Swedish trio Cities of Mars have released their debut single, Cyclopean Ritual / The Third Eye, as a name-your-price download. The three-piece of bassist/vocalist Danne Palm, guitarist/vocalist Christoffer Norén (also Benevolent) and drummer Johan Küchler first got together last year, and the new single marks their first time in the studio. They recorded with Esben Willems of Monolord, of which Palm is also a former member. One can hear some similar tendencies in the riffery that ensues across “Cyclopean Ritual” and “The Third Eye,” the stoner idolatry taken to a cosmic end, but Cities of Mars distinguish themselves with some of the most satisfying roll in this style that I’ve heard since the first Sigiriya record in 2011, not looking to overwhelm with tone or impress with nuance, but just riffing out and hitting the mark dead on.

Cities of Mars play the Wizard of Fuzz festival in Oct. in their native Gothenburg, and more info on that and the stream of both tracks follow here, courtesy of the PR wire:

The spacetime transmission is out there.

A tiny fragment of a signal, from another time and another place. Perhaps it tells the truth, some version of the truth or perhaps it’s just distorted white noise, a blip in a broken old radio somewhere.

But all three of us felt it, heard it and we were captivated. The blips and swirls became sound, broken syllables became words, and a story from another world started to unfold. We learned that the Soviet Union’s Mars landers in the early seventies did indeed not crash, but landed a secret agent upon the red planet’s surface. Her journey into the unknown and the discovery of an ancient civilisation from beyond time are for us to decipher and put into this world. We hope you’ll come along for the journey.

Cities of Mars will unleash the premiere of the grim spacetime tales at the Wizard of Fuzz festival in Gothenburg, Sweden on October 9/10th along with a super-sweet line-up of heavy bands: Black Rainbows (IT), Tombstones (NO), Rosy Finch (ESP), Stone from the sky (FR), Zatokrev (CH), Skraeckoedlan, Serpent Omega, Crowlegion, Maida Vale, Mamon, Colossus, Galvano, Besvärjelsen, Orkan, Reverend Jim Jones ATD, Wolves in Haze and Serpent.

Cities of Mars on Thee Facebooks
https://citiesofmars.bandcamp.com/

Never heard of Cities of Mars? Don’t sweat it. I hadn’t either until bassist/vocalist/spacetime-transmissionist Danne Palm (formerly of Monolord) reached out yesterday to inform of his intentions to lead the newcomer trio into the studio this Spring to record their debut album. No audio yet, but the band’s concept sold me on it anyway, inventing a tale of a successful Soviet expedition to Mars in the 1970s and chronicling the experience there of a female cosmonaut who arrives to discover an ancient civilization.

Sounds pretty awesome, right? I’d read that short story, and when the time comes, I’ll check out the record. Until they go in to track the beast, with Monolord‘s Esben Willems no less, there’s just the basic announcement to go by, so here’s that in case you’d like an early glimpse at what they’ll be going for in the studio:

The Cities of Mars revealed via Monolord producer in 2015

Vocalist/bassist and Cities of Mars’ main songwriter Danne Palm co-formed and wrote material with Swedish doom titans Monolord in early 2013, formed from the ashes of Sweden’s hardest working boogie rock band Marulk. Wanting to pursue another musical direction, Cities of Mars emerged in 2014 with guitarist/vocalist Christoffer Norén (also in Benevolent) and drummer Anders Runesson. Keeping a close friendship with the guys in Monolord, drummer/engineer/producer Esben Willems was happy to offer his massive-sound producing skills for a two track single scheduled for recording in late spring 2015.

Not only a power trio with experienced musicians, Cities of Mars also features an extensive background story dating back to 9000 BC, closely knit into the lyrics and artwork – an extra treat for those sci-fi, fantasy and comic aficionados out there.

In short:

In the early 1970’s, the Soviet Union made several attempts to land on Mars. Officially, they failed.

What if the opposite was true, that a highly trained female operative succeeded in landing on the red planet and found a dark ancient civilization buried beneath the surface?

Cities of Mars has risen to tell this tale, with an asteroid-sized hulk of spaced out, fuzz-drenched, high gravity riffage. With three experienced rock musicians cranking the best out of their songcraft and high wattage amps, a dramatic interplanetary mythology dating back thousands of years is revealed, piece by piece, song by song.

Spacetime transmissions will begin in mid-2105.

Danne Palm: bass,vox & spacetime transmissions
Christoffer Norén: guitar, vox & vortex navigation
Anders Runesson: drums, vox & black hole calculations

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cities-of-Mars/844239638921754
info@citiesofmars.se