Canadian metallers Anciients rest atop the bill for The Electric Highway 2024, the Calgary-based three-dayer festival co-presented by The Obelisk along with a slew of others. After the date reveal and ticket-onsale in November, the fest has now begun to unveil its lineup, which is probably fortunate because it’ll be April before you know it. Vancouver’s Dead Quiet and Empress are also included, as well as Darty from Chron Goblin‘s ambient project Musing, the returning hardcore-born heavy of Owls and Eagles and I think a few other repeat offenders. Hell, Anciients played Calgary 420 Fest in 2017, which was the precursor to The Electric Highway, so there’s history here if you want to find it.
There will be more as well, so sit tight. Canadian heavy is its own ecosystem distinct from the US underground, and I always look forward to seeing who’s going to be at The Electric Highway as a great way of finding new bands and checking in on those regulars. I’ve never been to Alberta and don’t harbor any delusions that I’ll be at The Electric Highway — though it’d be fun — but I’m glad to support this fest with this site and dig into some of the finest in heavy that the Great White North (and maybe a few American bands by the time they’re done; you’ll recall last year Sasquatch headlined) has to offer.
The PR wire puts it thusly:
The Electric Highway Festival (Calgary, AB) Announces First Round of Bands For 2024 Lineup
w/ Anciients, Dead Quiet, Empress, Flashback, Buffalo Bud Buster and more!
The Electric Highway Festival is excited to announce the first round of bands for the 2024 edition of the festival being held in Calgary, AB on April 4, 5, and 6 at Dickens (1000 9 Ave SW).
Canadian Juno Award-winning Vancouver band Anciients will headline the whole festival. They will be joined by various Western Canadian bands including Dead Quiet, Empress, Flashback, Buffalo Bud Buster, and more.
Anciients (Vancouver) Dead Quiet (Vancouver) Empress (Vancouver) Buffalo Bud Buster (Calgary) Flashback (Calgary) Pharm (Kelowna) Owls & Eagles (Calgary) Gnarwhal (Yellowknife) Solid Brown (Calgary) The Getmines (Vancouver) Tebby And The Heavy (Edmonton) Musing (Calgary) Blacksmith & Brewer (BC Sunshine Coast) Stone Spear (Kelowna) Black Daggers (Red Deer) Atomic Yeti (Saskatoon) Conjure Hand (Victoria)
Limited Early Bird passes are on sale for $65 until the rest of the bands are announced or the early bird passes sell out. Regular advance passes will be available at that time. There will also be a variety of single-day tickets available as well as 2-day passes.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 15th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
I do not know who might be behind the new Hammerheart Records imprint Petrichor — which seems not to be followed by any of the usual “Records” or “Recordings” or “Releases” or “Tapes” or whatever that most labels tack onto their names — but they certainly have their mission statement down, and I can’t argue with their choice of a first signing either. The band in question is Vancouver’s Empress, whose forthcoming debut album, Premonition, was recently written up here. That album, which follows 2017’s Reminiscence EP (review here) and a 2018 split with Piece (review here), was originally set to arrive on July 24.
The Petrichor version of the Premonition has been given an October release. However, what that means is that the originally-stated July 24 arrival of the album is off. “Delays?” you ask, flabbergasted. “In 2020?” I know, but at least it’s for a good reason, and hey, kudos for the band getting their record picked up before it even came out. When it happens at all, some acts wait years for that kind of thing.
So anyway, it’ll be October for Empress. I wouldn’t think it unreasonable if they pulled it down, but for now you can still listen to “Lion’s Blood” on the player below.
Petrichor‘s announcement and background info follows:
First signing for Petrichor: Empress!
It is with great pleasure and pride that we announce Empress to be the first official signing for Petrichor. This amazing sludge/post-metal/doom band from Vancouver, Canada will unleash its debut full length album ‘Premonition’ through Petrichor in early October 2020. The album will be released on vinyl/cd and tape as well as digital. Be prepared, pre-orders will be announced in due time.
Petrichor is a new label manufactured, distributed and marketed by Hammerheart Records. Run by passionate individuals who are defined by their will to bring fresh rain on dried out soil/rock (petra) combined into one label that will deliver the blood of the gods (ichor).
Petrichor will release physical formats of all kinds and digital content as well. Run with dedication, experience and always on the hunt for innovative art and quality. Expect our first releases coming this September.
So I guess this is the episode where I play Sleep‘s Dopesmoker in its entirety. I’ve wanted to play a full record for a while now, mostly because that’s how I like listening to stuff at home, so I figured if I’m going to do a thing, I might as well go completely over the top with it, which I’m pretty sure is also what Sleep said when they recorded that album in the first place. Works for me.
Some good new stuff in there too. I like Orsak:Oslo‘s new EP a lot, and that Empress track that premiered here kind of stuck with me. The Kairon: IRSE! is weird and I find that delightful, especially coming out of Slift and Rrrags, both of which have gotten far less coverage around here than they deserve. Kind of a fucked Spring/early Summer. Sorry. Doing my best. And I figured new-ish Goatsnake and new Brimstone Coven were good to lead off. Can’t really miss, right?
But anyway, “Dopesmoker.” It’s fucking “Dopesmoker.” I don’t know if I’ll play other full albums, make it a thing I do on the show, but it was fun this time and that’s good enough for one episode.
The Obelisk Show airs 5PM Eastern today on the Gimme app or at http://gimmeradio.com
Full playlist:
The Obelisk Show – 06.26.20
Goatsnake
Breakfast with the King
Breakfast with the King b/w Deathwish*
0:04:57
Brimstone Coven
The Inferno
The Woes of a Mortal World*
0:04:29
Orsak:Oslo
057 Passage
Skimmer EP*
0:05:16
Empress
Lion’s Blood
Premonition*
0:09:39
VOICE TRACK
Rrrags
Dark is the Day
High Protein*
0:08:01
Slift
Lions, Tigers & Bears
Ummon*
0:13:18
Kairon: IRSE!
An Bat None
Polysomn*
0:06:04
VOICE TRACK
Sleep
Dopesmoker
Dopesmoker
1:03:31
The Obelisk Show on Gimme Metal airs every Friday 5PM Eastern, with replays Sunday at 7PM Eastern. Next new episode is July 9 (subject to change). Thanks for listening if you do.
Vancouver-based trio Empress will release their debut full-length, Premonition, on July 24. The expansive seven-track/49-minute offering is an amalgam of modern influences, drawing from niche microgenres from progressive psych to black metal and running a cohesive line through post-metallic atmospheres and a lurching aggression in their approach. Setting melody against harsh, echoing shouts, the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Peter Sacco, bassist Brenden Gunn — who passed away in 2019 and to whom the album is dedicated — and drummer Chris Doyle make no attempt to hide their stylistic ambition, pulling together influences from the likes of Amenra, Elder, Isis, The Ocean and latter-day Enslaved in an attempt to make something new from the melding.
Premonition sets its course with the eight-minute opener “A Pale Wanderer” and uses the momentum it builds there to unfurl two shorter tracks in “Sepulchre” and “Passage” before the six-minute “Trost” closes out side A. The progression from one piece to the next is essential to the listening experience of the side and the record as a whole, as each cut gracefully complements and expands on the one before it, whether it’s the heavy post-rock air-squibblies and subsequent gallop in the guitar of “A Pale Wanderer” feeding into the immediate angularity that begins “Sepulchre,” or “Passage” building a winding linear movement of riffs edged with psychedelic intent even as they payoff with more aggressive churning — a perfect lead-in for the semi-blackened rush at the start of “Trost,” which holds its melodic statement for the finish in a slower-rolling unfurl that gives way to a silence that feels well earned.
Of course, that’s only half the story, and Premonition takes a noticeable turn for the immersive with “Hiraeth,” the first of the three inclusions on its second half. “Hiraeth” (8:03), “Premonition” (7:05) and “Lion’s Blood” (9:39) seem in form to call back to the outset of the album, but that only makes the journey being undertaken seem all the more purposeful. Like the songs preceding, they are progressive in form and thoughtful in composition, but naturally their increased runtime lends a more patient feel, and that proves especially true in the longest of them, which is the finale. Building up from a quiet line of standalone guitar, “Lion’s Blood” reaches two successive crescendos, the first melodic, the second angrier, and in that, the ending of the record answers back to the preceding title-track’s summary of Empress‘ songcraft with a step forward toward individualism, still based around the root influences noted above, but succeeding in its goal of internalizing and adding to them.
It’s a first step, but a brazen one, even unto its title, which would seem to be telling listeners that Premonition is just the beginning of a longer stylistic evolution on the part of Empress. If that’s the case and that’s the challenge the band are setting for themselves, bring it on. While not a minor undertaking at nearly 50 minutes long, Premonition isn’t trying to be humble, it’s trying to be consuming, and it is that. I don’t know how losing Gunn will ultimately affect this mission, but with this first long-player, the band show a marked potential that not only makes a fitting tribute to what might’ve been for the trio as they wore, but still holds promise for the band Empress might become. Whatever their future brings, the obvious consciousness they bring to their songwriting here will only continue to serve them well as they move forward.
And it’s heavy, too.
Happy to host the premiere of “Lion’s Blood” on the player below, all the more so since it serves as the culmination of Premonition and the inevitable step from which Empress will launch whatever may come next.
More background from the PR wire follows.
Please enjoy:
On July 24th, Canada’s EMPRESS will self-release their highly anticipated debut album, Premonition.
EMPRESS are a three-headed beast from Vancouver, B.C., born after guitarist/vocalist Peter Sacco (Seer) and drummer Chris Doyle attended a show headlined by doom mavens Elder. Inspired by the massive wall of sound and psychedelia they encountered on that fateful night, the pair enlisted bassist Brenden Gunn (Craters) and set out to create their own brand of stoner/sludge metal.
Above all, EMPRESS is not a vehicle for entertainment or flashy showmanship. Rather, it is an emotionally driven, abstract band, and meant to serve as an artistic experience which has a culmination of life experiences, doubts, and growth from what life has brought each member.
EMPRESS boldly and (daresay) beautifully display that across their long-awaited debut album, Premonition. As befitting a first full-length, Premonition took years to write, and was made with excitement and, most especially, a newfound purpose and meaning for driving the songwriting. Once again laying it all on the line, arguably more so than ever, the album’s lyrics are about the mental health of Sacco, his family members, and the experiences he has had with them – the traumas he deals with as payment for being there for someone mentally ill, and accepting loved ones, strangers, and anyone else with mental health issues. But, Sacco stresses, “No one should be pushing people that come forward with their mental health issues and leave them secluded with those issues.”
Comprising seven shape-shifting songs in an all-enveloping 49 minutes, Premonition is the unleashing of emotions from trauma. It is an outlet for each member of the band to deal with whatever it is they need to deal with. Each person writes their parts with whatever intention they would like. That culmination led to the most accomplished album any of them have written, and they are grateful for the support of their loved ones, friends, and strangers who listen to their music and feel that connection EMPRESS want to have come across.
The album is in loving memory of Brenden Gunn, who passed away Oct 31st, 2019. Artwork by Orion Landau and Robin Harris.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 12th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Last time, when The Electric Highway 2020 called out its preliminary lineup, I decided to roll with calling it the inaugural-ish edition of the Calgary-based festival, as it’s grown out of the 420 Music & Arts Festival of years prior, but still, there’s no question they’re doing it up for the occasion of the new name and presentation. Poster art by none other than David Paul Seymour has been unveiled, Mothership have joined on with Sasquatch, Wo Fat and Duel near the top of a Texas-dominant lineup — Sasquatch being the outlier geographically — and a pre-show has been announced with Seattle’s Year of the Cobra crossing the border to headline. These updates would seem to complete the proceedings as they’ll proceed, but of course April’s still a couple months out and you know, subject to change and all that. Still, it looks like a pretty badass time if you can make it.
Info came down the PR wire:
Festival Line-Up Announced! All Roads Lead To The Electric Highway In Calgary, AB, Canada!
Buckle up for The Electric Highway Festival, two days of killer bands, rad artists and fuzzy vibes April 17 & 18, 2020 at the historic Royal Canadian Legion #1 in downtown Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The Electric Highway Festival has completed its lineup with the addition of the mighty Mothership from Dallas, Texas. The Supersonic Intergalactic Heavy Rock trio’s goal from the beginning has been to carry on the tradition of the classic rock style of the ’70s, updated and amped up for the modern-day. Mothership have created a unique sound that satisfies like a steaming hot stew of UFO and Iron Maiden, blended with the southern swagger of Molly Hatchet and ZZ Top, paired with a deadly chalice of Black Sabbath. Do not miss this chance to hop on board and join Mothership as they tear across the Universal Cosmos!
The Electric Highway Festival has also added Vancouver’s Empress to the lineup. Both Mothership and Empress will be performing at the festival on Saturday, April 18, 2020. That brings the total number of bands performing during the festival to 22.
The Electric Highway Festival is excited to release its official artwork created by the renowned dark surreal artist David Paul Seymour. David Paul Seymour is an internationally known illustrator based in Minneapolis, MN who has created artwork for Municipal Waste, Conan, Mastodon as well as Shadow Weaver and Wo Fat who are both performing at The Electric Highway Festival in 2020. David Paul Seymour is also a driving force behind The Planet of Doom, an Animated Tale of Metal and Art and the creator of the Kumasan comic series.
The rest of the 2020 lineup brings an electric offering of North American bands featuring headliners Sasquatch and Wo Fat laying down their brand of fuzzy, kick-ass Desert Rock & Heavy Psych. Duel from Austin, Texas will be playing Canada for the 1st time at The Electric Highway Festival along with Hippie Death Cult & LáGoon both from Portland, Oregon. Festival favorites La Chinga return from Vancouver for their 4th appearance and Calgary’s Gone Cosmic & Buzzard from Victoria, BC are just a few more of the wicked bands that will be playing on two stages over the two days of The Electric Highway Festival, the full lineup below.
The Electric Highway Official Lineup: Sasquatch (Los Angeles, CA) Wo Fat (Dallas, TX) Mothership (Dallas, TX) Duel (Austin, TX) La Chinga (Vancouver, BC) Gone Cosmic (Calgary, AB) Hippie Death Cult (Portland, OR) LáGoon (Portland, OR) Buzzard (Victoria, BC) Chunkasaurus (Victoria, BC) Bazaraba (Calgary, AB) Shadow Weaver (Calgary, AB) Father Moon (Calgary, AB) Set & Stoned (Crossfield, AB) Row of Giants (Calgary, AB) Hemptress (Kamloops, BC) Pink Cocoon (Montreal, QC) The Sleeping Legion (Winnipeg, MB) The Basement Paintings (Saskatoon, SK) Empress (Vancouver, BC) Locutus (Calgary, AB) The Worst (Calgary, AB)
The Electric Highway Festival is also getting the whole thing started with a Kick-Off Party on Thursday, April 16th, 2020 at The Palomino Smokehouse & Social Club. This killer line up features Seattle powerhouse psychedelic doom duo Year of the Cobra as they return to Calgary. They will be joined by Calgary’s Bloated Pig, Outlaws of Ravenhurst, and newcomers Falcotron along with Red Deer’s Smoothsayer.
2 Day Festival Pass holders can pick up their wristbands a day early at The Electric Highway Festival Kick-Off Party. This event will be free for festival pass holders or $13 at the door for non-pass holders. (Space is limited so make sure to get their early!) Pre-order merch sales will also be available for pick up at this event too. Beat the lineup and come for some bands, beer & BBQ at the Pal!
Posted in audiObelisk on November 1st, 2018 by JJ Koczan
Canadian trio Empress and German foursome Piece are hitting the road together in Germany and the Czech Republic starting this weekend. The final show of the tour, Nov. 9 in Piece‘s hometown of Berlin, will mark the release of a split 12″ they’re sharing to mark the occasion. It’s heavy. And it’s metal. So what else to call it? The sense of severity doesn’t take long to grab the throat with Empress‘ tracks arranged as the initial assault, as though Piece were telling them “it’s okay, guests first.” Both bands conjure a decent sense of barrage, make no mistake, but there’s no lack of distinguishing character between them and they’re by no means chasing after the same goals. Empress, who call Vancouver, British Columbia, home, tap into Pacific Coastal extremity ever so slightly in “At Peace to Burn the Gathering,” and while I wouldn’t necessarily call the track subtle on any level if only for the inherent volume of its execution, the fact that in the first 90 seconds it goes from crashing sludge riffs to Cascadian-style black metal and then turns again to a kind of post-metallic atmosphere is not to be overlooked just for the fluidity for which it’s done.
“At Peace to Burn the Gathering” and the accompanying “Zwölf” are both well over six minutes long, so there’s plenty of time to flesh out such genre interplay, and Empress demonstrate that malleability plainly en route to the gradual deconstruction of the first cut and into the chug that begins “Zwölf,” which does well in bringing the varying sides together ahead of a midsection break to drum-pushed ambience that introduces clean vocals put to effective use as the full force of tone returns. Is it right to think of a two-song release having an apex? I don’t know, but it does, and like their first track, Empress gradually bring down “Zwölf” before Piece take hold with the suitably introductory “Oblivion.”
All told, the split is 27 minutes long, and that’s pretty evenly divided between Empress (a little shorter) and Piece (a little longer). While both bands should be noted for the flow they conjure during their time, Piece take the extra step of using “Oblivion” to set the stage for side B of the vinyl, which makes gives a glimpse at the tonal foundation and riffy grandstanding at play before “Blood Eagle” (no relation to the Conan album of the same name) gallops in with a marked, defining High on Fire influence. I mean, it’s prevalent, and Piece aren’t trying to hide it. Their black wings are blessed and their communion is with death. No complaints. Blown-out vocals help disassociate, and the ease with which they work their way into a slowdown later — still over double-kick drumming — helps them make an impression of their own before “Blood Eagle” ends cold and leads to the near-eight-minute “Primordial Void.”
A more distinctly sludged opening riff rolls out there during the initial couple minutes topped with echoing barks of vocals and pushed with a rhythmic fervency that foreshadows the gallop soon to resume. That conversation between tempos plays out again before “Primordial Void” opens up to a more spacious solo just past its halfway point, and though brief, it has the effect of adding a new context for the song, which is soon to hit into an even bigger slowdown that sneakily introduces the organ that will be the last remaining element after the final march recedes into residual amp noise and feedback.
Both acts released debut EPs in 2017, and each approaches their half of the outing with suitable intensity. The tour is eight shows — seven in Germany, one in the Czech Republic — and I expect by the end of it there will be a couple raw throats and a couple tired drummers, but there’s no way that Berlin gig won’t be a good time. You can stream the entire split below courtesy of SoulWrecked Records, which is handling the release, and see all the dates and more info thereafter.
Please enjoy:
SoulWrecked Records will be Putting out this release on November 2nd 2018 on Digital and 12” Vinyl formats. This will be Empress’s first time touring Europe.
Drawn by the call of Cthulhu, PIECE have created a concept EP that sounds more Bayou than Berlin, more Swamps than Spree and unlike anything else that made it out of a dusty rehearsal room in Germany?s capital city. Deeply rooted in the DIY Hardcore Punk scene, Piece prove that they are able to create a sound that resembles Crowbar or High On Fire and wanders far off the respective sub-genres of their members? previous or still active bands such as Demonwomb, Scarred Mind, Sleep Routine, Soulground, Trapjaw and Waterlvngs.
The three-headed beast EMPRESS from Vancouver, B.C. was born after guitarist/vocalist Peter Sacco (SEER) and drummer Chris Doyle attended a show headlined by doom mavens ELDER. Inspired by the massive wall of sound and psychedelia they encountered on that fateful night, the pair enlisted bassist Brenden Gunn (CRATERS) and set out to create their own brand of stoner/sludge metal. The trio, whose collective history dates back nearly a decade, went immediately to work. Within two months EMPRESS wrote and recorded the five tracks now collectively known as Reminiscence. With this debut EP, EMPRESS harvests a hybrid strain of monolithic groove, over-amped sludge and mutant prog.
Well, we’ve reached the end of the week if not the end of the Quarterly Review itself. That’s right: after hemming and hawing all week and going back and forth in my silly little brain, I’ve decided to extend this edition to a sixth day, which will be Monday. That means 60 reviews in six days, not 50 in five. Honestly, I could probably keep going for three or four more beyond that if I had the time or inclination, and I may get there someday, but I’m definitely not there now.
But hey, there have been a couple comments left along the way, so thanks for that. I appreciate you taking the time to read if you have. Here’s the last for the week and we’ll pick back up on Monday.
Quarterly Review #41-50:
All Them Witches, Lost and Found EP
If Nashville four-piece All Them Witches put together the free-download Lost and Found EP simply as a means of getting their take on the folk song “Hares on the Mountain” out there, it was worth it. In the hands of vocalist/bassist Michael Parks, Jr., guitarist Ben McLeod, Rhodes specialist/violinist Allan Van Cleave and drummer Robby Staebler, the traditional tune becomes a wide open dronescape, bristling and vague like memory itself. It’s beautiful and a little confusing in just the right way, and it comes accompanied on the short release by the Fleetwood Mac cover “Before the Beginning,” an even-more-subdued take on “Call Me Star” from 2015’s New West Records debut, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker (review here), and a dub redux of “Open Passageways” – called, of course, “Dub Passageways” – from the same album. Might be a stopgap between full-lengths, but still, at 18 minutes, it’d make a more than worthy 10” release if they were looking for something new for the merch table.
Next time you feel like, “Hey man, I’m so freaked out and weird and wow man whatever blah blah,” just take a second to remember you live in a dimension where dudes from The Heads have side-projects. Paul Allen and Anthroprophh – his trio with Gareth Turner and Jesse Webb, otherwise known as the duo Big Naturals – are a freaked out freakout’s freakout. The stuff of psychedelic mania. And that’s only on the first disc of the 2CD Omegavlle (Rocket Recordings). By the time they get around to the three-song second disc and dig into extended trips like “Omegaille/THOTHB” (14:48) and the subsequent finale, “Journey out of Omegaville and into the…” (20:57), they’re so far gone into noise and captured, manipulated audio that who the hell knows where we’ve ended up? At 88 minutes, the limits of manageability are long left behind, but to get some of the Velvet Underground-in-space vibes of “Maschine” in trade for undertaking the undertaking it’s well worth letting go of the rigidity of things like time, place, etc.
I’m pretty sure Orphan Gears used the Super Mario Bros. font for their logo on the cover of their latest EP, Rat Race, and for that, they should be saluted. The gritty-riffing semi-punker London four-piece offer five tracks and 20 minutes of workaday, boozy grooves, blowing off steam after putting in a shift at this or that crappy job. They are null as regards pretense, and ask little more of their audience than perhaps a beer from the stage or whatever else might be on the menu that night. They share initials, but unlike much of the London underground, they share little ultimately with Orange Goblin in terms of style, despite the shuffle of “Tough Luck, BJ” or the harmonica at the end of “Bitch-Slapped Blues,” and by the time they get to the classic strut of the title-track, they seem to be dug into AC/DC-style groove in the verse while blending in modern heavy rock impulses around it. They clearly save their best for last.
An immediately cogent, professional debut full-length is about what you’d expect from The Watchers, the San Francisco four-piece with members of SpiralArms, Orchid and Black Gates in their ranks, particularly after their prior EP, Sabbath Highway (review here), but that doesn’t stop the songwriting from impressing across the eight-song long-player, Black Abyss (on Ripple Music). The band’s presentation is crisp and pro-shop all the way through, from the soloing on “Oklahoma Black Magic” to the keyboard-laced Tony–Martin-era-Sabbathism-meets-tambourine of “Suffer Fool” later on, and with the opening salvo of the title-track and “Alien Lust” right behind it, The Watchers set a quick expectation for hooks and a high standard of delivery that, thankfully, they show no hesitation in living up to for the duration, the chug-and-roll finale “Seven Tenets” satisfies in mood and efficiency, departing into airy guitar meditation and making its way back for a suitably rocking sendoff. Dudes know what they’re doing, where they’re headed and how they want to get there. All the listener needs to do is sit back and enjoy the ride.
A sequel to their 2015 full-length, Slowgod II (on Underground Legends Records, Spinda Records and DHU Records), sees Córdoba-based four-piece Grajo dug into a deep-toned psychedelic doom. There are flashes of Eastern influence on “Malmuerta,” with frontwoman Liz crooning over the minor-key guitar noodling of Josef, the forward motion in Félix’s drums and the heft of Pistolo’s bass. That dynamic works across Slowgod II, from opener and longest track (immediate points) “Altares” through its closing eight-minute counterpart “Malstrom,” which moves from early crunch through spacious volume swells in its middle only to regain composure and offer a heavy post-rock payoff that, somehow, still isn’t that atmospherically removed from the swinging “Horror and Pleasure” right before it or the similarly speedier “Queen Cobra” that follows “Altares” at the outset. Definitely one for the converted, Grajo deliver tones thick enough to stand on and engaging melodicism without falling into any real traps of sonic redundancy, varying their pace effectively and conjuring consuming plod on “ER” while still holding to that notion of breadth that seems to unite all their material here.
It just so happens this is exactly what the fuck I’m talking about. After releasing their Land Between Rivers (review here) LP through El Paraiso Records last year, the Copenhagen four-piece of Emil Thorenfeldt, Frederik Denning, Kasper Andersen and Rasmus “Cleaver” Christensen, collectively known as Mythic Sunship, return with four more slabs of exploratory bliss on Upheaval. Either completely or partially improvised, “Tectonic Beach” (12:42), “Aether Flux” (10:55), “Cosmic Rupture” (6:44) and “Into Oblivion” (13:56) flow together like the work of masters, and with shades of patient space rock at their core, the tracks are infused with life even beyond the spontaneity of their creation. Heavy jams. Heavy, spacy jams. Molten. Swirling. Badass. Even the shorter and more forward “Cosmic Rupture” is headed out of the atmosphere, and when they come around to the noisy payoff deep in “Into Oblivion,” it’s abundantly clear they’re not joking around when it comes to the title. You can get onboard with Mythic Sunship, or you can miss out. Bands like this separate the hip from the squares.
Those who miss the days when Mastodon or Baroness howled their shouts into a landscape of crunching tonal largesse might do well to dig into what Vancouver, British Columbia’s Empress have to offer on their late-2017 debut EP, Reminiscence. The 27-minute five-tracker isn’t without its sense of melody – there’s plenty of room in eight-minute second cut “Immer” – but guitarist/vocalist Peter Sacco, bassist Brenden Gunn and drummer Chris Doyle make their primary impression via the impact of their material, and as they swap back and forth between shorter tracks and longer ones, a sense of structural playfulness results that moves through the bass openings of “Baptizer” (2:50) and “They Speak Like Trees” (9:27) into the ambient guitar finisher “Dawn,” and the feeling is that, like their stylistic forebears in at the time what was thought of as a new take on sludge metal, Empress will only grow more progressive as they move forward from this first outing. One hopes they hold firm to the tectonic weight they present here that so many others seem to have given up along the way.
Released some six years after Monads’ 2011 debut, Intellectus Iudicat Veritatem, the Aesthetic Death Records-issued IVIIV was, according to the Belgian five-piece’s own accounting, in the works for most of that time in one way or another. One might say, therefore, that its creation does justice to the glacial pace of some of its slowest moments, the crawling death-doom extremity of pieces like “To a Bloodstained Shore,” or the lurch before the gallop takes hold in “Your Wounds Were My Temple.” At four songs and 50 minutes, IVIIV is indicative enough of the style, but Monads legitimately showcase a persona of their own in and out of those genre confines, the melancholic atmosphere and expanded arrangement elements (piano, etc.) of 15-minute closer “The Despair of an Aeon” creatively used if familiar, and the smoothness of the transitions in opener “Leviathan as My Lament” setting a tone of scope as well as downward emotional trajectory. Not sure I’d count on a quick turnaround for a follow-up, but if half a decade from now a new Monads record surfaces, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for.
Rolling from its untitled intro through its untitled outro through a barrage of charred-black, bludgeoning sludge extremity, the debut album from Lexington, Kentucky’s Nest, Metempsychosis (on Sludgelord Records), refers in its title to a transmigration of the soul, an inheritance almost as much as reincarnation. The band may be talking about themselves or they may be working on a theme throughout the record’s seven proper tracks, I don’t know, but if the idea is destruction and rebirth, they certainly sound more interested in the former. Songs like “Heretic” seethe and scour, while the lumbering and spacious closer “Life’s Grief,” capping with abrasive noise, would seem to be a mission statement in itself. Individual pieces like “Jewel of Iniquity” and the preceding atmosphere-into-mega-crush “Diving into the Entrails of Sheep” – of course the centerpiece of the tracklisting – are shorter unto themselves, but like everything else that surrounds, they feed into an overarching ambience of disgust and chaos.
There are some issues as regards the balance of the mix pushing the vocals forward ahead of the guitar to work out, but Moscow’s Redneck Spaceship impress all the same with the intent and execution of their late-2017 self-released debut, Grand Marshal Ape. In riffs and songcraft, their influences stem from the classic days of stoner rock, but from opener “The Sands of Dakar” and the later “That Sounds Nuts,” one gets a vibe of underlying punk influence, while the twang in harmonized highlight “On the Roadside” and slide guitar of “Maverick” lends a Southern, bluesy swing that the penultimate “Enchained” answers back later ahead of the sample-laden psychedelic jam-out closer, “Antariksh,” which strikes as a far cry from the ultra-straightforward presentation earlier on “Empty Pockets,” but speaks to an immediate scope in Redneck Spaceship’s sound. One hopes they continue to meld elements as they progress beyond Grand Marshal Ape and bridge the gap between one side of their moniker and the other.
