Posted in Whathaveyou on January 17th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, that’ll do nicely, thanks. Checking out the new track from Sweden’s Huanastone, it’s little mystery why a label like Argonauta Records would want to pick them up, with their modern, open feeling tones reminiscent of some of Lowrider‘s original purposes, but set to more psychedelic reaching, an edge of post-rock coming through in the patience and jammier aspects enough to make “Bad Blood” suitably fluid. It’s the only thing I’ve heard from the upcoming Third Stone From the Sun album that Huanastone will issue through Argonauta this Spring, but it bodes well. I know Swedish heavy bands aren’t exactly a rarity these days — Huanastone hometown of Malmö makes me think immediately of Deville, with whom they’re playing this weekend as it happens — but pound for pound I don’t know if there’s another single nation on earth that delivers so much quality heavy rock and roll per capita. Germany? Argentina? I’d have to look at respective proportions of population vs. kickassery. I’ll get back to you once I’ve properly analyzed census data.
Point is the track is cool, so before you play the cynical, “Oh hey another band from Sweden bet they sound like Graveyard,” thing — they don’t, at all — take a couple minutes and listen to the track. You might dig it.
I hope you do, anyhow. That’s kind of the point.
From the PR wire:
Swedish Stoner Rockers HUANASTONE Sign With Argonauta Records And Reveal First Album Details + Brand New Song!
Malmö, Sweden, based stoner and fuzz rock unit, HUANASTONE, has announced their worldwide signing with Argonauta Records – joining the label’s eclectic artist roster for an album release in the Spring of 2020!
Each of HUANASTONE’s records tells a new story and opens up new opportunities for exploration, while the band is creating an authentic, heartfelt and ominous sound backed up by steady riffs, big fuzz and heavy grooves. Following their critically acclaimed debut EP and first full-length album, HUANASTONE emphasize the importance of live studio recordings, and so it goes for their upcoming, sophomore album titled Third Stone from the Sun.
Says the band: “After years of hard work, Huanastone finally achieved something not many bands gets to experience. We’ve landed a record-deal! We are excited to inform you that we will be working with the one and only, Argonauta Records. Housing some mad bands like Suma, Wasted Theory and Kal-El, we know that we’re in good hands.
Before the full release of the album, we will release 2 singles that will be on all your usual streaming platforms.”
Recorded at Studio Möllan in their hometown of Malmö, today HUANASTONE are already sharing with us a first album appetizer to the heavy stoner juggernaut Bad Blood, listen to the track right HERE!
With many more details and tunes from their upcoming Spring release to follow in the weeks ahead, HUANASTONE will be playing a show in support of DEVILLE on January 18th at Kulturbolaget in their hometown Malmö, a heavy touring schedule with many more dates will be revealed soon.
HUANASTONE is: Filip Larsson – Bass Tobias Gonzalez – Vocals/Guitar Carl Lambertus Olofsson – Guitar Victor Hansson – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 19th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
The news out of Pittsburgh is doomy as word comes through the PR wire that Molasses Barge have signed to Argonauta Records for the release of their second album, A Grayer Dawn. The record’s not due out until April 10 — which is far enough in the future that my feeble brain can barely comprehend it — and yet not only are we getting the news that the band have been picked up, but also the record’s cover art, tracklisting, and a streaming track. No one-at-a-time trickle of information here. Molasses Barge are laying it on the line and with “Control Letting Go” as the first impression they’re making, frankly, they’re not wrong to do so. You can hear the track at the bottom of this post, and from its kind of raw coming together at the start, it sets an organic atmosphere that I have the feeling the band are going to toy around with a lot in the surrounding material. We’ll see though.
I’d expect to hear more about A Grayer Dawn in the New Year, and in the meantime, as the kind of guy who has a running list of 2020’s anticipated releases, I’ve got another name to jot down in my notes.
Here’s all the whatnot:
MOLASSES BARGE Sign To Argonauta Records For Release Of Brand New Album + Share First Single!
Pittsburgh PA’s Molasses Barge have inked a worldwide deal with rising cult label Argonauta Records, who will release the band’s sophomore album in the Spring of 2020! Titled A Grayer Dawn and set for a release on April 10th, since their critically acclaimed 2017- self-titled debut album Molasses Barge are following their path in the name of doom metal and finest heavy rock grooves, creating a blistering, raw and authentic sound.
“We are very excited to bring this new album to our friends and fans around the globe in 2020.” The band comments. “We were first fortunate to have the engineering and mastering expertise of Jason Jouver and Jack Endino for this recording, and secondly to have Argonauta Records sign us on to be a part of their burgeoning label. Thank you to everyone who has supported us for all of these years!”
The A Grayer Dawn tracklist reads as follows: 1. The Snake 2. Desert Discord 3. Control Letting Go 4. Holding Patterns 5. Black Wings Unfurl 6. Distant 7. A Grayer Dawn 8. Reprise
Molasses Barge were formed in 2008 by Wayne Massey (drums), Brian “Butch” Balich (vocals), and Justin Gizzi (guitar). Originally intended as a side project with designs on recording an EP and making a few live appearances, the group picked up momentum following the additions of second guitarist Ken Houser in 2009, and bassist Amy Bianco at the outset of 2010, recording a pair of EPs and playing numerous shows in PA, Maryland, and New York. After Ken Houser and the group parted ways in 2014, David Fresch was brought aboard and the band released a self titled double-CD through Blackseed Records in 2017. Now entering 2020, with their core still intact and mainstays of Pittsburgh PA’s heavy music scene, Molasses Barge are set to release their second full length album via Italy’s Argonauta Records, featuring the addition of new guitarist Barry Mull.
A Grayer Dawn will see the light of day on April 10th, the band has also been confirmed to play Maryland Doom Fest in 2020. Watch out for more news and album tunes to follow in the weeks ahead!
Molasses Barge is: Brian “Butch” Balich – Vocals Amy Bianco – Bass Justin Gizzi – Guitar Barry Mull – Guitar Wayne Massey – Drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on December 12th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
It’s a Feb. 13 release date for Shadow Witch‘s awaited new album, Under the Shadow of a Witch, through Argonauta Records. So be it. I’ve seen some pics around thee social medias of blacklight shows the band have been doing of late, and they look fairly insane as one would imagine. A touch of the otherworldly or alternate-reality suits Shadow Witch‘s sound well, as does the video for “Wolf Among the Sheep,” which plays up the religious commentary of the track itself.
You know the really fucked thing about Christianity? They tell that shit to kids. Imagine having a kid and being like, “Yo, you better be good because there’s an all-powerful white dude watching you ALL THE TIME EVEN WHILE YOU SLEEP OR PEE and if you’re bad you’ll be set on fire and also that happens forever and ever.” Think about it. That is insane. And I’m speaking as someone who was one of those kids. No wonder people hate each other.
Anyway, you’ll see the snakes, the grainy footage, the speaking in tongues, and yes, the children taking part, as well as the band integrated among the fray — can’t miss them. For further viewing, go back and watch Jesus Camp again. For further listening, stay tuned and I hope it’s not all that long before another track from Under the Shadow of a Witch surfaces. Maybe in January? Hell, I’ll take it whenever it comes. I’m not looking to interrupt anyone’s holiday dinner or anything. Whenever they get around to it is good by me.
ShadowWitch will be at New England Stoner & Doom Fest and will return to Maryland Doom Fest 2020 as well. Because hell yes they will. More dates are reportedly forthcoming, and I believe it.
Dig:
Shadow Witch, “Wolf Among the Sheep” official video
New York Heavy Doom And Stoner Metal Veterans, SHADOW WITCH, Premiere Brand New Music Video!
Under the Shadow of a Witch coming in February 2020 on Argonauta Records!
Shadow Witch, who inked a worldwide deal with Argonauta Records last year, are a heavy rock/stoner metal band from the Hudson Valley region of New York. Forming in the autumn of 2015, the band released their first full-length album Sun Killer to excellent reviews from the international heavy music community in the summer of 2016. A diverse assemblage of songs pulling in Doom, Thrash, NWOBM, and psychedelic and stoner metal, the band backed it up with intense and explosive live shows, opening for King Buffalo, Mothership, and Corrosion of Conformity among others.
Shadow Witch began a new chapter with the release of their second full-length album Disciples of the Crow in December 2017, again gaining excellent reviews from the heavy music community. Countless explosive shows later, the band returns with their highly anticipated third album, titled Under the Shadow of a Witch, coming out on February 13th via Argonauta Records !
To shorten the wait for its official album release, Shadow Witch have just unleashed a brand new video from their upcoming magnum opus! Watch the new clip for Wolf Among The Sheep HERE!
Get ready to kick of into a heavy as hell 2020 with Shadow Witch, and watch out for many more news and album pre-sale infos to follow soon!
Shadow Witch live: May 15-16, 2020 (US) – NEW ENGLAND STONER AND DOOM FEST June 18-20, 2020 (US) – MARYLAND DOOM FEST with many more dates to follow soon!
SHADOW WITCH is: Justin Zipperle – drums David Pannullo – bass Earl Lundy – voice / mellotron / loops Jeremy Hall – guitars
Posted in Reviews on December 11th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
As a creative unit, Queen Elephantine seem to take particular delight in contrasting ritual and experimentalism. Nomadic in geography and decreasingly so but still somewhat amorphous in contributors around founder/guitarist/vocalist Indrayudh Shome and drummer-of-long-standing Nathanael Totushek — though percussionist/vocalist Matthew Becker, Tanpura player/sometimes guitarist Srinivas Reddy, and vocalists Ian Sims and Samer Ghadry (who’ve also handled percussion and guitar, respectively, in the past) have become something of a steady presence — the group which in its latest incarnation is based at least on Shome‘s part in Philadelphia also includes bassist Camden Healy and returning guitarist Brett Zweiman, as well as synth from former Elder drummer Matt Couto, present Gorgon on Argonauta Records and Atypeek Music. It is the sixth Queen Elephantine full-length and arrives following Kala (review here), which was their label debut on Argonauta in 2016. With it come four extended tracks that hearken to the contrast noted in the outset: “Mars” (13:02), “Unbirth” (9:59), “To See Eyes” (10:12) and “Mercury” (10:14). It is by no means the band’s first consort with mythology and extended forms, and after 2013’s Scarab (review here) saw them discover a more dronely, meditative course, Kala pushed further just as Gorgon does once again.
So how can a band be both reliable and unpredictable? Easy: they’re reliably unpredictable. You never really know going into a Queen Elephantine record what you’re going to get, but you can rest assured it’s not going to sound like anything else, and sure enough, Gorgon doesn’t. Even as, with multiple singers at play throughout much of it, adding to the overarching droned-out feel, Gorgon is perhaps Queen Elephantine‘s most Swansian outing up to this point in their career, it’s also singly their own, basking in an identity that comes through Shome‘s own lo-fi production (Billy Anderson mastered) and willful abandonment of traditional verse/chorus structure in favor of songcraft as an outward linear journey, an absolute going that doesn’t so much actively try to return as to follow a drifting and sometimes tidal-feeling pattern, surging and receding, ebbing and flowing, building, crashing, rolling out again. Even in their most straightforward early work, Queen Elephantine have never been a particularly accessible band. Their material is always challenging, and reliable in being more concerned with its own expression and journey than with a given listener’s ability to keep up or with placating an audience.
That very much remains true on Gorgon, as “Mars,” which is both opener and longest track (immediate points) opens with waves of drone and the eventual arrival of a chanting vocal pattern that will return throughout much of the album as it unfolds. These wails become an essential part of the record’s character, and one assumes it’s Shome, Sims and Ghadry together singing out. On “Mars,” they’re surrounded by winding lead guitar, live-sounding drums and at least two layers of synth/drone, so there’s no shortage of things happening, yet with the rawness of production there’s still something minimal about the proceedings that would seem to have carried over from pieces of Kala and more particularly Scarab before Gorgon. The rhythmic guitar of “Unbirth” seems to join the percussive march happening and is willfully, almost defiantly, repetitive — also a significant source of the Swans comparison above — but builds to as close to a wash as I’ve ever heard from Queen Elephantine, psychedelic and immersive with the forward rush of synthesizer and the fragmentation of that guitar line, which morphs and readjusts itself into a different plod, all the more resolved with resurgent vocals overtop. But it’s with “To See Eyes” that the more minimalist feel comes through, and particularly in the second half, which isn’t by any means leaving empty space, but in the setup for a guitar freakout to come, departs for a minute or two into a vast dronescape that is little short of breathtaking.
And when the guitar kicks back in after the seven-minute mark, well, you’ll know it when you hear it. Noise ensues, and what construction there was — and I don’t doubt there was some, even if it was steadfast in its refusal to follow familiar patterns — is pulled apart. I haven’t had the benefit of a lyric sheet to guess at themes or anything like that — often the chants seem more intended to add to the overarching atmosphere than to deliver a pointed message, but perhaps that’s my own misinterpretation — but there are no words as “To See Eyes” bleeds directly into “Mercury” anyhow, the nodding finisher picking up with a more active and plodding progression, guitar and synth adding to the liquefied feel of the outward processional. A noisy solo takes hold and a clear verse emerges from it after three minutes in as patterns are established in the ethereal, which can only mean that departure isn’t far off. Sure enough, Queen Elephantine are soon embroiled in the greater reaches of Sonic Elsewhere, though there’s something particularly grungey about the guitar tone as they go. In psychedelic ritual fashion, they once again pull the track apart at the seams, but this time reemerge from the noise with a verse and final build to a crescendo paying off Gorgon as a whole before giving over to a last burst of feedback.
Isn’t it time to start calling Queen Elephantine jazz? Are we there yet? Much as the gorgons turned those who gazed upon them into stone — the most famous, of course, being Medusa — Gorgon‘s own conversation with immortals would seem to have more to do with Alice Coltrane than Ancient Greece, at least from a sonic standpoint. It’s easy enough to get why they’re underappreciated. True experimentalists often are by a wider audience. But in terms of style and forward-thinking expressive and ambient weight, Queen Elephantine stand apart now and have for some time from those who one might otherwise consider their peers, and as they exist between worlds of the heavy underground and the avant garde, it seems all the more apparent how laudable and unbending their commitment to their own continued growth is. Is it indulgent? Oh yeah. Most definitely. Gorgon isn’t easy listening by any stretch, and even at a manageable 43 minutes, it can feel grueling in the reaches of “Unbirth” or the near-violent deconstruction of “To See Eyes,” but it’s not meant to be easy — on you as a listener or on them as artists. It is meant to exist in that perpetual contradiction between ritual and experiment, taking the familiar and reshaping it into something almost unrecognizable. I wouldn’t dare to predict Queen Elephantine‘s future, where they might go from here in sound or otherwise, but that ethic is at their core, and it seems only fair to expect it to stay there for as long as they’re a band. So be it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 11th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Getting some weirdo kraut fusion vibes off the squeaky clean guitar tone on Otakusuite‘s first single from their impending debut album, Eggs, and that’s not a complaint. The song is titled — gloriously, I should say — “Chicken Caravan Deluxe,” which is now what I’m going to call the leftovers I plan on eating every night for the rest of this week, and it’s the first I’m hearing of the Pisa instrumentalist trio, who’ll issue the long-player through Argonauta Records on March 6. There’s some heavy psych in there as well, as there should be, and while I don’t know how much “Chicken Caravan Deluxe” might represent the rest of the outing, and from the sound of it it seems like the kind of stuff where it’s not necessarily safe to bet one way or the other, I’m digging it so far. March is a while out, of course, but it’s one to keep an eye on anyhow. Can’t miss the cover art, if nothing else.
From the PR wire:
Instrumental Psych Rockers OTAKUSUITE Reval Album Details + Premiere First And Funky Single!
Debut Album coming in March 2020 via Argonauta Records!
Italian instrumental psych rock unit, Otakusuite, have announced the release of their first, full-length album, Eggs, for March 6th on Argonauta Records! The trio hailing from Pisa, who was previously known under the name of The Questionmarks until 2017 and who shared the stages with acts alike Ecstatic Vision among many more, creates an exciting and intelligent fusion of stoner elements, jazz rock to psychedelia and progressive sounds. Following Otakusuite’s highly acclaimed EP La Danza del Sole, the band recorded their upcoming debut album in 2018 already, but it has been kept on hold until they signed a deal with renowned powerhouse label Argonauta Records. Finally, we get to hear a first track out of Eggs, listen to the album opening song, the uber-funky juggernaut Chicken Caravan Deluxe, HERE!
Album Tracklist: 1. Chicken Caravan Deluxe 2. Manannan Mac Lir 3. Y.E.S. ( Your Endless Serendipity ) 4. Killer Monk 5. Country Cousins Meet the Wolf 6. The Curse of the bready bready Flute 7. Insert Coin
Eggs will be coming out on March 6th, watch out for many more news, tunes and a pre-sale to start soon!
Otakusuite is: Marcos Rovini – Guitar Elia Petrosino – Drums Dario Donati a.k.a. Il Lupo – Bass
[Click play above to stream BBF’s Outside the Noise in full. Album is out Dec. 6 on Argonauta Records.]
First thing’s first: Italian outfit BBF‘s moniker, yes, is derived from the family names of the three players involved in the band. That’s guitarist/vocalist Claudio Banelli, bassist/synthesist/vocalist Pietro Brunetti and drummer/percussionist Carlo Forgiarini — B, B and F going by the initials. Easy enough, and suited to some of the more ’70s aspects of their sound on their second album and Argonauta Records debut, Outside the Noise, as some of the lead guitar shimmers on post-intro leadoff track “Third Eye” shimmers with a ’70s pastoralism à la Marshall Tucker Band checking your eyesight and solos are reserved for a reverb-laced seer that seems more drawn from the school of Eddie Hazel. “Time” bops like Ginger Baker-era Masters of Reality, “Kaleidoscope” drawls out cosmic and ethereal with a surprising patience, and the mid-album pairing of “Outside the Noise” and “Into the Light” consumes about 16 minutes of the 41-minute runtime but puts it to excellent use, running through multiple movements and moods in the title-track only to find its way in the second piece and celebrate with a highlight guitar and percussion interplay enhanced by some Rolling Stones-style blues harp.
Instrumentally, BBF show a ready adventurousness and their songs have a fluidity to them that makes the moments of drift all the more effective, but when they want to rock there’s plenty of room for that as well, as they show early in the record on “Third Eye” and “Time,” though ultimately their sonic reach proves more varied in its intention. That is to its credit and to the band’s, as they seem to have no trouble holding the proceedings together and letting their songs work in defiance of what one might generalize as some of the tropes of Italian heavy rock, eschewing influences like Fu Manchu and Nebula in favor of broader styles of songcraft, while still holding to an energy of performance that keeps the eight-track offering moving forward in interesting ways as it weaves between one expression and the next.
If, as the intro “Apollo” suggests in reading the transcription left behind by the first astronauts to touch down on the moon, BBF “came in peace for all mankind,” that’s not exactly a minor ambition. I can’t speak to the universality of its appeal — that is, what portion of “all mankind” is going to be able to get down — but their having come in peace is easy enough to grant. “Apollo” is just two minutes long before it gives over to “Third Eye,” but it plays an essential role in Outside the Noise just the same in that it adjusts the listener’s expectation at the outset for immediacy. As in, there isn’t one. And it’s smartly done, because as Outside the Noise is the band’s first offering for Argonauta, it’s an exposure to a new audience perhaps taking them on for the first time — I know I am, at least — so essentially “Apollo” works with deceptive efficiency in those two minutes to teach that new audience how to experience what’s coming on the seven cuts that follow. They’re not the first to do such a thing, and it may or may not have been a conscious decision on their part, but it’s smoothly done just the same.
And that smoothness also becomes a running theme throughout. “Third Eye” has perhaps the most prevalent hook on the record — figuratively as well as literally; the vocals are too high and dry in the chorus, which is something “Kaleidoscope” corrects later but that comes back again on the penultimate “Sun” — but even as BBF leave behind the straightforward path in favor of more open and exploratory vibes, they do so with an inviting spirit. The three movements across the 9:33 of “Outside the Noise” itself are clearly-enough marked in the track with drops to silence at 2:53 and 7:43 to draw the lines between sonic turns. The first part seems to bring in guest vocals for some soulful wailing over guitar that’s ably enough done but probably would seem all the more so with some lyrics being delivered, while the midsection taps Blind Melon wistful grunge, and the ending serves as a meditative intro to the spacier textures soon to take hold in “Into the Light” and which will continue to unfold on “Kaleidoscope,” “Sun” and the droney closer “Harvest Moon.”
The solo tone that was prefaced in “Third Eye” finds its realization in “Into the Light” and, yeah, if these guys wanted to whip out a “Maggot Brain” cover at any point, I’d be down to check it out. The guitar work is classy, not at all overwrought, and however they got it, that tone is something special and worth preserving. It stands out somewhat in contrast to the drift and post-rock of what surrounds, particularly with “Kaleidoscope” following, but that works to its benefit. It’s made to stand out, where “Kaleidoscope” is made to be hypnotic and sure enough is precisely that, running through a subtly quick 4:21 and giving way to “Sun” which enacts the final build of the record with a marked character and charged emotional progression palpable in the instruments as much as the vocals.
Its turns aren’t unexpected, but their immediate familiarity acts in their favor as it’s that much easier to follow them upward to the crescendo of Outside the Noise, leaving “Harvest Moon” as what might be a five-minute afterthought were it night such an experimentalist delight. Chimes, acoustic guitar, electric drone, quiet cymbal washes and rain sticks and in the end a consuming churn and wash of synth to cut to silence to show a band willing and ready to step outside of even the fairly wide comfort zone they’ve established over the course of the record to that point. That’s an impulse and a drive that serves them well in bidding goodbye to their second offering and holds promise for continued growth, but based on what they do here, one wouldn’t want to make any predictions on their direction for a third release, except perhaps to say that the progression underway in these tracks does not seem to be at an end point and that BBF do not seem like the kind of band to find their sound and hold still in it. There’s a restlessness here, as much as it’s coming in peace, but BBF channel that into an engaging and fascinating variety of craft on Outside the Noise, and though the record isn’t perfect, somehow it feels like if it was it would lose some of its natural spirit.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 27th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Bit of genre-hopping going on with the first Lares album from 2017, and yes, I’ll confess that the news they’ve been picked up by Argonauta for the impending follow-up — Towards Nothingness; due Spring 2020 — is the first I’m hearing of them. The debut, Mask of Discomfort, has sludge tones down pat but pulls the vocals back off the mic a bit in its early going and right away builds a more complicated atmosphere. From there, it only continues to push outward and much to the band’s credit it never really becomes full-on post-metal or full-on any one thing over the other. I’m sure Argonauta Records — which is doing a fair amount of branching out as well these days — will have preorders up in no time flat, but until then, here’s the news that got me to check out the first record, and the stream of that album in case you’d also like to dig in.
From the PR wire:
LARES Inks Worldwide Deal With Argonauta Records!
Brand new album coming in the Spring of 2020!
Berlin- based, psych blackened doom metal unit, LARES, have inked a worldwide deal with Argonauta Records, who will release the band’s sophomore album in the Spring of 2020. The four-piece collective, formed in 2015, combines the elements of post-metal, psych doom, ambient prog-rock and black metal, while adding a unique flavour to their heavily crushing sound. After LARES’ critically acclaimed, 2017- debut, followed by an extensive live schedule, the band has been hard at work on their second album titled Towards Nothingness. Once again recorded by Jan Oberg ( Earth Ship/Grin ) at the Hidden Planet Studio in Berlin and mastered by Audiosiege in Portland, OR, LARES are thrilled to have found the perfect release home in rising powerhouse label Argonauta.
“We have been working diligently in the shadows to find the right vessel for launching Towards Nothingness with a proper release.“ The band states. “Now, we are pleased to announce that this goal will be achieved by a collaboration with our fierce new ally, Argonauta Records! We could not be more satisfied with this combining of forces, and we eagerly look forward to the release of Towards Nothingness in the spring of 2020! This is a major step for us, but it is only the beginning. It is our duty to expand your consciousness, and we will take the world by storm without warning. Join us!“
Watch out for many more news, details and album sounds to come in the time ahead; to shorten your wait, check out the band’s debut, Mask of Discomfort, via their Bandcamp HERE: https://lares.bandcamp.com/
LARES is: Flavio Cafiso – Guitars/Vocals Jörn Zennberg – Bass Simone Lamberti – Guitar/Synths Mike Alksnis – Drums
Posted in Bootleg Theater on November 14th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Later this month, French heavy rockers Denizen will release their third album and second on Argonauta Records, High Winds Preacher. After more than 15 years together, the band have been long enough set on a path toward individuality that it doesn’t seem unreasonable going into their latest work with some measure of expectation, and from the initial push of “Shadow Dancer” through the thicker-toned roll of “Among the Trees” and the let’s-make-the-riff-even-bigger “Ears Wide Opened” before the pure Orange Goblinery of “Chasing the Guru,” they take a familiar but distinct shape in following up their 2017 Songs from the Kraken: The Georges Sessions EP, and their two full-lengths, 2015’s Troubled Waters (review here) and 2011’s Whispering Wild Stories (review here), and the bulk of High Winds Preacher feels dedicated more toward conjuring those high winds via all-out thrust than doing much by way of preaching.
Either way, they do what they do in full awareness of what they’re doing while they do it. To wit, after the bit of slowdown in “Mandrake is Everywhere,” which follows the high-gear “The Beast,” the four-piece are back off and running as they careen through “White Flamingo,” “Deaf Taint,” “Punch Out” and closer “Tomahawk” on what would be the vinyl side B, culminating — of course — in a big, big, big ol’ haymaker of a riff in the finale. Their style is playing to genre, let there be no doubt, but their songs make an impression just the same, and it’s through the sheer energy of their execution that much of that impression comes. Calisthenics as songwriting is a post-Truckfighters European specialty, but any number of bands can sound like they might jump around on stage. Denizen sound like they might jump around in the studio as well, and the fact that that’s the case after over a decade and a half is not a consideration to be taken lightly.
Reinventing the wheel? Nope. Fixing what ain’t broken? Nope. Asking to be anything more than the complement and maybe even some motivating fuel for your good time? Nope. Run with it. They are.
Again, “Shadow Dancer” kicks off the record, and you can see the video for it premiering below. Please note that a sample of the film clip that starts the video is actually in the audio version of the song as well, so kudos the Denizen cats on striving for accuracy.
High Winds Preacher is out Nov. 29.
Enjoy:
Denizen, “Shadow Dancer” official video premiere
DENIZEN formed in the south of France between Montpellier and Sète in 2003. After their demo debut Far From Common Strategy (2006), released on Prototype Records, the band participated in a split tribute to Black Sabbath with the bands Illtemper and Stuntman.
Following their first full length album, Snatches Into Uproar in 2009, DENIZEN moved towards a more rock groove with heavy sludge and stoner influences. With their 2011- release, Whispering Wild Stories, DENIZEN’s Classic Rock influences became assertive: 70’s typed riffing, the wah-wah and melodic vocals, took the band on higher levels and to tour Europe with acts alike Steak or Black Rainbows. The highly acclaimed, third album Troubled Waters (2014 on Argonauta Records) unleashed a heavy rock feeling with a healthy dose of the blues, but the band’s main concern has always been focused on the riff. DENIZEN’s brand new record, High Winds Preacher, will definitely preach the almighty riff again!
Recorded and mixed by Colin Trognée at Studio Mordor Except drums, recorded at Buèges Valley Recording Service by Simon Pillard & Colin Trognée
Mastered by Kent Stump at Crystal Clear Sound
Artwork by Brice Cossu
DENIZEN is: Fabien Aletto – Vocals Yann Chinette – Guitars Andreas Goumy – Drums Colin Trognée – Bass
