Last day, this one. And probably a good thing so that I can go back to doing just about anything else beyond (incredibly) basic motor function and feeling like I need to start the next day’s QR writeups. I’m already thinking of maybe a week in December and a week or two in January, just to try to keep up with stuff, but I’m of two minds about it.

Does the Quarterly Review actually help anyone find music? It helps me, I know, because it’s 50 records that I’m basically forcing myself to dig into, and that exposes me to more and more and more all the time, and gives me an outlet for stuff I wouldn’t otherwise have mental or temporal space to cover, so I know I get something out of it. Do you?

Honest answers are welcome in the comments. If it’s a no, that helps me as well.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

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AAWKS & Aiwass, The Eastern Scrolls

Late on their 2022 self-titled debut (review here), Canadian upstart heavy fuzzers AAWKS took a decisive plunge into greater tonal densities, and “1831,” which is their side-consuming 14:30 contribution to the The Eastern Scrolls split LP with Arizona mostly-solo-project Aiwass, feels built directly off that impulse. It is, in other words, very heavy. Cosmically spaced with harsher vocals early that remind of stonerkings Sons of Otis and only more blowout from there as they roll forth into slog, noise, a stop, ambient guitar and string melodies and drum thud behind vocals, subdued psych atmosphere and backmasked sampling near the finish. Aiwass, led by multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Blake Carrera and now on the cusp of releasing a second full-length, The Falling (review here), give the 13:00 “The Unholy Books” a stately, post-metallic presence, as much about the existential affirmations and the melody applied to the lyrics as it moves into the drumless midsection as either the earlier Grayceon-esque pulled notes of guitar (thinking specifically “War’s End” from 2011’s All We Destroy, but there the melody is cello) into it or the engrossing heft that emerges late in the piece, though it does bookend with a guitar comedown. Reportedly based around the life of theosophy co-founder and cult figure Madame Helena Blavatsky, it can either be embraced on that level or taken on simply as a showcase of two up and coming bands, each with their own complementary sound. However you want to go, it’s easily among the best splits I’ve heard in 2023.

AAWKS on Facebook

Aiwass on Facebook

Black Throne Productions store

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Surya Kris Peters, Strange New World

The lines between projects are blurring for Surya Kris Peters, otherwise known as Chris Peters, currently based in Brazil where he has the solo-project Fuzz Sagrado following on from his time in the now-defunct German trio Samsara Blues Experiment. Strange New World is part of a busy 2023/busy last few years for Peters, who in 2023 alone has issued a live album from his former band (review here) and a second self-recorded studio LP from Fuzz Sagrado, titled Luz e Sombra (review here). And in Fuzz Sagrado, Peters has returned to the guitar as a central instrument after a few years of putting his focus on keys and synths with Surya Kris Peters as the appointed outlet for it. Well, the Fuzz Sagrado had some keys and the 11-song/52-minute Strange New World wants nothing for guitar either as Peters reveals a headbanger youth in the let-loose guitar of “False Prophet,” offers soothing and textured vibes of a synthesized beat in “Sleep Meditation in Times of War” (Europe still pretty clearly in mind) and the acoustic/electric blend that’s expanded upon in “Nada Brahma Nada.” Active runs of synth, bouncing from note to note with an almost zither-esque feel in “A Beautiful Exile (Pt. 1)” and the later “A Beautiful Exile (Part 2)” set a theme that parts of other pieces follow, but in the drones of “Past Interference” and the ’80s New Wave prog of the bonus track “Slightly Too Late,” Peters reminds that the heart of the project is in exploration, and so it is still very much its own thing.

Fuzz Sagrado on Facebook

Electric Magic Records on Bandcamp

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Evert Snyman, All Killer Filler

A covers record can be a unique opportunity for an artist to convey something about themselves to fans, and while I consider Evert Snyman‘s 12-track/38-minute classic pop-rock excursion All Killer Filler to be worth it for his take on Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Zero” alone, there is no mistaking the show of persona in the choice to open with The Stooges‘ iconic “Search and Destroy” and back it cheekily with silly bounce of Paul McCartney‘s almost tragically catchy “Temporary Secretary.” That pairing alone is informative if you’re looking to learn something about the South African-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer. See also “The Piña Colada Song.” The ’90s feature mightily, as they would, with tunes by Pixies, Blur, Frank Black, The Breeders and Mark Lanegan (also the aforementioned Smashing Pumpkins), but whether it’s the fuzz of The Breeders’ 1:45 “I Just Wanna Get Along,” the sincere acoustic take on The Beatles “I Will” — which might as well be a second McCartney solo cut, but whatever; you’ll note Frank Black and Pixies appearing separately as well — or the gospel edge brought to Tom Waits‘ “Jesus Gonna Be Here,” Snyman internalizes this material, almost builds it from the ground up, loyal in some ways and not in others, but resonant in its respect for the source material without trying to copy, say, Foo Fighters, note for note on “The Colour and the Shape.” If it’s filler en route to Snyman‘s next original collection, fine. Dude takes on Mark Lanegan without it sounding like a put on. Mark Lanegan himself could barely do that.

Evert Snyman on Facebook

Mongrel Records website

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Book of Wyrms, Storm Warning

Virginian heavy doom rockers Book of Wyrms have proved readily in the past that they don’t need all that long to set up a vibe, and the standalone single “Storm Warning” reinforces that position with four-plus minutes of solid delivery of craft. Vocalist/synthesist Sarah Moore Lindsey, bassist Jay “Jake” Lindsey and drummer Kyle Lewis and guitarist Bobby Hufnell (also Druglord) — the latter two would seem to have switched instruments since last year’s single “Sodapop Glacier” (premiered here) — but whatever is actually being played by whoever, the song is a structurally concise but atmospheric groover, with a riff twisting around the hook and the keyboard lending dimension to the mix as it rests beneath the guitar and bass. They released their third album, Occult New Age (review here), in 2021, so they’re by no means late on a follow-up, and I don’t know either when this song was recorded — before, after or during that process — but it’s a sharp-sounding track from a band whose style has grown only  more theirs with time. I have high expectations for Book of Wyrms‘ next record — I had high expectations for the last one, which were met — and especially taken together, “Storm Warning” and “Sodapop Glacier” show both the malleable nature of the band’s aesthetic, the range that has grown in their sound and the live performance that is at their collective core.

Book of Wyrms on Facebook

Desert Records store

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Burning Sister, Get Your Head Right

Following on from their declarative 2022 debut, Mile High Downer Rock (review here), Denver trio Burning Sister — bassist/vocalist Steve Miller (also synth), guitarist Nathan Rorabaugh and drummer Alison Salutz — bring four originals and the Mudhoney cover “When Tomorrow Comes” (premiered here) together as Get Your Head Right, a 29-minute EP, beginning with the hypnotic nod groove and biting leads of “Fadeout” (also released as a single) and the slower, heavy psych F-U-Z-Z of “Barbiturate Lizard,” the keyboard-inclusive languid roll of which, even after the pace picks up, tells me how right I was to dig that album. The centerpiece title-track is faster and a little more forward tonally, more grounded, but carries over the vocal echo and finds itself in noisier crashes and chugs before giving over to the 7:58 “Looking Through Me,” which continues the relatively terrestrial vibe over until the wall falls off the spaceship in the middle of the track and everyone gets sucked into the vacuum — don’t worry, the synthesizer mourns us after — just before the noted cover quietly takes hold to close out with spacious heavygaze cavern echo that swells all the way up to become a blowout in the vein of the original. It’s a story that’s been told before, of a band actively growing, coming into their sound, figuring out who they are from one initial release to the next. Burning Sister haven’t finished that process yet, but I like where this seems to be headed. Namely into psych-fuzz oblivion and cosmic dust. So yeah, right on.

Burning Sister on Facebook

Burning Sister on Bandcamp

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Gévaudan, Umbra

Informed by Pallbearer, Warning, or perhaps others in the sphere of emotive doom, UK troupe Gévaudan scale up from 2019’s Iter (review here) with the single-song, 43:11 Umbra, their second album. Impressive enough for its sheer ambition, the execution on the extended titular piece is both complex and organic, parts flowing naturally from one to the other around lumbering rhythms for the first 13 minutes or so before a crashout to a quick fade brings the next movement of quiet and droning psychedelia. They dwell for a time in a subtle-then-not-subtle build before exploding back to full-bore tone at 18:50 and carrying through a succession of epic, dramatic ebbs and flows, such that when the keyboard surges to the forefront of the mix in seeming battle with the pulled notes of guitar, the ensuing roll/march is a realization. They do break to quiet again, this time piano and voice, and doom mournfully into a fade that, at the end of a 43-minute song tells you the band could’ve probably kept going had they so desired. So much the better. Between this and Iter, Gévaudan have made a for-real-life statement about who they are as a band and their progressive ambitions. Do not make the mistake of thinking they’re done evolving.

Gévaudan on Facebook

Meuse Music Records website

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Oxblood Forge, Cult of Oblivion

In some of the harsher vocals and thrashy riffing of Cult of Oblivion‘s opening title-track, Massachusetts’ Oxblood Forge remind a bit of some of the earliest Shadows Fall‘s definitively New Englander take on hardcore-informed metal. The Boston-based double-guitar five-piece speed up the telltale chug of “Children of the Grave” on “Upon the Altar” and find raw sludge scathe on “Cleanse With Fire” ahead of finishing off the four-song/18-minute EP with the rush into “Mask of Satan,” which echoes the thrash of “Cult of Oblivion” itself and finds vocalist Ken McKay pushing his voice higher in clean register than one can recall on prior releases, their most recent LP being 2021’s Decimator (review here). But that record was produced for a different kind of impact than Cult of Oblivion, and the aggression driving the new material is enhanced by the roughness of its presentation. These guys have been at it a while now, and clearly they’re not in it for trends, or to be some huge band touring for seven months at a clip. But their love of heavy metal is evident in everything they do, and it comes through here in every blow to the head they mete out.

Oxblood Forge on Facebook

Oxblood Forge on Bandcamp

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High Brian, Five, Six, Seven

The titular rhythmic counting in Austrian heavy-prog quirk rockers High Brian‘s Five, Six, Seven (on StoneFree Records, of course) doesn’t take long to arrive, finding its way into second cut “Is it True” after the mild careening of “All There Is” opens their third full-length, and that’s maybe eight minutes into the 40-minute record, but it doesn’t get less gleefully weird from there as the band take off into the bassy meditation of “The End” before tossing out angular headspinner riffs in succession and rolling through what feels like a history of krautrock’s willful anti-normality written into the apocalypse it would seemingly have to be. “The End” is the longest track at 8:50, and it presumably closes side A, which means side B is when it’s time to party as the triplet chug of “The Omni” reinforces the energetic start of “All There Is” with madcap fervor and “Stone Came Up” can’t decide whether it’s raw-toned biker rock or spaced out lysergic idolatry, so it decides to become an open jam complete people talking “in the crowd.” This leaves the penultimate “Our First Car” to deliver one last shove into the art-rock volatility of closer “Oil Into the Fire,” where High Brian play one more round of can-you-follow-where-this-is-going before ending with a gentle cymbal wash like nothing ever happened. Note, to the best of my knowledge, there are not bongos on every track, as the cover art heralds. But perhaps spiritually. Spiritual bongos.

High Brian on Facebook

StoneFree Records website

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Búho Ermitaño, Implosiones

Shimmering, gorgeous and richly informed in melody and rhythm by South American folk, Búho Ermitaño‘s Implosiones revels in pastoralia in opener “Herbie” before “Expolosiones” takes off past its midpoint into heavy post-rock float and progressive urgency that in itself is more dynamic than many bands even still is only a small fraction of the encompassing range of sounds at work throughout these seven songs. ’60s psych twists into the guitar solo in the back half of “Explosiones” before space rock key/synth wash finishes — yes, it’s like that — and only then does the serene guitar and, birdsong and synth-drone of “Preludio” announce the arrival of centerpiece “Ingravita,” which begins acoustic and even as it climbs all the way up to its crescendo maintains its peaceful undercurrent so that when it returns at the end it seems to be home again at the finish. The subsequent “Buarabino” is more about physical movement in its rhythm, cumbia roots perhaps showing through, but leaves the ground for its second half of multidirectional resonances offered like ’70s prog that tells you it’s from another planet. But no, cosmic as they get in the keys of “Entre los Cerros,” Búho Ermitaño are of and for the Earth — you can hear it in every groove and sun-on-water guitar melody — and when the bowl chimes to start finale “Renacer,” the procession that ensues en route to the final drone is an affirmation both of the course they’ve taken in sound and whatever it is in your life that’s led you to hear it. Records like this never get hype. They should. They are loved nonetheless.

Búho Ermitaño on Facebook

Buh Records on Bandcamp

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Octonaut, Intergalactic Tales of a Wandering Cephalopod

In concept or manifestation, one would not call Octonaut‘s 54-minute shenanigans-prone debut album Intergalactic Tales of a Wandering Cephalopod a minor undertaking. On any level one might want to approach it — taking on the two-minute feedbackscape of “…—…” (up on your morse code?) or the 11-minute tale-teller-complete-with-digression-about-black-holes “Octonaut” or any of their fun-with-fuzz-and-prog-metal-and-psychedelia points in between — it is a lot, and there is a lot going on, but it’s also wonderfully brazen. It’s completely over the top and knows it. It doesn’t want to behave. It doesn’t want to just be another stoner band. It’s throwing everything out in the open and seeing what works, and as Octonaut move forward, ideally, they’ll take the lessons of a song like the mellow linear builder “Hypnotic Jungle” or nine-minute capper “Rainbow Muffler Camel” (like they’re throwing darts at words) with its intermittent manic fits and the somehow inevitable finish of blown-out static noise. As much stoner as it is prog, it’s also not really either, but this is good news because there are few better places for an act so clearly bent on individualism as Octonaut are to begin than in between genres. One hopes they dwell there for the duration.

Octonaut on Facebook

Octonaut’s Linktr.ee

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Denver’s Burning Sister are releasing their new single “When Tomorrow Hits” this Friday, June 9. Technically, it’s a Mudhoney cover, but the Colorado trio who released their debut album, Mile High Downer Rock (review here), in 2022, are more loyal to the Spacemen 3 version taken from 1991’s Recurring, slowing down and fleshing out with echo and shoegazing atmospherics the rawer take of the original original from Mudhoney‘s 1989 self-titled. To say both versions inform Burning Sister‘s take is redundant — it’s the same frickin’ song, that’s what a cover is — but the breadth that “When Tomorrow Hits” fosters is a preface to the band’s upcoming EP, Get Your Head Right, which will be out later this year, and in that it is a herald of expansive vibe to come.

They didn’t write it, so I wouldn’t expect “When Tomorrow Hits” to necessarily define the other tracks on Get Your Head Right, but they build it up from silence to full-volume with patience and mellow-at-first groove, part addled shoegaze à la Dead Meadow, especially once the vocals start, but still held to the structure beneath in its linear movement to the payoff that starts right around 3:10. With the languid flow intact, Burning Sister roll into that volume swell of up and down undulations and give “When Tomorrow Hits” the push it deserves, making it their own across a hypnotic four and a half minutes that tell as much about Burning Sister‘s own influences — what they mean by ‘downer rock,’ for example — and the take on heavy they’re aiming toward. I look forward to hearing “When Tomorrow Hits” in the context of the rest of Get Your Head Right, but it seems like that in-between, pre-grunge moment circa 1988-1991, where ’80s punk and noise was starting to fill out its bottom end and hit with slower tempos, is a definite factor in the makeup of their sound. Noted.

There’s also a personal connection, as bassist/vocalist/synthesist Steve Miller explains in the quote below. I have yet to hear a solid release date for the EP, but frankly, the album’s not that old — the Bandcamp player is down there, you’ll see it — and in thinking about the song in relation to the full-length preceding, the cover adds some reach to what Mile High Downer Rock showed without actually departing in mood. And by mood, I mean downerism and heft.

With the hope of more to come near the EP’s arrival, enjoy “When Tomorrow Hits”:

Burning Sister, “When Tomorrow Hits” track premiere

Steve from Burning Sister on “When Tomorrow Hits”:

“When Tomorrow Hits” by Mudhoney is a late-’80s downer rock classic and the song is just as impactful today as when it came out in 1989. Then Spacemen 3 come around a couple of years later with their final album and make what I consider to be one of the most definitive cover tunes ever—they managed to capture the gravity and essence of the original track, but also successfully make it their own. If we get even halfway there, we’re stoked. This song is dedicated to my friend, Aaron, who passed away in 2011. He introduced me to Spacemen 3 and was with me when I bought my first bass in a pawn shop in Detroit. I can remember many of our conversations about music, particularly about “When Tomorrow Hits,” as if it was yesterday. This one’s for him.

The first single from the band’s upcoming EP Get Your Head Right, out later in 2023.

A powerful cover of Mudhoney’s classic song When Tomorrow Hits that breathes new life and meaning into the track.

Released independently on June 9th. Tracked/Mixed/Mastered by Austin at All Aces Studios.

Steve Miller – bass, synth, vox
Nathan Rorabaugh – guitars
Alison Salutz – drums

Burning Sister, Mile High Downer Rock (2022)

Burning Sister on Instagram

Burning Sister on Facebook

Burning Sister on Bandcamp

Denver, Colorado, heavy fuzz rollers Burning Sister are set to release their debut album, Mile High Downer Rock — and hearing that bassline after the chorus of opening cut “Leather Mistress,” it’s a title wanting nothing for accuracy — tomorrow, Nov. 4. That comes after about a year of waiting. If you look at the timeline of singles posted before the release, the first of them, “Acid Night Vision,” was issued as a single on Nov. 11, 2021. According to their Bandcamp, the recording for the album took place between September and October 2021. Single releases for “Cloven Tongues” and the aforementioned “Leather Mistress” followed this year in Feb. and June, respectively, and it’s been since then that the self-releasing trio have been sitting on it. Pretty god damned patient, if you ask me. Even with trickling out songs over a period of months.

I’m not too sure about the moniker, the more I think about it — what did Sister ever do to you? — but the sound wrought by bassist/vocalist Steve Miller (also synth), drummer Alison Salutz and guitarist Drake Brownfield (since replaced by Nathan Rorabaugh) is surefire classic stonerized heavy. Guitar and bass are fuzzed from the get-go and stay that way, and six of the eight included tracks are between six and seven and a half minutes long — the other two are interludes — so yes, Burning Sister dig in. Deep. Coming off “Leather Mistress,” the drawl in the vocals of “Acid Night Vision” remind a bit of Dali’s Llama, but the rumblechug the Denver trio conjure is more definitively addled. Like, it probably has an opinion on terpenes. And if you’ve ever believed in calling songs ‘slabs,’ the largesse just before the midsection of “Acid Night Vision” should qualify, but they’re not just about any one thing, necessarily, save perhaps for riffs. Those are up front and at the foundation both, and well they should be.

Two songs, break, two songs, break, two songs. Got it? “The Messenger” is the first interlude. It’s after “Acid Night Vision” and before the massive, Sleep-derived “Cloven Tongues,” which is a highlight for its slowed-down-classic-metal riffing, the way the bass keeps going when the guitar stops and the lead that’s worked in overtop. On a record of nodders, “Cloven Tongues” might be Master Nod, but it’s by no means the last one. Organ or organ sounds run alongside the guitar, creating a droning melody that helps fill the space set by the guitar and bass tones as well as the echoing vocals — they’re there somewhere, though they seem to come and go — and the drums, though not nearly as up-front in the mix, are still enough of a factor to feel genuinely righteous in their cutting through. The second half of “Cloven Tongues” grows noisier, and rightly so, setting up the harsher distortion/smoother ride of “Dead Sun Blues,” which by the time it devolves into its guitar solo has made it perfectly clear it’s not coming back. All the better to lead into “Seraphim,” the next synth interlude, with its Slomatics-style sci-fi grandiosity and organ accompaniment, and through its cinema-drone into the ultra-swagger of “S.I.B.,” the penultimate inclusion.

It’s the kind of riff that, if this were 1972 instead of 2022, would probably be played at twice the speed, but its twists and strut aren’t necessarily lost for the half-century of tempo drain. Straightening out to a chugging hook, the track is understated but too swinging to leave out, like Hendrix in Sabbath with shoegaze vocals. The synth from “Seraphim” makes a brief return before “S.I.B.” jams itself full circle back around to the chorus and ends with a ringout of fading feedback as though it knew closer “Stars Align” will make its own bed of fuzz on which to lay out its roll. And so it does. Also longest track (not by a lot) at 7:34, “Stars Align” is a finale true to form for the preceding proceedings; Burning Sister don’t seem like the type for last-minute surprises. But there’s some shuffle as it plays through and deft changes in speed and an opening up for a chorus after about three minutes in that signals a momentary departure from the lumber of the verse. They build to a fervent push and the capping solo that takes hold at 5:54 and runs through the finish is a ripper that earns its place.

So “mile high?” Any way you want to look at it, literally or figuratively, altitude or attitude, yes. “Downer rock?” Yeah, I hear that too. The vocals have a kind of depressive edge at times and there are moments that toe the line between Man’s Ruin-style, post-Acid King idolatry-o’-riff and darker, definitely-doomed fare. In any case, it’s not party rock — unless you happen to be having precisely my kind of party — and as a debut it is both declarative and exploratory, setting out the band’s intentions for future growth in melody, in consuming tones, in synth integration and expansiveness of craft and structure, while kicking a good bit of ass in the here and now. If saying that makes Mile High Downer Rock seem preliminary, hindsight through future releases may (or may not, I guess) indeed make it feel that way, but whatever stylistic rawness exists in it is put to aesthetic use and becomes a part of the personality. There was a time when bands like this roamed the earth, 90 feet long and in packs visible from space. I wonder if, 20 years later, it’s safe to call such a thing ‘retro?’

In any case, the prospect of aural progression is bolstered by the current self-awareness as demonstrated in the title. And the patience they’ve shown in not just, say, putting the whole thing out themselves over the summer, will likely continue to work its way into their songwriting as well. They know what they’re doing. Perhaps, then, the best thing to do is stand back and let them do it. You’ll find Mile High Downer Rock streaming in its entirety in the YouTube embed below, followed by some PR-wire type preliminaries on the record, which was mastered by none other than Tad Doyle. As if you needed another excuse to listen.

Please enjoy:

Burning Sister, Mile High Downer Rock premiere

‘Mile High Downer Rock’ is the debut full-length album by Burning Sister. The album showcases the band’s love of doom, heavy psych, acid rock, 90s noise rock, and classic underground heavy music.

Tracklisting:
1. Leather Mistress
2. Acid Night Vision
3. The Messenger
4. Cloven Tongues
5. Dead Sun Blues
6. Seraphim
7. S.I.B.
8. Stars Align

Steve Miller – bass, synth, vox
Nathan Rorabaugh – guitars
Alison Salutz – drums

This recording:
Steve Miller – bass, synth, vox
Drake Brownfield – guitars
Alison Salutz – drums

*recorded and mixed at Module Overload.

*mastered by Tad Doyle at Witch Ape Studio – Skyway Audio

Burning Sister on Instagram

Burning Sister on Facebook

Burning Sister on Bandcamp

Denver three-piece Burning Sister set their own stakes and name their genre with the title of their debut full-length: Mile High Downer Rock. What exactly is that blend? Well, if we go with the eight-track/46-minute long-player as a guide, it’s a form of heavy that’s no less comfortable in the obscure sample cultistry that begins opener “Leather Mistress” than in the post-Om meditative low-end vibing of “Cloven Tongues” (video premiere below), tripping out riff-based fare with synthesized flourish on “Acid Night Vision” and “S.I.B.” while seeming to offer bridges from one movement to the next in the interludes “The Messenger” and “Seraphim,” the former a slow-burning spread of organ and bass that sets up “Cloven Tongues” and the latter a more grandiose sub-two-minute stretch that marks the arrival point at the closing salvo of “S.I.B.” and the fuzz-grooving “Stars Align.” It’s dirty and doomed on “Dead Sun Blues” and “Leather Mistress,” pushing somewhere between lo-fi atmospherics and grounded groove in the wah bass of Steve Miller (also keys and vocals) and the drums of Alison Salutz while guitarist Drake Brownfield ostensibly leads the Sabbathian jam overhead.

Got all that? The easier way to say it is probably that Mile High Downer Rock — in addition to a cheeky wordplay — is whatever Burning Sister collectively decide it is. Fair enough.

“Leather Mistress” welcomes the listener to the procession with a foreboding “The gate is open…” and a quick splurge of horror-noise before its riff kicks in. Groove, immediate. Tone, right on. Swing is classic but not retro. Easy to vibe with for experienced heads. Not quite post-Electric Wizard but has definitely rocked that before, possibly in an imbibing situation. The keys/synth/organ do a lot of work throughout Mile High Downer Rock to build off the riffs and add mood and melody alike around Miller‘s spacey, echoing vocals, but part of the album’s effectiveness stems also from its structure. Two longer tracks, interlude, two longer tracks, interlude, two longer tracks. One assumes that a vinyl edition would break down to four songs on each side, but listening through digitally, the experience changes and the shift between the dug-in finish of “Cloven Tongues” and the hypnotic start before the more swaggering kick of “Dead Sun Blues” begins in earnest with a drawl like half-speed Nebula is crucial, and manages to work both with and without a break before it. It feels extra quiet when I hit pause.

That’s a compliment to Burning Sister, who released their self-titled debut EP late in 2020. What will ultimately encompass their style is probably still to be determined. There’s growing to be done, hammering out their underlying power-trio chemistry while the songwriting solidifies around the elements at work across the span here, but for sure they’ve got the ‘mile high’ literally and figuratively set, they’ve got the ‘downer’ to be sure, and one listen to “Cloven Tongues” demonstrates that plainly enough, and they rock. So if their purpose in their debut full-length is to lay out the foundation from which they’ll work going forward, then the ambient pieces they include, the semi-lysergic texture of their mix and the overall reach of their material — I hear the air is clear up in the Rockies if you don’t get dizzy from the altitude — and their general awareness of where they’re coming from in sound are only going to be assets in their favor, as they already are.

Enjoy the clip for “Cloven Tongues” below, followed by some comment from Salutz:

Burning Sister, “Cloven Tongues” video premiere

Alison Salutz on “Cloven Tongues”:

“2022 seems like an appropriate time to release a song about the unavoidable and impending end of everything as we know it. So it may come as a surprise that this is one of the earliest songs we penned, dating to early 2018, far before the recent apocalyptic-like realities the world has dealt us. Appropriate to the theme, the song is a long plodding march to an end that simply is. Employing ample amounts of space, “Cloven Tongues” entreats us to play it slow and somber, gaining and growing until it ultimately tapers off, leaving us wondering if it’s all really over. Fuck it, its over.”

“Cloven Tongues” is the second single from Burning Sister’s forthcoming full-length album, ‘Mile High Downer Rock.’

*Recorded and mixed by Jamie Hillyer at Module Overload.
*Mastered by Tad Doyle at Witch Ape Studio – Skyway Audio.

Burning Sister:
Steve Miller – bass, organ, vox
Drake Brownfield – guitars
Alison Salutz – drums

Burning Sister, “Acid Night Vision”

Burning Sister on Facebook

Burning Sister on Instagram

Burning Sister on Bandcamp