album has been released on Golden Triangle Records, the independent label that released the band’s first three albums. And is available exclusively though the band website mammothmammoth.com and instore at Plattenkiste – Gärtnerstrasse 16, Hamburg, Germany.

www.facebook.com/mammothmammothband
https://www.instagram.com/mammothmammoth/
www.mammothmammoth.com

Mammoth Mammoth, “Love Gun” official video

Darkness and headphone-ready immersion pervade the second full-length from Göden, the offshoot project steered by former Winter guitarist Stephen Flam. And maybe that’s not a huge surprise after the band’s Svart-issued 2020 debut, Beyond Darkness (review here), set itself to the task of vivid, sometimes horrifying worldmaking, but Vale of the Fallen, in addition to continuing Flam‘s collaboration with vocalist Vas Kallas (Hanzel und Gretyl) and keyboardist Tony Pinnisi (also Winter), drummer Jason Frantz and violinist Margaret Murphy step back in to contribute to what feels like a more solidified lineup this time around. Where the debut was spliced through with dialogue-driven mythos across eight “Manifestations” and was 76 minutes long, Vale of the Fallen dwells differently in its 42-minute/10-track stretch, with “Manifestation IX” picking up the narrative where it left off and the dramaturge there combining with a deep focus on instrumental atmospherics throughout, whether that’s the violin-and-birdsong “The Divine” at the outset, the cinematic creeper drone that emerges from “Rings of Saturn” or the standalone-string resonance of Murphy‘s echo on the penultimate “The Requiem.”

The last of those follows “Manifestation IX” and brings to mind Celtic Frost in its title, and the more conceptual end of Tom G. Warrior‘s work is still relevant as an influence, but the palette has expanded on Vale of the Fallen, and the album is quick to demonstrate that in the industrial-style impact(s) of “In the Vale of the Fallen,” which finds Kallas‘ rasp topping a churn reminiscent of Author & Punisher as a preface to the closer “Majestic Symphony,” which bounces with low end beat and a more melodic/semi-spoken vocal in its ambient verse. Pinnisi‘s keyboard features as a crucial element in the mix of “In the Vale of the Fallen,” “Urania” and “Black Vortex” as well early on, conveying the bleakness of atmosphere at the same time it fleshes out the melody. A particularly crushing nod in “Death Magus” feels born out of more YOB-riffed cosmic-doom impulses; it’s not quite psychedelic, but there’s some ethereal reach happening in Flam‘s guitar, which is the root element of the material across the record’s span and of Göden more broadly, though as a group, they push against that notion in the bassy, keyboardy roll at the outset of “Black Vortex” and the double-kick lumber of low end beneath Kallas‘ throaty gnashing in “Zero” later on. With Flam also handling bass duties, “Zero” repeats its message of nothingness and lands on “zilch” twice — once headed into the bridge and again at the finish — for what feels like fair enough emphasis.

All the while, the air surrounding Vale of the Fallen is thick, severe. Even with a half-hour-plus chopped from the runtime and one dialogue-based inclusion as opposed to eight, the sophomore Göden outing retains the sense of actively challenging convention that in part defined the debut. It clearly does not believe in genre boundaries between doom, dark industrial and theatrical metal, and more than that, it is uncompromising in the interpretations of its own ideas of what the songs should be doing and how they interact. Whether it’s in one of the already-noted interludes or in the harsh cast of “Black Vortex” as the longest piece here at 7:10, Vale of the Fallen brings vivid, deep-grey-swirling mood as a matter of priority, and the combination of elements between Flam, Pinnisi and Kallas will feel definitive here for anyone who heard Beyond Darkness. That is to say, the newer LP is built on the accomplishments of its predecessor. It retains the spirit of experimentalism, be it in “Manifestation IX,” the noise of “Rings of Saturn” or the daringly uptempo push of “Majestic Symphony,” but comes across as more grounded in its foundation because, from the standpoint of its creators, it likely is. Göden took what they felt worked last time and used it as the basis for a to-this-point progression that is both palpably individual and that sounds like it still has more places to go.

To wit, the industrial metal dissonance, the continued narrative or thematic thread, and the abiding grimness to the proceedings here. There may or may not be more to the Göden story — I honestly don’t know — but the band sound more coherent, more intentional, in what they’re doing this time out, and rather than take away from the experimental feel, it adds to it and lets the material reside in a different space. The sounds remain extreme in their way. It’s not the bludgeoning of death metal or the searing char of genre-adherent black metal, but the songs are delivered with force and the unconventional ethic is in itself an extreme position, dug into the creation — the manifestation, if you prefer — of this lurching malevolence that Göden so readily foster. It’s true that in terms of the basic listening experience, Vale of the Fallen is more accessible than Beyond Darkness, but the scale at which they’re operating is subject to the same reality-warping sensibility as the songwriting itself, and as they find new avenues of expression for the stories they’re telling, their sound is likewise richer and less predictable than it would be if Vale of the Fallen operated more directly in answer to the methodology and structure of Beyond Darkness.

And honestly, that it doesn’t makes it an even more fitting follow-up than if Göden had simply done the same thing over and again, since so much of what the band bring to (dim, fog-dampened) light throughout Vale of the Fallen is the refusal to compromise in terms of the overarching vision — easy to read it as Flam‘s, but I won’t downplay anyone else’s contributions here — of what Göden are. Hearing what it brings to the later nod of “Black Vortex,” the interludes, and so on, I wouldn’t be surprised if the violin continued to be a growing presence in their sound when and if another full-length should be realized, but beyond that, should the personnel involved remain consistent, Göden are pointed in setting boundaries far in the distance, and the feeling of foreboding, the looming threat, the payoff, and the component mythology are all the more vivid for that. They carry an artistry dangerously close to unique.

Göden, Vale of the Fallen (2024)

Göden on Facebook

Göden on Instagram

Göden website

Svart Records on Facebook

Svart Records on Instagram

Svart Records on Bandcamp

Svart Records website

In my head it’s been like two weeks since adventurous Norwegian heavy proggers Kanaan announced their collaboration with the neofolk outfit Ævestaden and posted the single “Habbor og Signe.” Turns out that was the first week of July. Guess I lost some time in there. Fair enough.

“Habbor og Signe” was enough to make me hope there was an album coming. That would be a far-fetched wish to put on most outfits, but Kanaan are right in their wheelhouse venturing into the unknown, so with a second single, the instrumental weirdo psych-electronic folkie “Fiskaren,” comes word that yes indeed there is a record on the way. It’s called Langt, Langt Vekk and it’ll be out Oct. 11 on Jansen Records.

Given the divergence between the two-so-far songs made public, I’m not going to speculate on the kind of grounds being covered across Langt, Langt Vekk, but I do look forward to finding out. Real potential for something different here. I’m keeping my fingers crossed I get to hear it.

From Bandcamp:

Kanaan & Ævestaden – Langt, langt vekk

Order link: https://orcd.co/fiskaren

Two powerful young bands combine musical forces, with an altogether unique outcome. The psychedelic power trio Kanaan and the neo-folk innovators Ævestaden are both among Norway’s busiest and most critically lauded bands.

With Langt, langt vekk (eng: far, far away) the two bands have created a singular album. Traditional Norwegian folk music and rock has been combined several times before, but nothing sounds like this. Kanaan contributes its members’ jazz/psych background, rooted in improvisation and jamming. Ævestaden’s modern folktronica utilizes several ancient traditional instruments, in addition to the incorporation of traditional Swedish folk music. The result is something truly groundbreaking, in where both bands’ identities shines through.

Langt, langt vekk serves up reworked old traditionals and psalms along with grand new compositions. It is courageous and both meditative and progressive. Furthermore, the album is impressively coherent, given the two band’s wildly different musical backgrounds. Fiddles, cow’s horn, kravik lyre, mouth harp, synths, harmonies, heavy guitars and a thundering rhythm section: Musically, it is impressively versatile, as well as consistently tasteful.

Kanaan has released four albums on Jansen Records since 2021, and the tally adds up to seven studio albums and one live album in total, since the band’s 2018 debut. The band came to prominence with psychedelic, jazz-inspired rock, but has gradually moved in a heavier direction, where their latest studio efforts have been labeled stoner rock. Kanaan consists of Eskild Myrvoll, Ask Vatn Strøm and Ingvald André Vassbø and in 2021 they won the Spellemann award (Norwegian Grammy) in the rock category.

Ævestaden is a neo-traditional folk trio, which combines ancient instruments and folk songs with electronic music in a cutting-edge and idiosyncratic sound. The band consists of Norwegian Eir Vatn Strøm (the sister of Kanaan’s Ask Vatn Strøm) and Kenneth Lien, along with Swedish Levina Storåkern. They have received several awards for the albums Jag är sen igjen (a collaboration with Benedikt) and Solen var bättre där.

Langt, langt vekk will be released on Jansen Records on October 11th 2024.

Tracklisting:
1. Ganglåt bortåt
2. Habbor og Signe
3. Fiskaren
4. Langt, langt vekk
5. Farvel
6. Vallåt efter C.G. Färje
7. Hva har min Jesus gjort for meg
8. Dalebu Jonsson
9. Vardtjenn

Produced by Kanaan and Ævestaden.
All arrangements by Kanaan and Ævestaden, except the SATB arrangement on “Hva har min Jesus gjort for meg”, which is by Emil Horstad.
Recorded in December 2022 at Flerbruket, Hemnes by Hans Martin Rundberg Austestad.
Additional synths, fiddle and guitars recorded by Eskild at RCS Studios.
Mix and master by Hans Martin Rundberg Austestad.
Rose painting by Eir Vatn Strøm, photos by Gonçalo Carvalho and layout by Jakob Skøtt.
Released by Jansen Records.
This release was supported by Norsk kulturråd.

Ask Vatn Strøm – guitar, vocals
Eir Vatn Strøm – vocals, kravik lyre
Eskild Myrvoll – bass, vocals
Ingvald André Vassbø – drums, vocals
Kenneth Lien – vocals, electric guitar
Levina Storåkern – vocals, fiddle, octave fiddle

https://instagram.com/kanaanband
https://www.facebook.com/kanaanband
https://kanaanband.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/aevestaden/
https://www.instagram.com/aevestaden/
https://aevestaden.bandcamp.com/
https://www.aevestaden.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Jansenrecords
https://www.instagram.com/jansenrecords/
https://www.jansenrecords.com/

Kanaan & Ævestaden, “Habbor og Signe”

Now’s as good a time as any for Slower to make the jump to original material. The project led by — wait for it — guitarist Bob Balch, also of Fu Manchu and, under the Heavy Psych Sounds banner, Big Scenic Nowhere, Sun and Sail Club and Yawning Balch, made a striking self-titled debut (review here) earlier this year, and perhaps it turned out to be better than was anticipated, because they’re very quickly on track to become a real band, what with a tour coming and an impending second LP Rage and Ruin with the solidified lineup of Balch, vocalist/bassist Amy Tung Barrysmith (also piano) from Year of the Cobra and drummer Esben Willems (also Monolord, solo stuff, mastering your album, and so on). The Slayer-covers concept was cool — I certainly dug that record more than I expected to — and continues in the new LP with takes on “Haunting the Chapel” and “Chemical Warfare,” but opening cut “Hellfire” has me more looking forward to hearing what they’ve got in store for their own tunes and how they build off the original intention of the band.

Guess we’ll find out when the record lands Nov. 1, roughly concurrent to the start of Slower‘s first shows as part of a European tour. The PR wire brought album details mere moments ago:

Doom metal project SLOWER (w/ Monolord, Fu Manchu, Year of the Cobra) shares debut single off new album “Rage and Ruin” on Heavy Psych Sounds.

Doom metal project SLOWER (with members of Fu Manchu, Year Of The Cobra and Monolord) present their new single “Hellfire”, an original track taken from their upcoming sophomore album “Rage and Ruin” to be released this November 1st on Heavy Psych Sounds.

Initially an all-star tribute to Slayer, SLOWER released their debut album “Slower” (also featuring Laura Pleasants of Kylesa, Scott Reeder of Fireball Ministry and Peder Bergstrand of Lowrider) in the winter of 2024.

Hot on the heels of this success, the now trio of Bob Balch (Fu Manchu) on guitar, Amy Tung Barrysmith (Year of the Cobra) on bass and vocals and Esben Willems (Monolord) on drums is ready to release their awaited sophomore album “Rage and Ruin” on Heavy Psych Sounds. The album comprises two Slayer covers (“Chemical Warfare” and “Haunting The Chapel”) and four original creations, all dark, crushing and haunting doom crowned by Amy Tung-Barrysmith’s alluring vocals.

💀💀💀 Stream Slower’s brand new single “Hellfire” 💀💀💀

About the new album, Bob Balch says: “When we started this album, the original intention was to cover Slayer’s EP “Haunting The Chapel” in its entirety. We started with “Chemical Warfare” then went on to “Haunting The Chapel”, but once we got to “Captor Of Sin” we realized that tune didn’t want to be slowed down at all. So we started writing our own songs and I’m glad we did. The result is “Rage And Ruin”. Two sides with Slayer songs in the middle, bookended by Slower originals. We are super proud of this record and can’t wait for you to hear it!.”

Amy Tung Barrysmith adds: “When we started writing originals, I wanted to try to keep to the same themes that Slayer wrote about. There are a lot of songs about war in Slayer’s songs and when I heard the Hellfire riff, the first image that came to mind was just this bright red fire raining down from the heavens. With all of the upheaval in the world today, it seemed like a fitting topic. What makes this song slightly unique, though, is that I came up with the title, Hellfire, first from that initial image I had in my head. Writing the lyrics after that was easy.”

SLOWER “Rage and Ruin”
Out November 1st on Heavy Psych Sounds
International preorder: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

TRACKLIST:
1. Hellfire
2. Chemical Warfare (Slayer cover)
3. Gates Of Hell
4. Sins Of The Dead
5. Haunting The Chapel (Slayer cover)
6. Rage And Ruin

11.08.24 – Gothenburg (SE) – Musikens Hus
11.09/24 – Copenhagen (DK) – BETA
11.10.24 – Berlin (DE) – Cassiopeia
11.11.24 – Dresden (DE) – Chemiefabrik
11.12.24 – Vienna (AT) – Arena
11.13.24 – Munich (DE) – Feierwerk
11.14.24 – Essen (DE) – Turock
11.15.24 – Haarlem (NL) – Patronaat
11.16.24 – Paris (FR) – Backstage
11.17.24 – Hamburg (DE) – Headcrash

SLOWER live lineup:
Esben Willems (drums) MONOLORD
Amy Barrysmith (vocals) YEAR OF THE COBRA
Bob Balch (guitars) FU MANCHU

https://www.instagram.com/slower_666/

https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS/
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/

Slower, “Hellfire”

Stoned East Coast heavy blues and doom pervade the second full-length, Revival, from Tennesseean four-piece WyndRider, who know of what they riff. Fronted by the foreboding but soulful melodies of Chloe Gould, with Robbie Willis on guitar, Joshuwah Herald on bass and Josh Brock on drums — the latter making his first appearance with the band in an all-Josh rhythm section — the band make a turnaround from their 2023 self-titled debut (review here) that feels almost deceptively quick considering the crawling tempo of “Remember the Sabbath” at the start of side B or the finale “The Wheel” just one song later, but there is growth and self-awareness underlying their sound as they present it on this seven-song/43-minute collection, which was recorded, mixed and mastered by Danielle Fehr of The Wizard Productions, even as it continues the first album’s thread of stoner-doom-speaking-to-stoner-doom and revels in various genre tropes around horror cinema, “Motorcycle Witches,” and religious dogma, and so on.

With four tracks on its first half and three on its second, one might be tempted to think of Revival as a mullet structure — business up front and party in the back — but really it’s just all the party, and the party is doom. The blend of jangly strum and wholly-fuzzed riffing with Gould‘s voice showcased overtop in opener “Forked Tongue Revival” sets a Southern Baptist-style procession forward, but even among “Judas” and “Devil’s Den,” the lead cut is actually something of an outlier in terms of structure, and so smartly placed such that its psych-leaning midpoint solo and lurching gospelism, instead of being mismatched to the subsequent “Motorcycle Witches,” marks out a broader stylistic swath for everything that follows while remaining consistent in tone and the band’s general dynamic.

There and throughout Revival, the sense of a band knowing what works in their sound is palpable, whether it’s the ritualized atmospherics giving over to the riff laid out at the beginning of “Motorcycle Witches” or the steady nod that follows in that first-of-three trilogy of five-minute cuts; “Motorcycle Witches,” “Judas” and “Devil’s Den” each bring something of their own to the record’s front-to-back, but feel grouped together following the six-minute “Forked Tongue Revival” on side A, even if the time differentials aren’t drastic between longer (seven-plus minutes) and shorter (five-plus minutes) songs and the nod is a constant presence regardless.

That grouping, the way Revival is actually set up as “Judas” picks up from “Motorcycle Witches” with a Maryland doom traditionalism in its verse — putting riffs and disaffected vibes where less capable hands might otherwise place bullshit — and leaning into a rawer sound for Willis‘ soloing ahead of the cowbell’s somehow-inevitable arrival, is further evidence of the focus on delivery and the album’s structure. “Judas” meanders a bit into dark-trippiness without losing its way in its second half, coming mostly to a stop before the resurgent solo-topped roll brings them to the last verse and comedown, but it and the centerpiece “Devil’s Den” make fitting companions. The latter brings new testimonial from Gould with elephantine backing from the riff, a sleek groove that’s consistent in its lead flourish and bluesy but perfectly-paced verse stops, hinting toward Clutch-y funk, but ultimately working toward more sinister aesthetic ends. Brock‘s drums join the bass and guitar in a punctuated chug offsetting the central riff later, but it’s Willis who caps side A with a pull of lead guitar that, in a linear format — i.e. CD or digital — moves with grace into Herald‘s bass at the outset of “Remember the Sabbath.”

And they’re not kidding when they say ‘Sabbath’ either. As in, “Black Sabbath” by Black Sabbath on the album Black Sabbath. Hard to get more ‘Sabbath’ than that without actual religious observation. Much to WyndRider‘s credit, they neither play coy with the influence nor neglect to bring something of their own to it, the spaces left open in the verse and tumble-down-the-stairs transitions giving them a chance to push into moodier cavernousness before Willis highlights the point with a late classic-style solo following the crescendo of riff, the bass that gently caps shifting to kick drum as “Under the Influence” takes hold — it’s almost enough to make you wonder if they’re doing “War Pigs” next, and that also feels intentional — soon rejoined by decidedly nastier low end fuzz. That thudding intro opens to what feels like a triumphant breakout but is still decisively doomed, some twist alongside the abiding nod of the verse, almost an Uncle Acid-y strut but grounded in doom rather than the swing itself, and heavy, heavy, heavy in plod even as “Under the Influence” comes across as placed in part to give “Remember the Sabbath” and aforementioned closer “The Wheel” breathing room on either side of it.

This isn’t a detriment to the song or the LP more broadly — if anything, it underscores the focus on fluidity throughout, which is successful and a strength that bolsters the impression of Revival as a whole work — as “The Wheel” lumbers forth through early verses en route to a Iommi-style bi-channel guitar solo that drops in the midsection to spoken word (and maybe organ or manipulated feedback; maybe both?) as part of the build into the next stage of the finale, suitably doomed. The willful slog gives over to more intense drumming at around five minutes in, and the swing of “Under the Influence” is echoed in the last movement of “The Wheel” as the pace gets a kick for the last two minutes or so before the cold stop ends it with no less clarity of purpose than anything that’s come before.

Indeed, that clarity is the most resounding point WyndRider make on their second full-length, the album firmly declaring that, after a debut well received in the US underground — the “scene,” as it exists in social media word of mouth, etc. — the band have taken the lessons of their first album and used them as a means of progressing their craft. Revival is quick in affirming the potential of its predecessor, but more encouraging for the development it portrays in WyndRider stylistically while landing in close enough succession to keep momentum on the band’s side. They now have two strong LP offerings under their collective belt. If the pattern holds, their next one may tell the ultimate tale of their fruition.

WyndRider, Revival (2024)

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