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YOB Reissuing Elaborations of Carbon; Tour Starts This Weekend

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 18th, 2023 by JJ Koczan

YOB won’t actually hit all four corners of the US on their upcoming coast-to-coast tour, but they’re not far off. After starting out in their native Pacific Northwest, they’ll swing through the Midwest, loop up northeast to go south along the East Coast, then turn west and circle back out across to Southern California, finishing en route back north through Oakland. As the press release states, it’s the most significant North American touring they’ve done in four years, and as they make ready to go, word comes through the PR wire of a reissue of their first album, 2002’s Elaborations of Carbon, through Relapse Records.

If you don’t recognize 12th Records, the original label that put out the Eugene, Oregon-based three-piece’s debut full-length, it’s the imprint of Electric Amplifiers — even if you’re not a guitar nerd, you’ve probably seen Green or Black or White, etc., amplifiers resting on guitar cabinets at shows. That’s them. The label also put out releases from Bongzilla offshoot Cuda, as well as High on Fire‘s first demo, Starchild‘s debut and a curated selection of others around the turn of the century — also Black Capricorn in 2009, so they’re not by any means ancient-ancient history. Their eBay store remains a moneyspender’s paradise.

Elaborations of Carbon is by no means YOB‘s most crucial release, but it was a formative moment for them in discovering a genuinely cosmic take on doom, a psychedelia of heft not seen before if also not yet fully realized, and it remains a document of their beginning that, whether you have the original CD or not, is worth seeking out. Essential? Definitely if you’re digging into YOB‘s catalog for the first time. And for collectors, this new-art/remastered-audio edition is a no-brainer. If neither of those is you, maybe you preorder just because it’s been five years since YOB last put out a record and you feel a primal need to spend your money on their wares. I get it.

The 2LP Elaborations of Carbon will be out Sept. 15, but it’s streaming now, player is below, blah blah. You get it. Info came off the PR wire:

yob elaborations of carbon reissue

YOB ANNOUNCE ELABORATIONS OF CARBON (REISSUE)

PHYSICAL PRE-ORDERS OUT SEPTEMBER 15; REMASTERED DIGITAL AUDIO STREAMING IN FULL NOW

BEGIN US HEADLINE TOUR ON MAY 21

PRE-ORDER/LISTEN: https://orcd.co/yob-eoc

Epic, crushing, and heavy beyond words, YOB has achieved legendary status over the last two decades with their unmatched aesthetic and incredible body of work. Now Elaborations of Carbon, the debut full length that set the stage for the band’s singular, organic universe of transcendent doom, is being presented for the first time on vinyl as well as being made widely available for the first time across streaming services.

Mike Scheidt Comments:

“At long last, Elaborations Of Carbon is available to anyone who wants it, and on vinyl no less! It’s wild that EOC was first released over 20 years ago, counting the 4-song burned CD-R version we handed out to friends before releasing the 6-song album. We were swinging for the rafters, and gave it everything we had. It’s been a blast to revisit this album and remember all of the good times we had.”

Elaborations of Carbon physical pre-orders are out September 15 and available via Relapse.com HERE: https://www.relapse.com/pages/yob-elaborations-of-carbon

Remastered, digital audio is on all streaming services HERE: https://orcd.co/yob-eoc

The enormous volume and pensive, ethereal beauty that YOB would become synonymous with make themselves known across the 6 riveting tracks on Elaborations of Carbon. The album’s lineup features Yob founder and heart Mike Scheidt (vocals and guitars), Lowell Iles (bass), and Gabe Morley (drums) and was recorded and mixed by Jeff Olsen (who would go on to become a long time collaborator of YOB’s) at Dogwood Recordings in Elmira, OR.

After its initial release in May 2002 on 12th Records, the CD would see a small repress in 2013 and the album has been unavailable since. Billy Barnett was called upon to make the archival transfer for the 2023 reissue which was mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Music and features completely re-envisioned artwork by Orion Landau.

Additionally, YOB’s first full US tour in four years BEGINS this weekend on Sunday, May 21 at Modified Ghost Festival! The headline tour dates have them making their way across the US throughout late May & June with select support by CAVE IN (5/28-6/12) & PALLBEARER (6/13-6/24). Tickets are available now at https://www.yobislove.com/tour.

ELABORATIONS OF CARBON (REISSUE) TRACKLIST:
1. Universe Throb (2023 Remaster) 10:33
2. All The Children Forgotten (2023 Remaster) 17:01
3. Clear Seeing (2023 Remaster) 16:53
4. Revolution (2023 Remaster) 10:56
5. Pain Of I (2023 Remaster) 07:06
6. Asleep In Samsara (2023 Remaster) 07:20

YOB US TOUR DATES
Select Support By CAVE IN & PALLBEARER
Sun 5/21 – Vancouver, BC – Modified Ghost Festival (SOLD OUT)
Thu 5/25 – Seattle, WA – Northwest Terror Fest
Fri 5/26 – Boise, ID – Treefort Music Hall
Sat 5/27 – Salt Lake City, UT – Urban Lounge
Sun 5/28 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater*
Tue 5/30 – St Paul, MN – Turf Club* (SOLD OUT)
Wed 5/31 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown*
Thu 6/01 – Lawrence, KS – Bottleneck*
Fri 6/02 – Little Rock, AR – Mutants Of The Monster Fest*
Sat 6/03 – Murfreesboro, TN – Hop Springs*
Sun 6/04 – Louisville, KY – Portal*
Tue 6/06 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall*
Wed 6/07 – Pittsburgh, PA – Spirit Hall*
Thu 6/08 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar*
Fri 6/09 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts*
Sat 6/10 – Boston, MA – Middle East (Downstairs)* (SOLD OUT)
Mon 6/12 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge*
Tue 6/13 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge #
Wed 6/14 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry #
Thu 6/15 – Asheville, NC – Asheville Music Hall #
Fri 6/16 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade (Hell) #
Sat 6/17 – New Orleans, LA – House Of Blues #
Sun 6/18 – Austin, TX – Oblivion Access Festival #
Tue 6/20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister #
Wed 6/21 – Mesa, AZ – The Nile #
Thu 6/22 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick #
Fri 6/23 – Los Angeles, CA – Teragram Ballroom #
Sat 6/24 – Oakland, CA – 3rd & Castro #
* = w/ Cave In
# = w/ Pallbearer

Elaborations of Carbon credits:
Mike Scheidt – Guitar & Vocals
Lowell Iles – Bass
Gabe Morley – Drums

Recorded and mixed by Jeff Olsen at Dogwood Recording
Archival transfer by Billy Barnett
Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis Music
Design by Orion Landau

YOB is:
Mike Scheidt – Guitar, Vocals
Aaron Rieseberg – Bass
Dave French – Drums (live)

www.yobislove.com
www.facebook.com/quantumyob
www.instagram/com/quantumyob
https://twitter.com/quantumyob

http://www.relapse.com
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YOB, Elaborations of Carbon (2023 Reissue)

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Friday Full-Length: High on Fire, High on Fire EP

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

No question that by now High on Fire are a known quantity. For over 20 years, they’ve become not just a staple band of the heavy underground, but of heavy metal in general. To wit, they won a Grammy. One is hard-pressed to think of something that qualifies as “mainstream acceptance” more than that, short of founding guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike actually being elected President of the United States in some kind of meme-come-to-life grassroots write-in campaign.

Of course, that mainstream acceptance was a long time in coming, and earned the hard way — you might think of it as being ripped from the hands of the cultural gatekeepers, more breaking down the door than being let in; a convenient narrative to suit their aesthetic, to be sure — and much of the focus on High on Fire‘s emergence and success has been related to their work post-2010’s Snakes for the Divine (review here), the trilogy of Kurt Ballou-produced full-lengths in 2012’s De Vermiis Mysteriis (review here), 2015’s Luminiferous (review here) and 2018’s Electric Messiah (review here) helping to secure their place at the forefront of a generation of heavy music makers.

Their 2000 debut, The Art of Self-Defense, has been reissued a few times since its first 2000 release on Man’s Ruin Records, first by Tee Pee in 2001, then through Southern Lord in 2012 and 2021, and since 2012, those reissues have included the three songs from the band’s first self-titled demo, originally put out in 1999 by 12th Records. For those unfamiliar, 12th Records is the in-house label of Electric Amps — they still sell on eBay — and responsible for the debut offerings from High on FireYOBStarchildOcean ChiefBongzilla-offshoot Cuda, and others. People, in other words, who know what’s up. Relatively unsung heroes perhaps in helping shape a movement of capital-‘h’ Heavy.

But even High on Fire‘s High on Fire isn’t a lost release or some such, however much time has passed since it came out. The three tracks it contains — “Blood From Zion,” “10,000 Years” and “Master of Fists” — all appeared reworked on high on fire self titled coverThe Art of Self-Defense, and as noted, these songs have been included on the reissues along with the Celtic Frost cover “Usurper” and “Steel Shoe” (which first showed up on Tee Pee‘s edition of the album in 2001) as a document of the band at that time. Fair enough.

To listen to them on their own, however, brings to mind just how rudimentary they are but also how much they speak for the intentions of the band at that point. Pike, along with founding drummer Des Kensel, who left the band in 2019, and bassist George Rice, who was gone after 2002’s Surrounded by Thieves, had been together for about a year by the time these songs came together, and it should be noted that The Music Cartel‘s posthumous release of Sleep‘s Jerusalem also came out in 1998, so these changes were happening in real time, Pike moving from one band even as the other was continuing to wind down.

High on Fire‘s intentions were different, of course, and one can hear the foundations of their trademark marauding thrash in “Blood From Zion” and “10,000 Years,” but in those cuts — maddeningly catchy as they are; I’m going to have “10,000 Years” on repeat in my head for a week but sacrifices must be made — as well as the 10-minute “Master of Fists,” there’s a kind of overarching groove that the band at their most riotous would let go even by the time Surrounded by Thieves or 2005’s Blessed Black Wings (review here) were out. By that point, High on Fire had more fully embraced the idea of being something different in terms of songwriting than the pioneering stoner metal from whence Pike had come in Sleep. High on Fire became their own band.

This self-titled — which feels ripe for a 10″ pressing if anything in the universe possibly could; please, MNRK (formerly E1), do the thing right and keep the original artwork — is something earlier. It doesn’t completely let go of who Sleep were, even as it feels out the spaces of influence that would eventually define High on Fire‘s work in the aforementioned Celtic Frost, as well as Motörhead, Slayer, etc. Pike‘s vocals are layered and mostly clean, as he’d not yet developed the gruff, sometimes-screaming shouts that he would not only turn into a trademark but that would become a point of influence for other bands.

His underlying ambitions and perhaps insecurities as a singer have been a theme in his work all along, from fronting the side-project Kalas sans-guitar to his 2022 solo debut, Pike vs. the Automaton. Accordingly it’s somewhat ironic that other players out there are trying to match his barbarous, barking style, but that’s about as classic a dynamic as metal has. Take the thing you can do, make it yours, and own it. Stage presence also helps, I’m sure.

Keep in mind as you listen that I’m not trying to sell you on the High on Fire EP/demo as anything other than what it is. These are the band’s rudimentary beginnings, and despite the clear vocals, it’s still plenty raw in sound and tone as one might expect, but listening to it now with more than two decades of hindsight is a worthy reminder of where they came from and how far they’ve gone in the years since.

I seem to recall they were in the studio with Ballou again at some point, the band now comprised of Pike, bassist Jeff Matz (since 2006; man, time flies; wonder how he feels not being “the new guy” anymore) and drummer Coady Willis (also Big Business), the latter of whom joined after the departure of Kensel. Either way, they’ve got shows this year from Desertfest NYC to the Sound of Liberation anniversary parties to Heavy Psych Sounds Fest to SXSW next weekend. Hard to imagine they won’t be at Psycho Las Vegas one way or the other, too. They’re kind of the house band of that festival, if not the sheer embodiment of its ethic. In any case, a new album would be nothing but welcome, if and when.

As always, I hope you enjoy.

Spent most of the week feeling overwhelmed, the way one does. Even last night, I had my laptop out to try and get some work done and I was just too tired to actually put fingers to keyboard to make anything happen. I guess it’ll be Monday for the new Samavayo video since The Pecan’s school bus is due home in about half an hour and, well, I need more time than that to do a thing.

They really fucked my shit up when they switched his bus from like 8AM to a little before 9. That extra hour has proven to be the difference between me feeling like I’m handling what needs to be handled in a given day and me feeling like I felt this week, which is very much the opposite. Throw in more potty-training woes and I think you get a pretty accurate picture of the headspace I’m currently occupying. It is, and has for a while now been, a grind.

And if you believe the weekend brings any relief, well, you’ve probably never met my four-year-old. The Patient Mrs. gets preferential work time, because, you know what she does with it actually pays for the roof over our heads, but I’ve been struggling to keep up with things, and I find myself putting together the back ends of posts during late-in-the-day TV time, while waiting at speech or OT — The Pecan receives both — and any other moment I might have a hand free to hold my phone. I’m writing on it right now, for example, watching the little clock in the corner that seems to count down as much as it’s counting up.

Small stakes, right? I know. Who cares, right? I know. To whom does it matter if this post doesn’t happen? Me, god damn it. It matters to me.

So what’s the answer? What would be enough time? Well, it sure would be nice to have that hour back every Monday-to-Friday, especially since I proved yesterday in writing that Moura review that if I want to dig into stuff like that it’s going to have to be accounted for on the clock, but one can’t pull hours out of one’s ass in infinite supply. I could start waking up early again, rebuild that habit. Might not be a terrible idea anyway, but even getting up at 6:30AM instead of 5AM, I’m still tired as crap by like 8PM and ready for bed. I don’t know where to put myself, ultimately. I suppose that’s nothing new.

Add to that body stress — I hate the way I look, the way I feel in my own skin. Also nothing new. But it’s always there, like a hum in the background. Self-loathing of my physical person as the existential white noise in which I reside. Burrowed deep.

I could go on, but for the clock.

I wish you a great and safe weekend. Next week is packed full already, so at least I know what’s coming — Mount Saturn, Uncle Woe, Soldat Hans, Besvarjelsen, Red Sun Atacama, Ealdor Bealu — off that’s a lot of good stuff. Wow. I should get to work on that.

Have fun. Watch your head. Hydrate. MiBK’s fundraiser for Ukraine is still going on, so buy Obelisk merch and support that. All proceeds go.

FRM.

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Black Capricorn, Black Capricorn: La Chiamata Della Capra

Posted in Reviews on January 10th, 2012 by JJ Koczan

When it comes to 12th Records, it’s a safe bet that whatever else you’re going to get, the disc is going to have massive tone. The label is the imprint of Electric Amplifiers, which, unsurprisingly, the bands it puts out are using. 12th Records doesn’t issue discs often, but the label has been home to debuts and landmark albums from High on Fire, YOB, Ocean Chief and Starchild, among others, so when they get behind something, it’s worth paying attention. In the case of the Sardinian outfit Black Capricorn, that’s no less true than it’s ever been. Their 2011 self-titled debut keeps with the label’s tradition of engulfing fuzz – rhythm guitarist/vocalist Fabrizio “Kjxu” Monni’s riffs are given front-and-center attention in the band’s sound, and rightly so. On some levels, Black Capricorn is preaching to the converted here, but if it’s going to be stoner rock for stoner rock’s sake, I’m not going to hold it against the groove of “Il Tamburo del Demonio,” which seems to split the band’s attention between worship of the cosmos and worship of the capital-g Goat. Whatever they’re doing thematically, though, it’s the lurching tonal thickness and warmth that’s going to lure you in and keep you for the record’s 46-minute duration, and Black Capricorn – who’ve since added Il Baro on vocals/synth and a full-time lead guitarist in Andrea “Lord Fex” Cadeddu – make the most of it here.

Black Capricorn’s Black Capricorn was recorded in 2009, and Lord Fex does appear on guitar alongside Kxju on the closing duo of “The Maelmhaedhoc O’Morgair Prophecy” and “Liquid Universe,” but he’s credited as a guest musician, as is Claudio Monni (relation to Kxju assumed), who plays on the rest of the songs. The actual lineup is listed as Kxju, bassist Virginia and drummer Rachela, and if the distinction is that the trio recorded live and the other parts were added later, not knowing whether that’s the case or not, I’d believe it, given the natural flow of the material on the album. It is unpretentious in its awareness of genre and style to the point that the sample use on “Capricorn One” – taking its name from the 1978 sci-fi thriller – is more charming than redundant, and that from the opening riff that begins “Sa Bruxia,” Black Capricorn seem less concerned with innovation than exploration of nuance. That is to say, their debut doesn’t do much to reinvent the style of psychedelic stoner rock, but it develops a personality within it and makes the aesthetic conventions work to its advantage, at least for the most part. “Sa Bruxia” features the first of many excellent nod-ready grooves to come, and the integration of Claudio Monni’s lead work is fluid, sounding not at all out of place with the lumbering riffs surrounding.

For the most part, Kxju keeps his vocals to far-back echoes, and that works well in enhancing the album’s psychedelic feel, but on “Capricorn One,” he switches to a gruff, blown-out approach that does well to offer change from the first two tracks – “Perpetual Eclipse” being the second and keeping much the same vibe as the opener, with an added didgeridoo intro from Kxju. That switch is subtle compared to the overall effect of Black Capricorn, which is as though someone was shouting, “Follow that giant riff!” but with the more upbeat instrumental and desert-ed “Il Tamburo del Demonio” following, it has time to sink in before the album highlight “10,000 Tons of Lava” takes hold and blends the two processes. Virginia’s bass, which has warmth to match Kxju’s, should already have been noted as an element working greatly in Black Capricorn’s favor throughout the record, but on “10,000 Tons of Lava,” the contribution is undeniable. Accompanied by the strongest vocal performance here-included and rumbling low beneath a momentary break, it is the stuff of stoner rock dreams and immaculately put to tape. As Kxju’s effects swirl out into interstellar oblivion, I’m more locked in with what Virginia and Rachela are doing behind them, which probably wasn’t the original intent of the song but doesn’t weaken the impression it leaves.

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Sat-r-dee Cuda

Posted in Bootleg Theater on October 15th, 2011 by JJ Koczan

6:14AM – Woke up a bit ago from a dream that The Patient Mrs. was pregnant. There wasn’t much action happening — it’s not like she was pregnant and we were in a car chase; that was a separate dream — but it was one of those super-realistic dreams that you’re not sure when you come out of it which side of reality you’re on. Funny shit. I can’t even go to sleep without being hounded to reproduce. You’d almost think my genes weren’t totally fucked.

Anyway, once I was up, the thought of there being writing to do assured I wouldn’t go back to sleep — if you’re awake, you might as well be productive — so here I am. The four hours I got should suffice, or maybe I’ll be lucky and crash back out after this post. I’m not too worried about it. And hey, there’s Cuda, doing “Hellfire.” Who doesn’t want to be awake for that?

It might seem a strange choice to wake up and suddenly say, “I’m gonna go post a Cuda clip!” but it makes sense on some level as I was thinking about the nature of obscurity last night as I started to put together the new podcast — oh yeah, there will be a new podcast this weekend — and was ripping tracks from bands who had vastly different levels of success in their time. I don’t want to give away the theme in advance, but it got me thinking about all the stoner bands that popped up in the period between the mid-’90s and early-’00s and how many if any of them will have the chance to be rediscovered however far down the line.

Cuda was a one-shot offshoot from Bongzilla. Guitarist Spanky and bassist Cooter Brown assembled a four-piece and released the stonerly Hellfire EP on 12th Records in 2001. It’s the only thing they ever put out that I know of. Under half an hour of music 10 years ago and that’s it. Amazing how many acts have come and gone on one official release over the years. Hell, my band did it, if you want to put “official” in quotes.

This coming week, aside from that new podcast I already mentioned, I’ll get that Sungrazer interview posted. It’s not long, but there’s some insight to it that I think is cool and guitarist Rutger Smeets talks about being on tour with Colour Haze and RotoR, which is badass. I’ll also have reviews of discs from El Camino, Nordic Nomadic, The Dive and Russian Circles (and someone else), and in case the podcast isn’t enough audio for you, a premiere of a new track from SerpentCult. Lots of good stuff to come.

If you’ve emailed me in the last week or two and I haven’t gotten back yet, I apologize. Things have been really busy for me between work and school, and I just haven’t had the chance to be on my laptop and conscious at the same time. I’ll hammer all that out this weekend. Hope you have a good one. Be safe and we’ll see you on the forum and back here Monday for more zany fun.

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Buried Treasure and the Master of Fists

Posted in Buried Treasure on September 23rd, 2011 by JJ Koczan

Guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike formed High on Fire in 1998. It was about six months after his former outfit — a little group called Sleep — broke up, and together with drummer Des Kensel and bassist George Rice, Pike began to move in a less directly Sabbath-minded direction. The band’s first release came out in the form of a 1999 self-titled EP on 12th Records.

Not only was High on Fire‘s High on Fire the first output from the band, it was also the first 12th Records release. The label, which was and remains the imprint arm of the Electric Amp company, put out High on Fire prior to the band’s signing with Man’s Ruin for their first full-length, 2000’s The Art of Self-Defense.

Of course, High on Fire would go on over the course of subsequent releases on Relapse — 2002’s Surrounded by Thieves, 2005’s Blessed Black Wings and 2007’s Death is this Communion — to come to the forefront of modern metal consciousness, eventually signing with E1 for the release of last year’s Snakes for the Divine, but in 1999, they were still pretty much just Matt Pike‘s new band post-Sleep.

The High on Fire EP isn’t nearly as thrash-laden as the trio’s sound would eventually become, but those elements are there, particularly in Kensel‘s pulsating kick and the way he and Pike interact. George Rice, who would stick around until being replaced by Joe Preston (the Melvins, Thrones) for Blessed Black Wings, offered a stonerly thickness under the guitar solo in “10,000 Years,” and Pike‘s vocals actually find him trying some cleaner singing, which is something he wouldn’t attempt again for some time, instead relying on the rasp that came to typify the band’s first several LPs.

If you can find it, the EP is definitely worth a listen for fans of the band who may have joined up later. There are copies of the CD out there, and I’m told of this new phenomenon called “down-loading” (I may have that wrong) in which computers can be used like record players, but whatever futuristic means you use to acquire it — I was fortunate enough to find it at a semi-reasonable price in physical form — consider it recommended.

All three of these songs — “Blood From Zion,” “10,000 Years” and “Master of Fists” — showed up again on The Art of Self-Defense, but there’s nothing quite like hearing how it was the first time for the first time. If I was Frank Kozik (and I’m not, much to my ongoing disappointment), I’d have signed them too.

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