Nobody seems to want to talk about it, myself included, but the heavy underground has a persistent thread of mental health problems such that when I see someone involved, whether that’s a musician, fan, or somebody else adjacent to the music has died, especially died young, it’s almost assumed they’ve taken their own life. I don’t think that’s the case in other communities, but it is a sad reality in doom and heavy rock and roll. I’m not really sure what can be done about it beyond broader political reform in healthcare and social services — at least in the States, though as illustrated below this is by no means only a US-wide concern — and no matter who ends up being the next American president, I’m not holding out much hope for it. We got Obamacare once and the insurance industry is still trying to take it apart. They may yet.

I will not mince words and say I’ve never thought of taking my own life. There are times where killing myself seems like the most kind, most generous and most giving thing I can do for my family and those around me. The best way I can serve them is to remove my own inherently toxic presence. I recognize this view as skewed — suicide devastates, irrevocably — but I’ve been there, too, and when you’re in it it’s that much harder to see clearly. If you have ever felt that way or know someone who has, then you might understand where Sweden’s Suicide Records is coming from in putting together the new compilation, In the Loving Memory of You, as a benefit for the organization Suicide Zero.

And if you’ve ever been there or you’re there now — in it — I won’t patronize you by putting a hotline number here. If you’re looking for a thing to hang onto, hang onto the music. That’s what I do. And if you do want to talk about it — guessing you don’t, since nobody does — I’m here for that too.

Comp is out Sept. 10. Here’s info from the PR wire:

Suicide Records Releases Unique Compilation Album in Benefit of Suicide Zero

Suicide Records, the groundbreaking record label from Gothenburg, announces the release of their unique compilation album, In the Loving Memory of You, on September 10th, 2024. This album, featuring 16 bands with brand new songs, aims to support Suicide Zero, a Swedish non-profit organization dedicated to preventing suicide since 2013. All proceeds from the album will go directly to Suicide Zero.

Every six hours, someone commits suicide in Sweden, totaling four lives lost daily, not including drug overdoses or “accidents”. Roger Andersson, founder of Suicide Records, knows this pain personally. “After three incredibly tragic deaths among my close ones, there is no other path to take. I simply MUST do this,” he says. The album reflects emotions like anger, grief, and despair, hoping to aid in raising substantial funds for Suicide Zero’s essential work.

In the Loving Memory of You showcases a powerful lineup: Grand Cadaver, Skitsystem, Knivad, Demonic Death Judge (Finland), M:40, Downfall Of Gaia (Germany), The Moth Gatherer, Besvärjelsen, Novarupta and Firebreather among others. Most notably, punk icons Skitsystem will release their first new song in 18 years on this compilation.

Mikael Stanne (Grand Cadaver, The Halo Effect, Dark Tranquillity) remarked, “When we were approached to contribute, it was a no-brainer. Music is therapy for many, and we hope to help raise as much money as possible for Suicide Zero.”

Renowned Johan Reivén at Audiolord Mastering in Gothenburg mastered the album, ensuring a uniform and massive soundscape, while the album cover was designed by Error! Design from Barcelona and is intended to respectfully reflect the profound emotions related to the theme.

In the Loving Memory of You will be available as a double vinyl, sold exclusively through Bengans.se and Suicide Records’ Bandcamp: https://suiciderecordsswe.bandcamp.com

Founded in 2006 by Roger Andersson, Suicide Records has released over a hundred records, sticking to the philosophy of only releasing music worth paying for. Roger’s personal journey from addiction to becoming a key figure in Gothenburg’s music scene is a testament to his resilience and passion for music.

In December 2022, and again in April 2023, Roger faced tragic losses due to suicide within his family. These events, followed by the overdose death of a close friend, spurred Roger into action. He decided to use his connections in the music industry to create something positive out of his sorrow, leading to the creation of In the Loving Memory of You.

1. Grand Cadaver – Long Lost Light
2. Fredag den 13:e – Änglamakerskan
3. The Moth Gatherer – Black Lung
4. Knivad – Isen förlamar
5. M:40 – Tyngdlös
6. Skitsystem – Evig vinter
7. Downfall of Gaia – Concrete Cemeteries.
8. Demonic Death Judge – Poisoner
9. Division of Laura Lee – Vanishing Act
10. Firebreather – Last Train
11. Fabian Brusk Jahn – Perciption of the past
12. Besvärjelsen – Velvet Sky
13. Novarupta – Mosaic
14. Ulmus – Silenci
15. Guhts – Burn My Body
16. Rainbird – Going Down

https://www.suiciderecords.se
https://suiciderecordsswe.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/suiciderds
https://www.instagram.com/suicide_records

Guhts, “Burn My Body” official video

Sweden’s Young Acid release their debut album, Murder at Maple Mountain, this week through Majestic Mountain Records. And while there’s a reference to “Wasted Again” perhaps winkingly worked into “Bigger Little Man” and songs like “Fightmaker Street” and “The Kids of Rumble Village” realize the declaration of purpose one finds in the blue text’s self-applied tag “punk rock band” below, that’s a fraction of what’s going on across the energetically heavy rocking 10-songer’s deceptively varied 34 minutes themed around the work of Swedish children’s book author Astrid Lindgren (The Tomten, Pippi Longstocking, what’s translated to English as The Children of Noisy Village, and so on). By which I mean, if you read that and think to yourself, “ugh stoner punk nah I’m good,” you’re going to miss it.

I don’t know when or how the assemblage came together, but Young Acid boasts the lineup of vocalist Arvid Hällagård (Greenleaf, Sleep Moscow, etc.), guitarists Alex Stjernfeldt (Grand Cadaver, Skrckvldet) and Andreas Baier (Besvärjelsen, Vorder, etc.), bassist Martin Wegeland (Domkraft) and drummer Svante Karlsson (The Moth Gatherer), and between the mostly divergent arcs these players have respectively walked in different bands and styles, it’s only fair Murder at Maple Mountain should be and do more than one thing sonically. But for a world gone mad, there is something escapist in Young Acid‘s sometimes-careening course; a drive toward simplicity that comes through in the straightforward structure of opening track “Into the Depths” and the also-sub-three-minute “Fightmaker Street,” but even there, the melody is more rich than raw as Hällagård lands in a falsetto and the guitars correspondingly layer flourish on fuzz. Maybe it’s just that the songs are short and catchy?

Because they are that. The longest of the bunch is closer “2002” at 4:10, which arrives with a quiet intro of guitar with a line of piano accompanying and, like a lot of Murder at Maple Mountain, is quick into its verse. Slow and spacious, with dramatic chug and heavy post-rock atmospherics on guitar coming together to bolster the emotive vocal and the roll of drums in the brief but resonant finish. Side A’s nodding capper, the 3:43 “Woodshed Blues,” picks up from the shuffle-into-the-crescendo “PV 444” with a surprisingly massive groove, full in tone and the embellishments of lead guitar in and around the verses, with a smooth transition to the chorus to echo the momentum of the preceding four tracks even as it finds its own way. “Woodshed Blues” doesn’t hold to its tempo pullback in the way of “2002,” but it’s not supposed to.

A janglier strum launches “The Crust” at the start of side B, but if it was marketed as desert rock à la earlier Queens of the Stone Age, one wouldn’t argue the point as it twists through the push of its hook, vital but poised. “The Kids of Rumble Village” and “Shortcomings and Longstockings” follow in succession, the former with a bridge that could just as easily be black metal if you key in on the sharper guitar but that’s still fueled by the punkier edge around which Young Acid‘s focus centers, if not exclusively — if you told me it was one of the earlier songs that came together for the record, I’d believe it — and the latter emphasizing the you-can’t-tell-us-what-to-do attitude of the song before it with its own fuzz-drenched urging, which is given further kick from the snare count-in of the penultimate “Run Boy Run” (premiered here).

And even that, driving as it is in the spirit of “Fightmaker Street”‘s Stooges-y leanings fleshed out with echoing slide guitar and Hällagård‘s e’er bluesy croon, is more than the sum of its parts in terms of aesthetic, putting expanse on top of a sure, dead-ahead rhythmic underpinning before “2002” leans more into melancholy sway for the goodbye. Between the complexity with which Murder at Maple Mountain unfolds, its thematic nuance, its melody, its breadth of tone from Wegeland‘s anchoring low end to the highest reaches in Baier and Sternfeldt‘s guitars, its cohesion of songwriting despite the range and being nobody’s “main band” at this point as well as the first Young Acid release, and its cast of characters in a five-piece who’ve all adopted the first-name Mio for the project, it’s easy to see where perhaps a simple idea was gradually built into something that reaches further in concept and execution.

In ways both toxic and stupid, the broader cultural expectation of learning — at least in the US — is that at some point you give up picture books for chapter books. The books that helped you learn how to feel empathy, that introduced you to character, to stories, to the beauty and rhythm of language are suddenly off limits for not being grownup enough. I won’t decry the value of novels and other words-only collections as either instructive works or art, but this is ridiculous and it divorces the human brain from engaging with art on a personal level in a way that people spend the rest of their lives trying to correct either through their own creative work — and perhaps that’s the case here to some extent; seeking refuge in reengaging with Lindgren — or not, to their own maybe-unrealized detriment.

One doubts Young Acid set out with the direct intent of celebrating kids books as a primary motivator, but among its other accomplishments in craft and sound, Murder at Maple Mountain reminds that our ability to imagine worlds didn’t just happen out of nowhere, and that some of the most meaningful statements are made with plain language, whether it’s “I love you,” or “there’s a bee on your shirt.” Given that everybody in the band belongs to at least one concurrent outfit, it’s difficult to guess how often a Young Acid record might show up if another one ever does, but for the unexpected intricacy and magnitude of the work they do here, it seems only fair to say Murder at Maple Mountain lives up to the scope of its foundations.

The album streams in its entirety below, followed by the tracklisting and more info from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Youth Acid, a punk rock band based in Vimmerby, brings together members from various underground institutions to form a garage rock alliance. With raw guitar riffs, intense energy, and a rebellious spirit, they pack a punch.

1. Into The Depths
2. Bitter Little Man
3. Fightmaker Street
4. PV 444
5. Woodshed Blues
6. The Crust
7. The Kids Of Rumble Village
8. Shortcomings And Longstockings
9. Run Boy Run
10. 2002

Recorded at Welfare Sound, CrookedTeeth and Midlake Production
Mixed by Per Stålberg & Kalle Lilja at Welfare Sound
Mastered by Johan Reivén (Audiolord)

Young Acid is:
Mio Hällagård – Vocals (Greenleaf)
Mio Stjernfeldt – Guitar (Grand Cadaver, Novarupta)
Mio Wegeland – Bass (Domkraft)
Mio Baier – Guitar (Besvärjelsen, Vordor)
Mio Karlsson – Drums (The Moth Gatherer)

Young Acid on Facebook

Young Acid on Instagram

Young Acid on Bandcamp

Young Acid on Spotify

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Boasting familiar faces from the likes of Greenleaf, Domkraft, Besvärjelsen, The Moth Gatherer and Grand Cadaver, obviously the newcomer five-piece’s lineup will be a draw, and Young Acid meet pedigree-born anticipation with an absolute blast of electric heavy punk on their debut album, Murder at Maple Mountain, which arrives in the coming thaw courtesy of Majestic Mountain Records. Oh, and also all the lyrics are about Astrid Lindgren, who wrote Pippi Longstocking (also The Tomten, which I love but my daughter hates I think because it makes her feel feelings, and a ton of others) and is rightly revered for that. As a believer generally in the power of books written to and for children to help shape minds and frame perspectives on the world, from Lindgren to Mo Willems and the not-racist Dr. Seuss books and Curious Frickin’ George, if I’m honest, most of my favorite books ever are probably picture books from when I was a kid. I even wrote a couple over the years.

So the concept, right on. I’m down. But what’s going to hit you most on first impression with “Run, Boy, Run” more than the theme of the lyrics, which requires a deeper dive generally, is the energy with which guitarists Alex Stjernfeldt and Andreas Baier, bassist Martin Wegeland, drummer Svante Karlsson and vocalist Arvid Hällagård — who all don the first name Mio in honor of Lindgren’s 1954 novel, Mio, My Son, as you can see in the lineup listing in blue text below — hurl forth this lusty, fuzzy, sometimes bluesy, inevitably-heavy-grooving-regardless-of-tempo, we-gotta-make-our-own-good-times blowout vibe. There is no pretense here toward being anything other than what the album is even as closer “2002” dares to cross the four-minute mark and turn all that punker restlessness into voluminous, shimmering, gorgeous expanse. At 34 minutes, they could hardly make it easier to get on board if they came to your house and handed you a copy of the LP.

I might be streaming the full album before the release — definite maybe at this point — but will hope to have more on it either way before it’s out. Until then, “Run, Boy, Run” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire:

Young Acid, “Run, Boy, Run” visualizer premiere

Introducing Young Acid, the new kickass garagerock powerhouse! Young Acid is a new super group with members from Greenleaf, Grand Cadaver, Besvärjelsen, The Moth Gatherer and Domkraft! With blistering guitar riffs, raw energy, and rebellious lyrics celebrating the legacy of Astrid Lindgren, this fierce fivesome is here to ignite the stage!

What happens when you combine members from Greenleaf, Domkraft, Grand Cadaver, Besvärjelsen and The Moth Gatherer? Well… disappointment happens. Disappointed in the sense that it does not sound the way you think!

Young Acid plays Punk infused Rock with great storytelling influenced by a famous Swedish author. But is it any good? Of course it is! At least if you ask some members of the band.

Young Acid was formed around the motto: Nobody can ruin our day, ‘cause we’re probably going to ruin it ourselves!

The polarising debut album will be out early 2024 via Majestic Mountain Records!

‘Run Boy Run’ is the second singel from the upcoming debut album ‘Murder at Maple Mountain” to be released on Majestic Mountain Records in Spring 2024!

Recorded at Welfare Sound, CrookedTeeth and Midlake Production
Mixed by Per Stålberg & Kalle Lilja at Welfare Sound
Mastered by Johan Reivén (Audiolord)

Young Acid is:
Mio Hällagård – Vocals (Greenleaf)
Mio Stjernfeldt – Guitar (Grand Cadaver, Novarupta)
Mio Wegeland – Bass (Domkraft)
Mio Baier – Guitar (Besvärjelsen, Vordor)
Mio Karlsson – Drums (The Moth Gatherer)

Young Acid, Murder at Maple Mountain (2024)

Young Acid on Facebook

Young Acid on Instagram

Young Acid on Spotify

Majestic Mountain Records on Instagram

Majestic Mountain Records on Facebook

Majestic Mountain Records store

Usually for a fest lineup, I post one band’s player at the bottom of the post. Usually it’s a headliner, sometimes it’s a newer band on purpose, sometimes it’s just someone I check out who I haven’t heard before, etc. There are three players at the bottom of this post, and that’s probably too few. Take it as a sign of the uncommonly packed bill of Majestic Mountain Fest Oslo and the quality both of the work the imprint has been doing and its taste in general. Over the last two years, Majestic Mountain has emerged as a significant contributor to the underground sphere in Europe, especially Northern Europe, with a roster of talent varied in much but united in their ability to connect with their audience. One imagines it will be no different when so many of the label’s acts take the stage at the upcoming three-day festival next month.

This was originally supposed to happen in June, which, hey, sometimes a thing gets pushed back. Cool it’s coming together at all, given the scope of the lineup and the sheer logistics of getting so many schedules to align for three days (plus a pre-show) without the infrastructure of having already done so in the past. That is to say, I expect that if they do another fest like this, it’ll be easier the second time around.

Oh, and if you haven’t actually heard any of those records at the bottom of this post, you’re gonna want to do that.

From social media:

MMR FEST OSLO – OH YES.  It’s ON, folks!

Event page: https://facebook.com/events/s/majestic-mountain-fest-oslo/667812601039777/

The time has come, Majestic Crew- After what seems like an eternity of delays and silence, we are finally able to announce the rescheduled details and final lineup for Majestic Mountain Fest // Oslo 2022.

The festival will take place on December 1-3rd at the (in)famous Blitz Hus.

We will have a killer kick-off party on Wednesday 30th of November at our favourite chill spot Brewgata with a live gig and a rad tap takeover from the mighty Nøgne Ø

We will also have a beautiful appearance from a very special guest, Mika Häkki. More details on that to come!

Visit the event page for ticket links!
There has been a bit of shifting to the lineup due to the new logistics so any previously scheduled bands you do not see on this year’s roster will appear in the next edition.

Thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support and excitement for this event.

Despite the challenges presented to us, we keep charging forward. This festival is truly a labour of love and will be one for the books.

We are absolutely psyched to see you all in Oslo next month and can’t wait to celebrate our incredible roster and you, our fantastic fans!

Majestic Mountain Records is psyched to invite you to the first edition of Majestic Fest Oslo 2022!

When & Where:

Pre-Party Gig & Nøgne-Ø Tap Takeover at Brewgata Oslo
30 November

Festival at Blitz, Oslo
1-3 Decmber

After a challenging year of what seemed like endless delays, we are finally able to let loose and run full steam ahead on a three-day riff fest of gargantuan proportions to commence the 1-3 December at Blitz.

PLUS a killer pre-party gig and tap takeover with the mighty Nøgne-Ø on Wednesday the 30th of November at Brewgata!

This is going to be a very special event with the best community vibes and killer performances by Majestic Mountain Records Roster bands.

We’re also proud to welcome a very special guest, Mika Häkki.

Join us in on the last day of November and the first weekend of December for heavy riffs, mega fuzz and all of the good times!

The MMR crew cannot wait to bang our heads and hang with you in Oslo!

Full day schedule coming next week!

Lineup is as follows:

Kal-El (NO)
Grand Cadaver (SE)
Saint Karloff (NO)
Jointhugger (NO)
Wolves in Haze (SE)
Häxmästaren (SE)
Bogwife (DK)
Void Commander (SE)
Laser Dracul (SE)
Tornet (SE)
Slódder (SE)
Signo Rojo (SE)
Masheena (NO)
Goatriders (SE)
DRÖÖG (SE)
Bismarck (NO)
CB3 (SE)
Satanic Overdrive (SE)
Draken (NO)
Domkraft (SE)

http://majesticmountainrecords.bigcartel.com
http://facebook.com/majesticmountainrecords
http://instagram.com/majesticmountainrecords

Kal-El, Dark Majesty (2021)

CB3, Exploration (2022)

Domkraft, Seeds (2021)