With their Fall tour — as opposed to the summer one; yeah, it goes like that — currently ongoing, Greek heavy rockers 1000mods have announced more European undertakings set for early next year. The run begins March 5 at A38 Hajó in Budapest, which I’m excited to see on a list of dates because I went there one time, and carries the band into April as they continue to support their new album, Cheat Death (review here). Note that the new tour has them out with Frenzee, whose Apollonia “Api” Xylouris contributes guest vocals on the record. Some potential for onstage collaboration then, certainly, as the two bands run through a succession of shows in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal.

Lest we forget, 1000mods were in the US in Fall 2023. I haven’t heard anything about a return trip for the new record, but with a North American release through Ripple — the band’s imprint, Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug (also a booking company), has it for the rest of the world — it’s by no means outside the realm of possibility. Whatever you can do though to see them, they are second to none at what they do.

Sound of Liberation, which is co-presenting the tour, posted the following. Remaining Fall shows are included, new dates underneath. You’ll figure it out:

1000MODS – NEW ALBUM & TOUR DATES

Their brand new album “Cheat Death” just dropped, and they’re bringing it live across Europe! Don’t miss out on these epic shows – check the dates below and catch them in a city near you. Plus, we’re thrilled to have them on stage at SOL SONIC RIDE COLOGNE on 29.03.2025 at Carlswerk Victoria + Club Volta, Cologne (tickets via link in bio). 🔥

Looking for 1000Mods merch and vinyl? Head over to our shop: www.sol-records.com. 🛒

Fall 2024 Tour Dates:

20.11.2024 (FI) Helsinki, Ääniwalli
22.11.2024 (SE) Stockholm, Fuzz Festival
23.11.2024 (SE) Borlänge, Broken Dreams
24.11.2024 (SE) Gothenburg, Hemligheten
25.11.2024 (NO) Oslo, Goldie
26.11.2024 (SE) Malmö, Plan B

Spring 2025 “Cheat Death” Album Release Tour:
05.03.2025 (HU) Budapest, A38
06.03.2025 (AT) Vienna, Arena
07.03.2025 (DE) Lindau, Club Vaudeville
08.03.2025 (CH) Pratteln, Z7
09.03.2025 (CH) Geneva, PTR L’Usine
10.03.2025 (FR) Lyon, Transbordeur Club
12.03.2025 (FR) Toulouse, Metronum
13.03.2025 (FR) Montpellier, Victoire 2
14.03.2025 (ES) Barcelona, Apolo 2
16.03.2025 (ES) Madrid, Nazca
17.03.2025 (PT) Lisbon, RCA Club
18.03.2025 (PT) Porto, Mouco
20.03.2025 (ES) Bilbao, Stage Live
21.03.2025 (FR) Alençon, La Luciole
23.03.2025 (FR) Paris, La Maroquinerie
24.03.2025 (FR) Wasquehal, Black Lab
25.03.2025 (BE) Brussels, La Botanique
26.03.2025 (NL) Amsterdam, Melkweg
27.03.2025 (NL) Nijmegen, Doornroosje
28.03.2025 (NL) Groningen, Vera
30.03.2025 (DE) Cologne, Carlswerk Victoria (SOL Sonic Ride Cologne)
31.03.2025 (DE) Aschaffenburg, Colos Saal
01.04.2025 (DE) Erlangen, E-Werk
02.04.2025 (DE) Munich, Backstage
03.04.2025 (DE) Regensburg, Alte Mälzerei
04.04.2025 (DE) Leipzig, Werk 2
05.04.2025 (DE) Hamburg, Knust
06.04.2025 (DE) Berlin, Columbia Theater

All tickets and info available on the official 1000Mods website: www.1000mods.com/tour. 🎫

https://www.instagram.com/1000mods/
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https://1000mods.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/1000mods
http://www.1000mods.com/

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http://www.ripple-music.com/

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1000mods, Cheat Death (2024)

Greece’s foremost heavy rock export, 1000mods return to work with producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, tons more) after collaborating on their 2020 LP, Youth of Dissent (review here, discussed here), for their fifth album, Cheat Death, which collects 10 new tracks across an hour of music issued through the band’s own Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings and Ripple Music (in the US). And like Youth of Dissent, the album feels somewhat defiant in its vision of what heavy rock is and can do.

That is to say, where those familiar with 1000mods‘ earlier work might have an expectation of desert style party-isms of the kind that were offered on 2011’s full-length debut, Super Van Vacation (review here; discussed here, also here), with the choice sandy grooves that helped ignite/expose a generational shift in the Greek underground the ramifications of which are still panning out 13 years later, the truth of 1000mods‘ catalog when you listen to it front to back is that they’ve always been a more complex band. Even as they bring Bayles back on board to produce/engineer and mix Cheat Death (Brad Boatright mastered), the band have continued to evolve as they’ve done all along, refusing to stagnate and so — although the title-track lyrically is about love — part of the death being cheated across the album’s not-insignificant timespan is creative stagnation.

1000mods — now the core trio of vocalist/bassist Dani G., guitarist/vocalist George T. and drummer Labros G.; that’s down from the four-piece they were with Giannis S. on guitar; they still have two guitars live — have never put out the same album twice, and as they have all along, the band have not neglected to learn what worked for them and what didn’t on Youth of Dissent, and as Cheat Death moves forward, from the stark colors of its Eva Mourtzi cover compared to the muted tones of the album prior — both covers have a message to send; I’m not belittling either approach — to the rhythmic drive behind “Götzen Hammer” or the get-what-you-see galloping frenzy of “Speedhead,” it both works from its own foundations and remains aware of what 1000mods have done before.

The hooky and somewhat melancholic “Overthrown” and the dreamier build of golly-I-hope-I-get-to-see-them-play-it-live-at-some-point-ever 10-minute finale “Grey, Green Blues” each showcase a mature songwriting process, and special attention seems to have been given to conveying a sense of energy in the material; in both the speedier shuffle of “The One Who Keeps Me Down” and the Hammond-tinged alt-rock verses of “Love,” even in the cello’ed and finger-plucked (plus piano) instrumental “Bluebird” later on, the band are able to direct their songs to different ends that feed into the overarching flow and depth of Cheat Death as a whole. Classic stuff, but there seems to be more consciousness in Cheat Death in terms of the band wanting to shake up the proceedings between the songs. Sometimes that’s a change in mood, as when the mostly-swaying (until the solo, which shreds) “Misery” and “Bluebird” offer a somber stretch before the title-track twists and careens like modern progressive metal playing back to ’80s riffing as the lyrics present a more hopeful take.

Arrangements are part of it too. As noted, “Bluebird” brings in cello (by Nikos Veliotis), while that same song, “Love,” and “Grey, Green Blues” boast keys/organ from Jiomy Amaranth. The feeling of expansion around the core of what 1000mods do musically is almost immediate on Cheat Death as Godsleep‘s Amie Makris joins Dani on vocals, and while also giving the album a singular heavy blowout, “Götzen Hammer” incorporates the voice of Apollonia “Api” Xylouris from Frenzee, semantron by Panos Z. and guitar by John S. That both of these songs appear early on doesn’t feel like a coincidence, as the procession of cuts across Cheat Death bears out an intentional push-pull dynamic, for example, as “Astral Odor” opens up some of the relative intensity of crush, which is something that “Cheat Death” answers back to later on side B. Most of the lyrical framework is brooding, emotive, longing and questioning, but the album is by no means all-downer in terms of point of view.

“Speedhead” might be almost afraid of its own manic shove, but “Love,” “Cheat Death” and “Grey, Green Blues” remind that it’s not all self-doubt and recriminations, and the music behind, in front of and generally all around the words follows suit. In this way, 1000mods create a diverse impression without ranging so far as to lose the plot or cohesion of the material itself, and their songs, which even in mid-album pieces like “Astral Odor” and “Love” are capable of reaching toward seven minutes long, have a quality underlying construction that not only justifies the breadth, but makes it an important part of the point. Shifts in perspective, subject, riff, whatever it might be become part of the album’s persona, and the included guest appearances do much to showcase 1000mods‘ big-picture considerations in terms of how the songs interact, what each one brings to the album, and why and what that adds to the course of its entirety.

To call the skill with which 1000mods execute Cheat Death anything less than masterful is probably underselling how much actual work the band have put into their growth over the last 15-plus years between the studio and touring, and where from 2014’s Vultures (review here, discussed here) onward, they could have been issuing clones of Super Van Vacation and still be one of the biggest names Greece has ever produced in heavy rock, the fact that they’re so uncompromising in their direction, that they don’t write any songs other than the ones they want to write, that somehow-daring chase toward authenticity, makes them all the more respectable.

They could take a probably an easier path but don’t because it wouldn’t be as fulfilling, and accordingly, their albums play out in succession to tell the story of their evolution in installments. Cheat Death is the latest of these, and that it’s their fifth record and the listener still comes out of it wondering where on earth they might go next should be taken as a sign of how special a band they are in the first place. Their commitment to exploring new ideas in their work is unflinching, paramount, and Cheat Death does this with correspondingly punkish grace and heart.

1000mods, Cheat Death (2024)

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Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug on Instagram

Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug on Bandcamp

Ripple Music on Facebook

Ripple Music on Instagram

Ripple Music on Bandcamp

Ripple Music website

The new 1000mods album, Cheat Death, will be out Nov. 8 through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings in Europe/ROW and, as announced just over a week ago, through Ripple Music in North America, and what’s happening below, in addition to spreading the word for preorders opening through both imprints is setting up the unveiling of the first single from the record, the opening track “Overthrown.”

At a little under eight minutes in runtime, the album’s lead cut is a not-unsubstantial sampling of what the hour-long LP has in store for listeners taking it on. If you’re a longtime fan of the band, you know to there’s a lot that’s fair game in terms of where they’re progression might take them at this point, and if the band are cheating death creatively, they’re for sure doing it by continuing to grow as players and artists. I have no ‘skin in the game’ in terms of involvement making or promoting the release, but I find all the same I’m excited and interested to see what people make of it when they hear it. Also I guess I’m no longer pretending not to have heard it. Oops.

Found this on socials. Bonus points for misleadingly punkish cover art:

***1000mods – Cheat Death***

Dear friends,

We’re thrilled to announce that our new album Cheat Death will be released on November 8th through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug worldwide and Ripple Music in North America only.

You can pre-order Cheat Death through our brand new website for Ouga Booga!

Pressings:
Yellow & Red Splatter Vinyls 2LP Ltd to 500 (available only for pre-order)
180g Black Vinyl 2LP

Visit: https://ougabooga.com

Tracklist:

1. Overthrown
2. The One Who Keeps Me Down
3. Götzen Hammer
4. Astral Odor
5. Love
6. Speedhead
7. Misery
8. Bluebird
9. Cheat Death
10. Grey, Green Blues

Artwork by Eva Mourtzi

On Friday, the 20th of September we will release our first single “Overthrown”

You can presave it here: https://orcd.co/overthrown

https://www.instagram.com/1000mods/
https://www.facebook.com/1000mods/
https://1000mods.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/1000mods

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

https://www.facebook.com/Ougaboogarecs
https://www.instagram.com/ougabooga_recordings/
https://ougaboogaandthemightyoug.bandcamp.com/

1000mods, Youth of Dissent (2020)