One thing I like about Texan weirdo-garage-heavy-punk-doom trio Funeral Horse is that if you were to go up to them and ask what is myrrh anyway, they’d probably tell you it’s a valuable balm, and then when you, in your best Terry Jones high-pitched exclamation shouted “A balm?!” they’d totally get the Life of Brian reference. I don’t know that for sure, not having done it myself — would be a long trip to Houston just for that — but it seems likelier than not given what we’ve learned about Funeral Horse‘s brand of deeply creative heavy rock shenanigans over the course of their two prior full-lengths, 2013’s Savage Audio Demon (review here) and 2014’s Sinister Rites of the Master (review here), that the gag may have come up once or twice while in the studio tracking “Gifts of Opium and Myrrh,” the closing track of their upcoming third album, Divinity for the Wicked, out on Sept. 15.

As with their last two outings, a prevailing lack of pretense rules the day on the new Artificial Head Records seven-tracker. Presented in a concise 37 minutes, Divinity for the Wicked expands the palette of guitarist/vocalist Paul Bearer, bassist Jason Andy Argonauts and drummer Chris Bassett, but keeps consistent in its atmosphere and deceptive lo-fi vibe, a rawness of presentation masking just how far the trip from the hooky opener “There Shall be Vultures” to the bagpipes that round out “Gifts of Opium and Myrrh” actually is. Along the way, a blown-out rocker like “Underneath all that Ever Was” surprises with an inclusion of Mellotron in its second half, and the tracklisting centerpiece/side A finale “Gods of Savages” makes a show of its near-metallic intensity prior to delving into organ melodies and a rush of sludgy punk.

Side B only offers more confusion for the unsuspecting, as the ultra-stoner guitar line that begins “Yigael’s Wall” stops dead three times before the song actually kicks in to begin its eight-minute build, so quiet by the time it shifts into the cymbal wash of “Cities of the Red Night” that one barely knows where the track before stops and the next one starts, a desert-y guitar line emerging to call to mind Brant Bjork‘s minimalist moments and offer interlude companionship to the shorter, Eastern-inflected “A Bit of Weed” back on side A, however many miles the caravan may have covered since then. When it hits, “Gifts of Opium and Myrrh” sets itself to the almost impossible task of drawing the various sides of Divinity for the Wicked together, Funeral Horse moving between shuffle-infused punker chug and noise-rock shouts to an angular, chaotic roll that finishes by crashing into feedback.

And if you want a real sense of the consciousness behind all the weirdo push and pull that Divinity for the Wicked‘s stylistic breadth plays out, take particular note of how smoothly that feedback fades into the aforementioned bagpipes that bring the song and the album as a whole to its conclusion. Suddenly it’s blazingly apparent that none of this stuff has happened by mistake, and Funeral Horse are a long, long way away from simply screwing around either in their writing or in the studio. It’s bound to catch some listeners off guard, but that’s been the risk they’ve been willing to take since their debut that has made their work up to now (and through now) so appealing.

It’s my pleasure to host the stream of “Gifts of Opium and Myrrh,” which you’ll find below, followed by some background from Paul Bearer on the track. Enjoy:

Paul Bearer on “Gifts of Opium and Myrrh”

“The lyrics were drawn from a book I found on the prophecies and letters of Grigori Rasputin. In the book, he mentioned how his spirit had lived for eons as a great consult to the most powerful leaders throughout the ages. I found the concept interesting and started extracting parts of the book into the song. The bagpipes at the end of the song came about after hearing them during my grandfather’s funeral. I found them to be so mournful yet powerful and had made a mental note to one day use them as a closer for a song/album as a nod to my grandfather and his Scottish heritage.”

Divinity For The Wicked by Funeral Horse will be released on 15th September through Artificial Head Records.

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Interesting news all around from Texas three-piece Funeral Horse. The Houston-based rockers have netted fascination on their two releases to-date, 2013’s Savage Audio Demon (review here) and this year’s Sinister Rites of the Master (review here, stream here), and it seems they’ll continue to do so as we move into 2015. Having already done a stint along the West Coast, they mention in the update below they’ll do more US touring — maybe this time they’ll come east? — and also the word “Europe” is included as a possibility for next fall. Curious to see what shape that takes as the months go on, and if Funeral Horse will wind up at any of the annual fests that happen over there around that time. That would explain early hint-dropping of the tour. Hmm…

Also — and maybe that’s me burying the headline a bit — they’ve swapped drummers, bringing in Chris Bassett alongside guitarist/vocalist Paul Bearer and bassist Jason Argonaut in place of Chris Larmour, who if you’ll recall wrote the short story that came with the Sinister Rites of the Master vinyl. No small change, but with mention of Bassett making the band tighter and doomier in the announcement below, which also brings word that Funeral Horse are hitting the studio next month, the plot gets even thicker.

Intrigue!

FUNERAL HORSE announce recording of new album, new drummer

Dusting themselves off from their recent West Coast USA tour, Texas stoner doom trio FUNERAL HORSE has announced that they will be entering the studio to record the follow-up to their acclaimed second album, Sinister Rites of the Master (Artificial Head Records).

Additionally, the band wishes to officially announce Chris Bassett as their new drummer. Chris will be joining the band in the studio to lay down the tracks for the third FUNERAL HORSE release.

Recording will begin in January with nine songs currently slated for release. The band has once again selected Digital Warehaus in Houston, Texas as the studio for recording. Renowned artist Savage Pencil has been tapped for the cover art to the new album.

“We are extremely lucky to have found Chris and have him on board with us,” explained singer/guitar player Paul Bearer. “Not only has he picked up the new material quickly, he has helped to tighten the focus of the band and bring more of the doom element into our sound.”

Additional info on the upcoming album will be released in the coming weeks as FUNERAL HORSE prepares to finish recording and then hit the road again around North America and Europe in the fall of 2015.

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Funeral Horse, “Stoned and Furious” official video

Houston trio Funeral Horse occupy some pretty nebulous sonic space. At root in their style is a classic punk sensibility — their riffs are for the most part simple and there’s little on their second outing, Sinister Rites of the Master (review here), that one would consider “frilled” — but to call them “punk” or even “stoner punk” conveys only a fraction of the influences through which their album establishes itself. They debuted last summer with the Savage Audio Demon tape (review here), and that showed the potential for what the three-piece do on the follow-up, but in the layered solos of “Until the Last Nation Falls” and the harmonica-laden drawl and spaciousness of “I Hear the Devil Calling Me,” guitarist/vocalist Paul Bearer, bassist Jason Argonaut and drummer Chris Larmour tell a tale of adventurous sonic diversity that serves them incredibly well throughout their sophomore effort’s course.

The album is out now on Artificial Head Records, and in no small way, I’m thrilled to be able to stream it because I feel like thus far, none of the descriptions I’ve yet given have really done justice to the kind of creativity Funeral Horse have at their core. I’m not saying they’re revolutionaries, just that for a band to work within a genre while also feeling so free to toy with various aspects in and out of it while also keeping their songs cohesive and fluid is rare, and Sinister Rites of the Master does stand up on a front to back listen. As you make your way through the seven tracks, keep in mind the side break after “Communist’s Blues,” since the two parts of the LP go far in defining its structure, but even taken in one sitting, the songs stand up all the way down to the loose-knit garage style of “Stoned and Furious” and the Rush cover “Working Man” that closes out.

However you choose to take it on — 333 copies of the vinyl are pressed, so if you want to go that route, time may be a factor — Sinister Rites of the Master offers a listen worthy of the effort, and like its predecessor, speaks volumes to the potential of the band. Since you can hear it for yourself and since I keep coming up short with it anyway, I’ll leave it there.

Hope you enjoy:

Funeral Horse‘s Sinister Rites of the Master was produced by Stephen Finley and Paul Bearer at Digital Warehaus Studio in Houston and is available now on Artificial Head in a pressing of 333 hand-numbered, multi-color vinyl copies. More info at the links:

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An Aug. 11 release date has been made official for Funeral Horse‘s Sinister Rites of the Master. The full-length (review here) is the second outing from the Houston stoner/punk/rockers, and follows behind last year’s Savage Audio Demon tape (review here). 333 copies will be pressed.

I guess that means I kind of jumped the gun writing the review, since it was two months prior to the release at that point, but I wanted to make sure the release date got noted as well because these guys do interesting stuff and make it sound raw and natural in the process. I’d have sworn they had the whole thing streaming before, but whatever, ahead of the release, you can hear the track “Until the Last Nation Falls” below.

The PR wire fills in the particulars:

FUNERAL HORSE – SINISTER RITES OF THE MASTER LP (Artificial Head) Released on 11th August 2014

Made up of front man/guitarist Paul Bearer, bassist Jason Andy Argonauts and drummer Chris Larmour, Houston’s Funeral Horse are offhand in their attitude to technical virtuosity. Whether rocking their way through dark blues or dissonant experimentation Sinister Rites Of The Master is unapologetically thunderous.

Following on from last year’s Savage Audio Demon, Sinister Rites… will be released this August on Artificial Head Records. An imprint that to date has seen releases from fellow Texans and garage convivialists The Escatones, David Gedge’s much-loved Cinerama and the criminally undersung post-punk outfit Art Institute.

Under the influence, this current assembly of unholy noisemakers produce music to gouge minds to. Murky and fuzzed out, punk by execution but unmistakably proto-metal in mass and volume the album peddles the sort of sounds you might find at the angrier end of a Sub Pop or Touch and Go discography. A shot in the vein of Tad via Mudhoney’s raw megaphonic vocals (‘Until The Last Nation Falls’, ‘Amputate The Hands Of Thieves’) Funeral Horse also take in the vintage and lo-fi grind of traditional stoner, and even classic rock, as best heard on their storming cover of Rush’s ‘Working Man’.

Track Listing:
1. Until The Last Nation Falls
2. Amputate The Hands Of Thieves
3. Communist’s Blues
4. Executioner Of Kings
5. I Hear The Devil Calling Me
6. Stoned And Furious
7. Working Man

Funeral Horse:
Paul Bearer – Vocals, Guitar
Jason Andy Argonauts – Bass
Chris Larmour – Drums

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Funeral Horse, “Until the Last Nation Falls”

I am perplexed / Who is the 13th doctor?

On each side of the splatter pink 12″ vinyl edition of Funeral Horse‘s second offering, Sinister Rites of the Master, appears one of the above phrases, etched in past the music. Side A has “I am perplexed,” and side B, “Who is the 13th doctor?,” and neither of them come with much by way of context. The former were the final words of Aleister Crowley and the latter phrase is either a Doctor Who reference or I don’t know what. Either or both would seem a decent match for the seven songs and two sides of Sinister Rites of the Master, which follows Funeral Horse‘s summer 2013 tape debut, Savage Audio Demon (review here). A liner included with the record, which is limited to 333 copies pressed by Artificial Head Records, also has a microfiction from drummer Chris Larmour that takes place in the lost city of Carcosa, as seen in Lovecraft and Ambrose Bierce and most recently the HBO drama True Detective, so there’s clearly a dedication to atmosphere and a complete album package being about more than just the music, though their songwriting has progressed audibly since the debut.

Fortunately, that progression hasn’t come at the expense of the raw vibe of the songs’ production. The vinyl has a different mix from the digital version of Sinister Rites of the Master and an even more garage-minded style, but either way you go, there’s a clarity to some of the ideas that sounded formative last time out, the three-piece of Larmour, guitarist/vocalist Paul Bearer — who also donates a mean harmonica solo to round out “Communist’s Blues” at the end of side A — and bassist Jason Argonaut now mischievously jumping from one side to another around the line between punk and heavier rock. The bass tone is warm, vocals mostly distorted, and the drums creative but largely straightforward, so there is a punkish vibe throughout, but while “Amputate the Hands of Thieves” has a definite insistence in its rhythm, it’s thicker, and the fact that Funeral Horse close with what they’ve billed online as a “slight revision” of Rush‘s “Working Man” speaks to other influences at play.

One could say the same of side B in general, though. The three songs on the first half of Sinister Rites of the Master — “Until the Last Nation Falls,” “Amputate the Hands of Thieves” and “Communist’s Blues” — work around a similar stylistic basis of garage stoner movement, the latter pulling back somewhat in tempo, but still in the same vein, while the four cuts that follow the flip — “Executioner of Kings,” “I Hear the Devil Calling Me,” “Stoned and Furious” and the aforementioned Rush cover “Working Man” — change up the approach. This in itself is a classic form — if you’re going to get weird, do it on side B — but where the earlier cuts take inspiration from the likes of John Milton and Kang Chol-Hwan, “Stoned and Furious” is said to be “inspired by true events.” A bit of humor never hurts as a reminder that it’s all supposed to be a good time, and in this way, the digital and vinyl editions of the album feed into each other; you can listen to one and read about the other. “Stoned and Furious” is sonically consistent, however, and the biggest stylistic turn comes with the relatively brief “I Hear the Devil Calling Me,” which brings in Sarah Hirsch of Houston’s Jealous Creatures for a guest vocal over swamp harmonica and strummed guitar.

Well placed and a genuine surprise on the first listen, “I Hear the Devil Calling Me” feels somewhat like an outro, which would make “Stoned and Furious” and “Working Man” bonus tracks for the album, but both sides of Sinister Rites of the Masterwork in terms of their flow, so I’m not about to argue (with myself) over adherence to a theme. The wailing leads of “Stoned and Furious” do well to call back the tom runs at the start of “Executioner of Kings” that act as the bed for a full-sounding wall of riff, and “Working Man” gets reinvented as an early Pentagram demo, blown-out vocals and all. I don’t know who the 13th doctor is, but what Funeral Horse do on their second full-length release is to show that while they keep things loose and natural sounding, they’re still working on a conscious progression of their sound. Sinister Rites of the Master is likely to be a sleeper vinyl, but it departs entirely from the stereotypical post-Pantera Texan burl and is so gleefully stoned in parts that one can’t help but wonder how they hold it together as long as they do. They’ve taking away some of the dronier sounds they presented their first time out, but spend their time well nonetheless.

Funeral Horse, Sinister Rites of the Master (2014)

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