High on Fire weren’t trying to keep it secret when they were in the studio last year with Kurt Ballou — who’s now done four records with them — to follow-up 2018’s Electric Messiah (review here), and today they unveil the first song and album details ahead of an April 19 release through MNRK Heavy (formerly E1), their label home for the last 14 years. And while in many cases a given band’s ninth LP and fourth with the same producer might seem like ‘business as usual,’ the trio of Matt Pike, Jeff Matz and Coady Willis represent a new incarnation of High on Fire, as Cometh the Storm marks Willis‘ studio debut after a couple years of on-stage destruction for the back catalog.

No question this will be one of the biggest underground heavy releases of the year — can you still be underground if you won a Grammy? we’ll find out I guess — as anything High on Fire put out is going to draw attention and they’re big enough that that means both internet salivating and the inevitable naysay component, not much of which matters, as High on Fire will persist regardless. They’ve already announced summer plans for Europe and in addition to what’s on the poster below, they’re newly confirmed for Dark Lord Day this May in Indiana, as well as SonicBlast Fest 2024 in Portugal and Bear Stone in Croatia this August, so expect more to come.

In the meantime, the song. “Burning Down” finds High on Fire very much in their element with an intense chug and overlaid groove. Throaty conjurations from Pike, a satisfying roll to its verse, and whatever-your-quota’s worth of crash and bash, tucked into a convenient six-minute package. I’m not in the business of telling anyone how to live their life, but it seems to me that if you’re listening to music today, this might be what you want to hear. While I doubt it’s representative of the scope of the whole album, it does reassure you they didn’t somehow break their sound after 25-plus years bashing away at it.

PR just came through:

High on Fire to Release New LP, ‘Cometh the Storm’, April 19

Grammy-Winning Group Drops Video for Gargantuan New Track “Burning Down”

Iconic U.S. rock band, High on Fire, will release its new LP, ‘Cometh the Storm’, on April 19 via MNRK Heavy. The GRAMMY Award-winning group, celebrating its 25th anniversary, recorded ‘Cometh the Storm’ at GodCity Studio in Salem, Massachusetts with producer Kurt Ballou. The 11-song effort — the band’s ninth studio album — marks the release of the first new High on Fire music since 2018’s ‘Electric Messiah’ and the first to feature drummer Coady Willis (Big Business, Murder City Devils), alongside bassist Jeff Matz, and guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike. Pre-order/save High on Fire’s ‘Cometh the Storm’ at this location: https://highonfire.bandcamp.com/album/cometh-the-storm

‘Cometh the Storm’ is advanced by the lead track, “Burning Down”, and a haunting, fever dream video, directed by Lars Kristoffer Hormander. Experience High on Fire’s “Burning Down” at this location.

“Burning Down” kicks off with a classic Pike riff,” says Jeff Matz. “I think this song harkens back to the early High On Fire sound, but infused with fresh, new elements. It has a killer groove that you can really sink into. The body of the song took shape in our PNW rehearsal space, and we came up with the bridge/solo section and finalized the arrangement while we were at GodCity. Kurt Ballou’s input as a producer was also hugely helpful. His keen ears and fresh perspective were invaluable in making this album.”

“I think this band’s always had a really good drive,” states Matt Pike. “It’s a different entity. It’s its own thing. Which, I think, makes all of us very proud to be a part of it. It’s not an average band.”

“Being a fan of each other’s bands for a long time, it feels like all bets are off and anything goes which is a liberating feeling,” shares Willis. “That feeling of making something out of all of these imperfect parts and it becomes this magical, weird, new idea that none of us ever anticipated. Against all odds. That’s the joy of it.”

“It’s interesting, whenever there’s a lineup change in a band,” offers producer Kurt Ballou. “It can take a little while to rebuild. But it’s also an opportunity to reinvigorate the band and I think that’s what’s happened here.”

Tracklisting:
TRACKLIST
1. Lambsbread
2. Burning Down
3. Trismegistus
4. Cometh the Storm
5. Karanlık Yol (instrumental)
6. Sol’s Golden Curse
7. The Beating
8. Tough Guy
9. Lighting Beard
10. Hunting Shadows
11. Darker Fleece

High on Fire are:
Matt Pike – Guitar/vocals
Jeff Matz – Bass/backing vocals/saz
Coady Willis – Drums

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High on Fire, “Burning Down” official video

High on Fire, “Burning Down”

Guitarist Bob Balch would seem to be on something of a creative binge, between an impending Fu Manchu 2LP and recent releases from Yawning Balch and Big Scenic Nowhere, and with Slower he presents a manifestation of the ultimate beer-drunk band idea. “What if, like, you took Slayer, and slowed it down?”

That’s what Slower is on paper. The songs of seminal Californian thrashers Slayer, played slower. The reality of Slower, which is the Balch-led project’s Heavy Psych Sounds-delivered debut album, is a selection of five covers that offers a richer experience than the math of the band’s purpose might lead one to believe. The Slayer originals they’ve chosen to rework — “War Ensemble,” “Blood Red,” and “Dead Skin Mask” from 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss, “The Antichrist” from 1983’s Show No Mercy and, to close, the title-track of 1988’s South of Heaven — are classics within the sphere of metal, and are treated with due respect even as they’re rearranged and turned into something pointedly not what they originally were.

This is done with care and love of the source material, and a sense of curation that is all the more resonant with the lineup Balch assembled for the project. Drummer Esben Willems (of Monolord; he has a solo album coming in addition to appearing here) in Gothenburg, Sweden, vocalist Amy Tung Barrysmith (Year of the Cobra) in Seattle, and bassist Peder Bergstrand (Lowrider) in Stockholm comprise the ‘main band’ on the record, developing a persona of their own even on covers through means of the rearrangement process. That is, they took the songs and reworked them. No one here is inexperienced or incapable. If you believe in supergroups, Slower‘s pretty damn super even before you get to Laura Pleasants (The Discussion, ex-Kylesa) and Scott Reeder (currently Sovereign Eagle, ex-Kyuss, The Obsessed, Goatsnake, needs to do another solo record, etc.) swapping in on vocals and bass, respectively, for “South of Heaven” at the finish. A goofy, fun idea for a band/album as Slower might be, the end result is pointedly not bullshit where it very easily (perhaps with different personnel) could have been.

Underlining the point: Slower is not a tossoff. It’s not a joke band. While indeed the songs are largely reduced in tempo, there is an aspect of the project that feels a bit like the impetus behind it was Balch wanting to take on playing both the Kerry King and Jeff Hannneman (from whose 2013 death the band never really recovered) solos, which he does with all suitable respect for the personalities of Slayer‘s two guitarists, whammy squeals and speed enough to speak to thrash. If that was the case, fair enough for the homage. It’s just a thing not everyone could do at the level it’s done here. Some of those shredfest ripper solos are no less iconic than the lyrical declarations of the choruses to “War Ensemble” or “Dead Skin Mask,” and they are put on a pedestal along with a treasure trove of groove that was lurking beneath the furious intensity of the originals. “War Ensemble,” opening here as it does on Seasons in the Abyss with some transposed urgency, unveils its central riff as a righteous nodder with Bergstrand bringing new tonal presence to the verse, Willems‘ casual double-kick giving an easy ride into the stop, and Barrysmith in immediate command.

The five-minute original becomes the 10-minute cover (it is both opener and longest track; immediate points), and as a lead-in for “The Antichrist,” “Blood Red” and “Dead Skin Mask,” “War Ensemble” blends the familiar — it was one of Slayer‘s many landmarks and a live-set feature for decades before the band ‘ended’ (never say never) in 2019 with 12 records and enough influence to make a project like this happen across microgenres — the surprises it holds and affirmations it makes are crucial to what follows. One doesn’t necessarily think of Slayer as an atmospherically-minded band, though they were at times (and perhaps a second Slower LP could honor Slayer and Sabbath both in opening with the storm at the start of “Raining Blood”; uniting worlds or at least disparate ends of the same one), but Slower dig into “The Antichrist” and find a gritty slog that becomes insistent in a chorus that takes the already-doubled vocals and adds backing tracks to emphasize a depth that is Slower‘s own in a song that, being a deeper cut — as opposed to a Slayer ‘hit,’ I guess? they did used to play their music videos on the tee-vee sometimes — allows Balch (who trips out the midsection admirably taring toward psychedelia), Barrysmith, Bergstrand and Willems to flesh it out and find a new path to the rotted-soul ascension of its title figure.

The melody emergent in “The Antichrist” is expanded upon in “Blood Red,” the centerpiece of the CD and presumed side B opener on the LP, as the verse riff becomes a strut and the chorus opens to a breadth Slower have been holding in reserve. It’s an un-pop singalong, complete with backing ‘oohs’ for “You cannot hide the face of death/Oppression ruled by bloodshed/No disguise can deface evil/The massacre of innocent people,” which are lines that sadly retain their relevance these 34 years after the fact, and are more sinister for the sweetness of Barrysmith‘s delivery. With “Dead Skin Mask” and “Seasons in the Abyss” still to come, “Blood Red” has a harder road making an impression, and that was true with Slayer‘s version as well in 1990, but amid the forward roll and chug of the verse and the arrival-point feel of the hook, it is the vocals even more that distinguish it as an unexpected highlight.

And I know Slayer have a ton of iconic tracks, from the prior-mentioned “Raining Blood” through “Disciple,” “Angel of Death” — maybe better to leave that one alone? — and “Piece by Piece,” but especially the first and maybe only time out, pairing “Dead Skin Mask” and “South of Heaven” at the end of Slower‘s Slower feels natural. The latter came before the former, and is arguably the most ‘doom’ Slayer ever got, where “Dead Skin Mask” showed up on the next album and refined those very purposes. Both are the kinds of songs dudes get tattoos of, but as they have all along, Slower tread carefully in terms of balancing respect for where the songs came from and taking them where they want to go. Not to be understated is the subversive element of a woman delivering the lyrics to “Dead Skin Mask,” which was never explicit but strongly implied misogynist violence, and Barrysmith resounds in the chorus, where “Dance with the dead in my dreams…” becomes a chant and all the more consuming for that. While I wish they repeated that finish four or five more times, I’m happy to take what I can get.

As noted, “South of Heaven” brings a lineup switch, Reeder stepping in for Bergstrand — the inclusion of those two speaks as well to Balch wanting to bring a new sense of presence to the low end; he could easily have handled bass himself as an afterthought; as is, bass becomes an essential part of the character of the band in a way Slayer‘s Tom Araya probably wouldn’t have expected — and Pleasants taking over for Barrysmith. Dark toned, Balch begins on guitar and Reeder and Pleasants soon join for the opening build, ending of course with the line “Before you see the light” stretched to fill the new spaces in the riff before the guitar, bass and drums stop cold to let Pleasants croon the second part of the lyric: “You must die.”

Shit, I’m ready. Let’s go. If you could get audio tattooed on your person, that moment might be worth carrying around for the rest of your life but it’s already ingrained in the heads of Slayer fans, so take that as you will. Pleasants toys with the verse arrangement somewhat, perhaps covering some awkwardness in the patterning born of the change in pace with effects and layering, but it’s nothing that feels out of line with the mood or atmosphere Slower bring to “South of Heaven,” the stinkface-inducing stomp of Willems‘ drums glorious in manifesting a sense of methodical aggression over the chaos referenced in the chorus — “Chaos rampant/An age of distrust/Confrontations, impulsive habitat (or ‘sabbath’)” before they got right down to it, “On and on, south of heaven” — as Balch likewise digs deeper to find a nastiness of tone that is undeniable. It ends, as it invariably would, with shred given over to noise and a tease of the thuds at the end of “Postmortem” that, on 1986’s Reign in Blood, mark the transition into “Raining Blood” itself. The message seems to be: maybe next time.

Generally speaking and across a wide range of contexts, I suck at fun. Accordingly, I was a little apprehensive in taking on Slower because I felt like maybe it would be a party and I wouldn’t really be able to get my head into the right space for it. That’s not how it went, either in terms of the atmosphere of the record or my listening experience with it. I don’t know that Slower will or won’t do more — certainly no one involved lacks other projects to focus on — but I hope they do, and as a love letter to Slayer, the execution of these songs and the obvious heart and thought put into them, Slower resonates, however familiar you may or may not be with the originals.

Slower, Slower (2024)

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Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

So I know folks out there are just lining up to call me out on reusing the above image from when Vape Warlök revealed their collective mortal form in their video for “Inhale Death” (posted here) last year, and hey, I get that. That’s not the kind of premium, value-added content this site’s come to not really be all that known for over the last 15 years. Nonetheless, looking at the artwork for the L.A. lobotomy sludgers’ debut album, …And His Skull Shall Make My Bong, I’ll note my only reason for using the same pic as last time is I don’t want to deal with being reported on social media. Does that make me a hack? Probably. A clown? Certainly. Lazy? Most of all.

“Inhale Death” was the title-track from 2022’s Inhale Death EP (review here), which was the first release from the band founded by Collyn McCoy, also of Circle of Sighs and a slew of other projects, plus bass in Unida. As regards the follow-up long-player, I have precious little information of substance to share. Not none! There’s a title. A could-be cover. Some titles, gloriously dumb, and a Q&A that seems to be between McCoy and himself. Fair enough. Did I mention this is a supergroup? No? Well, fuck it.

My skull should be so lucky:

Coming in 2024.

Vape Warlök = “… and His Skull Shall Make My Bong.”

Five songs, 40 minutes, putrid and unlistenable sludgy stoner-doom.

Track List
1. Satan’s Succubus
2. …and His Skull Shall Make My Bong
3. Meth Slave
4. Satanalingus: The Devil’s Tongue
5. Bongmaster General

Q: Will the production be any better this time around?
A: No, if anything it will be worse.

Q: Will I be able to make out any of the lyrics this time?
A: No.

Q: Will you hire a professional artist to render a real cover?
A: No, this is as good as it’s going to get.

Q: Will Kiki help out with the lyrics again?
A: Yes of course. If it’s about unicorns, rainbows, and kittens who have unicorn-type horns that shoot rainbows, Kiki wrote it. If it’s about weed, Satan, or murder… daddy wrote it.

Not that you’ll be able to make out any of the lyrics. Just know that they exist and are just as likely to be about something awful as something adorable. But you’ll never know which is which.

Q: Is this a joke band?
A: No more or less than any other band. Is CCR a joke band? Oasis? The Doobie Bros? Are you a joke band?

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Vape Warlök, Inhale Death (2022)

Vape Warlök, “Inhale Death” official video

If you had ‘new Toadliquor record’ on your card for Unlikely Bingo, congratulations. The probably-Californian anonymous sludge rockers’ 2003 compact disc, The Hortator’s Lament, which was released through Southern Lord, was my apparently-way-late-to-the-party introduction to the band, whose Back in the Hole will be out in a couple weeks and whose penchant for things lurching-of-groove and caustic apparently remains intact if the album opener “First Crush” is anything to go by. Do you think they named it after the riff? I think maybe they did. I also think maybe they’re howling into the void there a little bit. I dig that.

Expect oldschool disillusion and the kind of sludge that makes you miserable because it is in fact itself miserable. Not about being cool, trendy weed-worship, blah blah check out my Orange stacks. This is raw aughts-era fuckery, when no one had any money, no one cared and all was intoxicants. It was hell on earth and the war went on forever. We’re still there. “First Crush” sounds pretty right for this moment in this wreck of a world.

To the PR wire, then:

Southern Lord to Release Toadliquor’s First New Music in 25 Years

Back in the Hole is out February 23, 2024. // Stream the album opener “First Crush” now.

Eternally shrouded in complete mystery and anonymity, the entity calling themselves Toadliquor has returned with its first recorded offerings in over 25 years. Back In The Hole will be released by Southern Lord on February 23, 2024.

Violently bleeding out into the early-90s with their lone LP Feel My Hate – The Power Is The Weight – R.I.P. Cain, Toadliquor followed that with a few comp tracks and a single before completely disappearing into the ether.

Southern Lord compiled most known recordings in 2003 on the Hortators Lament compact disc. Then, on the occasion of the label’s 20th anniversary in 2018, Southern Lord released these recordings plus one newly-received cryptic distress signal from deep space on the limited edition 2xLP set Cease & Decease.

Now, in 2024, Toadliquor return to continue their decades-long onslaught of desolation, despair and damaged vocal cords with Back in the Hole. Seven prize picks for the communal trough. Strap in and feed.

Look for Back in the Hole to be available on LP and digital formats only on February 23, 2024 (pre-order on Bandcamp here or from Southern Lord here). For fans with a penchant for pain, misery, and destruction!

Back in the Hole, track listing:

First Crush
Recained
Entry Level Position
In Gold
Basement
Open Through Funeral
Back in the Hole

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Toadliquor, Back in the Hole (2024)

What more do you need to know? It’s a Castle live record. It was recorded in 2017, which makes it before 2018’s Deal Thy Fate (review here) and after 2016’s Welcome to the Graveyard (review here), and a point at which the band were positively nomadic. Tours on top of tours on top of outs.

With a succession of drummers to and through the lineup around bassist/vocalist Liz Blackwell and guitarist Mat Davis — on Deal Thy Fate, it was Chase Manhattan, which sounded like a fake name then and still kind of does — the hard-charging, originally-Canadian two-piece nonetheless presaged the “true metal” movement by at least half a decade and did it heavier, cooler, and more interesting than most out there trying to pretend it’s 1983 or whenever it was that anything might’ve conceptually mattered. They received a fraction of the hype they deserved in so doing.

The thing about Castle, though: they’ve always been a live band. Accordingly, if you’ve ever seen them you likely don’t need me to tell you One Knight Stands: Live in NY will be one to catch, and word a new studio album in the can is a bonus considering 2018 was six years ago now. Not the longest stretch being discussed today between records, but not nothing. Blah blah blah, something about ‘due’ and then some half-clever segue to the PR wire:

CASTLE: Announce Live Album Preorder; New Studio Album Revealed

Heavy metal doomsters CASTLE are pleased to announce the release of their first official live album “One Knight Stands: Live In NY”.

Recorded during CASTLE’s Welcome To The Graveyard Tour in Brooklyn, NY on September 18, 2017, the 10 track album draws on songs from each of the band’s first four albums and captures the three-piece at the height of their road hardened power.

“We’re happy to finally put this out as a document to all the miles travelled and time spent playing night after night”, the band states. “We think this album is a pretty accurate snapshot of the band onstage; no overdubs, no edits, just live and loud and we thought it would be cool to share that”.

One Knight Stands: Live In NY is available for preorder from the band’s own newly formed imprint, Black Wren Records on limited edition vinyl as well as digital. Additionally, the band has released an advance streaming single “Hammer And The Cross (Live)”.

The stream and pre-order can be found here:
http://blackwrenrecords.bandcamp.com/music

European pre-orders through Ván Records can be found here:
http://van-records.com/Castle-One-Knight-Stands-Live-In-NY-lim-12-LP_1

CASTLE “One Knight Stands: Live In NY” Tracklist
1. Black Widow
2. Down In The Cauldron Bog
3. Hammer And The Cross
4. Flash Of The Pentagram
5. A Killing Pace
6. Corpse Candles
7. Temple Of The Lost
8. Dying Breed
9. Evil Ways
10. Total Betrayal

CASTLE have also recently completed recording their newest studio album. Recorded and mixed during October and November of 2023 at Rain City Recorders in Vancouver, BC with producer Jesse Gander (Anciients, Brutus, 3 Inches Of Blood), the as-yet-untitled album will mark the band’s sixth, and follows 2018’s Deal Thy Fate and 2016’s Welcome To The Graveyard.

More details about the new studio album will be announced in the coming months including album title, tracklist, artwork and release date.

CASTLE was forged in San Francisco in 2009 and released its debut full-length, In Witch Order, via Germany’s Ván Records in 2011. The album brought light to the newly-formed band and earned them “Album Of The Year” honors from Metal Hammer Norway. Shortly thereafter, CASTLE joined the Prosthetic Records roster in North America and released both their critically-acclaimed sophomore album Blacklands, which led to a Canadian JUNO nomination for “Metal/Hard Music Album Of The Year”, and 2014’s follow-up, Under Siege.

Since the release of its first album, CASTLE has maintained a relentless tour schedule, performing over six hundred shows worldwide alongside the likes of The Sword, Conan, Intronaut, The Skull and Pentagram, among many others. The group has appeared at numerous underground music festivals including Roadburn, the London and Berlin Desertfests and recently completed its first-ever tour of Japan.

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Castle, One Knight Stands: Live in NY (2024)

I guess probably if you’re Ruben Romano, and you’ve done the thing since the thing started doing in bands like Fu Manchu, Nebula and The Freeks, the thought that you might make a record, send it out to a bunch of people as a gift, and have someone send back a proper mastered version might seem normal. I’m going to speculate that upwards of 99 percent of the current earth population would never experience that kind of thing — someone just being like, “oh hey, thanks for album; I finished it for you” — but maybe you and I should go make friends with Sacha Goepel, who regifted the mastered version of Romano‘s first solo LP, The Imaginary Soundtrack to the Imaginary Western Twenty Graves Per Mile, which ended up being released this past Friday.

Would the release have happened if not for Goepel‘s fortuitous efforts? Maybe, but probably not right now. Those familiar with The Freeks‘ psych-prone take on heavy blues will find Romano‘s own work prone to some similar meandering, but he’s not kidding with the whole ‘imaginary soundtrack’ thing here, as at least some of the instrumentalism provided — and I heard the record for the first time this morning, so bear with the accordingly superficial impression — has a score-ish feel, but Romano doesn’t quite fully take himself away from verse/chorus structures either. I’m doing a Quarterly Review at the end of the month — BECAUSE DAMN YOU I WILL OBLITERATE MY CONSCIOUSNESS UPON THIS HEAVY ROCK AND ROLL — and it’ll be in there. Might call it …Twenty Graves Per Mile though. Only so many words to fit in a review.

Here’s the story from Romano himself via the PR wire. You know that’s just my email, right? Right?

Okay. Good:

Ruben A Romano – ‘The Imaginary Soundtrack To The Imaginary Western’ Twenty Graves Per Mile’ OUT NOW on Freek Flag Records

Freek Flag Records and “Mastering Engineer” Sascha Goepel have paired up to assimilate a major Apollo 11 mission with the launching of this rocket-size full-length. Prior to its humble public release on the first Bandcamp Friday of 2024, Ruben opted for a discreet unmastered prescreening to a select few as a “Holiday Greeting Gift” and it was Sascha Goepel who returned the gift fully mastered, bringing to light the clarity of Romano’s greatest escape from LA yet. While tumbleweed stirred, Twenty Graves Per Mile crept off into wild abandonment, stretching past the first song, “Load The Wagon” and on into its reprise. Stonerocks’ magic drummer blazed his own trails through canyon country on this round coming off as a sundering soundtrack that’s been soundproofed and thoroughly examined before released to the masses on midnight.

Ruben recorded the imaginary “film score” , in and out of his home studio as well as rehearsal room in between practices with The Freeks; another band of Ruben’s who are a blast from the outer space rock past. Much of the inspiration behind Ruben’s conquest is to mesh imagery with harmony. ‘The Imaginary Soundtrack To The Imaginary Western’ is an authentic, balanced composition hinting towards Ruben’s Latin lineage and somewhere along the lines of entrancing love songs about the pioneering westward expansion, more so than a spaghetti western that critics are calling it. It is structured around the envision of a memoir set to cinematic splendor.

Freek Flag Records, which is the headquarters to Ruben Romano’s heart, has released all the “The Freeks” full-length albums digitally as well as hard copy versions of some within its house. The label is flying its freek colors once again and coming out of the closet in order to digitally release this record. Ruben Romano (who has more than completed his rock’n’rock homework) has ten solid tracks delegated for the release. Cassettes are expected to surface later through Northern Haze, while Ruben’s other side hobbies demonstrate his super-sonic-to-the-max video art directing.

This record will go down as another album notch under Ruben’s belt and discographic career. All homophonic compositions were written, recorded, and produced by the drummer turned composer. Instruments used in the recording range from guitar to synth, harmonica to drum tracks, as well as murchunga jaw harp together with minimal chorus lines, all created by a master who needs no master class let alone in any furthermore introduction.

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Ruben Romano, The Imaginary Soundtrack to the Imaginary Western Twenty Graves Per Mile (2024)

Man, this shit smokes. Did you hear Zack Oakley‘s Fall 2021 solo debut, Badlands (review here)? If not, I’ll kindly, in a spirit of friendship, recommend you do so ahead of the arrival of Kommune I, Oakley‘s somewhat counterintuitively titled (at first) second full-length. Set to release March 2 through Oakley’s own Kommune Records, with “Look Where We Are Now” and closer “Demon Run” featuring that were each previously released as singles — the latter accompanied by a Nina Simone cover — Kommune I brings five tracks loaded with reminders that the reason you can’t find all the nerdiest and thus best prog, heavy rock, funk, psych, jazz and/or Afrobeat — yes, so Demon Fuzz — records used out there in stores is because Oakley has so obviously bought them all and absorbed their contents through some kind of magical osmosis that uses technology I don’t understand and so I’ll just have to call either “magic” or “talent.” Whichever you choose, Kommune I is loaded with both.

Oakley (ex-Joy, Pharlee, Volcano; he sat in with Earthless last month for a set; that feels like it should be a line on the CV) also has a band together, and his own studio/rehearsal space — Kommune Studios — where the live-sounding album was captured. This seems to me like he’s setting himself up for a longer-term dig-in here as regards solo fare rather than passing the time between other ‘band’ outings, and in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if live shows from the Zack Oakley Band became more of a thing over time, as the energy in Kommune I from “We Want You to Dance” (a direct address to an audience at the start) feels entirely geared for the stage even as the songs themselves take on different facets of Oakley‘s songwriting.

The PR wire brought info, but what you really want is the songs. Those are at the bottom. Release show is March 2 at Casbah in San Diego. Behold:

“Kommune 1” is the 2nd full length album from San Diego multi-instrumentalist, engineer and producer Zack Oakley.

The record explores gang vocal harmonization, bass and drum polyrhythms found in afro-beat and latin jazz, walls of sound produced by dueling twin guitar lines harmonizing against Fender Rhoades and B3 counterpoint, earth tones of harmonica and a wide range of world-music hand percussion set to a backdrop of kinetic psychedelic energies supplied by droning, echoing and modulating theremin and synthesizers. This record showcases a live band versed in improvisation while making playful use of stressed harmony and the ability to execute tight arrangements with razor sharp clarity. Lyrically, Kommune 1 modulates between the political (We Want You To Dance), existential (Hypnagogic Shift, Demon Run), science fiction (Further) and the dance party relief of the mid-album lysergic funk of “Look Where We Are Now.”

Kommune 1 finds its glue in the recording workflow; all five tracks being recorded in DIY fashion in the band’s rehearsal room in San Diego. The room, dubbed “Kommune Studios,” is a cozy, windowless affair stacked with vintage drum sets, amplifiers and synthesizers at the heart of which lies a late 70’s 24-track Trident recording console. The room itself represents creative freedom, as well as freedom from any outsider expectation and the insular comfort to follow any creative impulse to its fruition or naught. The tunes were recorded and mixed in the last few months of 2023 and are indicative of a band humming with inspiration and captured on specifically curated analog gear in the comfortable surroundings of their rehearsal headquarters.

The album is aptly named Kommune 1 as the first album recorded in the band’s homegrown studio.

Track List:
1.) We Want You To Dance
2.) Further
3.) Look Where We Are Now
4.) Hypnagogic Shift
5.) Demon Run

Personnel:
Zack Oakley – vocals, guitar, percussion, tracking engineer, mix engineer, producer
Cory Martinez – vocals, guitar, synth, tracking engineer
Peter Cai – vocals, bass
Travis Baucum – vocals, harmonica, theremin
Garret Lekas – vocals, keys, synth
Justin De La Vega – vocals, drums
Jody Bagly – B3, rhoades
Tim Lowman – flute

Release show for Kommune 1 is at @casbahsandiego on Saturday March 2nd. Excited to play the new record start to finish for the first time. Got an insane crew together for this one! @wildwildwets @freshveggiesmicrobrass and @operation_mindblow meet us there!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100072279469172
https://www.instagram.com/zack.oakley/
https://zackoakley.bandcamp.com/
https://zackoakley.com/

https://kommunerecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.kommunerecords.com

Zack Oakley, “Look Where We Are Now” (2023)

Zack Oakley, Demon Run / Funkier than a Mosquitos Tweeter (2023)

Holy shit. I’ve been expecting word of Brume‘s next record for a minute now, both because they’re playing Desertfest London and because I’m generally a dork and keep up with their socials, but hearing the surge of emotion in the chorus of lead single “Jimmy” from their new album, the soaring and stately, commanding vocal reach of Susie McMullan and the patient unfurling of the song behind, well, golly, that’s striking. If Brume‘s third album, which arrives as they mark a decade’s tenure, is to be a moment of arrival for them, that would only be consistent with 2019’s Rabbits (review here) and their 2017 full-length debut, Rooster (review here).

I was fortunate enough to see Brume at Desertfest New York 2022 (review here) and so got to experience the now-four-piece’s dynamic with McMullan, guitarist/vocalist Jamie McCathie and drummer Jordan Perkins-Lewis bringing Jackie Perez-Gratz (Grayceon, sit-ins with Neurosis and so on) in to add textures of cello and vocals. After that, and listening to “Jimmy,” I have perhaps unreasonably high expectations for Jimmy — which isn’t coming out until frickin’ May!; boo — that come coupled with a firm sense of surety they’ll be met.

From the PR wire:

BRUME drop first video single ‘Jimmy’ and details of new album “Marten”

Bay Area goth-doom quartet BRUME have chosen the opening track ‘Jimmy’ from their forthcoming new full-length “Marten” as the first video single. The band’s third album is scheduled for release on May 3, 2024 via Magnetic Eye Records. The album pre-sale is now available at http://lnk.spkr.media/brume-marten

BRUME comment: “I wrote ‘Jimmy’ in the voice of an angry wife married to a middle aged rockstar who has emotionally retreated from fame, family and his former self”, singer and bass player Susie McMullan lets on. “We all fall in love with the same characteristics that eventually drive us nuts. I bet falling in love with a famous artist exacerbates that.”

—

BRUME (pronounced ‘Broom’) are living proof that California is not all sunshine and easy living. The San Francisco-based quartet organically blends doom metal, goth, and indie rock into a sometimes monolithic, sometimes delicate blend of heaviness that resides firmly on the darker side.

After a decade of sultry sounds and hair-raising crescendos, BRUME push sonic experimentation and delightful genre-bending even further on their third full-length “Marten”. The expansion into a four-piece with the addition of Jackie Perez Gratz on cello and vocals has opened a cosmos of new possibilities that the Californians determinedly explore. Weaving soaring melodies over melancholic doom pop generates songs that are equally intimate and haunting yet also massive and crushing.

BRUME originally formed as a trio in 2014 when guitarist Jamie McCathie from Bristol, England began making music with bass player and vocalist Susie McMullan from Baton Rouge, Louisiana after discovering a shared passion for both trip-hop and sludge. The addition of Jordan Perkins-Lewis on drums completed the line-up with his rich and experimental style of drumming, and set the stage for the band’s recordings.

The trio quickly gained momentum with their doom metal albums “Rooster” (2017) and “Rabbits” (2019), the former being named ‘Album of the Year’ by The Ripple Effect and the latter earning the top spot on Wonderbox Metal’s ‘Best of 2019’ list. BRUME also left their mark onstage, appearing at Desertfest London in 2017 and Desertfest New York and SXSW in 2019, along with many more shows on both sides of the Atlantic.

On third album “Marten”, BRUME perfectly balance the melancholic power of the cello with forceful vocals and dueling guitar conversations. The complex mood swings that seamlessly move from sensuous and restrained to soaring and explosive found a perfect producer in Sonny DiPerri (EMMA RUTH RUNDLE, LORD HURON, PORTUGAL THE MAN). With the right engineer behind the board, the San Franciscans adopted a songwriting approach that emphasised poetry and lyrics rather than starting with a riff. This way of working uncovered a more vulnerable side of the band.

With “Marten”, BRUME take a bold step toward their musical future by challenging first themselves and now listeners to move from comfortable spaces toward more challenging, less familiar destinations.

Tracklist
1. Jimmy
2. New Sadder You
3. Faux Savior
4. Otto’s Song
5. How Rude
6. Heed Me
7. Run Your Mouth
8. The Yearn

Guest musician
Laurie Shanaman – additional vocals on ‘How Rude’ and ‘Heed Me’

Line-up
Susie McMullan – vocals, bass, keys
Jordan Perkins Lewis – drums
Jamie McCathie guitar, vocals
Jackie Perez Gratz – cello, vocals

https://www.facebook.com/brumeband
https://www.instagram.com/brumeband
http://brumeband.com
http://lnk.spkr.media/brume-marten

http://store.merhq.com
http://magneticeyerecords.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MagneticEyeRecords
https://www.instagram.com/magneticeyerecords/

Brume, “Jimmy” official video