Voivod Announce North American Tour Dates

Posted in Whathaveyou on March 30th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

VOIVOD (Photo by Catherine Deslauriers)

I don’t write about Voivod all the time, but I never regret it when I do. For 30-plus years, the Quebecois outfit have offered a product unlike anyone else, and that thread continues right up Synchro Anarchy, their latest album that they’ll set out to promote with a round of US and Canadian dates this June. Obviously, it’s been a while since they toured, but from where I stand, I can only urge you if you’ve never seen Voivod in-person in any incarnation, to do so. They are a joy. Open your heart and let love in. You will not regret it.

Given the August date listed below in Belgium, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to expect a round of European touring to follow this, so if you’re in that part of the world and up for it, sit tight as that might be on the way, conditions permitting and all that. One way or the other, Voivod make the world a better place. May they continue to do so interminably.

From the PR wire:

voivod tour poster

VOIVOD ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES FOR JUNE

TICKETS & INFO HERE: https://www.voivod.com/en/shows

SYNCHRO ANARCHY OUT NOW VIA CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS

Legendary metallers and Juno Award-winning band VOIVOD announce North American tour dates for this coming June. Tour dates are in support of the band’s new album Synchro Anarchy which debuted at #2 on Billboard Canada’s Hard Music Albums chart, #6 Current Hard Albums in the USA, #7 on the UK’s Rock & Metal chart and charted #7 in Germany among other countries including Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Belgium, and The Netherlands. The tour will kick off in Trois Rivieres, Quebec on June 1st with 14 dates to follow and will wrap up on June 19th in Boston, MA.

Michel “Away” Langevin (drums) comments on the tour: “At last! After more than two years without touring, we are finally hitting the road in June 2022 in North America. We are thrilled to play the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest, It will also be exciting for us to play songs from Synchro Anarchy for the first time live! We can’t wait to see our old Voïvodian friends again and meet some new ones. See you then!”

VOIVOD TOUR DATES:
June 1 Trois Rivieres QC L’Entité
June 2 Ottawa ON Bronson Centre Music Theatre
June 3 Toronto ON Phoenix Concert Theatre
June 4 London ON The Music Hall
June 5 Detroit MI Small’s
June 6 Chicago IL Reggie’s
June 8 Huntington WV The Loud
June 9 Columbus OH Ace of Cups
June 10 Philadelphia PA The Fillmore Decibel Magazine Metal and Beer Festival (There will be a Voivod beer)
June 11 Baltimore MD Ottobar
June 13 Pittsburgh PA Crafthouse
June 14 Buffalo NY Rec Room
June 15 Cleveland OH Grog Shop
June 17 Brooklyn NY Market Hotel
June 18 Liverpool NY Sharkey’s
June 19 Boston MA Brighton Music Hall
August 12 Belgium Alcatraz Festival

VOIVOD are:
Denis “Snake” Belanger – Vocals
Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain – Guitar
Dominic “Rocky” Laroche – Bass
Michel “Away” Langevin – Drums

http://voivod.com
http://www.facebook.com/Voivod
http://www.centurymedia.com
http://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
http://www.cmdistro.com

Voivod, “Paranormalium” lyric video

Voivod, “The Lost Machine” live

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Voivod to Release Synchro Anarchy on Feb. 11

Posted in Whathaveyou on December 6th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

VOIVOD (Photo by Catherine Deslauriers)

Weirdo prog-thrash legends Voivod enter the fray of early 2022 releases with the impending Synchro Anarchy, out Feb. 11 through Century Media. New Voivod is always a cause for joy, and while there’s no audio up as yet from the album, I think it’s probably safe to say that, yes, it will sound like Voivod. It certainly looks the part, with a telltale cover by drummer Michel “Away” Langevin. Personally I’d like to hear a Voivod song called “Quest for Nothing.” Like, right now.

But alas. Making do with the PR wire info is something I’m fairly used to by now. Voivod earlier this year surpassed a Kickstarter goal for We Are Connected, a documentary about the band, and they were due to hit Europe this Fall with Exciter and Vio-Lence — a tour which would’ve wrapped today, actually — but I don’t think it happened. Hard to tell sometimes.

Still, the news is good, and here it is:

voivod synchro anarchy

VOIVOD ANNOUNCE NEW STUDIO ALBUM SYNCHRO ANARCHY

Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD are delighted to announce their new studio album Synchro Anarchy, which is scheduled for worldwide release on February 11th via Century Media Records.

“We are eager to present our latest work, a real collaborative effort. The new album represents countless hours of writing, demoing, recording, mixing and so on. The band and Francis Perron at RadicArt Studio gave their very best to make it happen under unusual circumstances, which led us to call it “Synchro Anarchy”. We feel that the sound and music are 100% Voïvod, and we hope everyone will enjoy it as much as we had fun making it. We certainly can’t wait to play it live,” states VOIVOD drummer Michel “Away” Langevin about the forthcoming release.

Closing in on 40 eventful years of existence, VOIVOD are returning with their 15th studio album, reaffirming they are one of the most fervently creative bands in the universe. Synchro Anarchy follows 2018’s highly praised and Juno Award winning The Wake album, as well as 2020’s stellar Lost Machine – Live release. The new album was produced by Francis Perron at RadicArt Studio and features cover artwork created by VOIVOD’s Michel “Away” Langevin.

VOIVOD Synchro Anarchy Tracklist:
1. Paranormalium
2. Synchro Anarchy
3. Planet Eaters
4. Mind Clock
5. Sleeves Off
6. Holographic Thinking
7. The World Today
8. Quest For Nothing
9. Memory Failure

Lost Machine – Live is still available as limited CD with O-Card packaging (in its first European pressing), as a digital album and as a gatefold 2LP on 180g vinyl (in several variations and limitations), which can be purchased, HERE: https://voivodband.lnk.to/LostMachineLive/

VOIVOD are:
Denis “Snake” Belanger – Vocals
Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain – Guitar
Dominic “Rocky” Laroche – Bass
Michel “Away” Langevin – Drums

http://voivod.com
http://www.facebook.com/Voivod
http://www.centurymedia.com
http://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
http://www.cmdistro.com

Voivod, “The Lost Machine” live

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Quarterly Review: Kal-El, The Ugly Kings, Guhts, Anunnaki, Bill Fisher, Seum, Spirit Adrift, Mutha Trucka, 3rd Ear Experience, Solarius

Posted in Reviews on September 28th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

Everybody come through day one intact? I know it got pretty weird there for a minute, but I felt like sense was ultimately made. Maybe not in all cases, but definitely most. Today also gets fairly wild, and some of this stuff has been covered before in some fashion and some of it not so much, but hell, you’ve been through this before, as have I, so you know what to expect when you’re expecting. Blood might be spilled. Bruises left. Or bliss. Or both sometimes. Hell’s bells. Let’s go already.

Quarterly Review #11-20:

Kal-El, Dark Majesty

Kal-El Dark Majesty

With their fifth full-length, Dark Majesty, Norwegian heavy rockers and sci-fi-themed cleavage aficionados Kal-El make a willful play toward the epic. Their first 2LP and their first album for Majestic Mountain Records, the eight-song offering tops 65 minutes and splits into four two-song sides, each one seeming to grow bigger until the last of them, with the closing duo “Kala Mishaa” and “Vimana,” draws the proceedings to a massive close. Along the way, Kal-El not only offer their most melodically rich and spacious fare to-date — opening with their longest track in the 11:39 “Temple” (immediate points) — but blast Kyuss into the cosmos on the four-minute “Spiral,” and give Dozer a run for their money on “Comêta.” Gargantuan fuzz shines through on “Hyperion” in a near-maddening cacophony, but it might be the title-track that’s the greatest highlight in the end, marking the band’s accomplishment in heft, blending riffs and atmosphere to a broad and engaging degree. It is a triumph and it sounds like one.

Kal-El on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records webstore

 

The Ugly Kings, Strange, Strange Times

The Ugly King Strange Strange Times

One would not accuse Melbourne’s The Ugly Kings of inaccuracy in titling their second album Strange, Strange Times, and though they launch with the post-Queens of the Stone Age title-track and the now-tinged cynicism of “Technodrone” and “Do You Feel Like You’re Paranoid?,” it’s in even moodier stretches like “Last Man Left Alive” they cast their lot toward individualism. Songs vary in intention but remain consistent in the quality of their construction and look-at-the-world-around-you theme, with “Lawman” leaning toward darker country blues, “Mr. Hyde” asking what would happen if Clutch and Ruff Majik ever crossed paths and the finale “Another Fucking Day” offering a deceptively immersive unfurling. I can’t help but wonder if The Ugly Kings feel surrounded in their home city by much, much druggier neo-psych acts in the heavy underground scene, but the clarity of purpose they bring to their songwriting would make them a standout one way or the other.

The Ugly Kings on Facebook

Napalm Records website

 

Guhts, Blood Feather

GUHTS blood feather

Atmospheric and seething in kind, Guhts brings together members of New Yorkers Witchkiss and North Carolina’s Black Mountain Hunger for a pandemic-era debut release that in style explores the restlessness and the overwhelming nature of the age. With Amber Burns (interview here) on vocals, the drums programmed behind Scott Prater and Dan Shaneyfelt guitars/synths and the bass of Jesse Van Note, and a purpose wrought in immersion, the band distinguishes itself in its apropos grimness and in the potential for future exploration of the ideas laid out here, bordering in “The Mirror” on goth only after “Handless Maiden” offers raging, post-metallic lumber. One wonders how Blood Feather will sound five years from now, but more to the point, one wonders what Guhts might conjure in the meantime when/if they press forward. Either way, expect to see this on the list of 2021’s best short releases.

Guhts on Facebook

Guhts on Bandcamp

 

Anunnaki, Martyr of Alexandria

annunaki martyr of alexandria

Hey there, psych fans and experts on tragedies of the classic world, British Columbia two-piece Anunnaki have the psychedelic instrumental blowout themed around the murder of Hypatia you’ve been waiting for! Never heard of Hypatia? It doesn’t matter. Samples will provide some context and if they said the whole thing was about going shoe shopping, it wouldn’t be any less righteously far out. With “Golden Gate of the Sun” at the outset, the duo of Dave Read (guitar/bass) and Arlen Thompson (drums/synth) prime a bit of space-boogie, but the subsequent “Cyril, the Fanatic” shoves the freakery to the fore with wailing guitar and drones and seemingly whatever else they thought might work and does. The 15-minute finale, “The Cries of Hypatia,” dives deeper into drone, holding back the drums for about seven minutes while obscure speech and the titular cries unfold. Read and Thompson build it to a full, suitably deathly wash, and take the time to end minimal. Literary, arthouse, but not at all stale for that.

Anunnaki on Facebook

Cardinal Fuzz webstore

NoiseAgonyMayhem website

 

Bill Fisher, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth

Bill Fisher Hallucinations of a Higher Truth

A departure even from his departure, Church of the Cosmic Skull bandleader Bill Fisher‘s second solo offering, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth, follows the darker progressive rock of 2020’s Mass Hypnosis and the Dark Triad (review here) with 40-plus minutes of piano-led singer-songwriter fare, taking a stated influence from the lyrics-as-everyday-musings of Randy Newman on songs like “Better Than You” and “Off to Work,” while revamping his main outfit’s “Answers in Your Soul” and “Evil in Your Eye” to suit the arrangement theme. As Fisher has engaged plenty with classic forms in his work, Hallucinations of a Higher Truth feels by no means beyond his creative reach, and he’s an accomplished enough songwriter and performer to pull it off, thereby demonstrating that if you can craft a song you can make it do whatever the hell you want, and that “you” in this case is him. This isn’t going to be everybody’s thing, but Fisher carries it ably.

Bill Fisher webstore

Church of the Cosmic Skull website

 

Seum, Live From the Seum-Cave

Seum Live from the Seum-Cave

Montreal low-end filthmongers Seum return to follow-up earlier 2021’s Winterized EP (review here) with Live From the Seum-Cave, basking in an even rawer incarnation of their guitars-need-not-apply drum/bass/vocals attack. “Sea Sick Six” is even nastier here than it was on the last EP, and the eponymous opener “Seum” is an anthem of disaffection that finds its lyrical answer in “Life Grinder” and “Blueberry Cash” alike — the why-do-I-even-have-this-shit-job point of view as unmistakable as the throat-singing that pops up in the aforementioned “Sea Sick Six.” The trio are beastly on “Winter of Seum,” and they make a special highlight of “Super Tanker” from 2020’s Summer of Seum EP, working tempo shifts into the punishing march that are less than predictable and yet totally over the top in their extremity. This is a good band who genuinely sound like they don’t give a fuck. That’s a hard thing to make believable. I hope they never put out a record and do EPs forever.

Seum on Facebook

Seum on Bandcamp

 

Spirit Adrift, Forge Your Future

Spirit Adrift Forge Your Future

Spirit Adrift have broken out from the doomly mire to proffer clear-headed, soaring traditional heavy metal. The unit, led as ever by guitarist/bassist/vocalist Nate Garrett with Marcus Bryant on drums, offer three new tracks on Forge Your Future in the title-track, “Wake Up” and “Invisible Enemy,” channeling Randy Rhoads even through more denser tonality and the nodding groove of the last. Echo behind Garrett‘s vocals reminds here and there of Brian “Butch” Balich of Penance/Argus, but Spirit Adrift‘s path across four full-lengths and companion short releases like this one over the last six years has been its own, and the emergence of Garrett as a singer has been a crucial part of making these songs the concise epics they are. Crisp in craft and confident in delivery, Spirit Adrift only sound like masters of their domain here, and so they are. Heavy metal that loves heavy metal.

Spirit Adrift on Facebook

Century Media Records website

 

Mutha Trucka, Mutha Trucka

Mutha Trucka Mutha Trucka

The Chicago-based three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Eric Ervin, bassist/vocalist Dana “Erv” Ervin and drummer/backing vocalist Ted Sciaky plunge deep with their self-titled debut into the ’90s era of heavy rock, with vibes running between C.O.C., Monster Magnet, Clutch and Kyuss, among others, but there’s a might-throw-elbows spirit that comes through even in willfully spacious pieces like “I’m Free” (some Lemmy influence there too) and “Wizards & Gods” that adds aggro spirit to the bulk of the nine-song/39-minute affair, a piece like “D.B. Blues” — which stands for “Dirty Bitch Blues” — as unpretentious in its overarching style as it is politically incorrect. “Fogginess” hits near eight minutes and moves toward the trippier end of grunge, with one of the outing’s many layered solos playing out amid the solid groove beneath, the band refusing to compromise their abiding lack of pretense even in the face of that which would otherwise be psychedelic. Not much time for that nonsense — there’s crunch to be had.

Mutha Trucka on Facebook

Mutha Trucka on Bandcamp

 

3rd Ear Experience, Danny Frankel’s 3rd Ear Experience

3rd Ear Experience Danny Frankels 3rd Ear Experience

Who’s Danny Frankel? Long story short, he was Lou Reed‘s drummer, but in fact he’s got a session-player career that’s found him performing with a staggering array of artists and bands. He puts his stamp on his very own 3rd Ear Experience alongside the group’s founding guitarist Robbi Robb as well as a host of others including fellow founder AmritaKripa, synthesist Scott “Dr. Space” Heller and more besides. The resulting journey is six tracks and 63 minutes of psychedelic gloryscaping, desert-born but galaxy-bred, with longform works like “What Are Their Names” (18:18), “Weep No More, My Friend” (14:49) and closer “Timelessness Pt. 2” (12:03) expanding across exploratory and fluid movements offset by shorter stretches like the suitably percussive “Cosmos Glazed Elephant.” In opener “A Beautiful Questions,” the drums hardly feature, but the lead-in for “What Are Their Names” feels no less intentional than when the penultimate “Timelessness Pt. 1” gives way to silence ahead of the beginning of the finale. I’d say more, but I seem to have lost my train of hyperbole-laden praise. Wonderfully so.

3rd Ear Experience on Facebook

Space Rock Productions website

 

Solarius, Universal Trial

solarius universal trial

Originally recorded in 2006, Solarius‘s heretofore unreleased four-song EP, Universal Trial, is notable for predating the self-titled Graveyard album, as guitarist/vocalist Jonatan Ramm would end up joining that band in 2008, seeming after Solarius dissolved. The 21-minute release arrives now with the considerable backing of Heavy Psych Sounds in no small part because of that nifty bit of context, and the classic-style boogie wrought in “Sky of Mine” is enough to make it a prescient-feeling footnote in the storied history of Swedish retroism, let alone the brooding-into-surging, organ-laced “Into the Sun,” which if it was issued by a new band this week would be an excuse unto itself for Bandcamp Friday. Wrapped in the shuffling title-track at the start and the harmonized, patiently-drawn “Mother Nature Mind” at the end, Universal Trial feels like a lesson in the essential role of producer Don Alsterberg (Graveyard, Blues Pills, Spiders, etc.) in defining the style as well as in what might’ve been if Solarius had put this out at the time.

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

 

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Horisont Announce Breakup & Final Shows

Posted in Whathaveyou on September 20th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

horisont band

Ah heck. Horisont are done. Across six records and 12 years, the Gothenburg-based outfit transcended classic heavy rock and roll while maintaining the spirit and vitality thereof in their work. Even up to last year’s Sudden Death (review here) — which has a whole new context now, I guess, if not two; remind me to tell you sometime about my theory of bands subconsciously telegraphing their own breakups in album titles — they sounded like a band that still had more to say. But if in fact that’s the end of their time together — and we all know that when it comes to this kind of thing, it may or may not be — they’ll have gone out on a high note.

Those in Sweden will get two last chances to catch Horisont live: first at a hometown gig at Pustervik and next year at Muskelrock, which of course they were scheduled to play this summer but blah blah blah global pandemic yadda yadda not so much. A bit of extra context will no doubt make that all the more of a blowout. After dedicating 15 years to the cause, one would expect and hope for no less. Until the reunion, then.

Their announcement came through social media and got right to the point:

horisont show

All good things must come to an end…

Fifteen years, two EPs, six LPs, countless shows and hours on the road all over the world.

Life changes and priorities shift.

The decision to place Horisont in the rear view mirror has not been an easy one – but it does none the less feel, for all of us, like the right thing to do.

There are no bad or bitter feelings between us, we are all just ready for something new, something else.

As a last ode to our long and winding career as Horisont we will perform two last shows.

October 30th we play at our favourite venue in Gothenburg, Pustervik, where we have had so many good times through the years.

And In 2022, for the big finale, our last concert, we will play at the hardrock festival Muskelrock.

It seems fitting for us to end it all with a bang at one of the worlds best hard rock festivals as we’ve always had a special place in our hearts for Muskelrock!

Hope to see you there for our final show and lots of beer.

Love from Horisont

https://www.facebook.com/horisontmusic
http://www.instagram.com/horisontmusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1tPw1T8FYkf9GoxQeTzIgU
http://www.horisontmusic.com/

Horisont, “Lion and the Lamb” (The Everly Brothers cover)

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Quarterly Review: Howling Giant, Rose City Band, The Tazers, Kavrila, Gateway, Bala, Tremor Ama, The Crooked Whispers, No Stone, Firefriend

Posted in Reviews on July 9th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

You know what? We’re through the first week of the Quarterly Review as of this post. Not too bad. I feel like it’s been smooth going so far to such a degree that I’m even thinking about adding an 11th day comprised purely of releases that came my way this week and will invariably come in next week too. Crazy, right? Bonus day QR. We’ll see if I get there, but I’m thinking about it. That alone should tell you something.

But let me not get ahead of myself. Day five commence.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Howling Giant, Alteration

howling giant alteration

Let the story be that when the pandemic hit, Nashville’s Howling Giant took to the airwaves to provide comfort, character and a bit of ‘home’ — if one thinks of live performance as home — to their audience. With a steady schedule of various live streams on Twitch, some playing music, some playing D&D, the band engaged their listenership in a new and exciting way, finding a rare bright point in one of the darkest years of recent history. Alteration, a crisp four-song/20-minute EP, is born out of those streamed jams, with songs named by the band’s viewers/listeners — kudos to whoever came up with “Luring Alluring Rings” — and, being entirely instrumental from a band growing more and more focused on vocal arrangements, sound more like they’re on their way to being finished than are completely done. However, that’s also the point of the release, essentially to showcase unfinished works in progress that have emerged in a manner that nobody expected. It is another example from last year-plus that proves the persistence of creativity, and is all the more beautiful for that.

Howling Giant on Facebook

Blues Funeral Recordings website

 

Rose City Band, Earth Trip

Rose City Band Earth Trip

Vaguely lysergic, twanging with a non-chestbeating or jingoistic ’70s American singer-songwriter feel, Rose City Band‘s Earth Trip brings sentiment without bitterness in its songs, engaging as the title hints with nature in songs like “Silver Roses,” “In the Rain,” “Lonely Planes,” “Ramblin’ with the Day,” “Rabbit” and “Dawn Patrol.” An outlet for Ripley Johnson, also of Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo, the “band” isn’t so much in Rose City Band, but there is some collaboration — pedal steel here and there, as on “Ramblin’ with the Day” — though it’s very much Johnson‘s own craft and performance at the core of this eight-song set. This is the third Rose City Band long-player in three years, but quickly as it may have come about, the tracks never feel rushed — hushed, if anything — and Johnson effectively casts himself in among the organic throughout the proceedings, making the listener feel nothing if not welcome to join the ramble.

Rose City Band on Facebook

Thrill Jockey Records website

 

The Tazers, Dream Machine

The Tazers Dream Machine

Johannesburg, South Africa’s The Tazers are suited to a short-release format, as their Dream Machine EP shows, bringing together four tracks with psychedelic precociousness and garage rock attitude to spare, with just an edge of classic heavy to keep things grooving. Their latest work opens with its languid and lysergic title-track, which sets up the shove of “Go Away” and the shuffle in “Lonely Road” — both under three and a half minutes long, with nary a wasted second in them, despite sounding purposefully like tossoffs — and the latter skirts the line of coming undone, but doesn’t, of course, but in the meantime sets up the almost proto-New Wave in the early going on “Around Town,” only later to give way to the band’s most engaging melody and a deceptively patient, gentle finish, which considering some of the brashness in the earlier tracks is a surprise. A pleasant one, though, and not the first the three-piece have brought forth by the time they get to the end of Dream Machine‘s ultra-listenable 16-minute run.

The Tazers on Facebook

The Tazers on Soundcloud

 

Kavrila, Rituals III

Kavrila Rituals III

Pressed in an ultra-limited edition of 34 tapes (the physical version also has a bonus track), Kavrila‘s Rituals III brings together about 16 minutes of heavy hardcore and post-hardcore, a thickened undertone giving something of a darker mood to the crunch of “Equality” as guitars are layered in subtly in a higher register, feeding into the urgency without competing with the drums or vocals. Opener “Sunday” works at more of a rush while “Longing” has more of a lurch at least to its outset before gradually elbowing its way into a more careening groove, but the bridge being built is between sludge and hardcore, and while the four-piece aren’t the first to build it, they do well here. If we’re picking highlights, closer “Elysium” has deft movement, intensity and atmosphere in kind, and still features a vocal rawness that pushes the emotional crux between the verses and choruses to make the transitions that much smoother. The ending fades out early behind those shouts, leaving the vocals stranded, calling out the song’s title into a stark emptiness.

Kavrila on Facebook

The Chinaskian Conspiracy on Bandcamp

 

Gateway, Flesh Reborn

gateway flesh reborn

Brutal rebirth. Robin Van Oyen is the lone figure behind Bruges, Belgium-based death-doom outfit Gateway, and Flesh Reborn is his first EP in three years. Marked out with guest guitar solos by M., the four-track/25-minute offering keeps its concentration on atmosphere as much as raw punishment, and while one would be correct to call it ‘extreme’ in its purpose and execution, its deathliest aspects aren’t just the growling vocals or periods of intense blast, but the wash of distortion that lays over the offering as a whole, from “Hel” through “Slumbering Crevasses,” the suitably twisting, later lurching “Rack Crawler” and the grandeur-in-filth 12-minute closing title-track, at which point the fullness of the consumption is revealed at last. Unbridled as it seems, this material is not without purpose and is not haphazard. It is the statement it intends to be, and its depths are shown to be significant as Van Oyen pulls you further down into them with each passing moment, finally leaving you there amid residual drone.

Gateway on Facebook

Chaos Records website

 

Bala, Maleza

Bala Maleza

Admirably punk in its dexterity, Bala‘s debut album, Maleza, arrives as a nine-track pummelfest from the Spanish duo of guitarist/vocalist Anx and drummer/vocalist V., thickened with sludgy intent and aggression to spare. The starts and stops of opener “Agitar” provide a noise-rock-style opening that hints at the tonal push to come throughout “Hoy No” — the verse melody of which seems to reinvent The Bangles — while the subsequent “X” reaches into greater breadth, vocals layered effectively as a preface perhaps to the later grunge of “Riuais,” which arrives ahead of the swaggering riff and harsh sneer of “Bessie” the lumbering finale “Una Silva.” Whether brooding in “Quieres Entrar” or explosive in its shove in “Cien Obstaculos,” Maleza offers stage-style energy with clarity of vision and enough chaos to make the anger feel genuine. There’s apparently some hype behind Bala, and fair enough, but this is legitimately one of the best debut albums I’ve heard in 2021.

Bala on Facebook

Century Media Records website

 

Tremor Ama, Beneath

Tremor Ama Beneath

French prog-fuzz five-piece Tremor Ama make a coherent and engaging debut with Beneath, a first full-length following up a 2017 self-titled EP release. Spacious guitar leads the way through the three-minute intro “Ab Initio” and into the subsequent “Green Fire,” giving a patient launch to the outing, the ensuing four songs of which grow shorter as they go behind that nine-minute “Green Fire” stretch. There’s room for ambience and intensity both in centerpiece “Eclipse,” with vocals echoing out over the building second half, and both “Mirrors” and “Grey” offer their moments of surge as well, the latter tapping into a roll that should have fans of Forming the Void nodding both to the groove and in general approval. Effectively tipping the balance in their sound over the course of the album as a whole, Tremor Ama showcase an all-the-more thoughtful approach in this debut, and at 30 minutes, they still get out well ahead of feeling overly indulgent or losing sight of their overarching mission.

Tremor Ama on Facebook

Tremor Ama on Bandcamp

 

The Crooked Whispers, Dead Moon Night

The Crooked Whispers Dead Moon Night

Delivered on multiple formats including as a 12″ vinyl through Regain Records offshoot Helter Skelter Productions, the bleary cultistry of The Crooked Whispers‘ two-songer Dead Moon Night also finds the Los Angeles-based outfit recently picked up by Ripple Music. If it seems everybody wants a piece of The Crooked Whispers, that’s fair enough for the blend of murk, sludge and charred devil worship the foursome offer with “Hail Darkness” and the even more gruesome “Galaxy of Terror,” taking the garage-doom rawness of Uncle Acid and setting against a less Beatlesian backdrop, trading pop hooks for classic doom riffing on the second track, flourishing in its misery as it is. At just 11 minutes long — that’s less than a minute for each inch of the vinyl! — Dead Moon Night is a grim forecast of things to come for the band’s deathly revelry, already showcased too on last year’s debut, Satanic Whispers (review here).

The Crooked Whispers on Facebook

Regain Records on Bandcamp

 

No Stone, Road into the Darkness

No Stone Road into the Darkness

Schooled, oldschool doom rock for denim-clad heads as foggy as the distortion they present, No Stone‘s debut album, Road into the Darkness, sounds like they already got there. The Rosario, Argentina, trio tap into some Uncle Acid-style garage doom vibes on “The Frayed Endings,” but the crash is harder, and the later 10-minute title-track delves deeper into psychedelia and grunge in kind, resulting in an overarching spirit that’s too weird to be anything but individual, however mmuch it might still firmly reside within the tenets of “cult.” If you were the type to chase down a patch, you might want to chase down a No Stone patch, as “Devil Behind” makes its barebones production feel like an aesthetic choice to offset the boogie to come in “Shadow No More,” and from post-intro opener “Bewitched” to the long fade of “The Sky is Burning,” No Stone balance atmosphere and songcraft in such a way as to herald future progress along this morose path. Maybe they are just getting on the road into the darkness, but they seem to be bringing that darkness with them on the way.

No Stone on Facebook

Ruidoteka Records on Bandcamp

 

Firefriend, Dead Icons

Firefriend Dead Icons

Dead Icons is the sixth full-length from Brazilian psychedelic outfit Firefriend, and throughout its 10 songs and 44 minutes, the band proffer marked shoegaze-style chill and a sense of space, fuzzy and molten in “Hexagonal Mess,” more desert-hued in “Spin,” jangly and out for a march on “Ongoing Crash.” “Home or Exile” takes on that question with due reach, and “Waves” caps with organ alongside the languid guitar, but moments like “Tomorrow” are singular and gorgeous, and though “Three Dimensional Sound Glitch” and “666 Fifth Avenue” border on playful, there’s an overarching melancholy to the flow, as engaging as it is. In its longest pieces — “Tomorrow” (6:05) and “One Thousand Miles High” (5:08) — the “extra” time is well spent in extending the trio’s reach, and while it’s safe to assume that six self-recorded LPs later, Firefriend know what they want to do with their sound, that thing feels amorphous, fleeting, transient somehow here, like a moving target. That speaks to ongoing growth, and is just one of Dead Icons‘ many strengths.

Firefriend on Facebook

Cardinal Fuzz store

Little Cloud Records store

 

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Album Review: Eyehategod, A History of Nomadic Behavior

Posted in Reviews on March 17th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

eyehategod a history of nomadic behavior

If there’s one thing Eyehategod aren’t short on, it’s history. Though just their sixth full-length in a career that goes back more than 30 years, the New Orleans sludge forebears represent a style of volatility that more than two generations of bands have sought in one way or another to emulate, and almost no one has come close to their chaotic, held-together-by-a-thread spirit. A History of Nomadic Behavior is their first outing for Century Media since 2000’s Confederacy of Ruined Lives and is separated from that record — in terms of studio LPs, at least — only by 2014’s self-titled, a “return” offering through Housecore Records that followed years of touring resurgence and legend-building.

There is almost nothing one might reasonably ask of A History of Nomadic Behavior that it doesn’t deliver. Certainly, the band — who also stylize the name as EyeHateGod — have seen several changes over the last 10 years, with the 2013 death of drummer Joe LaCaze and the departure of guitarist Brian Patton, who had been with Eyehategod since 1989 and 1993, respectively. Founding guitarist Jimmy Bower (also The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight and drums for Down) and vocalist Mike IX Williams are well intact, and along with longtime bassist Gary Mader and drummer Aaron HillEyehategod present their stage-honed antipathy across 12 tracks and 42 minutes of the willfully destructive riff-punk that became sludge largely in their (and Crowbar‘s, to be fair) wake, because to call it anything else was and is simply inappropriate.

Inevitably, A History of Nomadic Behavior will be some listener’s first Eyehategod record. For as long as the band is tenured and as much of their audience might have aged along with them, their regular touring over the last 15 or so years has ensured that subsequent generations of listeners are likely to take them on, and while their early work in 1990’s In the Name of Suffering and the essential 1993 follow-up, Take as Needed for Pain, remain staples of the genre canon, it’s just not where everyone is going to start.

So what of the album as an introduction to the band? Williams is a poet, and, yes, he knows it. His vocals — recorded by esteemed producer and his Corrections House bandmate Sanford Parker — are arguably the rawest element on display throughout songs like “Fate What’s Yours,” “High Risk Trigger” and the closing “Every Thing, Every Day,” and his lyrics are spit through in guttural, vocal-cord-straining fashion, and by now it’s hard to think of him doing anything else except for the periodic drawl that complements, as in “Current Situation.” It’s easy to imagine his approach as a physical sensation; guttural in the truest sense in being from the gut. His disaffection, accompanied by a long and chronicled past of addiction, is nothing less than a hallmark of Eyehategod‘s work, and that’s true from the moment he arrives following the initial feedback of opener “Built Beneath the Lies” to the last shouts of “Kill your boss!” before “Every Thing, Every Day” cuts to noise and a final manipulated sample about being scared to go to sleep.

eyehategod

The narrative around A History of Nomadic Behavior — beyond the simple ‘there’s a new Eyehategod record and this is it’ — is that it finds Williams as a lyricist engaging with sociopolitical issues in a new way. Fair enough, but one would by no means call these songs, even “Current Situation,” political. “Circle of Nerves” strikes as a fitting summary of the anxiety of the last year of pandemic and social division, and “High Risk Trigger” takes a somewhat similar perspective in waiting for the shoe to drop, whatever shoe that might be and whatever its dropping might bring, but the lyrics are impressions and the delivery is harsh, and if you find you’re turned off by Williams feeling ‘ways about stuff,’ as Futurama once put it, my simple advice is to get over yourself.

For accompaniment, Bower‘s riffs are no less integral to Eyehategod being Eyehategod, and he wields feedback with the hand of a master. Noise is a crucial factor throughout A History of Nomadic Behavior, whether it’s serving as an intro as on “Current Situation” — how could it not? — or offsetting the start-stop chug of presumed side B opener “Anemic Robotic.” Fast or slow, punked or stoned, the guitar captures the sense of sway and crash that makes up so much of the band’s rhythm — and of course Mader and Hill have their roles in that too — and as recorded by James Whitten (who also mixed and mastered, with Parker having a hand in the mix as well), the guitar, bass and drums come through balancing thickness and grit, clarity and rawness as if to preserve the latter without sacrificing the former. It’s a tough niche to find, sound-wise, but listening to “The Trial of Johnny Cancer” — which introduces the paranoid sample that “Every Thing, Every Day” concludes — there’s still plenty of dirt in Bower‘s tone as Williams declares, “I’d rather be a corpse than a coward.”

The simple truth of A History of Nomadic Behavior is that the stakes aren’t that high for Eyehategod in putting out a new release, and nothing I say about it is going to matter in the slightest. They’re a live band, and they’ve worked hard to earn that reputation. New album or not, they were going to tour, and it doesn’t seem likely that A History of Nomadic Behavior is going to usurp their ’90s-era records as the foundation of their legacy. They steamroll through this collection of songs as they steamroll through everything. They know their audience — new or old — and there’s even a “Smoker’s Place” tucked late into the tracklisting to give a breather before “Circle of Nerves” and “Every Thing, Every Day,” reminiscent of Down‘s “Doobinterlude.”

Three-plus decades later, Eyehategod have kicked their way through every last expectation of their demise and stood the test of time. Their output is pivotal sludge, and though they’re not by any means prolific in terms of LPs, they know how to harness their signature ferocity in a studio setting when it comes right to it. Maybe the highest compliment one could pay A History of Nomadic Behavior is to say it sounds like Eyehategod. There was no way it would’ve come out otherwise.

Eyehategod, “High Risk Trigger” visualizer

A History of Nomadic Behavior lnk.to

Eyehategod website

Eyehategod on Thee Facebooks

Eyehategod on Instagram

Century Media website

Century Media on Thee Facebooks

Century Media webstore

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EyeHateGod to Release A History of Nomadic Behavior in Spring 2021

Posted in Whathaveyou on November 17th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

New Orleans sludge institution EyeHateGod will release their first album in seven years, A History of Nomadic Behavior, in Spring 2021. They’ve re-signed with Century Media for the new offering, which will be the follow-up to their 2014 self-titled, a record for which they’ve consistently toured since its release. Actually, they were kind of on tour before they released it too. Pretty much since they started up again, they’ve been touring. You might say: they have a long track record of moving around from place to place.

There has to be some better way to phrase that.

I’ll confess I never really checked out the self-titled, because the rest of the universe was slathering it with hyperbole anyway and at that point why bother, plus I kind of found it easier to live without than I expected. I don’t know if I’m even cool enough to get to hear this one — the answer to that question more often than not is “no” — but A History of Nomadic Behavior is due out in Spring just the same, and it’s the joy of my day to get to post a quote from Mike Gitter, whom I remember fondly from his days at Roadrunner Records in NYC.

From the PR wire:

eyehategod a history of nomadic behavior

EYEHATEGOD RETURN TO CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS

NEW ALBUM, A HISTORY OF NOMADIC BEHAVIOR, ARRIVES SPRING 2021 (DATE TBA)

EyeHateGod have returned to Century Media Records, with an eye towards a Spring 2021 release for the band’s first album in seven years: A History of Nomadic Behavior (date TBA).

A joint statement from the band on the band and label reunion: “EyeHateGod are pleased to announce we’ve signed a licensing deal with Century Media Records USA and Europe…! We welcome the new changes along with the new year coming, and want this union to benefit everyone involved, especially our rabid and disturbed fans across the globe!”

“We’re happy to announce solidifying our worldwide relationship with EyeHateGod,” added Director of Century Media Records, Phillipp Schulte. “While Century Media has worked with the guys in the past, we’re excited to begin a new chapter with a record that easily ranks amongst this hard-working, heavy-touring band’s best. We are very much looking forward to releasing EyeHateGod’s A Historic of Nomadic Behavior.”

“EyeHateGod are survivors on every level,” says Century Media Records Vice President of A&R, Mike Gitter. “Since 1988 they’ve been part of the framework of extreme music and A History of Nomadic Behavior will be no exception. Theirs is a tough and turbulent road that would have stopped most bands dead in their tracks. Not these NOLA legends. Century Media has been part of their career from the early days and we’re excited to be working together again. EyeHateGod is here to stay.”

The cover art for A History of Nomadic Behavior has been revealed as the band and label prepare to share additional details about the album in coming weeks.

http://www.eyehategod.ee
http://www.facebook.com/OfficialEyeHateGod
https://www.instagram.com/eyehategodnola
http://www.centurymedia.com
http://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
http://www.cmdistro.com

EyeHateGod, “Medicine Noose” official video

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Voivod Announce Streaming Show Aug. 9

Posted in Whathaveyou on July 28th, 2020 by JJ Koczan

Fifteen bucks Canadian isn’t nothing, but it’s frickin’ Voivod. What, you’re gonna tell me it’s not worth it to watch Voivod play live? Of course you’re not gonna tell me that, and even if you were I wouldn’t listen because I know otherwise. I saw Voivod most recently last April in Brooklyn (review here) and like few I’ve ever seen on a stage, these bona fide legends of progressive thrash — still a microgenre they more or less entirely own — play with an infectious joy for which simply there is no wrong time. Sunday at 4PM it is. Weirdos’ll be lined up around the virtual block for this one in their War & Pain t-shirts. It’s been so long since I wore any that I don’t actually know where they are, but if I had a pair of jeans handy, I might even put them on for this one.

Nah, let’s not go that far. But still, it’s Voivod.

And hmm… they have a live album coming later this year on Century Media. Is it possible the two things might be related? We’ll have to wait and see.

From the PR wire:

voivod stream

VOIVOD Announce live-stream concert for August 9th, 2020.

Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD have announced an exclusive livestream appearance for Sunday, August 9th, 2020:

Come one, come all! In an event not to be missed, VOIVOD performs a live in-studio set for an exclusive one time streaming broadcast on Aug 9, 2020 at 4 PM EDT (Eastern Daylight Time). This multi camera shoot and audio mix will happen in real time at the same studio VOIVOD recorded their Juno winning album “The Wake”.

Why Aug 9? It’s Denis “Snake” Belanger’s birthday and he wanted to party safely with all his friends and fans from around the globe since VOIVOD touring the planet has been grounded by the Pandemic.

Tickets are $15 CDN plus applicable taxes based on your location. Buy a single ticket or group rates here https://lepointdevente.com/tickets/voivodshowlive

Check out further details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/590841571621202/

Most recently, VOIVOD have released a 3-track 12” Vinyl and Digital EP entitled “The End Of Dormancy” earlier this month worldwide via Century Media Records.

The EP is centered around a special “Metal Section” version of the title track “The End Of Dormancy” (Off VOIVOD’s latest album “The Wake”) with added trumpets, saxophone and trombones. The complementary tracks on this release are exclusive live versions of “The End Of Dormancy (Metal Section)” and the group’s classic “The Unknown Knows” recorded at Montreal Jazz Fest 2019. Here is the exact track-listing for the EP:

VOIVOD – “The End Of Dormancy” EP:
Side A:
1. The End Of Dormancy (Metal Section) [08:15]
Side B:
1. The End Of Dormancy (Live Montreal Jazz Fest 2019) [09:08]
2. The Unknown Knows (Live Montreal Jazz Fest 2019) [05:08]

“The Wake“ can still be ordered in various editions here: https://VOIVODBand.lnk.to/TheWake

Other VOIVOD news? “A live record will be released later this year on Century Media Records. VOIVOD hope to see you next year on tour!”. Indeed, stay connected…

VOIVOD are:
Denis “Snake” Belanger – Vocals
Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain – Guitar
Dominic “Rocky” Laroche – Bass
Michel “Away” Langevin – Drums

http://voivod.com
http://www.facebook.com/Voivod
http://www.centurymedia.com
http://www.facebook.com/centurymedia
http://www.cmdistro.com

Voivod, “The End of Dormancy (Metal Section)” official video

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