I’ll admit to consoling myself a little at this year’s Roadburn when I missed Torpor with the thought that I might get another opportunity to see them. So much for that, as the UK outfit are calling it a day on the heels of their wildly well-received 2023 album, Abscission (LP on Human Worth, tape on Sludgelord). To put a pin on their tenure, they’ll do a run of eight shows from Nov. 13-22 with Hostbody, going as far north from their home in Bristol as Glasgow and capping with a hometown show at The Lousiana that’s sure to be one for the ages. The message here is pretty simple — if you ever want to see them, now is probably the time to do it, any subsequent reunions notwithstanding.

More than a decade on from their outset, Torpor by no means owe anyone anything, but, I mean, okay, guitarist/vocalist Jon Taylor doesn’t want to tour anymore. So maybe don’t? I’m not sure how that precludes being a band at all and even maybe doing the occasional show or fest appearance, but sometimes these things are more complex than what’s publicly announced lets on. In any case, what Taylor, bassist/vocalist Lauren Mason and drummer Simon Mason might do next isn’t a thing I’m in-the-know enough to know, but the lesson I’m taking away is go see bands when you can.

Hence posting the tour dates in the poster below along with the band’s announcement from socials:

[UPDATE 09/19: Added comment from Taylor that was in a subsequent social post. It’s the paragraph that begins “Says Jon.”]

**Tour announcement plus big sad news**

Hey everyone, we’re excited to be heading out for a run of shows in November with Bristol heavies @hostbodynoise! We’ll be playing some of our favourite cities, plus finally getting up to Newcastle, and back to Glasgow for the first time since lockdown!

The sad news is that this will be our FINAL tour. We always knew ‘Abscission’ would be our last record, so this announcement has been a long time coming. We love making music together, but Jon no longer wants to be in a touring band so we must lay Torpor to rest. Our 12 years together have taken us on a wonderful journey, and we’re really looking forward to celebrating with you all before we say goodbye!

Tickets for Bristol, Newcastle and Notts linked in bio, for everywhere else save the date! Still looking for a show in Midlands/North on the 18th so give us a shout if you can help!

Huge thanks to all the friends and promoters who’ve helped put this tour together 🧡🧡🧡

Says Jon: “I don’t usually say anything but it feels appropriate and respectful to all those who have followed our music to say a few words now. Torpor is the only band I’ve ever been in and never imagined we would have gone on to do the things we’ve done. I only thought I’d end up playing a few pub gigs and have a chance to play guitar somewhere that wasn’t my bedroom. The fact that it has resonated with anyone at all is a very lovely thing. I can’t speak for the others but gaining a few years, a good few extra pounds and living miles away from each other hasn’t made keeping the band going easy. You also get to points in life when you want to live differently and spend time on other things. We might make music together again; we might not. I didn’t want to just carry on reluctantly or half-heartedly out of habit. Thank you to everyone who has been listening and supporting us over the years, Jon”

Tour poster by @jamessheridanart

https://www.facebook.com/torporsound/
https://www.instagram.com/torpor_uk/
https://torpornoise.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/TORPOR_UK

https://www.facebook.com/HumanWorthMusic
https://www.instagram.com/humanworthmusic/
https://humanworth.bandcamp.com/
https://linktr.ee/humanworthmusic

Torpor, Abscission (2023)

The PR wire posits below that Spectres at Dawn is the heaviest album to-date from Romanian troupe Methadone Skies, and I’ll admit that when I turned on the video for lead single “’87 via ’94,” it hit harder than I was expecting. Not gonna complain about it. The Timisoara-based four-piece were last heard from with 2021’s Retrofuture Caveman (review here), and they’ll self-release Spectres at Dawn on Oct. 25 through Haywire Records. They’re well within their rights to add some brashness to the proceedings. Spectres at Dawn is the sixth Methadone Skies full-length. If not now, when?

I’d tell you more about the record, but I haven’t heard it yet. The single does its job though in making me want to unpack the .zip file and have at it, so hopefully it won’t be long before I get there. And in any case, Spectres at Dawn is out Oct. 25. That’s next month. You can wait for it.

Or maybe not. Here’s this from the PR wire:

METHADONE SKIES /// Romanian Post Rockers Return with New Album | Watch the Crazy Video for New Single Now!

Spectres at Dawn is released 25th October 2024 on Haywire Records | Pre-order HERE: https://methadoneskies.bandcamp.com/album/spectres-at-dawn

Three years on from the release of Retrofuture Caveman, the Romanian quartet are back with arguably their heaviest record yet…

Formed in Timisoara, Romania, 2024 finds instrumental rock titans Methadone Skies celebrating their fifteenth year around the sun with the release of their sixth studio album, Spectres at Dawn.

Due for release this October on their own imprint, Haywire Records, their latest forty-minute foray into the realms of heavy psych, doom, and prog, pushed the key tenets of underground rock through the stratosphere. Offering up post-rock landscapes, stoner grooves and sonic concepts, Methadone Skies have cut the formula of previous releases with a more direct, hyper intense focus on shorter, punchier bouts of uncompromising sound. As Metal Storm put it best, “If you’ve ever wondered what post-metal would sound like if it developed from stoner metal instead of sludge metal, Methadone Skies clearly share your fascination.”

To herald their return the band is thrilled to share a brand-new video. Directed by Flavius Retea and Alexandra Dragu (AKA Eclecticat Design) ‘) ”87 via ’94’ is an aural vortex of big riffs and swirling raves, and the first single to be lifted from Spectres at Dawn.

“It was actually the first song we put together for this album,” explains guitarist Casian Stanciu. “We’ve played it live for a couple of years and it’s always fun for us. It’s catchy so it always gets the audience dancing. The video however takes a 180 degree turn on this vibe and follows a person fed up with his corporate 9-to-5 job. He ultimately has a nervous breakdown. It was fun to film.”

Having played over two hundred shows with acts like Samsara Blues Experiment, Motorpsycho, Yawning Man, My Sleeping Karma, Stoned Jesus and 1000MODS, and taken in several festivals across Central and Eastern Europe (Doom Over Vienna, Lake on Fire, Thulsa Doom Fest) Methadone Skies will also embark on a tour in support of Spectres at Dawn, dates for which can be found below.

Spectres at Dawn is released 25th October 2024 on Haywire Records and can be pre-ordered here: https://methadoneskies.bandcamp.com/album/spectres-at-dawn

TOUR:
26th October – Escape Hub, Timisoara (w. Valerinne, Black Water)
20th November – Quantic Pub, Bucuresti (w. Valerinne, Black Water)
21st November – Love Bar, Sibiu
22nd November – Flying Circus, Cluj-Napoca (w. The Thirteenth Sun)
30th November – Rockstadt, Brasov (w. Black Water)

TRACKLIST:
1. To No Avail
2. ’87 via ’94
3. Mano Cornetto
4. Thrill Estate
5. Sheryl Low
6. Use the Excessive Force

Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Consonance Studio in Timisoara, Romania by Andrei Jumuga and Cristian Popescu. Additional keyboards on track 6 by Marius Muntean (Thirteenth Sun, Black Water). Artwork, layout, and design by Alexandra Dragu AKA Eclecticat Design.

METHADONE SKIES:
Alexandru Wehry – Guitar
Casian Stanciu – Guitar, E-Bow
Mihai Guta – Bass
Flavius Retea – Drums, Percussion, Keyboards

https://www.facebook.com/MethadoneSkies
https://www.instagram.com/methadoneskies
https://methadoneskies.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/methadone-skies

Methadone Skies, Spectres at Dawn (2024)

Methadone Skies, “’87 via ’94” official video

Thee Old Night make their self-titled debut on Oct. 17. Releasing through Firelight Records, the acoustic-based three-piece represents a creative sidestep for Erik Sugg, known for harder-hitting fare in outfits like Demon Eye, Lightning Born and The Magpie, and carries shades of foregone country wistfulness in the pedal steel of Kevin Wade Inge (Horsehead) and the stately, sometimes sad cello of Michigan-based Anne Polesnak (The Ready Set and others).

But while the root style of the project is Americana in its affect and songs like “Leave the Day Behind” and “All Around Us” are structurally stripped down, the arrangements want nothing for flourish between the three players — Inge also contributes synth and piano — and the possibilities feel broad as they lean into neofolk drawing from the likes of Wovenhand, Johnny Cash‘s American recordings, and while closer “Darling” starts out relatively minimal with Sugg on guitar and vocals, the manner in which the textures take shape around that is distinguishing and speaks to a progression starting out.

You can read the background of how Sugg, Polesnak and Inge came together, and in the album’s spirit of trimming out what doesn’t need to be there, you’ll pardon me if I skip paraphrasing. Before that blue text, you’ll find the premiere of a video for “Precious Blood” from Thee Old Night‘s Thee Old Night. It’s the opening track of the 10-song/39-minute LP and, and in addition to introducing the basic sounds involved — i.e. what the recording is like and how the material is presented in the mix; spoiler: the recording is clear and the mix mostly but not exclusively puts guitar and voice forward — it showcases some of the christian-imagery influence in Americana that’s the source of the Wovenhand comparison above, and the vocal approach that Sugg has ported over from his other bands.

It by no means represents the scope of craft throughout Thee Old Night, as the later “Life in Pain” takes the Nirvana Unplugged version of “Polly” for a doomfolk strut and “The River The Mountain” feels born out of Led Zeppelin‘s impulses to bask in the empty space rather than attempt to fill it in their subdued moments, taking a quieter approach than the dug-in low strum of “Sibyl” or the handclap-and-organ-inclusive “Red Like Crimson.” The pedal steel on “Leave the Day Behind” plays more toward country, but the earlier “Shadows” is heavy and dark regardless of the actual volume or distortion quotient. You can almost hear the band learning who they are collectively as “Darling” builds up to the finish.

The sense they give as a result is that they’ll move forward from here, but I won’t try to predict a shape for things to come except to say Thee Old Night set themselves up for a multifaceted growth around the songs, which carry the solidity that Sugg has brought to numerous projects to new and differently-engaging places. They may end up moving toward one tradition or another sound-wise, experimenting with arrangements or different aesthetics, but there’s songwriting at work here, and the album is about more than the atmosphere that nonetheless emerges from its tracks.

All of which is to say enjoy the clip. If “Precious Blood” is your first exposure to the band — it’s mine too, that’s okay — just know that they build a world around it from there on the record.

PR wire info follows:

Thee Old Night, “Precious Blood” video premiere

Thee Old Night is a dark, minimalist folk trio based out of North Carolina and Richmond, VA, featuring members of Demon Eye, Lightning Born, Utah, and Horsehead. The group blends elements of psychedelia, classic country, and traditional doom metal into an unprecedented, spectral sound focused on melody, meditation, and the liminal spaces between established genre norms.

1. Precious Blood
2. Shadows
3. The River, The Mountain
4. All Around Us
5. Red Like Crimson
6. Life in Pain
7. Sibyl
8. Leave the Day Behind
9. Salvation
10. Darling

The group began as a solo foray for Erik Sugg, following his years of fronting the celebrated doom metal outfit, Demon Eye, and his work as a guitarist and songwriter for Ripple Records artists, Lightning Born. Delving into his long-standing love for the Imaginational Anthem school of acoustic guitar, Erik experimented with various elements of British folk, vintage psychedelia, and classic country, finding solace in the simplicity of rhythm and mournful melodies, allowing his voice to soar through lyrical explorations of human consciousness and the mystical notion of the “dark night of the soul.”

With a voice that often draws comparisons to Roky Erickson, rhythmically matched with Lou Reed’s minimalist strumming to the head-bobbing boogie of Billy Gibbons, Erik looked to the influence of fellow dark travelers, contemporaries like Nick Cave, Mark Langegan, Steven Von Till, and Chelsea Wolfe, to voices of the past, like Townes Van Zandt, Hank Williams, and Nick Drake. After a few solo performances throughout the Raleigh area, Erik opened doors for others to join him on his journey.

Cellist and Michigan native, Anne Polesnak, was a widely known and respected musician throughout the North Carolina triangle region, having played with indie rock outfits, Utah, The Ready Set, and The Monologue Bombs. Erik reached out to Anne during the pandemic era, asking if she would lend her talents to his visions. As the COVID years waned, Anne and Erik got together for a joining of the strings. The powerful, low richness of Anne’s cello was the perfect accompaniment to Thee Old Night’s developing sound.

Kevin Wade Inge was a kindred rock and roll spirit to Erik during the late ’90s and early 2000s in Richmond, VA. wherein they split sonic duties as guitarists for the MC5-influenced rock and roll band, The Dragstrip Syndicate. Throughout the years, Kevin made a name for himself, not only as the skilled multi-instrumentalist for the beloved Americana rock darlings, Horsehead, but also as a go-to session musician for artists all across the sonic spectrum, (including the debut solo album from Windhand’s Dorthia Cottrell). His atmospheric pedal steel guitar, along with his keyboard wizardry, completed Thee Old Night’s unique musical dynamics.

Thee Old Night will release their self-titled debut in October of 2024 via Firelight Records. The group performs regionally throughout the southeast, gaining new listeners beyond the confines of genre, scenes, and traditional expectations of what music should be.

Erik Sugg: Guitars and Vocals
Anne Polesnak: Cello
Kevin Wade Inge: Pedal Steel Guitar, Piano, Synthesizer

Thee Old Night on Facebook

Thee Old Night on Instagram

Thee Old Night on Bandcamp

Firelight Records on Facebook

Firelight Records on Instagram

Firelight Records on Bandcamp

[Click play above to stream Brant Bjork Trio’s Once Upon a Time in the Desert in full. It’s out Friday on Duna Records.]

Yeah, desert rock would probably exist in some form without the contributions to it that Brant Bjork has made over the last 25 years as a solo artist, but it wouldn’t be half as rad. Self-releasing through a reignited Duna Records, he is teamed here with Mario Lalli of Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man (and adjacent projects), and drummer Ryan Güt, who began in the prior incarnation of Bjork‘s solo band, continued with Bjork in the trio Stöner, and has held the position as Brant Bjork Trio evolved from that group, which featured Nick Oliveri (also ex-Kyuss, Mondo Generator, etc.) on bass and vocals.

Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers toured with Stöner in 2022, but of course the association goes farther back than even Lalli‘s guest appearance on Bjork‘s first solo record, Jalamanta (reissue review here), which came out through Man’s Ruin Records in 1999, to when they were teenagers. Both are founding figureheads in desert rock, Lalli starting out in the mid-’80s in Yawning Man and Bjork a few years later drumming and songwriting in Kyuss before eventually joining Fu Manchu, also on drums, but while the past laurels are many, Once Upon a Time in the Desert has little time to dwell in its nine songs and 41 minutes.

Produced by Bjork and Lalli and engineered by longtime-associate Mathias Schneeberger (who mastered Jalamanta, as one example), the new album not only establishes a more firm partnership between the two mainstays and their secret weapon of a drummer, but basks in a groove that’s emblematic of how they got to be ambassadors of the genre in the first place. It’s been a long road getting from there to here, bringing these players together in this incarnation of Bjork‘s solo band, and they’ve arrived at a place of a distinctive, classic cool.

And they know it. Once Upon a Time in the Desert doesn’t have a narrative thread drawn across its tracks as the title might lead one to believe, but it does tell a story just the same of who these players are and where they’re at at this point in time. There are self-aware displays of persona in the lyrics, as with “UR Free,” which communicates its message as the album opener directly to the listener — the “you” in this case — however or to whomever it may have originally been written.

In the first of several resounding hooks — see also: “Backin’ the Daze,” “Astrological Blues (Southern California Girl),” and “Sunshine is Making Love to Your Mind,” among others — “UR Free” casts a laid-back vision of active whateverism. Lines like “If you want some fun/Go have some fun today/If you wanna cry/Then let your tears fall from your eyes/We all fall down sometimes,” are inclusive and markedly open in terms of perspective, the kind of perspective that might, in a while, find a mind making love to the sunshine, perhaps blissfully, serenely stoned. It’s not all so peaceful as regards lyrics, as “Magic Surfer Magazine” describes an all-alone kid in the desert looking at a surfing magazine.

Leaving aside the of-personal-significance and often-forgotten experiential wonder of print media –holding a picture of a surfer and wanting to surf — it’s a straightforward contrast between the desert and the ocean, and affecting in the chorus: “So lonely/In my bedroom/Dreamin’ every night/I’m gonna be a surfer too.” I don’t know if Bjork is talking about himself there, and I don’t know if he surfs — he was in Fu Manchu, which I feel like should count for surfer cred either way — but the memory-in-song storytelling frame is one that has typified his work in recent years across projects. Stöner‘s “Rad Stays Rad” from their 2021 debut, Stoners Rule (review here), is a ready example, and part of that pandemic-born outfit’s purpose was a nostalgic stripping down to the core elements of desert rock to begin with; arguable as a kind of looking back. The most obvious instance on Once Upon a Time in the Desert — beyond the title itself — is “Backin’ the Daze.” Duh.

If you’re wondering why it’s Brant Bjork Trio and a more band-like moniker in the vein of Stöner, the answer would seem to be that the roots of the songs are his, whatever Lalli and Güt are bringing to the finished product of the album as a whole. Bjork is also alone in handling vocals. But while the writing modus and attitude are familiar, there’s no discounting the life and tonal presence Mario Lalli brings to the recordings. His bass is very much present in the mix throughout, and in the mini-jam of “Astrological Blues (Southern California Girl),” the low end twists with grace around the central figure on guitar as it proceeds through the song’s back half. The bass and guitar are not in competition by any means.

“Down the Mountain” aligns the three-piece around a likewise fluid nod, and everyone shines, and in the crashout start of “Rock and Roll in the Dirt,” the tones are aligned for suitable grit, Lalli and Güt carrying the rhythm in the midsection as the guitar weaves in and out. A balance between studio clarity and live energy is resonant, and even a straight-ahead early piece like “Higher Lows” has space in its sub-five-minute run to conjure some desert expanse, and the finale “Do You Got Some Fire?” feels even more vital with Güt‘s double-kick underscoring its groove following the pattern of the riff.

The Brant Bjork Trio have over 50 years of experience at this thing between them. To get a whole record of Bjork and Lalli together, well, it’s not the craziest idea ever since they’ve been in each other’s orbit and shared space on albums plenty of times over the course of the last three-plus decades, but it is something special that longtime fans of either’s work in other contexts will be glad to embrace. They are accordingly pro-shop, and has been the case on every Bjork-related recording he’s been part of since 2016’s Tao of the Devil (review here), Güt revels in the swing and is a master at finding the rhythmic dynamics in Bjork‘s riffs. Change is the order of the universe, but one hopes that partnership continues to develop.

And listening to Once Upon a Time in the Desert, it’s easy to apply the same to Lalli and Brant Bjork Trio as a whole. All three of them have other bands, projects, incarnations, whathaveyou, and they’re rarely static in moving between them, but if this album, the touring they’ve done leading up to it and the touring they’ll do probably over the next year to support it are a fleeting moment, it’s one worth appreciating.

Brant Bjork Trio, “Backin’ the Daze” official video

Brant Bjork on Facebook

Brant Bjork on Instagram

Brant Bjork on Bandcamp

Brant Bjork website

Duna Records on YouTube

Duna Records website

To answer your first question first, no, there isn’t a track streaming yet. However, since it’s only been a year since Weite made their debut with Assemblage (review here), I have a hard time imagining that the first record isn’t still relevant, whatever direction the forthcoming Oase might take from its proggy pastoralia and wherever its own songs might go. We’ll find out, presumably, when preorders open. It’s a Nov. 22 release date, so there’s time.

Given some of the description that came in from the PR wire — below in the blue text — I’m curious to hear how these elements manifest in the next batch of songs from the project that includes Michael Risberg and Nick DiSalvo of Elder and emerges from the sphere of Big Snuff Studios in Berlin, though you’ll note it doesn’t actually say where Oase was recorded, so yes, some more details to surface as we get closer, in addition to whatever audio/video might be leaked before Stickman puts it out. This, then, is a start to that process. Weite also played live to support Assemblage. If European touring hasn’t been announced yet, more likely than not it will be.

For now, then, feel free to dive in:

Prog-Psych/Krautrock Project WEITE (feat. members of ELDER & DELVING) announces upcoming Studio Album “Oase” for a November Release on Stickman Records!

Prog-psych/krautrock band WEITE, featuring Nicholas DiSalvo (Elder, Delving), Michael Risberg (Elder, delving), Ingwer Boysen (delving), Ben Lubin (Lawns) and Fabien deMenou (Perilymph), has announced the release of their brand new studio offering, entitled “Oase”, for November 22, 2024 on Stickman Records!

“Oase” is the sophomore album from Berlin-based progressive rock collective Weite, and the follow-up to the band’s 2023 debut LP “Assemblage”. Clocking in at almost an hour, “Oase” — German for “Oasis” — takes listeners on an intricate and textured journey that draws inspiration from the pioneering spirit of 70s psychedelic rock, blending influences from “Canterbury scene” prog, Krautrock, early electronica, post rock, and Americana. The new album showcases Weite’s ability to merge the old with the new, creating an immersive, exploratory sound that moves from contemplative and pastoral to riffy and doomy without ever sacrificing melody. “Oase” is characterized by longer expansive, atmospheric compositions yet is undoubtedly more composed than the band’s debut, with more of a focus on songs, albeit in the broader sense of the word. With the focus on melody, texture and mood— although not necessarily always in that order — Weite create a sound that’s intricate and meditative, inviting the listener to embark on a journey through shifting soundscapes and evolving musical narratives.

“We’re really proud of this album and worked super hard to channel all our influences into it: everything from the 70s prog we all love, to krautrock, americana and ambient, among other stuff,” Ben Lubin comments. “It’s definitely much stronger compositionally-speaking because of it, and we’re a much better band after gigging over the past year since the first LP came out.”

Nick DiSalvo adds: “Weite has come to embody a sort of collective spirit both within the band and within our little Berlin scene – musicians and friends, all in a seemingly rotating cast with each others’ bands, as guest musicians, tour help, etc. Each member takes the strengths and experiences from their other projects and pours it into our music, which results in a pretty interesting mashup, especially the longer we play together. “Oase” is for me personally an homage to the little oases in life: the couch, the rehearsal space, and yes, even the Späti – a Berlin biotope, a small convenience store where you can sit and take a break from the daily stress and enjoy a drink, a smoke or a conversation.”

Weite was formed in Berlin in winter 2022 by bassist Ingwer Boysen recruiting drummer Nick DiSalvo and guitarists Michael Risberg and Ben Lubin. Initially intended as a one-off recording session, the four recognized an obvious musical chemistry and common ground and decided to turn the project into a proper band. Keyboardist Fabien deMenou joined in 2024. “Oase” will be available on 180gr. pink marbled 2LP, on CD and digitally on November 22, 2024 via Stickman Records. Watch out for many more details, single releases and the album pre-sale to start soon!

Cover Art by Sofia Hjortberg. Band photo by Maren Michaelis.

https://www.facebook.com/weite.band/
www.instagram.com/_weite

https://www.stickman-records.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Stickman-Records-1522369868033940

Weite, Assemblage (2023)

Though one is rarely mellow in this regard, it does feel especially self-flagellating to keep harping on how good the lineup for Høstsabbat 2024 is since, for the second year in a row, I can’t be at the fest owing to familial obligation. I know very well that in this day and age, “family first” is the accepted norm, and that it’s just one of those timing things, but that’s precious little comfort when it comes to missing out on seeing the likes of Monkey3, who are one of the pioneers of heavy psychedelic instrumentalism in Europe, for the first time, or Träd, Gräs och Stenar, who are psych-folk legends and probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance (at least for me) to catch.

This is the part where I usually say “alas” and move on with the post, but you’ll forgive me if I’m having an increasingly hard time kissing this up. Aside from enjoying the jaunt to Oslo every October and seeing friends and bands in the church — a special place that plays host to special performances, whether it’s on the altar or in the crypt/basement downstairs — it’s a stellar and broad-ranging edition of Høstsabbat that the team behind the fest has put together, and all the more impressive as they’re now splitting time, one assumes, with assembling a roster for next Spring’s Desertfest Oslo. I don’t go to more fests than I do go to, and so I’m well used to missing out — can’t see everything — but while I spent a goodly portion of this past summer ‘away’ and was at New York’s own Desertfest this past weekend, it’s hard to resist being greedy with a bill like this.

Alas.

Wherever you are in the world, if you’re going to this one, here’s another reason to look forward to it from the fest’s socials:

We are over the moon to be able to present to you the Swiss astronauts, the instrumental space drifters, the extraterrestrials: monkey3!

Hailing from the Olympic city of Lousanne, the sonic cosmonauts are looking to add an Olympic ring to their festival CV, after playing Hellfest, Desertfest, Freak Valley and Roadburn they are now gracing our Church of Riffs in October.

Their psychedelic/space/stonerrock is as captivating as the view of the Swiss alps, and accompanied by their otherworldly flair for visualizers and art, this concert is gonna be absolutely wild!

Each album gives you a new theme or backdrop, and each album guides you through space-time continuum, from slower “floating in space” parts, to the heaviest sun storms of riff-galore.

There is no sound in space, but Monkey3 perfectly captures what we all think it sounds like.

Buckle up and get ready to detach your mind from your earthly body, board our church-like spaceship, cause we’re going to the event horizon together in October!

Design by Thomas Moe Ellefsrud / hypnotistdesign

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
https://spoti.fi/3tkuMZl

NEWSLETTER
https://bit.ly/HostsabbatNews

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http://hostsabbat.no/

Høstsabbat Spotify Playlist

Granted, Truckfighters are pretty fresh in the ol’ brain after seeing them this past weekend, but while ‘always deliver live’ is an essential part of their ethic as a band, the Swedish troupe behind this fifth edition of the aptly-named Truckfighters Fuzz Festival are hardly the only appeal here. 1000mods will have just released their new album a couple weeks before Fuzz Festival #5 gets underway, and Slomosa and Bottenhavet, Daevar, High Desert Queen and 10,000 Years have or will have 2024 releases under their belt as well. Not to harp on it, but I also saw Domkraft this past weekend, and they don’t have a 2024 record but would nonetheless be a significant draw in this two-nighter’s favor if I happened to live in Stockholm.

Grand Atomic, Steak, Witchrider, Goddess (who I don’t know at all, but am inclined to check out based solely on their inclusion here), Siena Root, Håndgemeng and the ever-fluid Besvärjelsen complete a strong bill for the Debaser and adjacent Bar Brooklyn, and you’ll find the full lineup and ticket link, courtesy of the band’s socials and website:

Truckfighters Fuzz Festival #5

Ticket link: https://www.truckfighters.com/festival/#pricing-screen

The Truckfighters Fuzz Festival is back! For the 5th time, there will be riffing in the name of fuzz at Debaser Strand and Bar Brooklyn, this year on the weekend of November 22-23! One could say that the festival has become Sweden’s answer to a company party but here it’s all about fuzz, swing, and a damn good mood. All spread across 2 stages as we combine Debaser and Bar Brooklyn into a single festival frenzy over 2 days. You will be treated to great music from 6:15 pm to midnight on 2 stages, and the evening is not over there as DJs extend the nights with cool music and we hope for a great hangout.

The Venue is located on the island of Södermalm, in Stockholm. This is a very nice area in the central parts of town. Get there with subway or bus to “Hornstull” station.

The bands on the bill are hand picked by us to ensure a great evening! All bands are good! All bands play some kind of heavy groovy rock music with a fuzzy sound! We hope to see you. Keep the fuzz burning!
/ Truckfighters

Stockholm! Debases & Bar Brooklyn = Fuzz Festival #5 November 22nd & 23rd! 🔥🔥🔥

The lineup is nailed, one day tickets are released now so now we go!

Lineup:
Truckfighters
1000mods
Siena Root
Slomosa
Domkraft
Witchrider
Steak
10,000 Years
Besvärjelsen
Håndgemeng
High Desert Queen
Grand Atomic
Bottenhavet
Daevar
Goddess

Schedule can be found at: https://www.truckfighters.com/festival !!!

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Truckfighters, Live at Desertfest NYC, Sept. 14, 2024

[Click play above to stream Blue Heron’s Everything Fades in full. The album is out Sept. 27 on Blues Funeral Recordings. The band play Ripplefest Texas on Sept. 20.]

The second full-length from Albuquerque’s Blue Heron begins, of course, with a science lecture. Okay not quite. Lead cut “Null Geodesic” unfolds with a snippet about or responding to or by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, and before it evaporates into echoing trails a few seconds later, it reminds the listener that science is based on observation. Fair enough. One might observe a similarity in concept behind the title of Everything Fades — the four-piece’s second album — and their first, 2022’s Ephemeral (review here). Accordingly, since when in side A’s “Swansong” frontman Jadd Shickler declares, “I’m running out of legends and I’m sick of saying goodbye,” the hardest thing to know is which legend he’s talking about (I’d guess Mark Lanegan, but feel free to make your own pick), it feels safe on a scientific level to note the continued relevance of the theme.

Joined in the band by guitarist Mike Chavez, bassist Steve Schmidlapp and drummer Ricardo Sanchez, Shickler is a significant presence in the material as he is in the broader heavy underground. Like Chavez, he formerly featured in Spiritu, and in addition to founding Blues Funeral Recordings and serving as label boss for Magnetic Eye Records, he’s one of the two founders of the defunct imprint MeteorCity, and arguably somebody who has been part of shaping heavy rock as it is today on a level few others could claim as their own.

He’s not writing songs about it, so it’s not all directly relevant to Everything Fades, but he’s someone I’ve known for 20 years, give or take, and one can hear in the included nine-tracks/38-minutes a conversation happening with the modern sphere — you’ll recall the band took part in Ripple Music‘s split series with last year’s Turned to Stone Ch. 8 (review here), sharing a platter with now-on-Magnetic–Eye Texas rockers High Desert Queen; the coursing, grunge-nodding progression of “Clearmountain” on Everything Fades would seem to show some effect of that — as Blue Heron build on the accomplishments of their debut.

And Everything Fades very much does that. “Null Geodesic” serves double-duty as a proper opener and an album-intro, and its sub-three-minute run recalls the interludes from the prior long-player but is more of a song despite a simpler structure where the heavy middle establishes the desert-hued tonal heft to come, brings the first gritty vocal echoes and balances impact and atmosphere. Much of Everything Fades feels tighter-wrought than Ephemeral, and part of that may just be that “Null Geodesic” is backed by the four-and-a-half-minute title-track instead of a 13-minute jam-out, but there’s no lack of expanse carried in the sound either way.

Tonally rich, Chavez‘s guitar and Schmidlapp‘s bass intertwine fluidly over the emphatic march of Sanchez‘s drumming as “Everything Fades” moves toward its pedal-click volume burst, and Shickler‘s guttural take recalls some of Neil Fallon‘s throatier moments but proves malleable in the more melodically-focused “Swansong,” which includes backing harmonies, and side B’s aforementioned “Clearmountain” as well as the penultimate “Bellwether,” which ties it all together with a particularly heavy push near the finish, ready to give over to 1:17 instrumental capper/outro “Flight of the Heron.”

This evolved approach corresponds with an instrumentalist breadth that manifests a crushing lumber on centerpiece “Dinosaur” at the start of side B, an immersive roll through “Swansong” and others, and a bluesy psychedelic turn in the sans-vocal “Trepidation,” which scorches in spacious lead guitar over Sanchez‘s steady thud until it fades out. As a whole, then, Blue Heron present a more dynamic take across Everything Fades, and do not draw needlessly stark lines between elements in their blend of microgenres. When “Flight of the Heron” kicks in with a riff that feels as purely Kyussian as desert rock could to be — Sanchez‘s soon-arriving drums give a more urgent edge to that — that point of arrival is earned all the more by the swath of ground the band have covered in getting there.

Be it in the tense thud and crawl of the first half of “We Breathe Darkness” that resolves in a consuming, fluid sprawl of distortion, or in the stomp of “Dinosaur,” which revels in its stomp and is one several showpieces for Sanchez besides, or Shickler‘s higher-register reach in the apex of “Bellwether,” Blue Heron find ways to underscore their development as a band over the last several years, without either making Everything Fades about that more than its own songs or letting the material stray too far from where they want it to go. This self-awareness is a strength in terms of their craft and aesthetic purposes, and the album is able to cast itself as a front-to-back journey in part because of it. There may be a lot going on at any given point, and variety is given to structure as well as volume throughout — and not just with what’s a ‘song’ and what’s an interlude — but Everything Fades is cohesive and directed, and boasts a depth of mix that affects the listening experience, whether they’re going all-out and not.

Spiritu never got to put out a follow-up to their 2002 self-titled, and some of what Blue Heron do is directly inherited from Chavez and Shickler‘s work in that outfit, but not all of it. Certainly a powerhouse rhythm section, modern production, and greater stylistic range make a difference, and these are aspects of Blue Heron that come to light throughout Everything Fades in relation to its own predecessor. As the band dig further into their songwriting modus, they seem to find more that works, and even if the pieces included are shorter on average, they’re allowed more impact for that individually while feeding into the overarching flow that, like the movement in “Bellwether” from mellow, tom-backed sandy brooding into a vibrant, hard-hitting course, comes across as organic. At no point does Everything Fades feel forced to go somewhere it doesn’t want to, and much to Blue Heron‘s credit, “Flight of the Heron” resists the temptation to undo its impact with cleverness and ends cold.

To bottom line it, while Ephemeral saw Blue Heron setting forth with an idea of who they were and the kind of music they wanted to make, Everything Fades magnifies that exponentially and is therefore an greater showing of potential for continued growth. Without pretense, they align to an expanded definition of what desert rock is, and in fostering a more varied persona across these songs, they sound ready to add to it. Speaking scientifically, the record kicks ass.

Blue Heron, “Dinosaur” official video

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