After releasing the CD last month through The Compound and their own Battleground Records, Tucson, Arizona, sludge freethinkers are set to have their debut full-length, City of Dust (streamed here), show up on vinyl May 1. The destructive six-piece will tour a week with Secrets of the Sky starting June 6 at this year’s Doom in June fest in Las Vegas, and the LP will be limited to 300 copies with a handy bunch of extras which the PR wire is happy to detail below.

This is also the first I’m seeing of the Doom in June lineup, which looks right on with Ides of Gemini, Novembers Doom, Demon Lung, Acid Witch, Godhunter, Secrets of the Sky and Christian Mistress. That’s a heavy goddamn show.

Specificity is key:

GODHUNTER: Tour With Secrets Of The Sky Confirmed

Preorders For Deluxe LP Version Of City Of Dust Available

Following the triumphant CD/digital release of GODHUNTER’s dynamic debut full-length, City Of Dust, today the deluxe vinyl edition of the album have been posted, in addition to the band’s next bout of widespread touring in support of the album.

Having been released through a union of Earsplit’s label, The Compound, and GODHUNTER’s Battleground Records, the two DIY factions will release City Of Dust in a deluxe vinyl run, which is currently being manufactured. The record will be available in a run of 300 copies on clear 180-gram vinyl with red splatters analogous with the desert rose cover artwork, all poly-bagged with a black sleeve and full-color 12×24 lyric/liner sheet and full-color jacket. Preorders for the impending vinyl adaptation of the album have been posted; all pre-street date orders placed via Earsplit Distro will see the LP shipped with a free copy of City Of Dust on CD and will ship by May 1st. Preorder placement for the vinyl as well as and an arsenal of additional GODHUNTER merch can all be located HERE.

Late this Spring, GODHUNTER will take off on a wild west US trek with Oakland’s progressive doom metal sextet, Secrets Of The Sky. On June 6th and 7th the bands will rendezvous at the annual Doom In June Fest in Las Vegas, both set to perform amidst the lineup including Novembers Doom, Christian Mistress, Acid Witch, Ides of Gemini, Demon Lung and more. From there they’ll co-headline a course through Oakland, San Luis Obispo, Glendale, Palm Desert, Tucson and Phoenix.

GODHUNTER & SECRETS OF THE SKY Spring Tour:
6/06/2014 Cheyenne Saloon – Las Vegas, NV @ Doom In June
6/07/2014 Cheyenne Saloon – Las Vegas, NV @ Doom In June
6/08/2014 Stork Club – Oakland, CA
6/09/2014 Frankie Teardrops – San Luis Obispo, CA
6/10/2014 Billy O’s – Ventura, CA
6/11/2014 The Complex – Glendale, CA
6/12/2014 The Palms – Palm Desert, CA
6/13/2014 The District Tavern – Tucson, AZ

Bearing the underlying subtitle, A Conversation Between Hope and Despair, the fifty-minute dust storm of groove-laden, resin-coated sludge metal intensity City Of Dust delivers the most concise, diverse, and infectious hymns from the politically-motivated Tucson, Arizona-based outfit to date. Through a brutally honest outcry the album boasts thought-provoking, thematic tirades against the governmental members and parties the residents who embody GODHUNTER feel are directly responsible for a wide array of vital societal issues affecting their home region, including equal rights, a widespread water shortage, immigration and more.

http://dirtweedmetal.com
http://godhunter.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/godhuntertucson666
https://www.facebook.com/battlegroundrecords
http://www.thecompoundrecs.com
https://www.facebook.com/TheCompoundRecs
http://www.earsplitdistro.com

Godhunter, City of Dust (2014)

It should say something about the conceptual nature of Godhunter‘s approach that their lyric sheet comes with footnotes. Today, the Tuscon-based six-piece release their debut long-player, City of Dust, on CD via Battleground Records/The Compound. It’s an album that wears its aggression and political mentality likewise on its sleeve, and from the opening sample that, backed by feedback and effects, leads the way into the undulating, punishingly slow riff of “Despite All,” Godhunter show that they’re more than willing to manually drive these ideas into your brain if that’s what it’s going to take to get them there. Tackling issues within their native Arizona (“Rats in the Walls,” “Snake Oil Dealer”) and the Southwest in general (the closing “Plague Widow”), the eight component tracks of the 49-minute album come across with staggering intensity despite what’s usually a fairly grueling pace. It is as much a multi-chapter sludgecore manifesto as it is a collection of memorably-riffed songs.

Godhunter‘s hardcore roots shine through in their arrangements, and even with cellist/keyboardist/effects specialist Matthew Davis at work throughout, the riffs of “Despite All,” “Palace of Thorn” and the guitar-siren-infused “City of Dust” lumber in classic-if-thickened fashion. Elsewhere, guitarists David Rodgers (also vocals) and Jake Brazelton bring an almost Southern metal sensibility to the largesse of “Brushfires,” while bassist Ryan “Dick” Williamson and drummer Andy Kratzenberg lend further heft and punctuation to the steady roll, but the raw-throat of vocalist Charlie Touseull keeps City of Dust aligned to a tradition of socially conscious underground rage, lines like “No rescue for those already dead/Reason cast aside for myth instead,” from “Brushfires” showcasing the rhythmic push that accompanies such vitriol. If there’s an aberration from Godhunter‘s onslaught, it comes in “Shooting down the Sun” at the start of the second half of the tracklist, on which guest vocalist Carlos Arzate sings clean over mournful acoustic guitars and Davis‘ cello. It’s the shortest track on City of Dust at 4:44, but the gravitas it lends the surrounding material is put to solid and pummeling use.

The corresponding affirmation of Godhunter‘s brutality, then, would have to be the closer. “Plague Widow,” with gang-style backing vocals from Matt Martinez, Nate Garrett and Chthon Leemont, is a 10-minute sensory assault that compounds references to the Bible and The Tempest with keyboard atmospherics and an insistent repetitions over a marching riff that aren’t so much hypnotic as like being punched with music, cello and amp noise finally serving as City of Dust‘s leadout over the fading guitar, bass and drums. The line that Touseull and company leave on is “This is hell and all the devils are here,” and like the rest of City of Dust, it seems unlikely that’s happenstance. So thought-through is the album that it’s easy to forget it’s Godhunter‘s first — their prior release was late 2011’s Wolves EP (review here) — but if they’re to move forward from this as their starting point, they’ve presented a multifaceted and passionate foundation from which to progress. On any angle from which you might want to approach it, City of Dust is more than just a sludge record.

They’ve got it at their Bandcamp, but I’ve been given permission to stream the album here and I’m not about to say no. After the player, you’ll find the lyric sheet with track-by-track info on all the songs. Please enjoy.

[mp3player width=480 height=360 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=godhunter-city-of-dust.xml]

Godhunter‘s City of Dust is available now digitally through their Bandcamp page and on CD via Earsplit Distro‘s website. Here are the lyric sheets:

Godhunter on Thee Facebooks

Godhunter on Bandcamp

Godhunter at Earsplit Distro