It would be hard to have a discussion about the most influential bands of the last decade in underground heavy and ignore All Them Witches. You’ll pardon me if I don’t try. The Nashville-based four-piece issued the quizzically-titled Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here) on Oct. 30, 2015, as a twice-over pivotal moment for group. First, it was their label-debut on New West Records, to which they signed earlier in 2015 as they began to make higher-profile appearances at fests like Bonnaroo and others, giving them an opportunity to reach a broader audience. Second, while they’d had the limited A Sweet Release EP (review here) out earlier that year and regularly put other odds and ends on their Bandcamp, as well as live shows for a minute there, the nine-song/47-minute Dying Surfer Meets His Maker was the proper follow-up to their self-released 2013 sophomore LP, Lightning at the Door (review here), which was already regarded as a landmark by the time the next album showed up, also marking the point at which they became a touring band.
Those two factors aren’t to be understated, neither is how All Them Witches met the moment. Even more than Lightning at the Door did coming off the band’s debut — 2012’s Our Mother Electricity (review here), which was released in 2013 through Elektrohasch as All Them Witches became the first American act on the label run by Stefan Koglek of Colour Haze — Dying Surfer Meets His Maker seemed to actively work against expectation. At a point when the four-piece — bassist/vocalist Charles Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod, Rhodes-ist/violinist Allan Van Cleave and drummer Robby Staebler — could have shifted their approach with a direct eye toward growing their listener base, which they ended up doing anyhow, they dug in. Dying Surfer puts its emphasis on fluidity, on a whole-album presentation, on instrumentalism. Consider “El Centro” emerging from the subdued acoustic-begun opener “Call Me Star.” It wasn’t the first time they put a semi-intro up front — recall the previous album had “Funeral for a Great Drunken Bird” — but All Them Witches grew out in terms of reach instead of up in terms of volume.
Their songcraft loosened so that “El Centro,” which wants nothing for heft or groove in its eight-plus minutes as the longest included piece, and an atmospheric stretch like “This is Where it Falls Apart,” with McLeod leading a harmonica-laced jam in a style of liquefied heavy psychedelic blues that All Them Witches are now widely credited with creating, or the willfully soft melodic exploration in “Mellowing” before “Open Passageways” — which is the kind of song that doesn’t come along every decade and should be appreciated as such in composition and arrangement — served as the gateway to the transitional “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future)” ahead of the closing pair “Talisman” and “Blood and Sand/Milk and Endless Waters,” the latter instrumental but for some spoken parts early and late and the former an essential mood piece, its lyrics vague and characteristic of Parks‘ obscure poetry in telling a story from an assumed point of view. Even “Dirt Preachers,” which is so much Dying Surfer‘s outburst moment, loud and tense, breaking into its chorus like the Kool-Aid Man through the wall of your mom’s house in your ’90s daydreams, subverts expectation in how it’s constructed. It’s got a hook, to be sure, but in production and delivery it is introverted and lets the listener find it instead of reaching out at the risk of coming off cloying. If All Them Witches have ever been anything, it’s not that. “Dirt Preachers” is more memorable than catchy.
It’s neonostalgic hearing that and the record from whence it comes, not the least because the band have three subsequent studio LPs — 2017’s Sleeping Through the War (review here), 2018’s ATW (review here) and 2020’s Nothing as the Ideal (review here) — and multiple live releases and so on in the eight years since, but even now there are new aspects of Dying Surfer Meets His Maker that reveal themselves in terms of how the component songs interact. One can hear them working in pairs, as “Call Me Star” moves into “El Centro,” the purposeful turn of “Dirt Preachers” slowing into its emotionally resonant finish and smoothly giving over to the comedown jam “This is Where it Falls Apart,” and “Mellowing” serves as a lead-in for “Open Passageways”; though, if it’s an intro, it should be noted that it’s longer than the song it’s introducing. Does that make “Open Passageways” an outro?
This procession grows more complex but no less fluid as “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future)” softly meanders on electric guitar, jams through its midsection and quiets again in the two and a half minutes before “Talisman” takes hold and builds to its finish of singing lead guitar and subtle angularity amid a tone warm enough that it seems to be what the lyrics are craving, and “Blood and Sand/Milk and Endless Waters” capping by building on that shimmer, trippy but not lacking motion thanks in no small part to Staebler‘s kick drum, which along with the prominent fuzz in Parks‘ bass, is the last element to leave as they make their way out, the three sets of song-pairs leading to the blurring of lines that is the final trilogy, likewise raw and lush, fully dug in and brazenly their own. They could’ve started writing hits for nonexistent radio. They went the other way and emerged stronger for it.
All ThemWitches last year released a series of monthly singles called ‘Baker’s Dozen’ (posted here) that continued to put light on the variety in their approach and the strength of their jams, they put out the physical pressings of the late-2020 Live on the Internet stream capture, and earlier this year, they launched a tour playing multiple nights in major markets, each night doing a different album in full, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker among them. Having left following Sleeping Through the War, Van Cleave re-completed the four-piece by returning in 2021. He would seem to be welcome on all fronts, internal and external. Three years (i.e., 2020-’23) is the longest All Them Witches have gone without an LP release since their inception, but they’ve never really stopped, and they’ve never stopped growing. Dying Surfer Meets His Maker is an essential showcase of that ethic, and an uncompromised view of who the band were becoming, in addition to being one of the foremost releases of the heavy ’10s.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading.
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Well, we seem to have made it through camp this week, which is the same thing I said last Friday with zoo camp before getting the call from the counselor to go pick up The Pecan early because apparently like the last two hours of the entire week was a bridge too far in terms of her holding it together. It helps that what we’ve been calling “farm camp” — at Foster Fields, in Morristown, a working historical farm — is two and a half hours per day instead of eight or whatever zoo camp was. Still, on Wednesday we rolled in to pick her up and got to hear about her biting a counselor. Again.
I could go on and on here about my concerns, worries, etc., as regards The Pecan. Between the ever-present behavioral issues, attention deficit, hyperactivity, lack of concern for the feelings of others, basic mental health and periodically violent temper. She’s trying. I know she is. She has a good heart. I wish she had an easier time.
Tonight I’m going to see Metallica? At Giants Stadium? Weird, I know. It’s a long story. My sister went to the Guns ‘n’ Roses/Metallica/Faith No More tour in 1991. I even got to watch about 45 seconds of Metallica that night, at the tender age of nine. She bought tickets to tonight and Sunday I think mostly so she could take her older son (15 and accordingly brooding) and our mother (76, needs new knees and had cataract surgery this week, which went well), but, you know, family outing. I’ve never seen a Metallica show, and while the thought of watching some of the openers and then exposing myself to the potential of hearing about James Hetfield’s lifestyle determining his deathstyle makes my stomach turn, my mother will have a good time and I’ll remember my mother having a good time. That’s what it’s about. I’m not reviewing. I’m sure it will be fine.
Next Tuesday I travel to Portugal for SonicBlast. My first time there. The timetable got released a couple weeks ago and it’s a beautiful lack of scheduling conflicts that’s going to make for a few busy days. Three full fest days and a pre-show. That I’ll be covering, words and pics, as much as I possibly can.
5:30 now and I expect The Pecan up any minute, so I’ll leave it there for the week. Monday and Tuesday are already full before I fly out Tuesday night, a Medicine Horse premiere and maybe a Desslok premiere? Lots of videos lately. I might try to sneak in another review as well, just because there’s a ton going on, but it depends on time and how anxious/distracted I am about the journey to be made. I also have a new camera bag that replaces my cosmic backpack, which The Pecan took to camp three weeks ago and it got organic bug repellant spilled in it, smelling like ginger on an apparently permanent basis. I need to pack that, make sure I have earplugs, Advil, chargers, whathaveyou.
In any case, I wish you a great and safe weekend. Have fun, drink water, watch your head, don’t bite anybody who doesn’t want to be bit, and so on. Thanks as always for reading.
Posted in Features on December 22nd, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Please note: This list is not culled in any way from the Readers Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2015 to that, please do.
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It’s damn near impossible to start one of these posts without some derivation of, “Whew! What a year it’s been!” The truth is that, since 2014, I’ve been keeping a list of the best releases of 2015, and the list has just grown and grown and grown over the last 12 months. Could have been a top 40, easy. Could have been a top 50, 60, whatever. It was complete inundation.
If you’ve been checking in on any of the lists that have gone up so far, you might notice that some of these records have appeared elsewhere, and possibly in a different order. How does an album end up ahead of another on one list and not on another? Different criteria. Different basis of judgment. As always, the big year-end list (this one) is derived both from what I think are the most important offerings of the year plus what I listened to the most, because while I believe deeply in the critical value of a given work, I also believe there’s value in the kind of record you just can’t put down.
Basically, I believe records have value. Stay tuned for more daring adventures in understatement.
A few emergent factors for 2015 to note: The increasing expansion of subgenres. Psychedelia and what I’ve come to call the heavy ’10s sound finding further root as prominent styles of the day, as well as a budding of emotive doom in the post-Pallbearer vein. At the same time, a more straightforward heavy rock is also making a return, and look for that to continue as new listeners discover past landmarks and modern plays thereupon. Everything is cyclical, and I’m interested to see what the next two or three years bring, both as Millennials hit 30 (and beyond) and as younger kids come up and fuzz out.
But that’s a conversation for a different time, and before we get there, it’s time to take a look back at the best full-lengths of 2015. I hope if I’ve left something out, you’ll let me know about it in the comments, but until then, here we go:
Going by some of the results I’ve seen from the Readers Poll, I’m guessing there will be some disagreement on the placement of High on Fire‘s seventh full-length, third for eOne and second to be produced by Kurt Ballou behind 2012’s De Vermiis Mysteriis (review here), but for me it came down to what I went back to more. The brilliant “The Falconist” would be enough on its own for Luminiferous to be included on this list, and taken as a whole, the record affirmed the trio as pivotal heavy metal marauders, an act whose devastation is undulled by the wear they’ve put on it touring the world over and again.
Undaunted by a name change from Church to CHRCH, the Sacramento five-piece unleashed rare doom extremity on their debut album, but peppered that with a stylistic nuance that many in the pummel-pummel-pummel game cast off, whether it was psychedelic flourish in the guitar or some eerie atmospheric. Among the post potential-filled debut offerings of the year, that’s not a guarantee they’ll find future success on the same level, but it does mean that if you didn’t hear the 19-minute “Dawning,” you missed out.
Coherent bliss. The second full-length from the four-piece Golden Void was a logical step forward from the band’s 2012 self-titled debut (review here), but that was precisely what it needed to be. With an emerging dynamic of dual vocals between guitarist Isaiah Mitchell (also Earthless) and keyboardist Camilla Saufley-Mitchell on cuts like “Astral Plane” and “Silent Season,” Berkana was less adherent to space rock overall than its predecessor, but gave a more individualized take and was all the richer for it.
Probably should have a higher number. Part of the enduring appeal for The Harvest for me is not only how Ukrainian three-piece Stoned Jesus so absolutely pushed back from the album before it, 2012’s sophomore outing, Seven Thunders Roar (review here), but how much reasoning they put behind the moves they made on the six included tracks. Each song had its purpose and place in the overarching flow, and The Harvest continues to deliver something new on thoroughly-earned repeat listens. Perhaps most encouraging of all, I have no idea what they’ll do next.
Swedish retro forerunners are hands-down one of the most influential European heavy rock acts of their generation. The ’70s revivalism they helped spearhead on their first, second and third LPs has given them rich ground to develop, and they still managed to bring something new to their sound with the soulfulness of Innocence and Decadence, as well as increasing command and diversity in the vocals. Drummer Axel Sjöberg turned in a career performance, and although there are heaps upon heaps of bands out there indulging in post-Graveyard boogie, they showed once again that they’re able to stand both out from the crowd and well above it. Plus, any swing-rocking album that dares to break out soul-singer backing vocals and blastbeats, and pull both off without blinking deserves respect, no matter what else it might have going on.
It felt so good to put on Death Hawks‘ Sun Future Moon for the first time and be completely blindsided by its serene psychedelic ritualizing. The Finnish four-piece reveled in classic progressive methods, and where it would’ve been so easy for songs like “Hey Ya Sun Ra” or “Dream Life, Waking Life” to come across as pretentious, the naturalism in the recording gave the band’s third album such a liquefied flow that it was impossible not to be swept up by it until, at last, “Friend of Joy” launched into and beyond a peaceful stratosphere in spaced-out ambience. My first exposure to the group and their first outing for Svart, it’s a record so textural and so graceful that it seems to unfurl itself more each time through.
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24. Spidergawd, II
Released by Stickman Records and Crispin Glover Records. Reviewed Jan. 5.
A quick and strong turnaround from this Norwegian sax-inclusive foursome, who might seem to come out of nowhere were it not for the pedigree of Kenneth Kapstad and Bent Sæther in long-running progressives Motorpsycho. Together with Per Borten and Rolf Martin Snustad, Spidergawd spoke to more primal rock instincts — their two LPs to-date and soon to be three are testaments to the ability of music to move, to shove, and to shake; or as they put it, “Get Physical” — but as there is breadth as well, as the psychedelic “Caereulean Caribou” demonstrated. Anchored by the hook of “Fixing to Die Blues,” Spidergawd‘s second wandered far and wide, but welcomed listeners along for each step of the journey.
As the title promised, The Midnight Ghost Train‘s third offering and Napalm Records debut delivered harsh truths. They came at breakneck speed and delivered with stage-hewn chemistry by the Midwestern power trio, whose years of road-dogging were brought to bear in the gruff, gravel-throated voice of guitarist Steve Moss, who led drummer Brandon Burghart and newcomer bassist Mike Boyne across nigh-unparalled riff torrents, with all the boogie of any number of ’70s-style sidewinders, but also with a tonal thickness that seemed a miracle it could move at all. Not without its adventurous side in the quieter “The Little Sparrow,” Cold was the Ground brimmed with intensity that brought the band to new levels in every conceivable fashion.
Blessed art the weirdos, whose records might be few and far between, who might not tour, but whose bold fits and starts span genres easily and whose work truly stands alone. Leeches of Lore‘s Toshi Kasai-produced Motel of Infinity was a godsend in the enduring battle against normality. It was a grinding, grooving anti-punk stampede, at times frenetic and at other times whatever the opposite of frenetic is, and to-date, it’s the Albuquirky outit’s masterpiece, from the low-end buzzsaw, gang-shout and falsetto of “Don’t Open Till Doomsday” through the bass and organ bounce of “Noah’s Soul (is Burning).” They have been and still are a band unto themselves, and the we-do-this-every-day confidence of their execution across Motel of Infinity‘s run only emphasizes how utterly necessary they are.
With the Dead vocalist Lee Dorrian (also head of Rise Above Records, also ex-Cathedral) basically laid it all out there in the interview here when he said, “We wanted to make the most skull-crushing record we possibly could.” That’s precisely what With the Dead‘s self-titled debut is. It’s as heavy as possible, as filthy as possible, all the way through. In some ways very much the sum of its elements with Dorrian on vocals, Tim Bagshaw on guitar/bass and Mark Greening on drums (both ex-Ramesses), it was also of course more than just that, and while so much of their story has yet to be told as they move into their initial live appearances in 2016, their opening salvo was nothing if not as destructive as its intent.
How could anyone possibly have even remotely reasonable expectations for a Clutch record after 2013’s Earth Rocker (review here). I won’t say the Maryland stalwarts didn’t deliver with Psychic Warfare, and I doubt any fan of the band who’s dug into “X-Ray Visions,” “A Quick Death in Texas” or “Noble Savage” would, but their returning to producer Machine for the second time in a row made it almost too easy to compare Clutch‘s 10th and 11th long-players. Four years between albums was shortened to just two, and that may have had something to do with it as well, but while the songs were there and I’ve no doubt that Psychic Warfare will endure over the long term — ask me sometime how long it took me to get into Pure Rock Fury — in the moment of its release, Psychic Warfare seemed to stand in the shadow of its predecessor rather than in its own light.
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19. Mondo Drag, Mondo Drag
Released by Kozmik Artifactz and RidingEasy Records. Reviewed Jan. 8.
An awaited return for Midwestern-turned-West-Coast psychedelic rockers Mondo Drag, their self-titled sophomore outing had three years between its recording and release, and was made in 2012 with a shortlived incarnation of the band with bassist Zack Anderson and drummer Cory Berry, both formerly of Radio Moscow and then-soon to be of Blues Pills. Unsurprisingly, the grooves were tight, but even better, Mondo Drag blew past the peaceful headtrippery of their 2010 debut, New Rituals (review here), toward more expansive and proggy fare. They’ll look to continue that thread on their third outing, The Occultation of Light, in 2016, but the self-titled captured a special moment worthy of celebration, still rife with the classic-minded ethereal spirit of the first outing, but clearly bent on defining its own sonic dogma in hooks and synthy vibes.
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18. Lamp of the Universe, The Inner Light of Revelation
Released by Clostridium Records and Astral Projection. Reviewed April 27.
At the risk of sounding biased, just about any new release from New Zealand tantric psych outfit Lamp of the Universe is going to be welcome by me. Comprised solely of Craig Williamson (also Arc of Ascent), the long-running project nonetheless casts out gorgeously textured meditative psychedelia, at times delving into drone or Eastern folk, but always marking out its own sonic space, whether in the more rock-minded groove of “God of One” or the drumless acoustic swirl of “Ancient Path.” Lamp of the Universe is a rare band — as much as it is a band — that covers a swath of ground stylistically and manages to sound like nothing but itself as it does so, and Williamson‘s commitment to his cosmic mantras remains firm and creatively fertile as the seeds he planted early on continue to bear fruit in complex arrangements that never distract from the central, spiritual purpose of the music.
Even with its title-track broken into two 20-plus-minute side-consuming halves, it was abundantly plain to hear that Sparkling Waters was the most realized Mammatus outing yet. The four-song, 75-minute offering brimmed with a clarity that even their late-2013 third album, Heady Mental (review here), could only partially claim, leaving behind the fuzz and fog of their earlier work almost entirely while remaining open to employing sonic heft when suitable to their more complex motives. Most effective about Mammatus at this stage was the way they eased into and through varied parts while tying together a coherent whole piece, the builds and cascades of “Sparkling Waters Part One” setting up an expectation of fluidity that held firm even through the more jagged buzz in the early going of closer “Ornia,” the grand finale of which resonates as a cacophony without letting itself actually lose control.
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16. Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, The Night Creeper
UK ladykillers Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats have emerged as one of the most essential bands of the ’10s. The Night Creeper is their fourth album and it takes the defining eeriness of their melodies and roughs it up with a mostly-live recording job — something which, now that they’re a touring act, they can do — for their grittiest, dirtiest-sounding offering yet. Songs like “Melody Lane,” “Pusher Man” and opener “Waiting for Blood” speak to what’s let their methodology spread so widely in the first place, the VHS grain of their guitars and vocals resting over classic swing and proliferating maddening hooks with lethal intent. Between the nine-minute gruel of “Slow Death” and the hidden acoustic track “Black Motorcade,” The Night Creeper wasn’t without its element of sonic progress, but with Uncle Acid, it’s still the combination of threat, swing and memorable songwriting that brings listeners back to their dark alleyways for another taste.
Easily one of 2015’s most encouraging debuts. Making its opening salvo with the propulsion of Motörhead-derived heavy rock in songs like “Over Under” and “Black Magick Boogieland,” the first outing from Amsterdam-based foursome Death Alley touched on classic ideals without going retro on “Bewildered Eyes,” nodded toward psychedelic melodicism and more patient intentions in “Golden Fields of Love,” and portrayed its punker roots in “Dead Man’s Bones” — all before the 12:40 space rock extravaganza that took hold with closer “Supernatural Predator.” It was a lot of territory to cover, but Death Alley not only made it sound cohesive, they made it rock and they made it a good time. In just about 41 minutes, Black Magick Boogieland was not only a voyage well worth taking, it was a potential-filled, headbang-worthy ripper of an album from an outfit who deserves every bit of attention they seem to be shouting for. Hope they don’t wait long for a follow-up.
Five records in, Dutch trio The Machine have found a niche for themselves between heavy psych rock, desert fuzz and exploratory jamming. Offblast!, with a title that seemed more reminiscent of Europunker speed rock, was as spacious as it was driving, and whether it was the more structured material like “Dry End” or “Coda Sun” or the two extended cuts, 16-minute opener ““Chrysalis (J.A.M.)” and 12-minute closer “Come to Light,” their dynamic remained natural and held firm to a spontaneous sensibility, like at any turn, any part might take off for an eight-minute ride to who knows where. That that didn’t always happen only made Offblast! a richer listening experience, its varied ideas coming through consistent tonality to affect a more than satisfying front-to-back flow that toyed with momentum even as it built more and more of it. Was a while in the making, coming three years after 2012’s Calmer than You Are (review here), but easily worth the wait.
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13. Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, Brothers of the Sonic Cloth
There were moments where the self-titled debut from Brothers of the Sonic Cloth was almost too much to take in one sitting. By the time the Tad Doyle-led trio got around to the 11-minute “La Mano Poderosa,” sometimes I felt like I needed a second to catch my breath before diving further, always further, into the smoldering abyss their tones, growls and lurch seemed to create. Six years after their demo (review here) served notice like a tectonic rumble in the distance, the album arrived with comet-into-planet heft, and its oppression was as much about atmosphere as it was sheer aural assault. Imagine an arm reaching down your throat, grabbing your lungs, and forcibly deflating them one at a time. Is that hyperbole? Absolutely, and well earned. Every bit the debut of the year.
No, Boston supergroup Kind aren’t so high on this list just because they called a song “Pastrami Blaster.” Granted, that didn’t hurt, but ultimately it was the blend of cavernous psychedelics and heavy rumble that made Rocket Science so infectious. Comprised of vocalist Craig Riggs (Roadsaw), guitarist Darryl Shepard (Milligram, The Scimitar, etc.), bassist Tom Corino (Rozamov) and drummer Matt Couto (Elder), Kind earned immediate interest for their pedigree, but it was more the breadth of jams like “Hordeolum” and “The Angry Undertaker” that defined their first outing, various impulses toward structure and open-endedness not so much pushing against each other as working in tandem to craft something that drew from the best of both mindsets. Obviously these are busy guys, but hopefully Kind doesn’t all by the wayside for other ongoing projects. Rocket Science was unmistakable in its demonstration that they have much to offer.
Iowa five-piece Bloodcow hadn’t put out a record since 2007’s Bloodcow III: Hail Xenu, but that didn’t stop Crystals and Lasers from being their best work yet. As much punk as metal as heavy rock, it wasn’t for everybody, but it was most definitely for me. With a constant thread of satire in songs like “Ultra Super Sexual,” “Sock,” “Dick for Days” and the oh-shit-I’m-middle-aged-how-the-fuck-did-this-happen (not saying I relate or anything, but holy shit I can relate) “After Party,” it was nonetheless a stylistically varied and universally professional-sounding 13-track collection, offering weirdo quirk in “Blood and Guts,” “Exploding Head” and “Little Chromosome” and finding room for a bit of scathing social commentary in its title-track and “HIVampyre.” If they’re working at an eight-year pace, I don’t know that we’ll get another Bloodcow record, but they very clearly put everything they had into Crystals and Lasers and the result was a defining statement.
After two wallops in the form of 2013’s Abra Kadavar (review here) and 2012’s self-titled debut (discussed here), German trio Kadavar continued to prove the effectiveness of their songwriting on Berlin, a return that front-to-back brimmed with vitality and bounce rare enough for heavy rock generally more content to be downtrodden or attempting to feign bluesy substance. Unabashedly poppy at times, Berlin was the party that brought everyone along who was up for taking the ride, and whether it was the hook of “Lord of the Sky” showing how just a tiny melodic turn could make a track infectious or cuts like “Thousand Miles Away from Home,” “Filthy Illusion,” “Stolen Dreams,” “Spanish Wild Rose,” “See the World with Your Own Eyes” — all of them, really — working their way into the consciousness, Berlin felt like it was primed to be the soundtrack of many summers to come. They moved away from the retro style of their first two outings, but in so doing took fuller command of their sound and put it to remarkable use.
Picking up right where Flower of Disease closer “The River” left off with “Another River to Cross,” Goatsnake‘s third full-length arrived a full 15 years after its predecessor, and as one might expect that brought some considerable changes in the band’s sound. Oh, they still rolled the hell out of a riff, guitarist Greg Anderson (he of SunnO))) and Southern Lord Recordings) very much at the fore tonally, but a bluesy inflection from vocalist Pete Stahl (also earthlings?) and some well-placed backing vocals added personality in a daring and unexpected fashion. Songs like “Jimi’s Gone,” “Elevated Man” and “Grandpa Jones” sat comfortably in the band’s influential pantheon of heft, but it was how Black Age Blues pushed beyond what Goatsnake did in their initial run that made it so satisfying. For a record that arrived five years after they got back together, it could have easily been disaster, but Black Age Blues built on what Goatsnake was without detracting from the legacy that has influenced a generation of heavy rock.
I’m proud to call the members of Kings Destroy friends and I won’t attempt to feign impartiality when it comes to considering their work as a band, but I felt in listening to their self-titled third LP that they had finally gotten to the point where they were bringing the onstage confrontationalism of their live show to the studio. Yeah, “Mr. O” was upbeat and catchy and gave side A some thrust, but even in chugging opener “Smokey Robinson” or the moody “Mytho” and “Embers,” Kings Destroy not only came further into their own in terms of style, building on the anti-genre defiant stance of 2013’s A Time of Hunting (review here), but did so with a clearheaded progressivism, a better sense of who they are musically and what they want the band to be. I wouldn’t trade seeing them play “Embers” or “W2” as many times as I have for anything, but even unto the gang-shout half-speed hardcore of “Time for War,” Kings Destroy‘s Kings Destroy made no bones about how it wound up with the eponymous title. It’s them through and through.
It may never be possible to listen to the self-titled debut from Cigale outside the context of the death of guitarist/vocalist Rutger Smeets (ex-Sungrazer). That loss casts a dark shadow over a collection that otherwise radiates colorful sweetness and serenity, the peaceful depth beginning with “Grey Owl” and only broadening as it turns and weaves through “Steeplechase,” “Feel the Heat,” “Harvest Begun” and so on, but the record remains a gorgeous, engrossing wash of resonant melody and underlying presence. Not without its moments of melancholy, the more overarching impression was of beauty not tied to any notion of playing to genre or style, and while I don’t know what the future will hold for the band, if they’ll keep moving forward or not or if they’re even in a place yet to consider such things, they helped broaden the context of European heavy psychedelia with their first album, and that is no minor achievement.
Another one that just kind of smacked me in the face. Idahoan heavy psych explorers Sun Blood Stories‘ second album, Twilight Midnight Morning was soaked in vibe and moved fluidly between experimentalist noisemaking and patient, memorable songwriting. Tracks like “West the Sun,” “Witch Wind” and “Found Reasons Found Out” never raged, exactly, but had enough weight to their rhythm to let you know they were there and interested in groove, while later pieces “Time Like Smoke,” “Moon Song: Waxing” and “Misery is Nebulous” drew exponentially from earlier freakout impulses and shifted into a dronier and more ambient approach. The combination of the two — semi-structure up front, open expansion in the back — made the three-part Twilight Midnight Morning engaging and hypnotic in kind, and though I hope they get weirder and experiment and develop the atmospheric side of their sound, I’ve also got my fingers crossed they hold firm to their more grounded aspects, since its the range between the two that gives their sophomore outing its defining fluidity.
I’ll cite precedent in last year’s list for including a “5a.” The intent in doing so is to convey the idea that Colour Haze‘s latest outing, To the Highest Gods We Know, is worthy of top five consideration, but its release date was split between 2014 (CD) and 2015 (LP), so it was a little unclear where to put it. As the album is basically a year old at this point, it seems fair to say it’s held up, drawing back from the grandiose vision of 2012’s She Said (review here) without losing sight of the progressive elements that have taken root in the German trio’s sound. Their work has been and remains essential to the development of heavy psychedelic rock in Europe and beyond, and even though To the Highest Gods We Know felt like something of a reset — a stripping down of arrangements in places and getting back to a trio-in-a-room feel — it still stepped forward in its title-track and in songs like “Überall” and “Call” and showed that even when it seems Colour Haze have pushed their approach as far as it can go, there’s always new ground to explore, and their pull to do so is undiminished.
Doesn’t exactly seem like giving away state secrets to note that a record with songs like “Sexecutioner” and “Fuck Face” is aggressive, but it’s particularly interesting in light of the past work of New Jersey trio The Atomic Bitchwax, who I don’t think sounded as barn-burning as they do on Gravitron even in their earliest going. The trio of bassist/vocalist Chris Kosnik, guitarist/vocalist Finn Ryan and drummer Bob Pantella kept their signature winding riff style intact — demonstrated most expansively over 2011’s single-song full-length instrumental The Local Fuzz (review here) — but while their turns were as blinding as ever, their tones were more pointed and Pantella‘s snare more upfront on the beat, which gave Gravitron a newfound sense of urgency. It worked. Even poppier songs like “Roseland” or the closing “Ice Age Hey Baby” benefited from the additional thrust, and the album overall felt lean, mean and ready to be taken on the road, which of course is exactly what they did with it. Six albums in, The Atomic Bitchwax were at their most vital yet.
Nashville four-piece All Them Witches probably could’ve gone into the studio, churned out a record of crunchy riffs with a quiet part or two for flavor and positioned themselves at the forefront of American heavy rock with their New West Records debut and third full-length overall, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker. Instead, they defied expectation boldly and brought their growing audience into the room with them and producer Mikey Allred as they captured the album, which finds its most affecting moments not in tonal weight, but emotional resonance, the melody at the midpoint of “Talisman” or the string arrangement gracefully tucked into “Open Passageways.” There’s still the push of “Dirt Preachers,” and entrancing closer “Blood and Sand – Milk and Endless Waters” has its heft as well, but All Them Witches‘ success ultimately came from being the album they wanted to make, built from the dynamic that’s developed on stage between bassist/vocalist Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod, Allan Van Cleave on Fender Rhodes/strings, and drummer Robby Staebler, and alive in its feeling of exploration. I won’t predict what they might do from here, but I’m willing to say outright it’ll be worth hearing one way or another.
My expectations for Snail‘s third post-reunion full-length and Small Stone label debut, Feral, were pretty high. Not unreasonably so, though. Their 2012 outing, Terminus (review here), built on the blend of heavy psych riffs, laid back roll and melodicism that 2009’s Blood (review here) established as the band’s working modus, but Feral was going to be a different beast from the start because it was the West Coast outfit’s first full-length as a trio since they made their self-titled debut (reissue review here) in 1993 before splitting up the next year. Whatever my expectations were, however, Snail shattered them almost immediately. In the progression of their songwriting as shown across the strong opening salvo of “Building a Haunted House,” “Smoke the Deathless” and “A Mustard Seed” through one of the year’s best songs in the expansive and crushing “Thou Art That,” the three-piece showcased a breadth unlike anything they’d conjured before, and it only continued through “Born in Captivity,” the catchy “Derail,” “Psilocybe” and the soul-infused wah leads that peppered the pleading closer “Come Home.” Where Terminus offered intensity, Feral offered patience in its execution, and the atmosphere it created suited the band’s sound as well as the Seldon Hunt cover art seemed to summarize the alternate reality in which the music took place. Everything about how it came together worked just right, and even as a fan of the band’s work since they got together again, I was taken aback by the unflinching quality of Feral front to back.
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2. Acid King, Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere
Ten years is a long, long time. Especially in music. The prospect of a fourth Acid King record has been tossed around for at least the last six of those 10 years, but to finally have it realized was something else entirely. Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere was without a doubt my most-listened-to album of the year, and its combination of tonal haze, low-end heft and spacious atmosphere was perfect. There’s just no other way to say it. It was perfect. From “Silent Pictures” and “Coming down from Outer Space” through “Red River,” “Infinite Skies” and the sprawling “Center of Everywhere” itself, guitarist/vocalist Lori S., bassist Mark Lamb and drummer Joey Osbourne crafted an absolutely perfect heavy psych record. How many bands walking the earth could even get away with calling a track “Laser Headlights,” let alone make it kick ass? Yeah, Goatsnake came back this year, and that was great, but for me, the return of Acid King to their throne of nod was even more the story of the year. Together with producer Billy Anderson, they offered a depth of tone that was simply unmatched, and without an ounce of pretense, they unveiled a roll that continues to resound. I’m a big fan of getting lost in a record, and Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere eased the listener in with its “Intro,” pulled reality apart from with “Silent Pictures” and set about doing the universe a favor by remaking the cosmos as the kind of place where one might find a wizard riding a tiger past the craters of the moon, until, at last, it deposited you back where you started. Best trip of 2015, no question.
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1. Elder, Lore
Released by Armageddon Shop and Stickman Records. Reviewed Feb. 19.
Make no mistake, 2015 was Elder‘s year. We were all just living in it. Truth be told, I’ve been back and forth between Elder and Acid King in the top spot for the last couple months (you might recall in July they were reversed), but when it finally came to it, there was no way I could feasibly call anything other than Lore the album of the year. From the gorgeous Adrian Dexter artwork (discussed here), through the progressive clarion of “Compendium”‘s noodling guitar line and into the massive scope of the title-track (discussed here), Lore was the moment in which Elder — guitarist/vocalist Nick DiSalvo, bassist Jack Donovan and drummer Matt Couto — tore down the walls of genre, whether it was heavy rock, psychedelia or anything else, and emerged with their own approach and complex, varied modus of songwriting. They’ve been turning heads since their self-titled debut arrived in 2008, but with 2011’s Dead Roots Stirring (review here), they began to demonstrate the potential for really adding something to the patchwork of underground heavy. In moving forward by making clarity a hallmark both of their sound and of their purpose, Elder came into their own with these five tracks, and do not at all be surprised a couple years from now when bands start showing up aping DiSalvo‘s style of riffing, since such a bold and successful foray of individualism can only be influential in the longer run. At nearly an hour long, Lore was not a minor undertaking, but each song seemed to set up its own atmosphere, feeding not only its own singular focus, but that of the album overall. Its turns blinding, its impact forceful and its affect drawing from the best of the sonic personalities of all three players, Elder‘s Lore reaped wide acclaim and earned it every step of the way. Its progressive vision has only begun to be digested.
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Honorable Mention
Killer Boogie, Detroit – Impressive debut from the retro-minded offshoot of Black Rainbows brought ’70s boogie to Italy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a quick turnaround, but either way, their first outing knew its audience and spoke directly to it.
My Sleeping Karma, Moksha – This one was on various incarnations of the list. Very interested to see where the German heavy prog outfit wind up in terms of expanding their arrangements, but Moksha was a satisfying step forward in that process.
Egypt, Endless Flight – Should probably have a number, but the fact is it’s only been out for like two weeks, so it hasn’t really been given the test of time at this point. Still, Egypt always deliver and this was no exception.
Valkyrie, Shadows – An awaited third full-length from Virginia’s Valkyrie and also their Relapse Records debut offered enough blazing guitar work to meet any quota, and was a welcome return after a long absence.
Magic Circle, Journey’s End – The second LP from this Massachusetts outfit pushed beyond doomly confines into more traditional metallurgy but held its eerie atmospherics intact, and the combination suited them remarkably well.
Monolord, Vænir – This was my go-to for 2015 when nothing else seemed quite crushing enough. The Swedish trio have very quickly stomped their way into the hearts and minds of the international underground, and rightfully so.
Freedom Hawk, Into Your Mind – After making a transition from a four-piece to a trio, this Virginian outfit proceeded to take a few stylistic risks on their second Small Stone long-player, and they paid off.
Tombstones, Vargariis – Fourth full-length from this Norwegian trio pushed them outside of doom’s confines into a darker and more extreme version of heaviness that pulled from death and black metals in addition to its sludgy underpinnings. The meld was punishing and lost nothing of its groove, wherever it went at any given moment.
Faces of Bayon, Ash and Dust Have no Dominion – I guess my only hesitation with including Faces of Bayon‘s second outing in any kind of year-end fare is I’m not sure if the album has actually been released yet. Even if not, they’re easily worth a mention.
Ice Dragon, A Beacon on the Barrow – Kind of a down year from Ice Dragon in terms of overall productivity, but if the quantity was down compared to some, A Beacon on the Barrow was quality enough to carry them through. In a way, I think the album actually benefited from the band giving listeners time to take it in.
Arenna, Given to Emptiness – Ah, so good. The Spanish heavy psych troupe dug in deep on Given to Emptiness and conjured sonic and emotional resonance on their second full-length. It’s one that still gets repeat listens.
Monster Magnet, Cobras and Fire – The long-running New Jersey outfit’s reworking of their 2010 album Mastermind was excellent, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t seem fair to list it when they’re working mostly from already-released source material. But still, if you haven’t heard it, go find it.
Various Artists, Electric Ladyland [Redux] – Even if the results hadn’t been so spectacular, Electric Ladyland [Redux] would deserve a mention for the sheer scope and logistical nightmare that the project must have been. Kudos to Magnetic Eye Records all around.
There are so many others: Abrahma, Goya, Sun and Sail Club, Deville, Sacri Monti, Dirty Streets, Ufomammut, Wo Fat‘s live album, Mirror Queen, Pentagram, Torche, Sumac, Garden of Worm, Black Rainbows, Holy Serpent, Minsk, Baron, Weedpecker, Electric Moon, Fuzz, Bell Witch, Windhand, Niche, We Lost the Sea, Seremonia, Sunder, Domovoyd, The Heavy Eyes, Demon Head, Fogg, Stars that Move, Enslaved, Ruby the Hatchet, on and on and on. That’s not even to mention the stuff I didn’t hear — Baroness will be on many people’s lists, no doubt, as well as Mutoid Man, Ghost and Kylesa — so yeah, I could pretty much keep going ad infinitum.
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I, however, cannot. It’s been an absolute pleasure trying to keep up with 2015’s barrage the last 12 months, and I expect 2016 will only bring more. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading or that you’re able to get some use out of this post, whatever that might mean, and I thank you deeply, from the bottom of my heart, for your time and for reading. It means more to me than I can say that you might check out even any portion of this site or be involved, whether it’s sharing a link, leaving a comment to let me know who I forgot to mention or correct my spelling, signing up for the forum, listening to the radio, whatever it might be.
Thank you for an amazing 2015. And please stay tuned, because of course, there’s much more to come.
Posted in Features on December 10th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Please note: This list is not culled in any way from the Readers Poll, which is ongoing. If you haven’t yet contributed your favorites of 2015 to that, please do.
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Last year, I did a Song of the Year post, but it wound up having basically a list’s worth of honorable mentions at the bottom, so as we move further into year-end season, it seemed only fair to give more releases their due.
One of the trickier aspects of putting this list together is trying to separate songs from the context of the albums on which they appear. That is, thinking of a given song as a standalone entity, apart from the track before, the track after and whatever else the record on which it appears might have on offer. I did my best to make sure these tracks had enough power and presence within them to be considered on their own as well. I’d expect that much of whether or not you think I was successful in that will depend on how much you agree with the picks. That’s fair enough.
And to that end, as always, please let me know if you think something was omitted here, if there was a song that really stood out to you this year — somebody’s single, or something from a record, whatever it might be — that doesn’t show up on the list. Hell, there are only 10 included. That’s bound to not be everything. Still, these are what hit me especially hard this year:
The Obelisk Presents: The Top 10 Songs of 2015
1. Elder, “Lore”
2. Acid King, “Center of Everywhere”
3. High on Fire, “The Falconist”
4. Death Alley, “Supernatural Predator”
5. Snail, “Thou Art That”
6. All Them Witches, “Open Passageways”
7. Sun Blood Stories, “Witch Wind”
8. The Atomic Bitchwax, “Hey Baby Ice Age”
9. Goatsnake, “Grandpa Jones”
10. Øresund Space Collective, “20 Steps Towards the Invisible Door”
Honorable Mention
A few honorable mentions: Kings Destroy‘s “Mr. O” remains a sentimental favorite and a song I go back to on many occasions when I need a boot to the ass. Clutch‘s “X-Ray Visions” efficiently reaffirmed the righteousness of their direction since Earth Rocker, while Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ “Melody Lane” did likewise for that UK outfit’s malevolent grit-pop.
It was buried under a morass of riffs, but Windhand‘s “Kingfisher” was a standout, while Kadavar‘s “See the World with Your Own Eyes” skillfully walked a fine line between inspirational and cornball without any concern for sliding from one to the next, and so didn’t. If this list went to 11, Graveyard‘s “Too Much is Not Enough” would’ve been my next pick for the unabashed soulfulness pervading its melancholy atmosphere.
Notes
What was to be done with Elder‘s “Lore?” In the end, I’m not sure any other single track showed the kind of scope, the emotive presence, the poise, the progression and, pivotally, the groove it did. In its three stages, the 16-minute album centerpiece and title-track underlined the sheer mastery Elder put on display across their third full-length’s span. Wait a few years and you will find bands coming out who sound like this.
I had a hard time picking a song from Acid King‘s Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere. “Coming Down from Outer Space” has that mega-hook. “Red River” rolls so fluidly. In the end, “Center of Everywhere combines all those aspects with the atmospheric breadth that played such a huge role in making the album so special. It simply would not be denied. Similarly, High on Fire‘s “The Falconist” from 2015’s Luminiferous is arguably that trio’s most melodic, progressive work to-date. Infectious, heavy and emotionally resonant in a way that a lot of their material actively works against being, to my ears it’s the boldest thing they’ve done.
Scope was a big part of the appeal of Death Alley‘s “Supernatural Predator,” the Dutch band running between Motörhead and Hawkwind in one song and bringing in former The Devil’s Blood vocals Farida Lemouchi to help them do it. At nearly 13 minutes long, its hypnosis feels like it could push even further if it wanted to, and that’s one of my favorite aspects of it. Also over 10 minutes long, Snail‘s “Thou Art That” was for me the defining moment of their excellent Feral album, a whopper of a riff marking a place within a brooding psychedelic landscape that even just three years ago I’m not sure they would have been able to conjure in the same way. One of those tracks that eats like an album.
There was a video of All Them Witches playing “Open Passageways” at a radio station in Nashville that was out before the song had a title, and since I first saw that earlier this year, I’d hoped it would make its way onto their third album, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker. It did, and the arrangement was stunning from the propulsive drum work and sustained consonants of the vocals to the weeping violin. It was between “Witch Wind” and “West the Sun” from Sun Blood Stories‘ Twilight Midnight Morning, but the former was the hook that first caught my ear and made me dig deeper into the Boise natives’ 2015 offering, and I couldn’t discount that factor. A release that continues to deliver every time I put it on.
I remain a sucker for The Atomic Bitchwax, and while their Gravitron album was harder hitting overall than anything they’ve done in a while, “Hey Baby Ice Age” balanced that with a bit of their penchant for a poppier hook, and the result nestled into my mental jukebox, where it remains in high rotation to this day. Goatsnake‘s “Grandpa Jones” had a similar effect, its megagroove and ultra-catchy chorus continue to be stuck in my head more often than not. If I had any desire to escape from either whatsoever, it might be a problem.
Rounding out the list of 10 and worthy of special note is Øresund Space Collective‘s “20 Steps Towards the Invisible Door” from their recently-issued Different Creatures album. I think it’s the most recent release on this list, but I had to get the song in somewhere. It’s a sprawling 45-minute jam that could just as easily have been put out as its own full-length, but closes out the 140-minute double-CD gorgeously by pushing the listener farther and farther out to the very limits of the reaches of space rock. Progressive improvisation is no easy feat, but “20 Steps Towards the Invisible Door” left the band with no option but to include every second of its extended span. It’s all essential.
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These are just my picks. If you agree, disagree, have more to add, I’d love to know about it in the comments. Thanks for reading.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 25th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
It was what, two days ago, that the prospect of an All Them Witches inaugural incursion to Europe was being discussed? Yup, two days. I looked. Well, it was pretty clear than that it was going to happen, the only question was when. Announced today: Feb. 24 to March 13. There you go.
They’ll be going, of course, in support of this year’s Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), the band’s third album and first for New West Records, and I have no doubt they’ll be greeted as liberators. By the time they get across the Atlantic, they’ll have gone coast-to-coast in the US already this fall and winter, on an extensive run set to kick off on Saturday with just a couple weeks dividing it for the holidays.
All the dates follow. There are many of them:
EUROPE: We’re coming for you
FEBRUARY/MARCH: Wed 24 Feb – Tel Aviv, Israel – Barby – tickets coming soon Sat 27 Feb – Athens, Greece- Gagarin – http://bit.ly/1IeulPj – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Mon 29 Feb – Manchester, UK – Gullivers – http://bit.ly/1PXyI7z – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Tue 01 Mar – Glasgow, UK – King Tuts – http://bit.ly/1MPCpYB – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Wed 02 Mar – London, UK – The Lexington – http://bit.ly/1PXyI7z – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Thu 03 Mar – Brussels, Belgium – AB Club – http://bit.ly/1IeulPl – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Fri 04 Mar – Deventer, Netherlands – Burgerweeshuis – http://bit.ly/1MPCpIl – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Sat 05 Mar – Cologne, Germany – Studio 672 – http://bit.ly/1IeulPk – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Sun 06 Mar – Berlin, Germany – Musik & Frieden – http://bit.ly/1IeulPk – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Mon 07 Mar – Pratteln, Switzerland – MiniZ7 – http://bit.ly/1Ieun9T – 25/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Tue 08 Mar – Paris, France – Mecanique Ondulatoire – http://bit.ly/1PXyI7B – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Thu 10 Mar – Geneva, Switzerland – L’Usine – http://bit.ly/1Ieun9U – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Fri 11 Mar – Milan, Italy – Lofi Club – http://bit.ly/1MPCoE1 – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT Sun 13 Mar – Vienna, Austria – Chelsea – http://bit.ly/1PXyI7A – onsale 27/11/2015 @ 9am GMT
Previously announced dates:
NOVEMBER 28 Atlanta, GA – The EARL 29 Winston-Salem – The Garage * 30 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle *
DECEMBER 1 Charlottesville, VA – The Southern * 2 Washington, D.C. – Black Cat * 3 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle % 4 Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade % 5 Boston, MA – Great Scott % 6 Ithaca, NY – The Haunt *! 8 Montreal, QC – Le Ritz * 9 Toronto, ON – Garrison * 10 Buffalo, NY – Studio at Waiting Room *! 11 Cleveland, OH – Beachland * 12 Rochester, NY – Bug Jar *! 13 Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox * 15 Detroit, MI – Marble Bar * 16 Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups * 17 Grand Rapids, MI – Founders * 18 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club * 19 St. Paul, MN – Turf Club * 20 Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi * ^ with Chrome Pony ++with The Sword & KADAVAR ! with The Sword, Kadavar and Windhand + with The Sword % with Slothrust * with New Madrid *! with New Madrid and King Buffalo
JANUARY Wed. 13 – Louisville, KY – Zanzabar Thu. 14 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall + Schubas Fri. 15 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon Sat. 16 – St. Louis, MO – The Demo STL Mon. 18 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge Wed. 20 – Crystal Bay, NV – Red Room @ Crystal Bay Casino Thu. 21 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop Fri. 22 – West Hollywood, CA – The Roxy Theatre Sat. 23 – San Diego,CA – Casbah San Diego Mon. 25 – Fullerton, CA – The Continental room Tue. 26 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge Wed. 27 – El Paso, TX – The Lowbrow Palace Fri. 29 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Austin Sat. 30 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 23rd, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Nashville four-piece All Them Witches may or may not be about to unveil their first European tour dates, presumably for sometime early in 2016, but one never knows. It’s a prospect they teased the other day by posting, “Europe: you are about to be very happy,” which would be a notable change for Europe of late, and whenever they do go, it will be in support of their newly-issued third album, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), the mellow vibes and resonant grooves of which continue to enthrall, and which they’ve already supported in the US alongside Kadavar and The Sword, which is no minor shakes as far as touring partners goes.
The reason I say early 2016 is more likely for a European run, in fact, is because All Them Witches will spend most of December and January on the road in the States, dipping into Canada for Montreal and Toronto shows but mostly focusing on the East and West Coasts, though hitting select spots between too. They’re setting themselves up for 2016 to be a pretty road-heavy year, but when they started touring to support their second album, Lightning at the Door (review here), they worked quickly to make wider intentions known. A prior European appearance had been confirmed for Desertfest Belgium in 2014 that fell through, but it seems like it won’t be long before they cover that ground as well. Could just as easily be a Spring tour in time for festival season that’s going to be announced as it could something prior. We’ll just have to wait and find out.
To support the tiding-over process, the band has newly revealed a video for Dying Surfer Meets His Maker‘s most raucous track, “Dirt Preachers.” The song, also an advance single from the album, is set to an animated narrative of wizardry, questing and I’m not even sure what else, but a demon shows up and all hell seems to break loose, so yeah, it’s fitting enough. If I’m not mistaken — and I’m not — they had given a sneak preview of the clip on Halloween before removing it again, but this time it seems to be out there permanently. Directed and animated by Chad VanGaalen, you can find it below, followed by the currently-confirmed tour dates. When I hear of more, I’ll post accordingly.
Enjoy:
All Them Witches, “Dirt Preachers” official video
All Them Witches on Tour:
NOVEMBER 28 Atlanta, GA – The EARL 29 Winston-Salem – The Garage * 30 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle *
DECEMBER 1 Charlottesville, VA – The Southern * 2 Washington, D.C. – Black Cat * 3 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle % 4 Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade % 5 Boston, MA – Great Scott % 6 Ithaca, NY – The Haunt *! 8 Montreal, QC – Le Ritz * 9 Toronto, ON – Garrison * 10 Buffalo, NY – Studio at Waiting Room *! 11 Cleveland, OH – Beachland * 12 Rochester, NY – Bug Jar *! 13 Pittsburgh, PA – Brillobox * 15 Detroit, MI – Marble Bar * 16 Columbus, OH – Ace of Cups * 17 Grand Rapids, MI – Founders * 18 Milwaukee, WI – Cactus Club * 19 St. Paul, MN – Turf Club * 20 Indianapolis, IN – Hi-Fi * ^ with Chrome Pony ++with The Sword & KADAVAR ! with The Sword, Kadavar and Windhand + with The Sword % with Slothrust * with New Madrid *! with New Madrid and King Buffalo
JANUARY Wed. 13 – Louisville, KY – Zanzabar Thu. 14 – Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall + Schubas Fri. 15 – Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon Sat. 16 – St. Louis, MO – The Demo STL Mon. 18 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge Wed. 20 – Crystal Bay, NV – Red Room @ Crystal Bay Casino Thu. 21 – San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop Fri. 22 – West Hollywood, CA – The Roxy Theatre Sat. 23 – San Diego,CA – Casbah San Diego Mon. 25 – Fullerton, CA – The Continental room Tue. 26 – Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge Wed. 27 – El Paso, TX – The Lowbrow Palace Fri. 29 – Austin, TX – Stubb’s Austin Sat. 30 – Dallas, TX – Club Dada
Posted in Reviews on October 20th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
Nashville four-piece All Them Witches seem to have very quickly become one of the American heavy rock underground’s most crucial up and coming acts. This is not an accident, and it is not coincidence. Their stylish and sincere blend of heavy blues, wistful psych jamming and tasteful, adventurous songwriting has developed into a highly individualized approach marked out by fluid chemistry and emotional as well as sonic weight. The band’s third album, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, builds on a foundation of memorable, varied songcraft and finds their circumstances much changed. Example? When All Them Witches released their second full-length, Lightning at the Door (review here), in 2013, it was digital-only, put up through their Bandcamp and accompanied by a handful of shows as they began to branch out beyond playing locally.
In the course of the last two years, they’ve become a touring act on opening and headlining runs, released that album physically on vinyl and CD — both sold out — played Bonnaroo and signed to New West Records. One might expect as a result of this that Dying Surfer Meets His Maker would arrive with a commercial sheen, a more polished version of the easy-flowing vibes they cast on Lightning at the Door, the preceding 2012 full-length debut, Our Mother Electricity (review here), and/or tossed-off EPs like 2015’s 4/20 celebration, A Sweet Release (review here), or last year’s 25-minute instrumental jam Effervescent (review here), which though it was originally intended to be digital-only earned enough of a response to warrant a vinyl pressing. Watering down their sound would be one way to go. All Them Witches are going the other way, getting both more intimate and more expansive, and Dying Surfer Meets His Maker proves to be their most natural-feeling album yet.
A goodly portion of it is jams, and its primary impression is a mellow, melancholic soul, captured organically through the production of Mikey Allred (Across Tundras) in what sound like at-least-partially live-recorded tracks that, in the case of cuts like “El Centro,” “This is Where it Falls Apart” and “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future),” hone the feeling not only of All Them Witches — bassist/vocalist Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod, Fender Rhodes-ist/violinist Allan Van Cleave and drummer Rob Staebler — jamming out, but of picking up their instruments and actually nestling into their parts. Front to back, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker‘s nine tracks/46 minutes invite the listener into the room with the band while these songs are being made, count-ins, stick-clicks, warts and all.
One gets the sense in listening that, any other week, it would be a completely different record, but these were the songs that came together when they did, and it just happens to be a performance that emphasizes the chemistry that has grown between these players, all of whom deliver huge without coming across as overdoing it at all, and the unpressured spirit that flies in the face of this being potentially their breakout moment. There’s no tonal blowup à la “Swallowed by the Sea,” they’re not playing to any expectation on the part of their audience and they’re not trying to bash listeners over the head with hooks, but the material sinks deep into the consciousness. Not that “Dirt Preachers” isn’t catchy or doesn’t tear things up prior to its second-half slowdown, and not that side B’s “Talisman” doesn’t have its psychedelic build, but from the soft acoustics and quiet vocals that begin “Call Me Star,” All Them Witches seem most concerned with creating an immersive atmosphere. As each half of the record plays out almost with a feel of its own, “Call Me Star” and “Dirt Preachers” conversing lyrically while “Open Passageways,” “Talisman” and closer “Blood and Sand – Milk and Endless Waters” feed into ideas of religion and ritual. Each side ends with a jam topped with spoken word — “This is Where it Falls Apart” and “Blood and Sand – Milk and Endless Waters,” respectively — and it is a more complete and realized offering than would have been fair to anticipate.
Most importantly, it is entirely their own. All Them Witches has worked hard the last several years to open their listeners’ minds to a variety of feels (meant in the sense of sonic atmosphere, not internet lingo for “feelings,” though those too, I suppose) to a degree where I wouldn’t necessarily expect Dying Surfer Meets His Maker to speak to what they might do next anymore than it seemed like Lightning at the Door was setting up a single-minded progression — though I’ll allow that “This is Where it Falls Apart” could easily have been born of a jam that opened into “The Marriage of Coyote Woman” from the last album, harmonica and all. That work pays off here, because no matter where they seem to take the songs, from the humble beginnings of “Call Me Star” into thickened shuffle of the eight-minute “El Centro,” which follows, and through to “Mellowing” as a serene, hypnotic lead-in for the acoustic-centered “Open Passageways” — which in many ways is Dying Surfer Meets His Maker‘s defining piece, melding an instrumental and vocal resonance that’s as much pop as it isn’t while remaining within All Them Witches‘ contextual flow — they never misstep.
As they toy with layering, harmonies and structure on “Talisman,” Parks shining vocally early — the solidification of his approach as a singer and the confidence in his delivery is a boon throughout — to set up one of McLeod‘s finest leads, they’ve already established such a broad range that, wherever they want to go, it makes sense. That is a great strength shown gracefully and fluidly, but it would fall flat without the songwriting and performance behind it, as once more each member of the band proves utterly crucial to the construction of the whole, whether it’s van Cleave‘s strings alongside the acoustic guitars on “Open Passageways” or the way Staebler‘s drums seem to bring “El Centro” to life while stepping back on “Blood and Sand – Milk and Endless Waters” to complement the rumbling bass and patient closing roll. There is no minute-to-minute stretch at which Dying Surfer Meets His Maker isn’t a joy, whether it’s the sweet melody of “Call Me Star” or the ambience as “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future)” gives way to silence to let the vocals open “Talisman,” but the truly affecting experience is the record taken in its entirety. Like the band itself, it is an accomplishment beyond its component parts, individually impressive as those might be and are. The bottom line is it’s hands down one of 2015’s best, and even as All Them Witches once more shirk expectation, they exceed it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 13th, 2015 by JJ Koczan
I didn’t realize All Them Witches‘ third album and New West Records debut, the title of which has been revealed as Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, was recorded by Mikey Allred (Across Tundras). He’s worked with the band before, having recorded a couple tracks on earlier-2015’s A Sweet Release digital EP (review here), but if there’s anyone on the planet who’s demonstrated a clear ability to get a natural sound, it’s him.
The newly-public All Them Witches track, “Dirt Preachers,” was premiered at BrooklynVegan, and you can hear it below after the description off the PR wire from the band of the cabin in the mountains where they recorded the LP and the confirmation of an Oct. 30 release, which seems as good a time as any.
Dig in:
ALL THEM WITCHES RELEASE NEW WEST RECORDS’ DEBUT, DYING SURFER MEETS HIS MAKER, ON OCT. 30
All Them Witches, the Nashville psych-rock quartet whose recent Bonnaroo debut was heralded by Fuse, American Songwriter, Consequence of Sound and the Nashville Scene, release their label debut, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, on Oct. 30 via New West Records.
Brooklyn Vegan are streaming the new song “Dirt Preachers.” The song is one of the nine new tracks recorded during the band’s seclusion at a remote cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
“You couldn’t hardly walk in there, dodging cables, mics and guitars,” Parks says of the small space, “the cabin was a wreck. We immediately got up there, unloaded our 15 seater van and a trailer packed to the brim with gear, and started moving things around, set up amps, and a mixing board.” They recorded much of the album live, but used the studio as an instrument in itself, helmed by producer Mikey Allred and McLeod. The location, Parks says, also had an influence on the feel of the album. “Pigeon Forge is tourist central, with Dollywood and moonshine distilleries, pancake houses, and Christmas stores. But our cabin was up on the mountain. We were the only ones there. We didn’t have to worry about anyone calling us in for being loud. It was quiet. In the morning, the mist would be hanging over the city, then it would clear up and you’d see all these terrible tourist shops. It was nice to know we didn’t have to be a part of it. There’s a duality that happens throughout this record, that of the solitude of the mountain and the absolute Babylon that is Pigeon Forge.”
Heavy, heady and hypnotic, All Them Witches concoct a powerful and potent psychedelic sound that fuses bluesy soul, Southern swagger and thunderous hard rock. With their transfixing releases and a jam-filled live show where no two shows are the same, the band has amassed a devoted following and have become something of a sensation in the underground rock scene. “The band seemingly channels the churn of the universe and connects with a big, bad, uncaring cosmos,” wrote the Boston Globe, adding, “There is a primal ebb and flow at the core… The band’s mystic atmosphere, dark but not brutal, is the result of a tireless work ethic, a grueling tour schedule, and a tape trader’s compulsion for documenting every show.”
Upcoming tour dates:
September 12 Nashville, TN Live on the Green September 13 St. Louis, MO LouFest September 24 Bloomington, IN The Bishop September 25 Cincinnati, OH MidPoint Music Festival October 3-4 Louisville, KY Louder than Life Festival October 25 Los Angeles, CA El Rey Theatre (w/Kadavar and The Shrine)
that All Them Witches are now widely credited with creating, or the willfully soft melodic exploration in “Mellowing” before “Open Passageways” — which is the kind of song that doesn’t come along every decade and should be appreciated as such in composition and arrangement — served as the gateway to the transitional “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future)” ahead of the closing pair “Talisman” and “Blood and Sand/Milk and Endless Waters,” the latter instrumental but for some spoken parts early and late and the former an essential mood piece, its lyrics vague and characteristic of Parks‘ obscure poetry in telling a story from an assumed point of view. Even “Dirt Preachers,” which is so much Dying Surfer‘s outburst moment, loud and tense, breaking into its chorus like the Kool-Aid Man through the wall of your mom’s house in your ’90s daydreams, subverts expectation in how it’s constructed. It’s got a hook, to be sure, but in production and delivery it is introverted and lets the listener find it instead of reaching out at the risk of coming off cloying. If All Them Witches have ever been anything, it’s not that. “Dirt Preachers” is more memorable than catchy.
