Posted in Whathaveyou on July 1st, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Look, I know this isn’t the hugest list of dates as Oregon’s Eight Bells join Year of No Light and Marissa Nadler for a handful of shows on their respective tour, but if you take nothing else from this — and hey, I’m not gonna see these gigs either — take the urging to check out Eight Bells‘ was-awaited-now-I’m-just-glad-it’s-here 2022 album, Legacy of Ruin (review here). That record’s ultra-creative view of Pacific Northwestern black metal — itself something of a legacy at this point — blends doom and imported progressivism and refuses to serve any ends of craft other than its own.
I know it’s hard and there’s a lot of stuff out there — you might say I’m reviewing 50 records this week and another 50 next week — but if you can latch onto what Melynda Jackson and Eight Bells are doing, give the album the attention it demands and deserves, it will only be to your benefit. Headphones if you got ’em. That’s my piece and I’ve said it.
Dates follow, as per PR wire:
EIGHT BELLS announce North American live dates for August 2022
EIGHT BELLS have announced seven shows for the US and one in Canada to take place this August. The tour kicks off at the Shakedown in Bellingham, WA (US) on August 12 and runs through on the West Coast until a final show in Eugene, OR at John Henry’s on the 20th of August. EIGHT BELLS will be joining MARISSA NADLER at the first fie dates and by the fourth show YEAR OF NO LIGHT come on board and stay on for two more gigs. In Eureka, CA the avant-garde doom project will be playing alongside NAN ELMOTH and WILUTIS while the final concert happens with FELLED and REDIVIUS on stage.
EIGHT BELLS comment: “We are very pleased to announce that we are joining Marissa Nadler and Year Of No Light for selected West Coast gigs as they make their way to Psycho Las Vegas this summer.”, singer and guitarist Melynda Jackson writes “We hope to see some buddies and make new friends on our first tour since the world ended. More local bands joining us will be announced shortly. See you on the road!”
Tickets are available through this link: https://linktr.ee/melyndajackson
EIGHT BELLS will be touring in support of their latest album “Legacy of Ruin”, which hit the stores on February 25, 2022.
EIGHT BELLS Live US 2022 12 AUG 2022 Bellingham, WA (US) Shakedown + Marissa Nadler 13 AUG 2022 Vancouver, BC (CA) Wise Hall – + Marissa Nadler 14 AUG 2022 Tacoma, WA (US) Alma + Marissa Nadler 15 AUG 2022 Seattle, WA (US) Chop Suey + Marissa Nadler + Year Of No Light 16 AUG 2022 Portland, OR (US) Mississippi Studios + Marissa Nadler + Year Of No Light 18 AUG 2022 San Francisco, CA (US) Bottom of the Hill + Year Of No Light 19 AUG 2022 Eureka, CA (US) Siren Song Tavern + Nan Elmoth + Wilutis 20 AUG 2022 Eugene, OR (US) John Henry’s + Felled + Redivivus
Line-up Melynda Jackson – guitar, vocals Matt Solis – bass, harmonies Brian Burke – drums
Here we are in the Spring 2022 Quarterly Review. I have to hope and believe you know what this means by now. It’s been like eight years. To reiterate, 10 reviews a day for this week. I’ve also added next Monday to the mix because there’s just so, so, so much out there right now, so this Quarterly Review will total 60 albums covered. It could easily be more. And more. And more. You get the point.
So while we’re on the edge of this particular volcano, looking down into the molten center of the Quarterly Review itself, I’ll say thanks for reading if you do at any point, and I hope you find something to make doing so worth the effort.
Here we go.
Quarterly Review #1-10:
Spidergawd, VI
Like clockwork, Spidergawd released V (review here), in 2019, and amid the chaos of 2020, they announced they’d have a new record out in 2021 — already the longest pause between LPs of their career — for which they’d be touring. The Norwegian outfit — who aren’t so much saviors of rock as a reminder of why it doesn’t need saving in the first place — at last offer the nine songs and 41 minute straight-ahead drive of VI with their usual aplomb, energizing a classic heavy rock sound and reveling in the glorious hooks of “Prototype Design” and “Running Man” at the outset, throwing shoulders with the sheer swag of “Black Moon Rising,” and keeping the rush going all the way until “Morning Star” hints toward some of their prior psych-prog impulses. They’ve stripped those back here, and on the strength of their songwriting and the shining lights that seem to accompany their performance even on a studio recording, they remain incomparable in working to the high standard of their own setting.
The first Eight Bells full-length for Prophecy Productions, Legacy of Ruin comes six years after their second LP, Landless (review here), and finds founding guitarist/vocalist Melynda Marie Jackson, bassist/guitarist/vocalist Matt Solis, drummer Brian Burke, a host of guests and producer Billy Anderson complicating perceptions of Pacific Northwestern US black metal. Across the six songs and in extended cuts like “The Well” and closer “Premonition,” Eight Bells remind of their readiness to put melodies where others fear tread, and to execute individualized cross-genre breadth that even in the shorter “Torpid Dreamer” remains extreme, whatever else one might call it in terms of style. “The Crone” and other moments remind of Enslaved, but seem to be writing a folklore all their own in that.
Swiss four-piece Blue Rumble bring organically-produced, not-quite-vintage-but-retro-informed heavy psych blues boogie on their self-titled debut full-length, impressing with the sharp edges around which the grooves curve, the channel-spanning, shred-ready solo of the guitars, and the organ that add so much to where vocals might otherwise be. The five-minute stretch alone of second cut “Cosmopolitan Landscape,” which follows the garage urgency of opener “God Knows I Shoulda Been Gone,” runs from a mellow-blues exploration into a psych hypnosis and at last into a classic-prog freakout before, miraculously, returning, and that is by no means the total scope of the album, whether it’s the winding progressions in “Cup o’ Rosie (Just Another Groovy Thing),” the laid back midsection of “Sunset Fire Opal” or the hey-is-that-flute on the shorter pastoral interlude “Linda,” as if naming the song before that “Think for Yourself” wasn’t enough of a Beatles invocation. The strut continues unabated in “The Snake” and the grittier “Hangman,” and closer “Occhio e Croce” (‘eye and cross,” in Italian) shimmers with Mellotron fluidity atop its central build, leaving the raw vitality of the drums to lead into a big rock finish well earned. Heads up, heavy rock and rollers. This is hot shit.
It’s palindrome time on Mainz, Germany’s The Mountain King‘s WolloW. Once the solo-project of guitarist/vocalist/programmer Eric McQueen, the experimentalist band here includes guitarist Frank Grimbarth and guest bassist Jack Cradock — you can really hear that bass on “II In Grium Imus Noctem Aram et Consumimur Igni” (hope you practiced your conjugations) and through five songs, they cross genres from the atmospheric heavygaze-meets-Warning of “I Bongnob” through the blackened crunch of the above-noted second cut to a gloriously dreamy and still morose title-track, and the driving expanse of “V DNA Sand.” Then they do it backwards, as “V DNA Sand” seems to flip halfway through. But they’re also doing it backwards at the same time as forward, so as The Mountain King work back toward album finale “bongnoB I,” what was reversed and what wasn’t has switched and the listener isn’t really sure what’s up or down, where they are or why. This, of course, is exactly the point. Take that, form and structure! Open your mind and let doom in!
Berlin trio Sheev prove adept at skirting the line of outright aggression, and in fact crossing it, while maintaining control over their direction and execution. Mind Conductor is their debut album, and it works well to send signals of its complexity, samples and obscure sounds on “The Workshop” giving over the riffs of immediate impact on “Well Whined.” The channel-spanning guitar pulls on “Saltshifter,” the harmonies in the midsection of “All I Can,” the going-for-it-Danny–Carey-style drums on the penultimate “Baby Huey” (and bonus points for that reference) — all of these and so much more in the nine-song/53-minute span come together fluidly to create a portrait of the band’s depth of approach and the obvious consideration they put into what they do. Closer “Snakegosh” may offer assurance they don’t take themselves too seriously, but even that song’s initial rolling progression can’t help but wind its way through later angularities. It will be interesting to hear the direction they ultimately take over the course of multiple albums, but don’t let that draw focus from what they accomplish on this first one.
Dudes got riffs. From Medford, Oregon, Elk Witch draw more from the sphere of modern heavy rockers like earlier The Sword or Freedom Hawk than the uptempo post-Red Fang party jams for which much of the Pacific Northwest is known, but the groove is a good time just the same. The six tracks of Beyond the Mountain are born out of the trio’s 2021 debut EP — wait for it — The Mountain, but the four songs shared between the two offerings have been re-recorded here, repositioned and sandwiched between opener “Cape Foulweather” and closer “The Plight of Valus,” so the reworking feels consistent from front to back. And anyway, it’s only been a year, so ease up. Some light burl throughout, but the vocals on “Coyote and the Wind’s Daughters” remind me of Chritus in Goatess, so there’s some outright doom at work too, though “Greybeard Arsenal” might take the prize for its shimmering back-half slowdown either way, and “The Plight of Valus” starts out with a seeming wink at Kyuss‘ “El Rodeo,” so nothing is quite so simply traced. Raw, but they’ll continue to figure out where they’re headed, and the converted will nod knowingly. For what it’s worth, I dig it.
If “evocative” is what New Hampshire post-metallic mostly-instrumentalists KYOTY were going for with their third full-length, could they possibly have picked something better to call it than Isolation? It’d be a challenge. And with opener “Quarantine,” songs like “Ventilate,” “Languish,” “Faith,” and “Rift,” “Respite” and closer “A Fog, A Future Like a Place Imagined,” the richly progressive unit working as the two-piece of Nick Filth and Nathaniel Parker Raymond weave poetic aural tapestries crushing and spacious in kind with the existential dread and vague flashes of hope in pandemic reality of the 2020s thus far. Still, they work in impressionist fashion, so that the rumbling crackle of “Onus” and the near-industrial slog of “Respite” represent place and idea while also standing apart as a not-quite-objective observer, the lighter float of the guitar in “Faith” becoming a wash before its resonant drone draws it to a close. At 70 minutes, there’s a lot to say for a band who doesn’t have lyrics, but spoken lines further the sense of verse, and remind of the humanity behind the programming of “Holter” or the especially pummeling “Rift.” An album deep enough you could listen to it for years and hear something new.
Andalusian storytellers Red Eye make it plain from the outset that their ambitions are significant, and the seven songs of their third full-length play out those ambitions across ultra-flowing shifts between serenity and heft, working as more than just volume trades and bringing an atmospheric sprawl that is intended to convey time as well as place. In 46 minutes, they do for doom and various other microgenres — post-metal, some more extreme moments in “Beorg” and the morse-code-inclusive closer “Æsce” — what earlier Opeth did for death metal, adding shifts into unbridled folk melody and sometimes minimalist reach. Clearly meant to be taken in its entirety, The Cycle functions beautifully across its stretch, and the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antonio Campos (also lyrics), guitarist/vocalist Pablo Terol, bassist Antonio Muriel and drummer Ángel Arcas, bear weight of tone and history in kind, self-aware that the chants in “Tempel” brim with purpose, but expressive in the before and after such that they wherever they will and make it a joy to follow.
Originally recorded to come out in 2013, what would’ve been/is the Stoned Horses‘ self-titled debut full-length runs 12 tracks and swaps methodologies between instrumentalism and more verse/chorus-minded sludge rock. Riffs lead, in either case, and there’s a sense of worship that goes beyond Black Sabbath as the later “Scorpions Vitus” handily confirms. The semi-eponymous “A Stoned Horse” is memorable for its readiness to shout the hook at you repeatedly, and lest a band called Stoned Horses ever be accused of taking themselves too seriously, “My Horse is Faster Than Your Bike” is a sub-two-minute riffer that recalls late-’90s/early-’00s stoner rock fuckery, before everyone started getting progressive. Not short on charm, there’s plenty of substance behind it in “Le Calumet” like a northern Alabama Thunderpussy or the last cut, “The Legend of the Blue Pig,” which dares a bit more metal. Not groundbreaking, not trying to be, it’s a celebration of the tropes of genre given its own personality. I have nothing more to ask of it except what happened that it sat for nearly a decade without being released.
Antwerpen’s Gnome make it a hell of a lot of fun to trace their path across King, their second full-length, bringing in The Vintage Caravan‘s Óskar Logi early for “Your Empire” and finding a line between energetic, on-the-beat delivery and outright aggression, letting “Ambrosius” set the tone for what follows as they careen though cuts like the instrumental “Antibeast,” the swinging and catchy “Wencelas” and the crunching “Bulls of Bravik.” How do they do it? With the magic of shenanigans! As King (which “Wencelas” was) plays out, the suitably hatted trio get up to high grade nonsense on “Kraken Wanker” before “Stinth Thy Clep” and the 11-minute we-can-do-whatever-we-want-so-let’s-do-that-yes closer “Platypus Platoon” buries its later march amid a stream of ideas that, frankly, kind of sounds like it could just keep going. They are adventurous throughout the eight songs and 42 minutes, but have a solid foundation nonetheless of tone and consciousness, which are what save King from being a mess. It’s a hard balance to strike that they make sound easy.
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The announcement of the album details for Eight Bells‘ third full-length confirms the title as Legacy of Ruin, which was the title given when the Portland, Oregon, outfit first posted that they’d finished recording in Dec. 2020 with none other than Billy Anderson at the helm as engineer and mixer. In addition to that, and the striking cover art for Legacy of Ruin that you can see below, there’s also the tracklisting — six songs, three with guest violin — and a suitably apocalyptic theme unveiled, as well as the first audio, which is the new single “Nadir,” presented across five-plus minutes of engagingly anti-genre heaviness that’s more doomed than doom in its mood, if you catch my drift. Mortality of self, mortality of planet. The ephemeral everything.
It’s likewise encompassing and sad, but it would be. After releasing 2016’s Landless (review here) through the now-defunct Battleground Records, as well as Tartarus (the tape), and changing out their lineup around founder Melynda Marie Jackson — not to be confused with Melynda Marie Amann, who guests on vocals and keys — not to mention sitting on this record for at least most of this year, I’m pleased to have the album to look forward to. I guess that’s the plainest I can say it.
Preorders are up. You’ll find the link and PR wire details below. The “Nadir” video is, suitably, at the bottom of the post:
EIGHT BELLS release first single ‘Nadir’ taken from the forthcoming new album “Legacy of Ruin”
EIGHT BELLS are now revealing the volcanic video single ‘Nadir’ taken from their forthcoming new album “Legacy of Ruin”, which is slated for release on February 25, 2022.
The avant-garde doom project from Portland, Oregon conceived by guitarist and singer Melynda Jackson has also unveiled cover art, tracklist, and further details of their new full-length below.
EIGHT BELLS comment: “Our first single, ‘Nadir’ is the newest song that was written right before the recording sessions”, writes singer and guitarist Melynda Jackson. “It is inspired by the ugly part of human nature and tendency to devour everything until it is gone. There is grief in understanding that ‘right now’ is all we have.”
With their third album, Portland metal experimentalists EIGHT BELLS have sharpened their songwriting approach to create a soundtrack for the end of the world. “Legacy of Ruin” again features the trio’s trademark haunting vocal harmonies along with sometimes blistering, and sometimes impressionistic guitar riffing to create heady atmospheres of dark and light.
The result of EIGHT BELLS’ musical exploration is an emotional and insistent odyssey that transcends genre and imbues contemporary metal with 19th-century Victorian ghostliness, cinematic soundscapes in combination with female and male vocal harmonies perfectly fitting the album’s lyrical story. “Legacy of Ruin” focuses on themes of the human condition, natural destruction, death, regret, loss, malice, and retribution.
Tracklist 1. Destroyer 2. The Well 3. Torpid Dreamer 4. Nadir 5. The Crone 6. Premonition
Guest musicians Melynda Marie Amann – vocals on ‘The Well’ and ‘The Crone’ Melynda Marie Amann – Keyboards on ‘The Well’ Andrea Morgan – violin on ‘The Well’, ‘Nadir’, and ‘Premonition’
Tracked by Billy Anderson at The Hallowed Halls Produced by Billy Anderson & Eight Bells Mixed by Billy Anderson at Everything Hz Mastered by Justin Weis at Trackworx
Artwork by Tom Robers Layout by Ross Sewage
On further news, EIGHT BELLS will reissue their first two albums “The Captain’s Daughter (2013) and “Landless” (2016) parallel to the release of “Legacy of Ruin”. Both full-length recordings will be joined together under the title “Histories 2010 - 2016” as double-CD and triple vinyl editions that will also contain the bonus track ‘Purgatory’ and five demo versions.
Line-up Melynda Jackson – guitar, vocals Matt Solis – bass, harmonies Brian Burke – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 18th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
When word first came around of Eight Bells signing to Prophecy Productions for the release of their third album, I called it a good fit. That was Dec. 2020, when the band’s own Melynda Marie Jackson posted on the social media that the band’s next LP — which was called Legacy of Ruin at the time and may or may not still bear that title; it certainly hasn’t become less relevant in the intervening year — was done and would see release through the European imprint, where 2016’s Landless (review here) came out through Profound Lore (also a suitable home). It’s still a good fit.
With the presumption that, whatever it’ll be titled when it arrives, this is the same full-length that Eight Bells had completed recording with Billy Anderson at the helm, its delay has no doubt been maddening, and while Eight Bells are by no means the only band in that situation — make a thing, sit on it — they’re underappreciated to start with, so reinforced idleness does nothing to help. I expect by the time it comes out, the release will be cathartic on multiple levels. I look forward to hearing it. In the meantime, note the reissues.
The following came down the PR wire:
EIGHT BELLS sign deal with PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS
EIGHT BELLS have signed a multi-album deal with Prophecy Productions. The avant-garde doom trio from Portland, Oregon will return in 2022 to release their third full-length via the label, which will also reissue the US-band’s existing catalogue.
EIGHT BELLS comment: “I am excited about this new relationship with Prophecy Productions along with having the opportunity to reach further into a European audience”, states singer and guitarist Melynda Jackson. “My goal all along has been to release a new album since our last one in 2016 and although it took a while to find the right combination of musicians. I thankfully have that now and am grateful to put out another album with people whom I love.”
Martin Koller adds: “When I discovered Eight Bells at the Psycho Las Vegas festival, I was immediately hooked”, tells the founder of Prophecy Productions. “Particularly their unique way of letting emotive vocal harmonies shine brightly above a sublimely intelligent dark metal foundation was striking. I am therefore stoked to welcome Eight Bells to the Prophecy family!”
Prophecy Productions will also reissue the band’s previous releases. The first two EIGHT BELLS albums “The Captain’s Daughter” (2013) and “Landless” (2016) are already digitally available:http://lnk.spkr.media/eightbells-backcatalog
Currently, EIGHT BELLS are preparing for the release of their third full-length via the label in early 2022.
Line-up Melynda Jackson – guitar, vocals Matt Solis – bass, harmonies Brian Burke – drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on December 8th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Eight Bells have completed the recording process for their next full-length. Their third, and reportedly titled Legacy of Ruin, it will see release in 2021 through Prophecy Productions, which puts the Portland, Oregon, outfit in the company of Alcest, Amber Asylum, Antimatter, and a whole league of badass groups and artists whose monikers start with other letters of the alphabet. By the time it arrives, the new Eight Bells will follow five years after the band’s prior outing, Landless (review here), which was issued by Profound Lore. And in case that’s not good enough company to keep, the new record — like the one preceding — was engineered by Billy Anderson. So there.
The band’s own Melynda Marie Jackson posted the following on thee social medias:
What a relief! Eight Bells has finished the recording and mixing of our 3rd album for release on Prophecy Productions and we are excited to share it. I should say finished but still needs mastering.
I know I have been saying “It’s coming It’s coming” for a couple of years now and that was not a lie — but timing was not with us. We managed to complete production after postponing tracking twice; the most recent postponement related to a GLOBAL FUCKING PANDEMIC. Large amounts of Oregon and California burned bringing dangerous air and electricity outages affecting both vocal tracking and mixing.
I won’t even go into the general feeling of doom….but good things happen too and I am so crazy thankful to my friend Billy Anderson for the patience, support, help, production, tracking, mixing, joking, and silliness throughout the process. It helps to laugh especially when times are as bleak as they are right now.
Also thanks very much to my amazing bandmates Matt Solis and Brian Burke for their tenacity in the face of it all- could not have been done without you. Then there’s also contributions from Melynda Marie Amann and Andrea Morgan to enjoy!…
