Maryland genre destroyers High Noon Kahuna will loose their second album, This Place is Haunted, on the unknowing ether May 17 with the 25-years-strong backing of Crucial Blast behind them. And as their debut, 2022’s Killing Spree (review here), willfully united the disparate worlds of black metal and surf rock, it seems only fitting that the 12-song/54-minute follow-up should go someplace else. Based in Maryland’s doom capitol, Frederick (home to Maryland Doom Fest, where the trio will celebrate this release on June 23) the pedigreed three-piece of vocalist/bass-VI-ist Paul Cogle, guitarist Tim Otis (also backing and other vocals throughout) and drummer Brian Goad present a sound that feels simultaneously broader and more solidified than on the first record, touching on a darker, heavier post-punk at the outset with “Atomic Sunset” that meets its semi-goth vibe and Otis‘ first lead vocal head-on with a wash of noise at the end, before “Lamborghini” — the first of three sub-three-minute instrumentals spread throughout the tracklisting, each with its own character, with the bassy stonerjazz meander of “The Devil’s Lettuce” and the thicker noise-rock riffing of “Midnight Moon” offsetting/bolstering some of the stylistic turns surrounding and giving preface to side B’s outward push in the drifting “Flaming Dagger” and the echoes emerging from the crashing void of seven-minute finale “Et Ita Factum Est” — redirects toward a more straight-ahead, riffer charge.

Returning producer Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations Studio in Baltimore does well in not so much corralling High Noon Kahuna‘s various whims and impulses, but in highlighting the multifaceted dynamic and tonality that draws their material together. That is to say, while This Place is Haunted doesn’t linger in any particular aural locale for too long and with 12 cuts included there’s no shortage of jumping around from place to place — to wit, “Prehistoric Love Letter” picking up after “Lamborghini” with Torche-style uptempo heavy rock reimagined as Chesapeake emo/post-hardcore with shared vocals from Otis and Cogle and the subsequent “Good Night God Bless” (premiering below) burning the ground with feedback before slamming into its densely-weighted roll with shouts cutting through, angular twists of effects and whatever else that is, and a bombast that gives over to residual noise, drone and buried voice(s) to lead into the aforementioned addled sway of “The Devil’s Lettuce”; or, you know, the rest of the thing — when taken as a whole, in a single dose, the album’s cohesion comes in part from its willingness to be itself apart from outside expectation, the imaginary limits of style, and, in the true spirit of Maryland’s doom underground, the direction of trend.

“Brand New Day” finds a Josh Homme-style vocal topping more gothic-ish proceedings, this time led by Cogle‘s bass, and leads one to wonder if it and “Atomic Sunset” aren’t intended to be complements; i.e., the morning of the next day. Certainly “Good Night God Bless,” “Midnight Moon,” and “Tumbleweed Nightmare” could be read into this theme as well, and given the nature of the project, that they aren’t necessarily in linear go-to-bed-dream-and-wake-up order hardly matters. That doesn’t account for cuts like “Sidewalk Assassin” though, with its alarm of feedback screech and tense intro drumming unfolding into a barrage of low noise riffing and shouting that turns to more spacious and less voluminous fare before it’s done without letting go of that tension, or the amalgam of chug-punk and atmospherics that arrive with “Mystical Shit,” which follows.

The lesson there, perhaps, is that it’s a mistake in the first place to try and find rules where for the most part there aren’t any, and that High Noon Kahuna‘s sundry divergences throughout This Place is Haunted are most of all linked by the fact that it’s all part of the band’s overarching scope. And as in the best of scenarios, it works because they make it work in pieces that aren’t trying to be defined as weird or outside this or that common ‘heavy’ expectation so much as they are a realization of the personalities behind the songwriting. A good bit of instrumental chemistry and breadth of production don’t hurt either, and This Place is Haunted benefits from those as well.

Airy in the high end, storytelling in its lyric and dense in its bassy fluidity, “Tumbleweed Nightmare” comes apart at the crunching staticky finish to give a fresh start to “Flaming Dagger,” which feels at least part-improvised around its core bassline — Otis is on a journey here — before the wash of guitar gradually consumes the bass and drums in the mix, leading to another noisy end that lets “Et Ita Factum Est” stand on its own. Fair enough. The closer’s title translates from Latin as “And So it Was Done,” and it is correspondingly declarative in the execution, from the pattern-setting onset to the howls of guitars that bookend the cacophony and lost-in-space echoing voice calling out (in Latin, though it’s hard to tell) near the end of its middle third.

The drums are first to depart as Cogle holds to the progression he set at the beginning and Otis channels animalian feedback, but soon the bass is gone as well and High Noon Kahuna cap with a suitable wall of amplified residual drone. It’s not as harsh as it could be, in terms of the noise offered elsewhere on This Place is Haunted, but I wouldn’t call it a gentle goodbye either. Like the rest of what surrounds, it is a moment defined mostly by being the band’s own. This is doubly impressive when one considers that two years ago their debut set a largely different context for its own definition.

As to what that means for High Noon Kahuna going forward — the question being if they’ve found ‘their sound’ in the reaches here or if whatever they do next will embark on another stylistic course — it would be useless, stupid, and not the least in the spirit of This Place is Haunted to speculate. Given what they do here and what Killing Spree wrought, they’re somewhat less madcap than they were two years ago, but that has clearly allowed them to find poise in the control over what for many bands would be a chaos either too encompassing to wield or result in something outright unlistenable.

This Place is Haunted doesn’t bow to notions of accessibility, but it does leave room for the listener to find a place for themselves in the world the trio are making. Sometimes it even feels safe there after a while, in that maybe-ghost-ridden fray, which makes the procession across these songs all the more special to behold for those who can meet the band on their own, deeply individualized level.

“Good Night God Bless” premieres below, followed by more background, the invite to a Bandcamp listening party next week, live dates and such from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

High Noon Kahuna, “Good Night God Bless” track premiere

High Noon Kahuna is a power trio of veteran heavy musicians from Frederick, Maryland, with Tim Otis on guitar (Admiral Browning), Brian Goad on Drums (Internal Void / The Larrys / Nagato), and Paul Cogle on Bass VI and Vocals (Black Blizzard / Vox Populi / Nagato / Slagstorm). These three gents have known each other for years and have always supported each other in their respective bands.

High Noon Kahuna is back in 2024 to present their second album, This Place is Haunted. This collection of songs captures the raw vibe of their last album, Killing Spree, while expanding on the band’s diverse corners of influence. Spanning the genre sphere across Surf, Western, Deathrock, Noiserock, Punk, and Psych, these songs show HNK at their most aggressive… as well as most ethereal, spacey, and gothic.

All the songs on the album came from unrestricted jamming over the last 20 months. In fact, the very first notes and beats the three members ever played together was an instantly exciting song that is captured on this album (Brand New Day). In that time, the band has toured and played many shows, continuing to hone their unhinged live performances. This Place is Haunted is an evolution of the unique HNK sound and sees them at new creative heights.

Before entering the studio, roughly 80% of the songs were solidified, and most were played out live; the other 20% were based on free-form jams in the HNK archive and re-created on-the-fly, pseudo improv style. The band partnered with Kevin Bernsten and Developing Nations for recording, as they did with Killing Spree. His studio provided a vibe that sparked their creativity and gave them freedom to work at another level. Working with Kevin on this album was a creatively liberating experience; his knowledge, gear, recording space, and ear allowed the band to get wild.

Final mastering for This Place Is Haunted was completed by the ever-inventive James Plotkin at Plotkin Works. The album’s stirring cover art was created by HNK’s own drummer, Brian Goad.

The album is set for release on May 17th, 2024, on CD, cassette, and digital (vinyl TBA).

This Place Is Haunted – Tracklist:
01. Atomic Sunset
02. Lamborghini
03. Prehistoric Love Letter
04. Good Night God Bless
05. The Devil’s Lettuce
06. Brand New Day
07. Midnight Moon
08. Sidewalk Assassin
09. Mystical Shit
10. Tumbleweed Nightmare
11. Flaming Dagger
12. Et Ita Factum Est

Crucial Blast just announced a listening party for This Place Is Haunted:

The event is scheduled for:
Wednesday, May 15, 2024 at 7:00 PM EDT

RSVP: https://crucialblast.bandcamp.com/merch/high-noon-kahuna-this-place-is-haunted-listening-party

Come and join Crucial Blast and the members of MD/WV noise rock / occult desert rock / phantasmagorical psychedelic punk power-trio HIGH NOON KAHUNA as we hang out next Wednesday (7pm EST) and listen to the upcoming full-length album “This Place Is Haunted”. We will all be in the chat, and would love to hear from you and blab with ya! We will also be doing an online raffle + trivia question for free HIGH NOON KAHUNA shirts and copies of the new album, only for participants in the listening party chat. Come and get it!

Upcoming Live Dates:
May 23 – Asheville, NC @ The Odd
May 24 – Richmond, VA @ Another Round
May 25 – Staunton, VA @ The Brick
May 26 – Lexington, KY @ Green Lantern
May 28 – Washington, DC @ The Pie Shop
Jun. 23 – Frederick, MD @ MARYLAND DOOM FEST (Local Release Party)

High Noon Kahuna:
Tim Otis: Guitar / Vocals
Brian Goad: Drums
Paul Cogle: Bass / Vocals

High Noon Kahuna, This Place is Haunted (2024)

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Los Tayos are a recent formation in the expansion-prone ouevre of Páty, Hungary’s Psychedelic Source Records. And true to that label/collective’s vadmadar ethos, their debut release is actually two releases, the six-song/45-minute Los Tayos and Los Tayos II, the four songs of which play out across another 48-ish minutes. They were recorded in the same session, in the same day, by the four-piece assemblage of vocalist/keyboardist Krisztina Benus (also Nepaal, River Flows Reverse, Lemurian Folk Songs), guitarist/keyboardist Bence Ambrus (also production/mix/master, outreach for Psychedelic Source and numerous other projects and solo experiments), bassist Attila Nemesházi (who also aided in the production process, has been in Lemurian Folk Songs, etc.), and drummer/percussionist András Halmos, who has never appeared on a Psychedelic Source release to my knowledge, but has a long pedigree in jazz, folk and other styles, all of which come into play across Los Tayos and the even-jammier stretches of “Golden Grail” and the pairing “Inhale” and “Exhale” Los Tayos II.

If you read the info in blue text from Psychedelic Source about the project — with Los Tayos framed as a collective within a collective — you’ll see that over 100 minutes of material was recorded during that one-day delve, and that two full-length releases (to be issued across 3LPs) with somewhere in the neighborhood of 94 minutes’ worth of songs came out of it makes it feel like a pretty productive afternoon. But it becomes clear in listening that more effort has been put in than that.

With an acid folk spirit conveyed through Benus‘ vocals and the softer twists of guitar in “End of Illumination” or “Exhale” — on which Halmos offers a correspondingly gentle shuffle on the ride cymbal — Los Tayos weave their way through subtle thematic variations from the bluesier outset of “Bright Sorrow” and the wah-and-reverb excursion that follows accompanied by Spanish lyrics in “Sombre del Diablo” before the instrumental “Valle Gran Rey” redirects from the second track’s wash ending into a more classically progressive vibe. The underlying message is less about the stylistic variations — not that the nuances don’t matter; they just matter less than the flow that spans the entire offering — than about the fact of the songs themselves.

By which I mean they are songs. Even as “Valle Gran Rey” moves toward its percussion-laced midsection jam with a bit of a pickup in energy, the sense of a plan at work is palpable. In that particular case, the piece is given its shape in no small part thanks to Nemesházi‘s bass and Halmos‘ drums, but Ambrus‘ guitar follows a distinct pattern at least until it doesn’t (ha) and the movement into a more improv-sounding lead shimmer in the second half still holds its rhythmic foundation, while also leaning a bit on the right-into-the-verse beginning of “End of Illumination” for structural reinforcement.

That transition from “Valle Gran Rey” is gorgeous and strikes as purposeful in that, and as “End of Illumination” is the shortest single piece in Los Tayos and Los Tayos II, layered in its vocals and harnessing additional breadth with an almost Tuareg flair in the guitar, it brings into focus the manner in which the material on Los Tayos‘ first LPs seems to have been sculpted from what was captured at that original session. The inevitable editing, the laying out of vocal melodies and patterns, and the diverse but fluid shifts undertaken between and within the component tracks — which surely meld together even more on vinyl, despite the platter-flip interruptions — all of these aspects become an essential part of the listening experience, as well as part of the creativity behind it in the first place.

The self-titled portion caps by pairing the post-rock-ish liquefaction of “Closed Eyes” with the eponymous “Los Tayos,” the latter of which answers back to the grounded feel of “Bright Sorrow” in the guitar-forward balance of its mix but has its own physical motion as well, pulling together smooth turns and highlighting the conversation happening between strings and drums. These two at the end, as well as the percussive, eight-minute “Alma Ruida” that gives open-air-whispers ethereality to the start of Los Tayos II, make it worth noting just how amorphous the shapes given to the songs can be.

It might not be a surprise that an extended cut like “Golden Grail” works in some rather vast spaces of drone, float and subsurface groove, but the humanizing and persona-setting contribution of Benus‘ folkish declarations shouldn’t be underestimated, either on “Golden Grail,” “Bright Sorrow” or anywhere else in Los Tayos and Los Tayos II. A soothing organ drone emerges to give the course of “Inhale” not so much to anchor the drifting-away guitar lines as to give a tether to let them return as they will or won’t, and “Exhale” sees mouth harp added to the progression in its first half before the delay effects really take over in the midsection and carry the finale to its ending, an organic coming-apart over the last minute-plus that brings the shimmer up and then fades it out, as if to emphasize the message of Los Tayos‘ instrumental capstone salvo.

Expansive as it is, there’s no guarantee Los Tayos — as a project — will ever happen again, or if does, what form it might take. There are defined bands as part of Psychedelic Source Records, to be sure, but the fact is that any given Saturday might result in a new release as a result of some reorganization of players or maybe just whoever checked their texts that morning. I don’t know, is the bottom line. But, true to an ethic one finds in some of the most engaging heavy psychedelia, period, Los Tayos‘ duly-outside-the-box double-feature debut retains the soul and vitality of its root explorations while offering a deeper experience through applied craft.

Considering how much each player brings to Los Tayos and Los Tayos II, one hopes Benus, Ambrus, Nemesházi and Halmos can do more at some point in the vast unknowable future, but even if not, these songs and the open atmosphere they present stand ready to welcome any and all adventurous enough to take them on.

If that’s you, please enjoy:

Los Tayos, Los Tayos album premiere

Los Tayos, Los Tayos II album premiere

https://psychedelicsourcerecords.bandcamp.com/album/los-tayos
https://psychedelicsourcerecords.bandcamp.com/album/los-tayos-ii

The first idea of this collective came up about a year ago in the heads of András and Bence. Finally when we got together, we recorded more than a hundred minute-long session during one day. Later, we did a few vocal and percussion overdubs to complete, then selected the best picks for the 3LP-long set.

One part of this supergroup came from the middle-early Lemurian Folk Songs, as Attila, Krisztina and Bence did that before. András, who is one of the Hungary’s best professionally recognized multi-drummers, brought a totally different feel in the music.

Miklós Kerner (Misu Magos, trumpeter of Microdosemike) – cover art.
Ákos Karancz – band photo.
Recorded, mixed, mastered by Attila & Bence.

‘Los Tayos’ tracklisting:
1. Bright Sorrow (9:02)
2. Sombre del Diablo (6:11)
3. Valle Gran Rey (8:11)
4. End of Illumination (4:52)
5. Closed Eyes (10:22)
6. Los Tayos (7:09)

‘Los Tayos II’ tracklisting:
1. Alma Ruida (8:00)
2. Golden Grail (16:12)
3. Inhale (10:59)
4. Exhale (13:23)

Los Tayos:
András Halmos – drums, percussion
Attila Nemesházi – bass
Krisztina Benus – vocal, keys
Bence Ambrus – guitar, producing, lyrics

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[Click play above to stream Maragda’s second album, Tyrants in full. It’s out tomorrow through Spinda Records. Preorders available here.]

In the parlance of our times, Tyrants might be Maragda entering the chat. And in this case, the “chat” in question is the broader European heavy psychedelic underground with which the eight tracks and 43 minutes  so vividly engage, from the bass-underscored shuffle and chorus burst of the opening title-track (premiered here) through the expansive spacier jamming of “Godspeed,” and well beyond. For the Barcelona-based three-piece of bassist/vocalist/synthesist Marçal Itarte, guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Guillem Tora and drummer/vocalist Xavi Pasqual (who would probably play synth too if his hands weren’t already busy), Tyrants is the follow-up to 2021’s impressive full-length debut (review here), and it takes on modern cosmic prog, psych and space rocks from a variety of angles in the songwriting, with varied arrangements, howling solos, and memorable hooks in cuts like “Tyrants,” “Endless,” and “The Singing Mountain,” among others spread throughout that aren’t necessarily just catchy choruses. A keyboard line, a standout lyric (as with the debut, the lyrics are in English), the freneticism in the build of “Sunset Room,” on and on. It’s all fair game in imprinting itself on the mind of the listener, and moreover, it feels intentional in that.

A roiling dynamic is able to account for the wah-drenched rush in the second half of “Skirmish,” the righteous fuzz of “My Only Link,” the mellotron that sneaks into “Endless,” all the ensuing melodic and rhythmic turns and an overarching progression which, for the many pivots between and sometimes within the songs themselves, flows with a sense of purpose. Stylistically, Tyrants touches on classics from The Beatles to Hawkwind (thinking the jangly strums and vocal pattern of “My Only Link” for the latter, the later guitar solo in the same song for the former) while remaining aware of modern forerunners like Elder, King Gizzard or Slift, and has enough range so that when the twisting leads of closer “Loose” bring a particularly flamenco-rooted feel, rather than come across as out of place, it enriches the fleetfooted rhythm of “The Singing Mountain” and “Godspeed” just prior, adding to the context of the front-to-back listening experience. Especially when one factors in the production helmed by the much-respected Richard Behrens at Big Snuff Studio (Elder, front-of-house for Kadavar, much etc.) in Berlin, Germany, to which the band traveled from Spain to record, and the subsequent master by Peter Deimel at Black Box Studios — who also finalized the self-titled — Maragda seem to be upfront in their outreach to the Eurozone underground scene. They sound like they want to play all the festivals, in all the countries. Yes, that includes yours.

Yet, they’re not cloying in that. The howling scorch that begins “Skirmish” and the vocal layering of the verse that follow are an earnest clarion. Following the digging-in as represented by the verses and the way the chorus takes flight from there, those early moments of “Skirmish” make a bold callout to the converted — perhaps most of all to the heads who think they’ve heard it all before — but Tyrants goes deeper than superficially highlighting aspects of current-day psych-prog in this material, and it does not sacrifice the folkier aspects that have long typified Spanish psychedelia in order to fit with some idea of whatever a phrase like “current-day psych-prog” might evoke for a different listener.

They are themselves in it, however far outside Iberia their influences might reach stylistically or geographically, and even as Tyrants sends out dogwhistles in working with Behrens, putting the words in English, the lush vocal melodicism before “The Sleeping Mountain” gives over to its no-less-lush instrumental ending, and so on, the needs of the song are never measured as less than the message being sent by the album as a whole. As a collection, Tyrants ends up nowhere that Maragda don’t want it to go, and whether you have a background in Spain’s history in folk, psych or rock more generally — to be clear, I don’t — the songs are likewise accessible and encompassing.

If that makes Tyrants sound like it’s somehow educational, that’s part of it, at least on the hearing end. Even in the reverbed boogie of “Tyrants,” Maragda‘s efforts could be read as having an ambassadorial side, and I don’t think that’s a detriment. But, say you’re the type of listener who might just want to put a record on and enjoy it without delving into the social and aesthetic backdrop against which it arrives (madness, I say, but not unheard of), the energetic spirit captured in the recording, the chemistry shared between Pasqual, Tora and Itarte on the live-feeling performances branched in three dimensions to make the final versions of the songs, and the varying shapes that vitality takes are an accomplishment of craft ready to stand on their own. In the physical motion of the leadoff, the heft unveiled in “Skirmish” and the intricacies of tone and groove beneath the chorus in “Endless,” Maragda launch side A with an enticing salvo that holds the momentum amassed through shifts between longer and shorter runtimes and trades in volume, pace and tone, and a resounding sense of joy in both the build of tension and the freedom inherent in its release. And as much as Tyrants can be defined by its ambitious scope, that applies as much to the interplay of drift and push in “Sunset Room” as it does to the bridges it constructs between often-disparate interpretations of style, and the heart put into its execution cannot and should not be ignored.

Rather, the passion that comes through is pivotal to every level on which Tyrants meets what feel like its goals — and to that, it’s not as though Maragda have said they’re trying to give the countries east of their home peninsula a piece of what they’ve been missing; that’s what I hear happening in the songs separate from the lyrical storyline and at an ocean’s distance and I’m not putting words in anyone’s mouth — and while not without its indulgent side as “Loose” reaches toward seven minutes in capping with revitalized mellow-heavy fluidity, Tyrants is nonetheless clearheaded and lets its movement or procession handle its own declarations.

In this, it remains about presence over pretense. Adding to rather than taking from. It is optimistic and forward-looking. What Maragda do on Tyrants expands the palette for themselves first and genre second, and whatever the future will bring for them, whatever they might do next, wherever they might tour, whatever whatever whatever comes of the potential this sophomore LP carries, it is a significant achievement by itself that distinguishes the band from the pigeonholes in which they might otherwise be placed. If they’re entering the chat, they’ve brought plenty to say.

Maragda, “Tyrants” Live at Siete Barbas Studios video

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Floridian sludge metal mainstays Hollow Leg are set to self-release their new EP, Dust, this Friday, May 3, and with just 21 minutes at their disposal, there’s a palpable no-time-to-waste vibe as the four-piece dig into “Poison Bite” (video premiere here) in a tight encapsulation of the willful stylistic growth the band have undertaken since 2019’s Civilizations (review here), their most recent LP. Like a lot of what Hollow Leg have done since the tail end of the MySpace era, “Poison Bite” is a ripper.

It’s got a massive, rolling grove led by Brent Lynch‘s guitar, with due weight pushed through Tom Crowther‘s bass and the nod punctuated by John Stewart‘s drumming, and with vocalist Scott Angelacos finding a Matt Pike-y delivery somewhere between a shout and cleaner singing, with effects-laced backing in the chorus presumably from Lynch, as well as the condensed runtime, it also defies expectation in how it digs in. For a sound that remains plenty filthy, one hesitates to use words like “refined,” but on their own terms, Hollow Leg very much are that on Dust.

“Poison Bite” begins a salvo of three sub-four-minute cuts, with “Sick Days” adding a thrashier shove to its abiding nastiness, bringing the not-screamed backing vocals in the chorus closer to the front of the mix alongside Angelacos‘ harsh-throated gnashing, and EP centerpiece “Funeral Storms” hints toward patience as it moves toward its later solo and in its relatively restrained earlier verses. These aren’t the first short songs Hollow Leg have offered, by any means, but they’re presented with a maturity and confidence coinciding with an evolutionary drive that can’t be faked.

That is, they’ve always grown from one release to the next, and they still are, but that growth feels more directed toward specific ideas on Dust than it has in the past, and that’s part of how they’re developing at this point. While “Another Day Dying” feels sharp in its early riffing, the back end with sitar-sounding effects and a muddied-up kind of psychedelic flourish is a purposeful contrast and expansion of scope, and yeah, the brooding, mostly-clean-sung Southern heavy swamp atmosphere of closer “Holy Water” hits into heavier riffing at around two and a half minutes in, but it still carries the initial mood forward, pairing its partial departure with a consistency unto itself that underscores the crafted feel of the EP as a whole.

The notion of Dust as another step in Hollow Leg‘s ongoing progression undercuts some of how than manifests throughout the five songs included, but while they remain in no small part defined by the crash-and-bash aspects of their approach, it’s worth considering just how much they’ve found their place in sludge over their years, and how their balance between extremity and accessibility plays out in this material. Its malleable nature alone, the band’s emergent considerations of ambience alongside their entrenched rawness, would be enough even if the songs themselves didn’t remain so intentionally kickass as they do.

But among the messages Dust most clearly sends is that Hollow Leg aren’t done exploring this path they’re on, and one hopes that, whatever form their next round of discoveries might take upon release, they find ways to continue forward in melding influences from within and beyond their genre. Keep getting weirder, dudes. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Enjoy the full EP stream below, followed by some perspective from the band courtesy of the PR wire and that “Poison Bite” video, links and the rest:

In the band’s own words: “We’re always writing and playing and working on new music is just what we do, always trying to build on our sound and make the next piece a more clearly defined vision than the last. We have such a wide range of musical and artistic influences that it’s challenging to wrangle them, but we try our best to work within the ‘Hollow Leg’ mainframe and pump out something different than what we’ve done before, but also something that’s still obviously Hollow Leg. Hollow Leg is about freedom though. That’s been the mantra since the first record and we’ve always stuck to that! It’s about pushing ourselves and finding ways to simultaneously party with Metallica, Steely Dan, EyeHateGod, Wu Tang Clan, Stevie Wonder, and Pink Floyd and it somehow makes sense to us!”

Tracklisting:
1. Poison Bite (3:34)
2. Sick Days (3:59)
3. Funeral Storms (3:47)
4. Another Day Dying (4:51)
5. Holy Water (5:46)

Hollow Leg is:
Scott Angelacos – vocals
Brent Lynch – guitar/backing vocals
Tom Crowther – bass
John Stewart – drums

Hollow Leg, “Poison Bite” official video

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The anticipated sophomore full-length from big-swing Austin, Texas, heavy rockers High Desert Queen, Palm Reader, is set to release May 31 through Magnetic Eye Records. And as the follow-up to 2021’s well-received Secrets of the Black Moon (review here) and the four-piece’s 2023 split with Albuquerque’s Blue Heron, Turned to Stone Ch. 8: The Wake (review here) — both on Ripple Music — it answers the high expectations placed on it with organic craft and a focus on largesse that would seem to put the ‘Texas’ in the self-applied tag ‘Texas desert rock.’

That is to say, with Palm Reader, High Desert Queen are all in. There’s no sneering irony or pretense in the seven included cuts, and as heavy as they are, the vibe is positive even in the mellow first half of the penultimate “Tuesday Night Blues,” which is about as close to a comedown as the band — vocalist Ryan Garney (also of Lick of My Spoon Productions and the ‘head honcho’ of Ripplefest Texas), guitarist Rusty Miller, bassist Morgan Miller, drummer Phil Hook — get, and the collective pursuit of bigger riffs and nods comes through fluidly with an engrossing and reportedly live-performance-centered production by Casey Johns at Yellow Dog Studios in Wimberley, TX, and the subsequent mix/master at Tri-Lamb in Sweden by Karl Daniel Lidén (Greenleaf, Dozer, Katatonia, on and on) highlighting space and impact alike.

With “Ancient Aliens” and “Death Perception” — the latter featuring a duet with guest vocalist Emma Näslund of Gaupa, whom the band met in Stockholm at Truckfighters Fuzz Fest in late-2022 (review here) — at the outset, Palm Reader welcomes the listener into the set, digs in for the first of two nine-minute jammers without losing sight of the hook in “Head Honcho,” and never diverts from its central goals of conveying the band’s onstage energy and penchant for turning choice riffs into good times. If you come out the other side of the massive, increasingly-shoving chug that closes the album in “Solar Rain” — the other nine-minute jam — and say to yourself that High Desert Queen are a band you need to see live, then Palm Reader will likely have fulfilled the band’s mission for it.

It’s not that they’re reinventing their genre or enacting some kind of stylistic insurgency, but High Desert Queen came out of the gate knowing what they were about, and Palm Reader refines their songwriting while staying true to the core purpose. They’re not fixing what wasn’t broken, and the album isn’t just a succession of comfortably-paced lumbering nods and catchy rhymes — as the centerpiece title-track demonstrates with its funkier strut to finish side A with a kick of momentum picking up from the scorching last chorus of “Head Honcho” — but while their material is more about audience-communion than trying to convince anyone within earshot how clever or progressive or even original they are, the sincerity of their delivery and the natural flow that emerges within and between the songs make long-established methods feel fresh, vibrant.

Secrets of the Black Moon did this as well, and the difference might just be the result of High Desert Queen having spent so much of the time between their two-to-date LPs on various stages in various countries, but whether it’s the still-grounded, semi-psych delve in the build toward that climax in “Head Honcho” or the drums setting the start-stop-and-twist pattern for the thickened boogie of “Time Waster” at the start of side B, the songs come across as thoughtful without being overwrought and arranged in such a way as to carry the listener from one end to the other with an overarching movement that doesn’t undercut the impact of the individual pieces comprising it. There’s a sweet-spot for this in heavy rock and roll. High Desert Queen follow the riff to get to it and reside there for the duration.

And nothing they do throughout, from their most mountainous stretches to the screams capping “Solar Rain,” from the declarative nod and post-C.O.C. burl of “Ancient Aliens” to the way “Palm Reader” provides enough of a shift in method that they don’t need an interlude to break up the proceedings, takes away from the heart behind it. I wasn’t kidding above when I said “all in.” Whatever else it might accomplish in songwriting, performance or reach, Palm Reader sounds like nothing so much as a band giving everything they have to each moment of its making. That’s evident in Garney‘s echoing bellows and Miller‘s deceptively-classy soloing on “Time Waster” as well as the point where “Tuesday Night Blues” kicks in from its quieter, spoken-word-topped intro to set its course of fluid loud/quiet trades in motion, and comes to feel like no less of a priority than the heaviest of riffs at the album’s foundation. While certainly self-aware in the sense of knowing what it’s doing, where it’s going and how it’s getting there, Palm Reader is most of all driven by passion.

Of course, chemistry also helps, and even putting aside the fact that Rusty and Morgan Miller are related by blood, High Desert Queen have plenty of it on offer as they align around this or that movement, shifting smoothly whether it’s from the verse to the chorus of “Ancient Aliens” or bringing the midsection cacophony of “Solar Rain” to a stop to let the guitar lay down the riff anchoring the mounting intensity of the record’s finish. Front to back, High Desert Queen neither overshoot nor undersell their marks, and Palm Reader is the kind of outing you could play for someone with no prior familiarity or association with underground heavy music as ready argument in favor of conversion. It’s kind of a party, and without seeming like dumbed-down-for-accessibility caricature, it works on its own level to assure that all who might hear it invited. Give it the proper volume and you might just end up making friends.

The e’er-crucial preorder link, live dates and more info follow the premiere of the lyric video for “Death Perception” in the embed below, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

High Desert Queen, “Death Perception” (feat. Emma Näslund) lyric video premiere

Pre-orders: http://lnk.spkr.media/high-desert-queen-palmreader

HIGH DESERT QUEEN’s sophomore full-length “Palm Reader” is bursting with raw energy and radiates the feeling of 666 diesel horses thundering loud. The album is crammed with cool vibes, ripping leads, and a ton of desert fuzz with a focus on great songs rather than trying to stay confined within a corral of a particular style.

HIGH DESERT QUEEN had what it takes to kick the scene into gear again. Their vast musical influences ranging from grunge to funk, old school metal to doom and much more provide an ideal foundation for new ideas and a rejuvenating approach to the genre. Their thunderous, fuzz-drenched anthems are delivered with a healthy dose of groove and catchy melodies, and get a massive boost from an emotional intelligence in their music that’s hard to find. The newly-minted sound is linked to the rich heritage of their environs, inspiring the style tag ‘Texas desert rock’.

Answering the exponentially multiplying requests for new material from their steadily growing following, HIGH DESERT QUEEN flanked their live activities with the “Turned to Stone Ch. 8” split release with BLUE HERON, and contributed a track to “Best of Soundgarden Redux”, the latest instalment of the bestselling Magnetic Eye Records Redux series.

With “Palm Reader”, HIGH DESERT QUEEN have made a quantum leap in their evolution as the Texans found the perfect balance between the well-loved legacy of the desert rock genre and carving out their very own path. Fueled by the power and spirit of live music, this album rocks as hard and honest as can be done.

HIGH DESERT QUEEN live:
24 MAY 2024 Lafayette, LA (US) Freetown Boom Boom Room
25 MAY 2024 Houston, TX (US) White Oak Music Hall
26 MAY 2024 Arlington, TX (US) Division Brewery
30 MAY 2024 Austin, TX (US) The Far Out Lounge
31 MAY 2024 Bryan, TX (US) The 101
01 JUN 2024 San Antonio, TX (US) The Amp Room
02 JUN 2024 New Braunfels, TX (US) Guadalupe Brewery
13 JUL 2024 Erfurt (DE) Stoned from the Underground Festival
26 JUL 2024 Neuensee (DE) Rock im Wald Festival
21 SEP 2024 Austin, TX (US) Far Out Lounge, RippleFest Texas

Line-up
Ryan Garney – vocals
Phil Hook – drums
Morgan Miller – bass
Rusty Miller – guitar

High Desert Queen, “Ancient Aliens” official video

High Desert Queen, Palm Reader (2024)

High Desert Queen on Facebook

High Desert Queen on Instagram

High Desert Queen on Bandcamp

Magnetic Eye Records store

Magnetic Eye Records website

Magnetic Eye Records on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records on Instagram

Based in the weirdo hotspot of Asheville, North Carolina, double-guitar prog-sludge newcomers Shadowcloak are set to issue their self-titled debut EP on May 3. Info is fairly sparse on the five-piece, but drummer Zane Oskins and vocalist Dave Gayler have both been in the more metallic As Sick as Us at one point or another, tonally-recognizable guitarist Adrian Lee Zambrano is an Ohio transplant known for his work heavy-progressives Brujas Del Sol (he was also in Lo-Pan for a stretch about a decade ago), and bassist Paul McBride — who leads the way into opening track “Dark Days” on the EP and has since been replaced by Jacob Barr — plays in Voraath, so if you’re looking to account for a variety of influence in the lineup completed by guitarist Bryan Wiedenhoeft, you don’t have to dig particularly deep to do so. And listening through, you might just be inspired to do that digging.

Shadowcloak‘s Shadowcloak runs 28 minutes, and they probably could have called it their first album if they’d wanted to, but that they didn’t speaks to an intention toward development going forward, and while the aforementioned “Dark Days” unfolds from its short atmospheric intro into a pointed, driving groove, guitars aligned in chug and Gayler‘s throaty bark echoing overtop in rhythmic lockstep, seeming to recede into itself at the end of the chorus before coming forward again in the next verse. But while it’s quick, that build-up intro is the first hint of Shadowcloak‘s ambient side, and as “Dark Days” shifts post-midpoint into an effects-strewn proggy break, it becomes clear there’s more at work than post-hardcore-rooted sludge, and the airy solo that serves as crescendo soon enough confirms it.

The sense of a group exploring ideas and collective craft — and whether you’ve been in a band before or not, when you’re in a new one that exploration begins again — is palpable, but “Night After Night” begins a process whereby each individual piece adds something to the total, flowing impression of the EP, cutting back on some of the insistence in terms of pace without giving up the leadoff’s aggressive edge in the more melodic chorus. “Night After Night” has a break/build in its second half as well, dropping its title-line before Oskins does a handful of laps around the toms and the bass and guitars realign around correspondingly spacious effects and the solo that follows. But the chorus comes back to end “Night After Night,” and the push into melody continues instrumentally as centerpiece “Leave Me My Name” unfurls its more subdued outset before, as will happen, diving headfirst into more grueling, crunching sludge.

But they’re not done, and “Leave Me My Name” starts bringing what are intuitively thought of as different sides together with “Everything is Gone” and “Discomfort/Disorder” — which is premiering below and is one of the earlier songs written; go figure — following suit after. Some cleaner-sung lines in “Leave Me My Name” complement the sustained chorus shouts just as the sharper stops of the riff are met with more sprawling lines, and “Everything is Gone” brings a verse left purposefully open with the vocal melody at the fore of the mix, on their own, instead of answering back to the central shouts as in “Leave Me My Name.” This linear narrative, the movement between the songs included, comes to define a significant aspect of Shadowcloak‘s persona as a release, flows readily despite the corners being turned, and comes off less like a ‘concept-album’ (or EP, as it were) than a band who understand how to set up their material to enact a communication with itself. And the resulting conversation is part of what they’re exploring here for the first time as a new group.

And when it comes time to enter its sway, the harmonized Crowbarry riff pulls of “Discomfort/Disorder” and grounded movement of the verse in the shortest track of the five still leave room for post-metallic flourish and rawer-sounding vocal emoting. They’ll top it off with an all-in chug-shove to finish, but the break-and-build structure is present too as Shadowcloak call back to how they set forth and present a concise summary of most (I wouldn’t say all) of the EP’s scope, and likewise showcase the potential for creative growth and expanding on the ideas presented here. We live in a universe of infinite possibilities, so that may or may not happen, but by the end of Shadowcloak‘s sub-half-hour, it’s pretty clear they’ve figured more than a few things out.

“Discomfort/Disorder” premieres on the player below, followed by a quote from the band and more info hoisted off the PR wire.

Try something new:

Shadowcloak, “Discomfort/Disorder” track premiere

Shadowcloak on “Discomfort/Disorder”:

“Discomfort/Disorder is one of the first songs we wrote together as a band. It really set the tone for how we wanted to approach this project— with a balance of raw and cleaner vocals, Discomfort/Disorder is heavy, progressive and driving. Funnily enough, it’s where we ended up taking our band name from. Lyrically it touches on feelings of loneliness, acceptance and inevitable heaviness of decisions made.”

Forged in the smoke-strewn mountains of Asheville, North Carolina in 2023, Shadowcloak summons the spirits of bands like Mastodon, Cult of Luna, and Pelican.

Crafting ardently patient movements with delicate synth, deep fusions of inspired guitar work and raw, methodical drumming, Shadowcloak hurdles listeners through vacuous space. On the other side is a sense of calm and completion through Shadowcloak’s unique brand of visceral storytelling.

Tracklisting:
1. Dark Days
2. Night After Night
3. Leave Me My Name
4. Everything is Gone
5. Discomfort/Disorder

Shadowcloak are:
Adrian Lee Zambrano: guitar
Dave Gayler: vocals
Zane Oskins: drums
Jacob Barr: bass
Bryan Wiedenhoeft: guitar

Paul McBride played bass on the album.

Shadowcloak on Facebook

Shadowcloak on Instagram

Shadowcloak on Bandcamp

Not that you need one in the first place, but if you would look for an excuse as to what might bring SoCal heavy psychedelic rock forebears Nebula and Italian cosmosblasters Black Rainbows together, both will be on tour in Europe in the coming months, Nebula are well documented heroes of founding Black Rainbows guitarist/vocalist Gabriele Fiori, and the split is listed as #300 in the catalog of Fiori‘s label, Heavy Psych Sounds, which has also stood behind Nebula‘s two post-resurgence LPs, 2022’s Transmission From Mothership Earth (review here) and 2019’s Holy Shit (review here).

Each act contributes three songs for a short but full-length-enough runtime of 32 minutes. Black Rainbows‘ tracks, as noted below, come from the sessions for their latest album, 2023’s Superskull (review here), while Nebula‘s side is newly recorded. Led off by Nebula‘s “Acid Drop” as the first single — it premieres below — the outing has been given the cumbersome title In Search of the Cosmic Tale: Crossing the Galactic Portal, which I have no doubt it has absolutely earned.

And if you’ve already stopped reading at the mention of the premiere below, or you skipped outright to the player, you won’t hear me argue. It’s a pretty straightforward proposition to bring these two together, however winding and/or spaced the course of the actual music may turn out to be, and something of a no-brainer to keep on your radar as summer starts to heat up. Nebula were in Europe last Fall as well, so I don’t know whether they’ll make the return trip to meet up with Black Rainbows at the Heavy Psych Sounds Fests in Germany, but it’s a universe of infinite possibility.

The raw crunch-punk fuckery of “Acid Drop,” with its blown-out vocals and swirling jam into the fade, follows on the player below. Beyond that, the PR wire takes over.

Dig if you dig:

Nebula, “Acid Drop” track premiere

HPS300 – NEBULA / BLACK RAINBOWS – In Search Of The Cosmic Tale: Crossing The Galactic Portal

There’s not much to add, two of the greatest Heavy Psych bands of the scene join the forces to give birth to an incredible Split Album.

Packed with 32 minutes of the highest quality heavy rock you can find out there; a joint venture which can happen only once every 100 years!!

Heavy Psych king-pioneers Nebula bring to life three brand new songs, recorded expressly for this incredible project. Three new gems which follow their latest “Holy Shit” and “Transmission….”

Black Rainbows add in three songs of their own, handpicked from the recording session of their latest success “Superskull”, released back in 2023. Delivering two Stoner in-your-face Heavy Fuzz pieces and one Heavy Space tune to celebrate this awesome collaboration!!

The cover art pairs perfectly with the vision and vibe of the album and is credited to the mighty Simon Berndt.

NEBULA
1. Acid Drop
2. Eye of the Storm
3. Ceasar XXXIV

Recorded at “High Desert Sound Studios “ Spring Equinox 2024.
Produced and Mixed by Nebula
Mastered by Claudio Pisi Gruer at Pisi Studio 

Eddie Glass : Guitars, Vocals, Drums
Ranch Sironi : Bass, Vocals, Mix Down
Warzone Speedwolf : Drums 

BLACK RAINBOWS
1. The Secret
2. Thunder Lights on the Greatest Sky
3. Dogs of War

Recorded 11-12-13 May 2022 at Forward Studio, Rome, Italy by Fabio Sforza and Andrea Secchi
Vocals, Synths, Overdubs Recorded in November and December 2022
At Forward Studios and Channel 5 Studio by Andrea Secchi and Gabriele Fiori
Mixed and Engineered by Fabio Sforza
Mastered by Claudio Pisi Gruer at Pisi Studio
All Songs, Music and Lyrics written by Gabriele Fiori

BLACK RAINBOWS are
Gabriele Fiori — Guitars & Vocals
Edoardo “Mancio” Mancini — Bass
Filippo Ragazzoni — Drums

BLACK RAINBOWS European shows 2024
03.05 – Barcelona (SP) 62 Club
04.05 – Vidiago (SP) Vidiago Rock Fest
07.06 – Winterthur (CH) Gaswerk – Heavy Psych Sounds Fest
14.06 – Genova (ITA) TBA
28.06 – Clisson (FR) Hellfest
29.06 Passau (DE) Blackdoor Fest
13.07 – Trieste (IT) TBA
10.08 – Bagnes (CH) Palp Fest
12/13.10 – Berlin (DE) Heavy Psych Sounds Fest
27/28.10 – Dresden (DE) Heavy Psych Sounds Fest

NEBULA European Tour 2024
TH. 06.06.24 IT PRATO – OFF TUNE FESTIVAL
FR. 07.06.24 IT BERGAMO – ROCK IN RIOT
SA. 08.06.24 CH MARTIGNY – HPS FEST CH
SU. 09.06.24 IT ***OPEN SLOT***
MO. 10.06.24 IT ZERO BRANCO – ALTROQUANDO
TU. 11.06.24 SL LJUBLJANA – GALA HALA
WE. 12.06.24 HR ZAGREB – THE VINTAGE INDUSTRIAL
TH. 13.06.24 DE RAVENSBURG – IRISH PUB SLAINTE
FR. 14.06.24 DE ***OPEN SLOT***
SA. 15.06.24 DE MUNSTER – RARE GUITAR
MO. 17.06.24 FR SEIGNOSSE – THE BLACK FLAG
TU. 18.06.24 ES SAN SEBASTIAN – DABADABA
WE. 19.06.24 ES MADRID – WURLIZER
TH. 20.06.24 ES BARCELONA – SALA UPLOAD
FR. 21.06.24 FR BORDEAUX – LA FETE DE LA MUSIQUE
SA. 22.06.24 FR ***OPEN SLOT***
SU. 23.06.24 FR BOURLON – ROCK IN BOURLON
FR. 28.06.24 FR CLISSON – HELLFEST
SA. 29.06.24 FR MANIGOD – NAMASS PAMOUSS FESTIVAL
SU. 30.06.24 FR CHAMBERY – BRIN DE ZINC
MO. 01.07.24 FR PARIS – SUPERSONIC
WE. 03.07.24 UK ***OPEN SLOT***
TH. 04.07.24 UK SHEFFIELD – YELLOW ARCH STUDIO
FR. 05.07.24 UK LONDON – STOOMFEST
SA. 06.07.24 UK NOTTINGHAM – ROUGH TRADE

https://www.facebook.com/NebulaBand/
https://www.instagram.com/the_official_nebula/
https://atomicritual.com/

http://www.theblackrainbows.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BLACKRAINBOWSROCK/
http://blackrainbows.bandcamp.com/

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

Stockholm’s Bottenhavet make their full-length debut this week with Ljud i Tysta Rum on Fuzzorama Records. And yes, it’s in Swedish; titles and lyrics. I’ll spare you Anglicizing the songs or words — part out of respect to what feels like an aesthetic choice on the part of the four-piece, part just because there’s only so much room to go around and I’d rather talk about the music — and the truth of the matter is that while I don’t doubt the band have something to say, there’s plenty that gets posted around here in English that’s even less decipherable. If you find yourself wanting to sing along, swept up perhaps by opening cut “Våg” as it moves into its soaring chorus driven by a duly-fuzzed surge from Andreas Bohman‘s guitar, David Lecander‘s bass and Marcus Wigren‘s drums with the vocals of Kim Minkkinen, especially to my fellow Americans reading this sentence, I’ll just remind you that nobody’s gonna yell at you if you get the accent wrong in following the melody. We’re all friends here.

Its eight songs split in half such that the cyclical hum of interlude “Frågor Utan Svar” feeds into the start of “Jord” on side B — obviously in CD/DL, that’s a direct shift — Ljud i Tysta Rum (‘sound in quiet rooms’) plays out its 36 minutes with hook-minded accessibility, hitting hard at the outset with the aforementioned “Våg” to make sure all who are getting on board have good reason, before letting a more spacious verse hint at some of the progressive aspects that underscore “Bränn Broar” or the piano-inclusive “I Skuggan” in the shimmering, patient solo that matches the soulful vocal atop its post-Soundgarden nodding fluidity, and the twisting stylizations of guitar leading through vibrant closer “Hennes Liv.” To complement this emergent nuance, the big-riff ideology of “Talar Miljon,” the space cast in “Motorväg” to follow that of “Våg,” and even the drop to strum and vocals at the culmination of “Jord” — just talking about the last 20 seconds of the song, never mind what’s before that — offer character and craft alike, resulting in an across-album flow that is neither hurried nor content to dwell in one place in terms of sound.

These elements seem to have been there at the band’s beginnings in 2021’s Ett Hav av Tå​rar EP, which was answered over the next year by a trio of standalone singles, but Ljud i Tysta Rum is clear in its intention to continue to move forward along its varied course. What draws the individual pieces that comprise the record together are the tones, the vocals and the commitment to traditional heavy rock verse/chorus structures — “Frågor Utan Svar” notwithstanding — that make “Våg,” “Talar Miljon” and “Bränn Broar” with its furiously-drummed intro such an effective opening salvo. And while the dynamic at root in Bottenhavet‘s sound lets them explore the reaches and breadth in the payoff of the latter there before side A ends with its guitar almost solely focused on atmosphere is surely bolstered through the production of Robert Pehrsson, the immediacy of those initial moments never dissipates, even as the melancholic blues of “I Skugget” set out on their linear building course soon followed by . That is to say, in the foundations of the songs, Bottenhavet capture and maintain a live energy and momentum front-to-back, and the audience’s listening experience feels like a consideration in that balance.

And balance is a big part of by Ljud i Tysta Rum works so well and holds such promise. Regardless of the language barrier, it is thoroughly Swedish in style, and whether it’s a flash of Skraeckoedlan‘s melodiousness or Truckfighters‘ shove, Graveyard‘s soul or a Dozerian charge — and don’t make me namedrop November for classic prog; I’m just crazy enough to do it — a rich history and tapestry of Bottenhavet‘s native underground influences can be felt throughout, even as the band begin to distill them into the persona that they will hopefully carry ahead on subsequent offerings. To present thrills and optimistic futures, then. Skål.

Ljud i Tysta Rum streams in its entirety below. Bottenhavet have dates coming up in Sweden, Poland and Finland, and you’ll find those along with more PR wire background and the video for “Våg” after the YouTube embed.

Happy trails:

Bottenhavet, Ljud i Tysta Rum album premiere

Preorder link: https://www.fuzzoramastore.com/

Bottenhavet (translates to ’The Bothnian Sea’) was originally formed in 2020 by Marcus Wigren, Kim Minkkinen and Charlie Karlsson (2020-2023), and later joined by Andreas Bohman (2021). All being musicians with various musical backgrounds adding their skills and preferences to the mix that together creates the ”Bothnian sound”. To add another layer of uniqueness to the music, the songs are sung in their native language, Swedish. After gaining a steadily increasing following with their initial four track EP release “Ett hav av tårar” (released March 19th 2021) as well as follow up singles “När tiden dör”, “Faller” (released summer and autumn of 2021) and “Allt på svart” (released spring of 2022), the band knew it was about time to start working on their debut album.

The writing process started late 2022. And in mid April 2023 Bottenhavet entered Studio Humbucker, owned and run by the legendary Robert Pehrsson (known from Robert Pehrsson Humbucker, Death breath, Dundertåget, Imperial state electric etc), to record drums. Vocals and guitars were recorded by the band themselves before Pehrsson later mixed and mastered the album. In the summer of 2023 Bottenhavet signed a record deal with Fuzzorama Records, run by none less than the masterminds behind fuzz rock giants Truckfighters, Oskar Cedermalm and Niklas Källgren. The album ‘Ljud i tysta rum’ is to be released on Fuzzorama Records in early 2024.

In 2023 the band played the 4th edition of Fuzz Festival in Stockholm and David Lecander joined the band.

‘Ljud i tysta rum’ album tracklisting:
1. Våg
2. Talar miljon
3. Bränn Broar
4. Frågor Utan Svar
5. Jord
6. Motorväg
7. I Skuggan
8. Hennes Liv

Touring coming up as well, don’t miss out:

APR 13 – LATITUDE 59 – Uppsala, SWE
APR 18 – UTOPIA – Turku, FIN
APR 19 – TULLIKAMARI KLUBI – Tampere, FIN
MAY 4 – TBA – Stockholm, SWE
MAY 16 – 2PROGI – Poznan, PL
MAY 17 – PROXIMA – Warzawa, PL
MAY 24 – DIRTY DEEDS ROCK CLUB – Göteborg, SWE

Get tickets HERE: https://www.bottenhavet.se/gigs

Bottenhavet:
Kim Minkkinen – Vocals
Marcus Wigren – Drums
Andreas Bohman – Guitar
David Lecander – Bass

Bottenhavet, “Våg” official video

Bottenhavet on Facebook

Bottenhavet on Instagram

Bottenhavet on YouTube

Bottenhavet on Bandcamp

Bottenhavet website

Fuzzorama Records website

Fuzzorama Records on Facebook

Fuzzorama Records on Instagram

Fuzzorama Records on Bandcamp