Yeah, it’s another All Souls post, but while we’re here, let me just say that I don’t understand why more bands don’t do precisely this. The band released their third album, Ghosts Among Us (review here), like a week and a half ago, and they have a new lyric video up for a song from it.

Doesn’t seem that difficult, right? It’s put together by bassist/backing vocalist Meg Castellanos, uses found footage, etc.; nothing so fancy as the clip for “I Dream” (posted here) that came out before the release, or even “Roam” (posted here) with its shot-on-tour manipulated desert scenes (also by Castellanos), but it’s there. It’s something else to promote the record after the release. I feel like so many bands do a huge push leading up to something coming out, then release week happens and it’s this whole big thing and countdowns and this and that, and then they go to ground, like the promotional work is done. There are times where you can see it just stops.

I guess that’s fine if it’s how you want to roll, but if you’re wondering why all the sales happened first week, that might be it. Something like this, it’s just more momentum after the release. All Souls aren’t necessarily going to hit the road for a two-month stretch across the US, either, so it’s all the more important for them to keep their name out there. It’s just kind of the reality of what making and promoting rock and roll is today without the major label infrastructure behind it. Everybody’s punk rock now, except to be properly DIY you have to engage with a shit-ton of wretched and corporate social media. Don’t ask it to make sense.

Either way, I’m happy to have another excuse to post about Ghosts Among Us. Even as All Souls songs go, “Poison the Well” is moody, and the video is suitable for Halloween week in terms of imagery and its bleak lyrics. It’s an earned-feeling melancholy from guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar, and markedly relevant in lines like, ‘The genocidal mind/Dehumanizes darker hues/And those of different kinds.” If I need to mention encroaching fascism in every post, so help me gawd, I will. But that anxiety is here, and reasonably so.

I’m not what the situation is with the band’s lineup at this point. Over the summer they were cruisin’ as a four-piece with Alice Austin (also Black Sabbitch) included on guitar/vocals, but this video from about two weeks ago (filmed by Mariana Fiel of High Priestess) shows them again as a trio. Maybe Austin just couldn’t make it that night? I don’t know. But if they try to chase down another guitarist, you’d have to say you get it, considering the complexity of what’s going on in the six-string department across the span of Ghosts Among Us. In any case, one wishes the band no/low drama.

They’ll head up to the Pacific Northwest for a few shows this month, and you’ll find those dates listed below, along with the video info and the album stream from Bandcamp, because if I haven’t gotten the point across yet, I think this record rules.

Enjoy:

All Souls, “Poison the Well” lyric video

Lyric video from the album Ghosts Among Us. Video by Meg Castellanos. Music by All Souls. Song recorded by Eddie Rivas at Total Annihilation Studios in Los Angeles, produced by Alain Johannes.

All Souls live:
Nov 10 Knucklehead Hollywood Los Angeles (LA), CA
Nov 13 Bottom of the Hill San Francisco, CA
Nov 16 High Water Mark Portland OR*
Nov 17 The Plaid Pig Tacoma WA*
Nov 18 Clock-Out Lounge Seattle, WA*
Nov 19 Mcfiler’s Chehalis Theater Chehalis, WA*
* with Githyanki

All Souls on Ghosts Among Us:
Antonio Aguilar: Guitar, Vocals
Meg Castellanos: Bass, Vocals
Tony Tornay: Drums, percussion
Alain Johannes: Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals

All Souls:
Antonio Aguilar: Guitar, Vocals
Meg Castellanos: Bass, Vocals
Tony Tornay: Drums, percussion
Alice Austin: Guitar, Vocals

All Souls, Ghosts Among Us (2022)

All Souls on Instagram

All Souls on Facebook

All Souls on Twitter

All Souls on Bandcamp

All Souls Patreon

All Souls website

[Click play above to stream Ghosts Among Us by All Souls in its entirety. Album is out Oct. 21 on Oscura Records.]

The second 2022 release from Los Angeles heavy rockers All Souls is Ghosts Among Us. It is their third full-length behind 2020’s nothing-if-not-well-timed Songs for the End of the World (review here) and 2018’s self-titled debut (review here), and follows behind the summer’s Live From Total Annihilation (review here) split with Fatso Jetson, which captured the audio from 2021’s ‘Virtual Volumes’ livestream (review here). It has the further distinction of being the only All Souls outing to-date to be recorded as the trio of founding members Antonio Aguilar (guitar/vocals), Meg Castellanos (bass/backing vocals) — both formerly of Totimoshi — and drummer Tony Tornay, also of the aforementioned Fatso Jetson. In the interim since Ghosts Among Us was put to tape, also at Total Annihilation Studios, Alice Austin (vocalist for Black Sabbitch) has been handling guitar/backing vocal duties.

It is also the first All Souls studio album not to be recorded by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, et al), and finds the band instead working in close collaboration with producer Alain Johannes (Eleven, Queens of the Stone Age, on and on), who contributes guitar, backing vocals and keys throughout, fleshing out arrangements that, if nothing else, argue for the continued existence of All Souls as a double-guitar band. Something would be missing from these songs live with just three people, and despite Johannes not actually being ‘in’ the group, his presence throughout is vital, whether it’s backing the hook of opener “I Dream” or capturing sonic details like the layer of hard strum in the apex of the penultimate “Crawl” or the lead lines that course so fluidly over the winding noise rock-esque finish of “Roam.” As much as All Souls are recognizable in these songs — and they are; this is an All Souls album, to be sure — even down to the performances delivered by Castellanos, Tornay and Aguilar, the producer’s role is not to be understated.

Throughout their now-going-on-five-years tenure — and it was true of Totimoshi as well — All Souls are a band in between styles. While from the crunch of the very first riff that announces the beginning of “I Dream,” there’s no doubt that Ghosts Among Us is a heavy rock record, the angle of approach All Souls take to get there is their own. Drawing from ’90s emo, even a bit of goth maybe, noise rock via Helmet and Melvins, and Aguilar and Castellanos‘ own background in Latin American folk traditions and melodies, they are unto themselves in terms of sound, and even as Johannes brings familiar flourish to the nine songs/39 minutes of the outing, the mellow-dream-int0-frantic-nightmare of “Poison the Well” and the casual sweep of later surge of “Marjorie” — a preface for closer “Absquatulate” down on side B — and the head-side-to-side sway of centerpiece “Who Holds the Answer” are definitively All Souls. That Ghosts Among Us realizes this in a different way than if, say, Toshi Kasai had produced the record, does not make it any less true. I don’t know how much of pandemic lockdown they spent hammering out this material, but the album sounds like they went into the studio knowing what they wanted to have on the other end of the process.

The matter of identity is a big part of what makes Ghosts Among Us such an effective and engaging listen. If you’ve followed All Souls to this point, there will be much familiar in “I Dream” or “Crawl” in the tension of the verses and inevitable corresponding release of the chorus, but it’s the manner from which these structures are built outward that distinguishes the collection — and so, if you’ve not yet been introduced, there’s no lack of welcome to be found. Perhaps the most complex piece is the two-parter “The Grind/Free,” which has a clear-cut division at four minutes into its total 6:30, perhaps taking a piece of what would’ve been another entire song and melding it into the earlier work-day progression, providing the chorus’ release without actually following the verse in a clever twist to the plot. But even this is accessible when the listener approaches with an open mind as regards style and lets All Souls be who they are without trying to shoehorn them into one niche or another.

Because that is the only way to lose with this record. If you sit and hear a song like “The Grind/Free” and try to place it in this or that microgenre — maybe it’s post-rock for that pretty guitar noodling, but that bassline is straight doom lumber — by the time you’ve finished, the track is over and you’ve missed it. Yes, that makes Ghosts Among Us a hoot for repeat listens, and if that’s how you want to go, fine, but at least once, hear it just to hear it. For an act who don’t spend six months out of every year touring — they do get out when the getting’s good — their chemistry is a lock between Aguilar and Castellanos‘ literal decades of playing together and Tornay‘s well-established unfuckwithability on drums, and the fact that you have Johannes enhancing all of that as a producer, bringing out the best from the band, makes Ghosts Among Us the most accomplished All Souls offering to-date. Whether it’s the brief build-into-surge of “Key to Your Heart” or the nonlyric vocal line that helps “Absquatulate” cap with such verve, this material is worth meeting and appreciating on its own wavelength.

Not everyone’s going to do that, and for some listeners, the inability to divorce themselves from a ‘riffs do this’ mindset is a hindrance, and it may be that All Souls are destined for undervalued status for the duration. What’s the matter, grown up emotive heavy punk with proggy flourish isn’t your thing? Too specific? Fine. What matters so, so much more is the heart and the sincerity that All Souls put into everything they do, including these nine tracks. And in the case of Ghosts Among Us, the partnership they forge with Johannes as producer and player brings them simply to another level of refinement and aural detail. Let your guard down and you’ll be taken care of. There’s kindness in these songs if you’re willing to let them be kind. My suggestion is you do that. Their next full-length will no doubt offer something different, given the changes in lineup, the band’s return to four-piece status, etc., but Ghosts Among Us is a special moment for All Souls in terms of manifesting the possible from within their craft. It’s loud, can be quiet, can be dark, can be sad or triumphant, chaotic or controlled. It feels a bit like real life.

All Souls, “Roam” official video

All Souls, “I Dream” official video

All Souls on Instagram

All Souls on Facebook

All Souls on Twitter

All Souls on Bandcamp

All Souls Patreon

All Souls website

Last I heard, Los Angeles heavy rockers All Souls were looking at an October release date for their third album, Ghosts Among Us. The band recently completed a West Coast run alongside Ape Machine, played Ripplefest Texas and announced more dates with High Desert Queen and Fatso Jetson, the latter with whom they also share the new Live From Total Annihilation (review here) split LP, the audio taken from the livestream the two bands did together last year (review here). So yes, it’s been a lot of All Souls around here lately. To be honest, it’s starting to get a little embarrassing. I swear, All Souls, I just really dig the record. The call isn’t coming from inside the house or anything.

The once-and-perhaps-again four-piece — you’ll note the trio photo above, that’s bassist/backing vocalist Meg Castellanos, drummer Tony Tornay and guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar under those masks — had Black Sabbitch vocalist Alice Austin out with them on guitar/backing vocals to Ripplefest, and I’m not sure if that’s a permanent lineup addition, but even listening to “Roam,” the new single and now video from Ghosts Among Us, it makes sense why they’d continue to seek out a second guitarist to fill out the lineup. Certainly the Alain Johannes production on the new record did not result in any fewer layers in the tracks..

And believe it or not I’m still not actually reviewing the album yet — I put in request to stream it, we’ll see if that comes together; fingers crossed — “Roam” represents the well the record’s blend of post-punk spaciousness, melody, emotional and sonic weight, and catchy craftsmanship. Their two prior albums also successfully walked between atmosphere, mood and structure, but if you heard those and you hear this, the progression will be evident. If you didn’t hear those, bloody hell, it’s not too late.

More to come? Still? I don’t know, probably. If I can’t go a week without blah-blahing about how good this band is, maybe through sheer osmosis a few eyes scrolling past will catch, listen, and convert. That’s the basic underlying theory of a good part of my life at this point, when applied more generally, but to bottom line it, when Ghosts Among Us shows up in my top 10 of 2022, don’t be surprised. There. All the love in the universe. Sincerely, some vague notion of a dude on the other side of a screen.

Enjoy:

All Souls, “Roam” official video

All Souls’ 3rd full length Ghosts Among Us is slated to come out this fall 2022 on Oscura Records. Pre-orders are available HERE: http://allsoulsband.com/

Roam from the album Ghosts Among Us on Oscura Records.

Music written and performed by All Souls.

Directed and edited by Meg Castellanos.

Recorded by Eddie Rivas at Total Annihilation Studios in Los Angeles. Produced by Alain Johannes.

All Souls are:
Antonio Aguilar – Guitar/vocals
Meg Castellanos – Bass/vocals
Tony Tornay – Drums

All Souls on Facebook

All Souls on Twitter

All Souls on Instagram

All Souls on Bandcamp

All Souls Patreon

All Souls website

So, last week, Los Angeles heavy rockers All Souls offered up the first single from their forthcoming Ghosts Among Us full-length in the form of “I Dream.” They now follow with a video for the same track.

Between the two — the song stream and the video’s arrival — the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Antonio Aguilar, bassist/vocalist Meg Castellanos and drummer Tony Tornay played a week of shows on the West Coast with the also-underrated Ape Machine and made a stop at Ripplefest Texas in Austin, playing on a packed four-day bill and featuring a guest performance from Alice Austin (vocalist for Black Sabbitch) on guitar. I just looked for video of that, didn’t find any. I’m sure some will surface at some point.

In any case, even with the notable (and noted) stretch of shows between, it’s not every band in the world for whom I’d post a video 10 days or so after the same song already came out. Usually I might just wait for the video. But I knew this was coming — All Souls run a mean Patreon — and I’m still posting it. First of all, the video rules, with luchador-masked wrestlers, the band turning into zombies, and so on. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it gives me another chance to tell you how much both the song and the album it represents are worthy of your time. If it’s the video — directed by Aguilar — that aids in driving that point home, then that’s easy justification for the one-thing-then-that-thing-but-kind-of-different proximity. Third, it’s an excuse for me to listen the song again.

I showed this to The Pecan yesterday morning when he got up around 5AM. I hadn’t even watched it yet. Obviously he wasn’t quite processing the voodoo, but guys in masks on skateboards? Yeah, his four-and-a-half-year-old self can get down with that. And if he can, I have to believe you can too.

Enjoy:

All Souls, “I Dream” official video

All Souls’ 3rd full length Ghosts Among Us is slated to come out this fall 2022 on Oscura Records. Pre-orders are available HERE: http://allsoulsband.com/

I Dream from the album Ghosts Among Us on Oscura Records.

Staring Dave Carnie as “El Brujo”, Danilo Ruiz as “El Capitán” and All Souls.

Music written and performed by All Souls.

Directed by Antonio Aguilar.

Cameras: Memo Villaseñor, Alicia Kasai.

Editing and Post Production: Jacob Mendel at Flawless Post. Song recorded by Eddie Rivas at Total Annihilation Studios in Los Angeles, produced by Alain Johannes.

All Souls are:
Antonio Aguilar – Guitar/vocals
Meg Castellanos – Bass/vocals
Tony Tornay – Drums

All Souls on Facebook

All Souls on Twitter

All Souls on Instagram

All Souls on Bandcamp

All Souls Patreon

All Souls website

I love the phrase in the first verse of this song, ‘beckoning the wrecking crew,’ as sung by All Souls guitarist Antonio Aguilar, who shortly thereafter is backed by bassist Meg Castellanos and producer Alain Johannes in the chorus, further emblazoned by Tony Tornay‘s stomping snare. Listen for it if you’re fortunate enough to actually press play on the embed below. Something about the bounce between the harder ‘ck’ sounds and the melody that carries through the line. It’s a perfect moment emblematic of the many more that populate the band’s third album, Ghosts Among Us.

That record arrives in October as the band’s most vital argument to-date for why they’re so fucking underrated. Never mind that the beckoned wrecking crew is coming to smash apart the various traumas that might hold us back from being who we feel like we should be, just listen to the music. The passion and spirit in it. Yeah, it’s uptempo and well produced and the songwriting is tight and performances sharp — true of the whole album, by the way; I’ve heard it and won’t play coy in saying otherwise — but there’s a layer of resonance to All Souls that resides beneath the surface waiting to be found. It won’t come to you, Aguilar has never been so cloying a songwriter, but met on its own level, All Souls‘ craft offers rare depth of emotion and, yes, soul, to those ready to engage with it.

If that’s you, you get the prize and the prize is the music so fucking have at it. They’re on tour with Ape Machine starting tonight and headed to Ripplefest Texas:

All Souls share first single from forthcoming album, tour with Ape Machine starts 7/20

Hear/share “I Dream”

L.A. band All Souls share the first single from their forthcoming album Ghosts Among Us on all platforms today. Hear and share “I Dream” via Bandcamp, Spotify and others.

All Souls announce their forthcoming album Ghosts Among Us with Alain Johannes producing. The album was written and recorded during the height of the pandemic. The song “I Dream” is a meditation on trauma that haunts us and creating a mantra to break it away.

All Souls have shared the stage with Tool, the Jesus Lizard, Melvins and Meat Puppets. They are getting ready to hit the road again out to Ripple Fest in Austin TX.

Live From Total Annihilation split album with Fatso Jetson will be released August 19th on special CD/Vinyl/DVD packaging through Ripple Music.

All Souls’ 3rd full length Ghosts Among Us is slated to come out this fall 2022 on Oscura Records. Pre-orders are available HERE.

ALL SOULS / APE MACHINE TOUR 2022:
07/20 Permanent Records Roadhouse – Los Angeles, CA
07/21 Yucca Tap Room – Tempe, AZ
07/22 Rockhouse Bar – El Paso, TX
07/24 Ripple Fest/Far Out Lounge – Austin, TX
07/26 The Quarry – Bisbee, AZ
07/27 Brick by Brick – San Diego, CA

All Souls are:
Antonio Aguilar – Guitar/vocals
Meg Castellanos – Bass/vocals
Tony Tornay – Drums

https://www.facebook.com/allsoulsband/
https://www.instagram.com/allsoulsband/
https://allsoulsband.bandcamp.com/
http://allsoulsband.com/

All Souls, “I Dream”