This Friday, Greek heavy rock forerunners 1000mods will reissue their first and second albums on Heavy Psych Sounds in the US as preface to the band returning to American shores in September to play among the featured international acts at Desertfest New York.

For more than the last decade, 1000mods have been at the head of a generational wave of underground heavy rock acts from Greece. The Chiliomodi outfit have four full-lengths to their credit, and starting with 2011’s Super Van Vacation — preceded by 2007’s Blank Reality and 2009’s Liquid Sleep (review here) EPs — 1000mods very soon became the international face of Greek heavy. Supported by a vehement local scene that showed up on European radar as ‘the party you’ve all been missing, already in progress,’ 1000mods photos and videos from Athens and in other spots throughout Greece showed packed venues, passionate fans, and largely in the wake of 1000mods, an entire league of bands has come up in the years since, varied in sound but only benefitting from the trailblazing work the four-piece of Dani G., Giannis S., Giorgos T. and Labros G. have already put in. Greek heavy, European heavy, would not be what it is without them.

2011’s Super Van Vacation and 2014’s Vultures — also 2016’s Repeated Exposure To… and 2020’s Youth of Dissent, which we’ll get to next week — are landmarks in the development of one of the most essential rock bands ever from Greece. 1000mods not only put out these albums, but specifically set themselves to the task of hand-delivering them throughout Europe on persistent, lengthy tours. As the band looks ahead to coming back to the US, these catalog reissues — out this and next week — we’ll be revisiting their discography to take a look at the evolution of 1000mods‘ sound as well as some of the influence they’ve had and continue to have on others in and outside of Greece.

Best place to start is the start, so let’s get started:

Super Van Vacation (2011)

(discussed here; review here)

Let’s not mince words, the only thing stopping these songs from being classics is not enough time has passed. Comprised of 10 tracks and running 65 minutes of Billy Anderson-produced — also George Leodis, who would become the band’s go-to engineer — and deeply enviable, casually sauntering desert rock tonality, Super Van Vacation is a love letter to its own riffs, to groove and the particular spirit of freedom that comes with losing oneself in a heavy song.

Tracks like “El Rollito,” the lumbering “Track Me,” opener/longest cut (immediate points) “Road to Burn,” the lead-guitar-peppered open space of “Vidage,” and the propulsive fuzz shuffle of the closing “Super Van Vacation” show breadth between them, but 1000mods aren’t coy in terms of style. They’re playing desert rock down to its very roots, a warm-toned riff at the foundation of gutted-out, grown-up punk and metal together, able to be mellow or a party or a purposeful comedown into the next build-up all in the span of a few measures, but holding to an ethic of superficial simplicity, of primeval riff communion, their grooves speaking to some buried part of genetic memory that once danced around fires in an open savannah, the galaxy a blazing bar across the sky overhead.

Like Dozer‘s In the Tail of a Comet in Sweden and (Los) Natas‘ Delmar in Argentina, Super Van Vacation is an album that firmly declared to the world outside Greece that not only could desert rock exist there, but that work could be produced that would add to the genre and move it forward. They were the vanguard for what has flourished as one of Europe’s most vital hotbeds, with Athens as an epicenter. And not only that, putting aside all the ‘it’s an important album’ blah blah blah — all of which is true, mind you; crucial album and if you don’t own it, you should, regardless of where you live — but it’s also a great listen.

Not too many bands come out of the gate with a double-LP and manage to pull it off, but the deeper you go into “Johny’s” or the wah swagger of “Abell 1835,” the more 1000mods have to offer. Yes, the Kyuss influence is all over the record from guitar and bass tones to the clenched-gut behind the vocals of accompanying the wall-push of “Set You Free” or the wonderfully hooky “7 Flies,” but already in the material, 1000mods were beginning to sculpt their own take that their subsequent years of touring would refine and expand. So not only is Super Van Vacation one of the most fundamental European heavy rock releases of the 2010s, but it’s one that holds up, and if you haven’t heard it before, it still stands ready to be the soundtrack of the best summer of your life.

First released through Kozmik Artifactz and CTS Productions in 2011, reissues and new pressings would follow through CTS and the band’s own Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings around 2016 and 2021. The Heavy Psych Sounds version is the first specifically pressed for North American distribution. And yes, I’m aware both albums are already streaming in their entirety. These are new versions, and if there’s a chance they might catch the ears of someone who hasn’t heard them before and make their day better or easier somehow, it’s worth it to me to host them. Whatever your experience, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

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Vultures (2014)

(review here)

The sophomore full-length from 1000mods did not have an easy task before it, but Vultures learned valuable lessons from its predecessor. In terms of confidence in their approach, the eight-song/38-minute long-player took the appropriated aspects of Super Van Vacation and further internalized their influences, making their sound that much more their own. Co-produced by the band with George Leodis, who also mixed (Tolis Economou mastered), Vultures is comfortable engaging the heavy blues of “Horses’ Green,” and almost immediately on “Claws,” it is specifically an album about movement, and very much the work of a touring band.

From the shouts driving the chorus of leadoff “Claws” through the build into its side B counterpart “Low” and even the outbound cosmic thrust and spoken repetitions of the title in the jamming back half of closer “Reverb of the New World” — which, god damn I hope they play at Desertfest — the songs on <emVultures feel written for the stage, for a live audience. They are a little shorter, accordingly, perhaps more structurally direct, and tighter in their rhythm. While Super Van Vacation had the element of surprise on its side and a ‘check out what these crazy kids are up to’ energy, Vultures codified that and made it sustainable for 1000mods, giving them a model of their sound to reshape as they took the songs out on the road.

And they did most certainly do that. A listen through and you could snag any number of examples, but I’m not sure any single track is as much a summary of the argument as “Big Beatiful” (sic) with its Queen lyrical reference and the kind of groove that, an album earlier, 1000mods might have dwelt in longer, but that on Vultures trades that hypnotic chill effect for a live-style urgency. Sure, these things are relative and one could just as easily look at the patient start of “Reverb of the New World” for counterargument — and I wish someone would, frankly; I’m getting tired of talking to myself about this stuff — but even that last song is shorter than it might’ve been two or three years before, and the energy it hones carries into the aforementioned blues of “She” and the build-up of “Horses’ Green,” which doesn’t even have time for its own payoff.

Instead, it cleverly lets the vibe-heavy fade-in of “Low” reset, go back to ground, and start all over. And it works, because 1000mods are songwriters at heart, and Vultures not only confirms that, but finds them already pushing themselves to progress, to do the thing they do in the way they want to do it. The record has plenty of space, plenty of atmosphere — I’m not telling you otherwise — but in its ebbs and flows, in the vitality of the performances contained on it, it’s always been the band-on-tour record to my ears, and it’s just fortunate they stopped doing shows long enough to make it. Either way, it was clear the beast they were becoming was alive, with eyes open. Hungry.

The LP of Vultures was released through The Lab Records, with the CD through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug, which also handled reissues in 2015 and 2022 in Greece. Once again, the Heavy Psych Sounds version is the first not to be an ‘import,’ which if you’ve bought a record from Europe and paid shipping — or if you’re in Europe and you’ve paid shipping from the US — you already know matters again after not really mattering for a while there while the world was flatter and less fascist.

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And we could go on about social issues in Greece, greater Europe, the US, etc., but that’s part of the story for next time. Stay tuned next week for the second part of this retrospective, featuring the albums Repeated Exposure To… and Youth of Dissent. Thanks for reading.

1000mods on Facebook

1000mods on Instagram

1000mods on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds on Instagram

Heavy Psych Sounds on Bandcamp

Heavy Psych Sounds website

Greek sludge rockers Last Rizla release their new album, Noise Without Decay, on May 12 through Venerate Industries. And, well, I’ve heard it, and there’s lots of noise and not much decay, at least in terms of force-of-delivery, as the four-piece of G., C., K. and S. — it’s okay dudes, my name is initials too — craft the follow-up to their 2018 EP Mount Machine (review here), their sound is cast like a cruel shadow over the 40 minutes and nine cuts. Depending on what and when you count, Noise Without Decay is the band’s first long-player since 2009’s self-titled debut, but for a band who’ve shown such a penchant for doling out short offerings and splits, etc., over the intervening 14-plus years, they in no way seem uncomfortable in the form. You’d think they wouldn’t be used to it or something, but no.

The actual level of punishment meted out in a given song might vary, but Last Rizla are almost uniformly aggressive. Even the later “Mushy Peas,” which starts out at a sort of bopping-along-casual groove, shifts into more pointed, angular starts and stops and is topped by the blown-out shouts that populate each piece and give the entirety of Noise Without Decay such a post-hardcore vibe. But true to Freek Greek heavy, the story isn’t so simple as band-plays-style, and even truer to the Hellenic underground, Last Rizla know which rules they want to follow and which they want to break. Bookending opener “B52” and closer “B53” fuse punkish bite with tonal heft, and especially in the instrumental finale, they seem to be going for some nod to the ‘bomb-tone’ ethic of Floor, but even there, they keep a rock production, and the rounded edges of their tone and the methodical execution of “Bloody, Hairy” speak to a root in doom/sludge, no matter the actual tempo at which a song is delivered, be it the rager “No Way Out” answering the near-immediate burst of “B52” or the strident “Hades,” which is the longest track at 6:24 and reminds in its howling guitar offsetting dense tonal chug of Swarm of the Lotus, albeit not as harshly produced.

Which is what I’m trying to get at here. Even as compared to Mount Machine — and granted that was five years ago at this point, or four if you want to go by the fact that these songs were recorded nearly a year ago — the recording here by Iraklis Vlachakis allows for some breadth and the creation of an atmosphere of more than aggression or bludgeoning. As consistent as the shouting, hard-riffing and nodding grooves are throughout, Last Rizla circa this maybe-second full-length aren’t just one thing, even when they’re trying to convince you otherwise, and the movement behind their sludge is palpable. They make it rock, sprint, or stand up and bring itself down directly on the listener’s head with little thought to mercy or the manner in which that kind of violence tends to ripple. While even the title speaks to a kind of urgency, the material offers that and grit alike, mining individualism from the swaying build-up of centerpiece “The Debt” ahead of the more sprawling “Hades” and the caustic noise rocker “Classic Marathon,” which is duly stripped-down feeling at 3:47 and answers the earlier insistence of “Rebound” in its midtempo post-’90s nastiness.

Still, for as much as Last Rizla gnash and rip and tear and claw throughout the nine-song stretch, there’s depth to the proceedings — “Bloody, Hairy” drops a lyrical reference to misfortune, reminding that Last Rizla once upon a 2011 were involved in the Miss Fortune was a Henhouse Manager (review here) comp of then-up-and-coming Greek acts like 1000mods, Sadhus, the Smoking Community, Bad Trip, Yassa and others — and as their scene comes to maturity within some of those other groups and without, Last Rizla provide a balance (a mix by Kowloon Walled City‘s Scott Evans doesn’t hurt there either) between bombast and purpose, and the places they go throughout Noise Without Decay are engaging almost in spite of themselves. If you can hang with pissed off sludge rock, that’s still very much at the foundation, but they show that such designations can be as much a beginning as an end all through the record, and while “B53” ends in done-blown-up noise — think Neurosis consumed by the distortion at the end of “Stones From the Sky”; you can hear it in the video below — even in that last moment, there’s no letup, no decay, no flinching from the purpose they’ve established as their own. The word for that kind of thing is “righteous,” and so they are.

Life is full of surprises and if you had ‘Last Rizla roaring back with a more mature and still-plenty-brash second full-length’ on your 2023 Heavy Underground Bingo card, I salute you, but either way, the pit they dig out in this new batch of songs isn’t to be underestimated, and one might find that the more one listens to Noise Without Decay, the more likely skin is to crawl. Don’t worry though, that’s the whole idea. It’s supposed to make that happen. So let it.

The clip below is the premiere of “Rebound,” and should give you some idea of what the band are going for in terms of general construction/destruction throughout. By all means, please dig in and enjoy:

Last Rizla, “Rebound” video premiere

We recorded Noise Without Decay during May and June 2022 in our studio, Créme Chalet, in Kallithea, Athens, Greece.

This city is ruthless, constant and grey. The weather was and has been swinging between dark and stormy but at times sunny and mostly warm.

Noise Without Decay was recorded by Iraklis Vlachakis, mixed by Scott Evans (Antisleep Audio – also guitarist for Kowloon Walled City) and mastered by Saff Mastering.

Like good sauerkraut, it’s now fermenting and will be released by Venerate Industries this May.

Last Rizla, Noise Without Decay behind-the-scenes video

Last Rizla on Facebook

Last Rizla on Bandcamp

Last Rizla website

Venerate Industries on Facebook

Venerate Industries on Instagram

Venerate Industries on Bandcamp

Venerate Industries store

Oh hi, I’m pretending I didn’t see you there. Today the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review hits and — if Apollo is willing — passes the halfway point en route to 70 total records to be covered by the end of next Tuesday. Then there’s another 50 at least to come next month, so I don’t know what ‘quarter’ that’s gonna be but I don’t really have another name for this kind of roundup just sitting in my back pocket, so if we have to fudge one or expand Spring in such a way, I sincerely doubt anyone but me actually cares that it’s a little weird this time through. And I’m not even sure I care, to be honest. Surely “notice” would be a better word.

Either way, thanks for reading. Hope you’ve found something cool thus far and hope you find more today. Let’s roll.

Quarterly Review #31-40:

Rotor, Sieben

Seven full-lengths and a quarter-century later, it’s nigh on impossible to argue with Berlin instrumentalists Rotor. Sieben — or simply 7, depending on where you look — is their latest offering, and in addition to embracing heavy psychedelia with enough tonal warmth on “Aller Tage Abend” to remind that they’re contemporaries to Colour Haze, the seven-song/38-minute LP has room for the jazzy classic prog flashes of “Mäander” later on and the more straight-ahead fuzzy crunch of “Reibach,” which opens, and the contrast offered by the acoustic guitar and friendly roll that emerges on the closing title-track. Dug into the groove and Euro-size XXL (that’s XL to Americans) riffing of “Kahlschlag,” there’s never a doubt that it’s Rotor you’re hearing, and the same is true of “Aller Tage Abend,” the easy-nodding second half and desert-style chop of “Schabracke,” and everything else; the simple fact is that Rotor these 25 years on can be and in fact are all of these things and more besides while also being a band who have absolutely nothing to prove. Sieben celebrates their progression, the riffs at their roots, the old and new in their makeup and the mastery with which they’ve made the notion of ‘instrumental heavy rock’ so much their own. It’s a lesson gladly learned again, and 2023 is a better year with Sieben in it.

Rotor on Facebook

Noisolution website

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Seer of the Void, Mantra Monolith

Athens-based sludge-and-then-some rockers Seer of the Void follow their successful 2020 debut, Revenant, with the more expansive Mantra Monolith, enacting growth on multiple levels, be it the production and general largesse of their sound, the songs becoming a bit longer (on average) or the ability to shift tempos smoothly between “Electric Father” and “Death is My Name” without giving up either momentum or the attitude as emphasized in the gritty vocals of bassist Greg “Maddog” Konstantaras. Side B’s “Demon’s Hand” offers a standout moment of greater intensity, but Seer of the Void are hardly staid elsewhere, whether it’s the swinging verse of “Hex” that emerges from the massive intro, or the punkish vibe underscoring the nonetheless-metal head-down chug in the eponymous “Seer of the Void.” They cap with a clearheaded fuzzy solo in “Necromancer,” seeming to answer the earlier “Seventh Son,” and thereby highlight the diversity manifest from their evolution in progress, but if one enjoyed the rougher shoves of Revenant (or didn’t; prior experience isn’t a barrier to entry), there remains plenty of that kind of tonal and rhythmic physicality in Mantra Monolith.

Seer of the Void on Facebook

Venerate Industries on Bandcamp

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Moodoom, Desde el Bosque

Organic roots doom from the trio Moodoom — guitarist/vocalist Cristian Marchesi, bassist/vocalist Jonathan Callejas and drummer Javier Cervetti — captured en vivo in the band’s native Buenos Aires, Desde el Bosque is the trio’s second LP and is comprised of five gorgeous tracks of Sabbath-worshiping heavy blues boogie, marked by standout performances from Marchesi and Callejas often together on vocals, and the sleek Iommic riffing that accounts as well for the solos layered across channels in the penultimate “Nadie Bajará,” which is just three minutes long but speaks volumes on what the band are all about, which is keep-it-casual mellow-mover heavy, the six-minute titular opening/longest track (immediate points) swaggering to its own swing as meted out by Cervetti with a proto-doomly slowdown right in the middle before the lightly-funked solo comes in, and the finale “Las Maravillas de Estar Loco” (‘the wonders of being crazy,’ in English) rides the line between heavy rock and doom with no less grace, introducing a line of organ or maybe guitar effects along with the flawless groove proffered by Callejas and Cervetti. It’s only 23 minutes long, but definitely an album, and exactly the way a classic-style power trio is supposed to work. Gorgeously done, and near-infinite in its listenability.

Moodoom on Facebook

Moodoom on Bandcamp

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Altered States, Survival

The second release and debut full-length from New Jersey-based trio Altered States runs seven tracks and 34 minutes and finds individualism in running a thread through influences from doom and heavy rock, elder hardcore and metal, resulting in the synth-laced stylistic intangibility of “A Murder of Crows” on side A and the smoothly-delivered proportion of riff in the eponymous “Altered States” later on, bassist Zack Kurland (Green Dragon, ex-Sweet Diesel, etc.) taking over lead vocals in the verse to let guitarist/synthesist Ryan Lipynsky (Unearthly Trance, Serpentine Path, The Howling Wind, etc.) take the chorus, while drummer Chris Daly (Texas is the Reason, Resurrection, 108, etc.) punctuates the urgency in opener “The Crossing” and reinforces the nod of “Cerberus.” There’s an exploration of dynamic underway on multiple levels throughout, whether it’s the guitar and keys each feeling out their space in the mix, or the guitar and bass, vocal arrangements, and so on, but with the atmospheric centerpiece “Hurt” — plus that fuzz right around the 2:30 mark before the build around the album’s title line — just two songs past the Motörheaded “Mycelium,” it’s clear that however in-development their sound may be, Altered States already want for nothing as regards reaching out from their doom rocking center, which is that much richer with multiple songwriters behind it.

Altered States on Facebook

Altered States on Bandcamp

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Giöbia, Acid Disorder

Opener and longest track (immediate points) “Queen of Wands” is so hypnotic you almost don’t expect its seven minutes to end, but of course they do, and Italian strange-psych whatevernauts Giöbia proceed from there to float guitar over and vocals over the crunched-down “The Sweetest Nightmare” before the breadth of “Consciousness Equals Energy” and “Screaming Souls” melds outer-rim-of-the-galaxy space prog with persistently-tripped Europsych lushness, heavy in its underpinnings but largely unrestrained by gravity or concerns for genre. Acid Disorder is the maybe-fifth long-player from the Italian cosmic rocking aural outsiders, and their willingness to dive into the unknown is writ large through the synth and organ layers and prominent strum of “Blood is Gone,” the mix itself becoming no less an instrument in the band’s collective hand than the guitar, bass, drums, vocals, etc. Ultra-fluid throughout (duh), the eight-songer tops out around 44 minutes and is an adventure for the duration, the drift of side B’s instrumental “Circo Galattico” reveling in experimentalism over a somehow-solidified rhythm while “In Line” complements in answer to “The Sweetest Nightmare” picking up from “Queen of Wands” at the outset, leaving the closing title-track on its own, which seems to fit its synth-and-sitar-laced serenity just fine. Band sounds like everything and nobody but themselves, reliably.

Giöbia on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

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Astral Hand, Lords of Data

Like everything, Milwaukee heavy psychedelia purveyors Astral Hand were born out of destruction. In this case, it’s the four-piece’s former outfit Calliope that went nova, resulting in the recycling of cosmic gasses and gravitational ignition wrought in the debut album Lords of Data‘s eight songs, the re-ish-born new band benefitting from the experience of the old as evidenced by the patient unfolding of side A capper “Psychedelicide,” the defining hook in “Universe Machine” and the shove-then-drone-then-shove in “End of Man” and the immersive heft in opener “Not Alone” that brings the listener deep into the nod from the very start of the first organ notes so that by the time they’ve gone as far out as the open spaces of “Navigator” and the concluding “God Emperor,” their emergent command of the ethereal is unquestionable. They work a little shuffle into that finale, which is an engaging touch, but Lords of Data — a thoroughly modern idea — isn’t limited to that any more than it is the atmospheric grandiosity and lumber of “Crystal Gate” that launches side B. One way or the other, these dudes have been at it for more than a decade going back to the start of Calliope, but Astral Hand is a stirring refresh of purpose on their part and one hopes their lordship continues to flourish. I don’t know that they’re interested in such terrestrial concerns, but they’d be a great pickup for some discerning label.

Astral Hand on Facebook

Astral Hand on Bandcamp

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Golden Bats, Scatter Yr Darkness

Slow-churning intensity is the order of the day on Scatter Yr Darkness, the eight-song sophomore LP from now-Italy-based solo-outfit Golden Bats, aka Geordie Stafford, who sure enough sprinkles death, rot and no shortage of darkness across the album’s 41-minute span, telling tales through metaphor in poetic lyrics of pandemic-era miseries; civic unrest and disaffection running like a needle through split skin to join the various pieces together. Echoing shouts give emphasis to the rawness of the sludge in “Holographic Stench” and “Erbgrind,” but in that eight-minute cut there’s a drop to cinematic, not-actually-minimalist-but-low-volume string sounds, and “Breathe Misery” begins with Mellotron-ish melancholy that hints toward the synth at the culmination of “A Savage Dod” and in the middle of “Malingering,” so nothing is actually so simple as the caustic surface makes it appear. Drums are programmed and the organ in “Bravo Sinkhole” and other keys may be as well, I don’t know, but as Stafford digs into Golden Bats sonically and conceptually — be it the bareknuckle “Riding in the Captain’s Skull” at the start or the raw-throated vocal echo spread over “The Gold Standard of Suffering,” which closes — the harshness of expression goes beyond the aural. It’s been a difficult few years, admittedly.

Golden Bats on Facebook

Golden Bats on Bandcamp

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Zeup, Mammals

Straightforward in a way that feels oldschool in speaking to turn-of-the-century era heavy rock influences — big Karma to Burn vibe in the riffs of “Hollow,” and not by any means only there — the debut album Mammals from Danish trio Zeup benefits from decades of history in metal and rock on the part of drummer Morten Barth (ex-Wasted) and bassist/producer Morten Rold (ex-Beyond Serenity), and with non-Morten guitarist Jakob Bach Kristensen (also production) sharing vocals with Rold, they bring a down-to-business sensibility to their eight component tracks that can’t be faked. That’s consistent with 2020’s Blind EP (review here) and a fitting demonstration for any who’d take it on that sometimes you don’t need anything more than the basic guitar, bass, drums, vocals when the songs are there. Sure, they take some time to explore in the seven-minute instrumental “Escape” before hitting ground again in the aptly-titled slow post-hardcore-informed closer “In Real Life,” but even that is executed with clear intention and purpose beyond jamming. I’ll go with “Rising” as a highlight, but it’s a pick-your-poison kind of record, and there’s an awful lot that’s going to sound needlessly complicated in comparison.

Zeup on Facebook

Ozium Records store

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Giant Sleep, Grounded to the Sky

Grounded to the Sky is the third LP from Germany’s Giant Sleep, and with it the band hones a deceptively complex scope drawn together in part by vocalist Thomas Rosenmerkel, who earns the showcase position with rousing blues-informed performances on the otherwise Tool-ish prog metal title-track and the later-Soundgardening leadoff before it, “Silent Field.” On CD and digital, the record sprawls across nearly an hour, but the vinyl edition is somewhat tighter, leaving off “Shadow Walker” and “The Elixir” in favor of a 43-minute run that puts the 4:43 rocker “Sour Milk” in the closer position, not insubstantially changing the personality of the record. Founded by guitarist Patrick Hagmann, with Rosenmerkel in the lineup as well as guitarist/backing vocalist Tobias Glanzmann (presumably that’ll be him in the under-layer of “Siren Song”), bassist Radek Stecki and drummer Manuel Spänhauer, they sound full as a five-piece and are crisp in their production and delivery even in the atmospherically minded “Davos,” which dares some float and drift along with a political commentary and feels like it’s taking no fewer chances in doing so, and generally come across as knowing who they are as a band and what they want to do with their sound, then doing it. In fact, they sound so sure, I’m not even certain why they sent the record out for review. They very obviously know they nailed what they were going for, and yes, they did.

Giant Sleep on Facebook

Czar of Crickets Productions website

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Green Yeti, Necropolitan

It’s telling that even the CD version of Green Yeti‘s Necropolitan breaks its seven tracks down across two sides. The Athens trio of guitarist/vocalist Michael Andresakis, bassist Dani Avramidis and drummer Giannis Koutroumpis touch on psychedelic groove in the album-intro “Syracuse” before turning over to the pure post-Kyuss rocker “Witch Dive,” which Andresakis doing an admirable John Garcia in the process, before the instrumental “Jupiter 362” builds tension for five minutes without ever exploding, instead giving out to the quiet start of side A’s finish in “Golgotha,” which likewise builds but turns to harsher sludge rock topped by shouts and screams in the midsection en route to an outright cacophonous second half. That unexpected turn — really, the series of them — makes it such that as the bass-swinging “Dirty Lung” starts its rollout on side B, you don’t know what’s coming. The answer is half-Sleepy ultra-burl, but still. “Kerosene” stretches out the desert vibe somewhat, but holds a nasty edge to it, and the nine-minute “One More Bite,” which closes the record, has a central nod but feels at any moment like it might swap it for further assault. Does it? It’s worth listening to the record front to back to find out. Hail Greek heavy, and Green Yeti‘s willingness to pluck from microgenre at will is a good reason why.

Green Yeti on Facebook

Green Yeti on Bandcamp

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There’s a lot of information below, and that’s before you get to the four album embeds at the bottom of the post, but so it goes. Greece’s foremost heavy rock export 1000mods are reissuing their full-length catalog through Heavy Psych Sounds specifically for US distribution. One doesn’t really need a reason to re-press good records and spread them far and wide, but in the case of 1000mods, putting their four-to-date LPs out again in the American market makes even more sense considering the Chiliomodi foursome are set to play Desertfest New York in September (info here), so yeah, assuring the albums are in stores and in hands a couple months ahead of time, well, it’s a solid way to do business.

1000mods aren’t strangers to Heavy Psych Sounds, having played the label’s fests last year in Germany, and as they head to the US for only the second time, the only question I’m left with is just how long they’ll be over, whether Desertfest is an exclusive or if they’ll do a full tour. Reissuing four albums released between 2011-2020 seems like an awfully long way to go for a one-off — though it’s not impossible — but if they’re going to tour and we’re crazy-speculating anyway, wouldn’t a new album also make sense three years after their latest, Youth of Dissent (review here), landed smack in the midst of a surging global pandemic?

As I’m fond of saying and have probably already typed somewhere else today, we live in a universe of infinite possibilities. A full tour and new record are among them. I have no confirmation on either, so don’t go being disappointed if they don’t happen. Or if you are disappointed, at least don’t blame me. The band had to push back their Australian run that was slated for February, and while one waits to see when they’ll head back that way, they’re on tour again in Europe starting this week, with Frenzee and Godsleep switching out in support.

So like I said, much info. A glut, even. But it’s all here, the preorder link for those reissues, the Euro dates, the album streams, etc. And before I turn you over to it, I’ll emphasize that with a band who’ve accomplished so much in their time — 1000mods weren’t the only heavy band to put the current generation of Greece’s underground on the map, but they’re forerunners for sure — you don’t really need a reason to dig into these records again. But it sure would be cool to see them really tackle the road in the US.

From the PR wire:

Heavy Psych Sounds to announce 1000MODS – USA REISSUES – presale starts TODAY!!!

Today we are stoked to start the presale of the 1000mods FULL DISCOGRAPHY for the USA market !!!

ALBUMs PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

HPS267 *** 1000mods – Super Van Vacation ***

RELEASED IN DOUBLE GATEFOLD VINYL
15 TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD SIDE A – SIDE B YELLOW/RED/BLACK VINYL
300 LTD ORANGE TRANSPARENT VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 23rd

TRACKLIST
Road to Burn 08:49
7 Flies 04:49
El Rollito 03:54
Set You Free 03:53
Vidage 08:48
Navy in Alice 05:32
Track me 08:31
Johny’s 05:07
Abell 1835 07:14
Super Van Vacation 08:42

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Reissue of the 1000mods debut album in double gatefold coloured vinyls. Released September 29, 2011. Produced by Billy Anderson and 1000mods. Engineered by George Leodis and Billy Anderson. Mixed by George Leodis and 1000mods. Mastered at Unreal Studios (GR). Artwork by Malleus Rock Art Lab.

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HPS268 *** 1000mods – Vultures ***

RELEASED IN
15 TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD 3 COLORED STRIPED BLACK/WHITE/RED VINYL
300 LTD MUSTARD VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

RELEASE DATE:JUNE 23rd

TRACKLIST
Claws 05:28
Big Beatiful 03:47
She 06:21
Horses’ Green 03:24
Low 04:19
Vultures 05:03
Modesty 02:55
Reverb of the New World 06:43

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Reissue of the 1000mods sophomore album in brand new coloured vinyls.

All music and lyrics written by 1000mods.
Produced and mixed by 1000mods and George Leodis.
Engineered by George Leodis at Shakti Sound Studio during March 2014.
Mastered at Sweet Spot Studios by Tolis Economou.
Artwork by Indyvisuals.
Hammond on “Modesty” by Greg Chour.
Wise words on “Reverb of the New World” by Carl Sagan, performed by Simon Bloom.

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HPS269 *** 1000mods – Repeated Exposure to… ***

RELEASED IN
15 TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD TRANSPARENT BACK. SPLATTER RED/BLUE VINYL
300 LTD GREEN TRANSPARENT VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 30th

TRACKLIST
Above179 05:41
Loose 08:41
Electric Carve 03:37
The Son 08:41
A.W. 04:16
On a Stone 05:25
Groundhog Day 07:18
Into the Spell 07:49

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Reissue of 1000mods third album in brand new coloured vinyls. Released on September 26, 2016. Artwork by Fuzz ink. Photo by Aris Panagopoulos

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HPS270 *** 1000mods – Youth of Dissent ***

RELEASED IN DOUBLE GATEFOLD VINYL
15 TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD QUAD ORANGE/PURPLE VINYL
300 LTD MAGENTA VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK

RELEASE DATE: JUNE 30th

TRACKLIST
Lucid 03:44
So many days 05:10
Warped 04:15
Dear Herculine 07:06
Less is More 06:15
21st Space Century 01:57
Pearl 03:31
Blister 04:12
Young 07:24
Dissent 04:25
Mirrors 07:16

ALBUM DESCRIPTION

Reissue of the latest 1000mods album in double gatefold new coloured vinyls.

Produced by Matt Bayles & 1000mods.
Mixed by Matt Bayles.
Engineered by Matt Bayles.
Recorded at London Bridge Studio and Studio Litho, Seattle, WA.
Mixed at Red Room, Seattle, WA.
Mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant Mastering, Seattle, WA.
Artwork by Tind.

BIOGRAPHY:

Having risen from smoky basements to packed arenas, 1000mods is the most successful Greek rock band of the past decades. Known for their relentless tours and legendary festival appearances, consistently followed by an ever-growing fanbase and armed with dedication and constant commitment, 1000mods are considered today one of the most iconic stoner rock bands in the world.

***Road to Burn Tour Spring 2023***

For more infos and tickets visit: 1000mods.com/tour

Dates:
06.04 Kiff, Aarau CH*
07.04 Sunset Bar, Martigny CH*
08.04 L’Usine, Geneva CH*
09.04 Molotov, Marseille FR*
11.04 Le Rockstore, Montpellier FR*
12.04 Upload, Barcelona ES*
13.04 Nazca, Madrid ES*
14.04 Hard Club, Porto PT*
15.04 Helldorado, Vitoria ES*
16.04 L’Ile Du Malt, Hossegor FR
19.04 Connexion Live, Toulouse FR^
21.04 Des Lendemains Qui Chantent, Tulle FR^
22.04 Black Shelter, Nantes FR^
23.04 Grand Paris Sludge, Sanigny FR
24.04 Musikbunker, Aachen DE^
25.04 Alte Mälzerei, Regensburg DE^
26.04 Stadtwerkstatt, Linz AT^
27.04 Feiraum, Ubersee DE^
28.04 Sudhaus, Tubingen DE^
29.04 Knust, Hamburg DE^
30.04 Zoom, Frankfurt DE^
01.05 Backstage, München DE^
* w/ Frenzee
^w/ Godsleep

1000mods is:
Dani G.
Giannis S.
Giorgos T.
Labros G.

https://www.instagram.com/1000mods/
https://www.facebook.com/1000mods/
https://1000mods.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/1000mods

https://www.facebook.com/HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDS
https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com

1000mods, Super Van Vacation (2011)

1000mods, Vultures (2014)

1000mods, Repeated Exposure To… (2016)

1000mods, Youth of Dissent (2020)

Athens-based progressive heavy rockers Godsleep will release their new full-length, Lies to Survive, on April 7 through Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings and Threechords Records. It is their third album overall and second to be fronted by Amie Makris behind 2018’s Coming of Age (review here), which set a more varied course from the fuzz that launched them with 2015’s Thousand Suns of Sleep (review here) — it’s also their first for the 1000mods-adjacent label, if you want to do the full three-two-one — and it argues quickly that perhaps half a decade ago the band hadn’t really come of age as much as that title indicated.

With Lies to Survive, Makris, guitarist Johnny Tsoumas, bassist Fedonas Ktenas and (making his first appearance) drummer Dennis Panagiotidis, answer the expansion that Coming of Age brought in exponential style, breaking out of genre confines to bring in elements of pop, hip-hop, electronic music, space rock, noise, punk, sociopolitical themes all drawn together by a prevalence of attitude that pushes over to righteous arrogance across 11 songs and a CD-era-reminiscent 56-minute runtime somehow squashed onto a single LP (I actually don’t know that all songs are on the vinyl, but it looks like there are 11 listed in the gatefold lyrics of the mockup from their Bandcamp, as shown here; maybe some tracks are edited?).

But if Godsleep are pushing the limits of format, that’s just one on the longer list of limitations being exceeded. Fuzz riffing is still at least a definite part of their foundation, and plays a significant role in songs like the punker “Pots of Hell” (video premiering below), “Room 404,” the careening “Cracks,” or “Egonation” a short time later, as well as the penultimate “Permanent Vacation,” but in each of those songs, the job of the guitar goes further than ‘establish riff, play riff, repeat riff’ by a broad margin. To wit, “Pots of Hell” greets its rhythmic shove with rants and raps and resolves in an intensity that leaves Makris no choice but to let out a scream and drop the mic before it gets to its willfully choppy but immersive finish, while “Room 404,” which follows immediately, is an even more expansive nod, interrupting itself early with timely hits on snare and guitar that come across like they’re meant to be intrusive before opening to a vaster fuzz in the hook.

Yeah, sure, then they introduce the keyboard at about three minutes in and by the time they’re done, they’re in a psych-guitar-topped dub jam. Meanwhile, “Cracks” leans aggro in its hook in paying off the hint dropped by the punch of Ktenas‘ bass in the verse, dropping to stick clicks after its second chorus only to tear itself open and let the fuzz back out at a run before it’s three minutes into its grand total of four, “Egonation” uses up-strummed twanger fuzz at its outset but becomes a lesson in how to build tension and bring it to a point of explosion, and “Permanent Vacation” goes prog metal in its construction, vaguely Tool-ish but more restless (not a complaint) until maybe-probably-electronic percussion beats begin a midsection shift that grows larger until it opens to a triumphant play on Sabbath‘s “Hole in the Sky” before slipping back into the verse with a nigh-on-motorik thrust and more hypnosis that seems somehow also to answer the trance resulting from the dug-in ending of “Pots of Hell,” demonstrating the lethal consciousness at work behind Lies to Survive‘s sometimes manic procession.

And if it seems like I’m bouncing around the tracklisting here (you can see it listed below in order for reference), that’s not a coincidence. The songs are in part united by the tour de force performance put on by Makris, whose anarchist declarations in the initially-keyboard-backed leadoff “Booster” — “You won’t find an apologist here” among them — work to quickly establish a defiant tone that Godsleep reinforce by shifting within that three-and-a-half-minute cut to a crunch born of noise rock executed around the first but by no means last pattern of circular guitar from Tsoumas — see also “Pavement,” “Breakfast,” and the aptly-titled capper “Last Song,” where every now and then a little flourish is thrown in to remind that no, it’s not a loop — before “Pots of Hell” takes this cue and runs with it, the drums, bass and accent guitar backing Makris for the forceful, semi-spoken verse before the next bombastic hook.

It is by no means the last surprise in store on Lies to Survive, with “Saturday” dropping ’90s alt rock references lyrical and instrumental, delving into Soundgarden-ism in layered vocal harmonies before riding a suitably long guitar solo but shifting back to its chorus before it’s done, or the toying with pop and techno in the outset of “Better Days” prior to its own introduction of the guitar, a mini-epic for side B that feels at distant remove from, say, “Breakfast,” with its good-fun Casio-style backbeat and a rare fadeout to transition into “Pavement,” which ends its first verse with the line “Now it’s time to party” and seems very much to mean it if the brash and funky groove that ensues is anything to go by, topped with another impressive rant in the spirit of “Pots of Hell.”

In addition to Makris‘ standout work and the marked increase in stylistic range throughout, Lies to Survive is also the first Godsleep album not to be recorded by George Leodis (also of 1000mods), as the band partnered with John Sotiropoulos on production (John Fuho also co-engineered) and mixing at Wreck it Sound Studios in Corinth, and that choice very much becomes a part of the character of the whole work, whether it’s the bass emphasis in the last build of “Booster” or the forward vocal layers at the start of “Better Days” or even the ambient stretch that caps the record after the end of “Last Song,” where Makris enters at 6:45 into an otherwise instrumental eight-minute stretch to deliver a resonant epilogue to the proceedings. The production is another tie bringing the songs together, but that proves ultimately to be as much about consciousness of the choices being made as the tones or overarching flow, each song feeling thought-out and considered, getting what it needs in terms of arrangement while mainlining far too much adrenaline to be anything close to staid.

Lies to Survive is not a record one would have predicted eight years ago that Godsleep would ever release, even before changes in lineup are considered. Still audible are the riffy roots and a current of Mediterranean roil, even as “Last Song” begins its long adventure through keyboard storytelling and proggy stomp, but the most powerful impression Godsleep make on third full-length is of having the ability to be genuinely untethered by genre considerations, to be free to go where the tracks — and, deeper, the parts of those tracks — take them, and to know when indeed to let the songs lead themselves. They do not sound at all like they’re finished exploring, but no question Lies to Survive is a landmark for them in unveiling the scope of their intent as it is today, pairing awareness of that with the knowledge born of experience that not all of their audience is going to be on board for the sundry turns in the material. The album is bolder for that, and its boldness might be the greatest unifier of all.

The video for “Pots of Hell” premieres below, followed by more from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Godsleep, “Pots of Hell” official video premiere

Formed in 2010, Godsleep have been working relentlessly since then, walking their way to entering the heavy rock pantheon. Having been described as one of the most promising bands of the heavy/psychedelic rock sound, from their very beginning, the Athenian heavy rock roller-coaster based its very existence on powerful live appearances, including the participation in high profile rock festivals all around Europe and a full European tour in support of their critically acclaimed debut album “Thousand Sons of Sleep” (Rock Freaks Records, 2015).

2018 welcomes the release of “Coming of Age”, Godsleep’s sophomore full length album, which was released by legendary Greek underground rock record label The Lab Records and garnered strong reactions from both press and fans. Having kept the core ingredients of their sound intact: heavy/fuzzy guitars, thick bass lines and powerful groovy drumming, Godsleep enriched their songwriting with uniquely addictive female vocals which vary from psychedelic howls and haunting melodies to throat-ripping edgy screams.

Now five years later, Godsleep return with their third album “Lies to Survive” to be released by “Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug” Records in April 2023. This new effort showcases the band’s penchant for layering fuzzy, infectious riffs with engaging melodies, yet time is also shows their eagerness to branch out into other areas bringing in elements of noise-rock and even punk-rock elements like on the raucous “Pots of Hell”.

Tracklisting:
1. Booster
2. Pots of Hell
3. Room 404
4. Saturday
5. Cracks
6. Breakfast
7. Pavement
8. Better Days
9. Egonation
10. Permanent Vacation
11. Last Song

All music written, arranged and performed by Godsleep
Produced by John Sotiropoulos & Godsleep
Mixed by John Sotiropoulos
Engineered by John Sotiropoulos & John Fuho
Recorded at Wreck it Sound Studios, Corinth, GR
Mixed at Wreck it Sound Studios, Corinth, GR
Mastered by John Sotiropoulos at Wreck it Sound Studios, Corinth, GR

Godsleep on Facebook

Godsleep on Instagram

Godsleep on YouTube

Godsleep on Bandcamp

Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings on Facebook

Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings on Instagram

Ouga Booga and the Mighty Oug Recordings website

Threechords Records on Facebook

Threechords Records on Instagram

Threechords Records website

Greek heavy rock four-piece Honeybadger will return in the coming months with their second full-length and the follow-up to 2020’s Pleasure Delayer (review here), the title of which has yet to be announced. The first single from the impending sophomore LP is “Diamonds,” and if you get the impression in listening that they’re picking up where they left off in terms of approach, the fact that they namedrop the name of the first record in the lyrics here would seem to speak to that intent too. Also? It’s a rocker. That’s definitely where they left it last time too.

Part of the intrigue here is to find outbjust how Honeybadger have progressed over the last three years, though I’ll admit I don’t know when the new stuff was recorded and these days it could be anytime before or after the first record came out. But the sound in “Diamonds” is confident in its delivery, which hints toward a more recent timing, and the song’s verse/chorus structure is consistent with Pleasure Delayer and comfortable in its presentation without giving up the energy at their foundation. The song makes me look forward to hearing more, so as regards first singles, I guess it’s doing its job.

Here you have it:

HONEYBADGER – “DIAMONDS” OUT NOW

Stream: https://ffm.to/diamonds_hob

“Inspired by the continuous battle to survive and thrive through the difficult moments of life as a perception. What do ashes and diamonds have in common? Both share the same elemental structure.

“First single from our upcoming sophomore album. Inspired by the continuous battle to survive and thrive through the difficult moments of life as a perception.

“Facing hard times can be devastating and inspiring at the same time. It will always be a challenge to turn trouble into birth and creation, like ashes and mud, into Diamonds.”

Video clip coming 15/03

Credits:
Produced by Alex Bolpasis and Honeybadger
Recorded and Mixed by Alex Bolpasis at Suono Studio
Drums Recorded by Jacopo Fokas at Villa Giuseppe Recordings
Mastering by Nick Townsend at Infrasonic Sound
http://infrasonicsound.com/

Video clip credits:
Created and Directed by Mike Marzz
DOP: Mike Marzz
Set Director: Mike Marzz & Mary Tsagarouli
Production Assistants: Giannis Zygouros & Xristos Koryllos
Actors: Eva Anastasiadou, Despoina Liakopoulou, Philippos Louvaris, Gerasimos Konstantoudakis
Location Manager: Dimitris Polyxronou
Props: Stelios Iordanou, Thanasis Anestos

https://www.facebook.com/Honeybadgertheband
https://www.instagram.com/honeybadger_band_official/
https://www.honeybadger.band/
https://honeybadgertheband.bandcamp.com/

Honeybadger, “Diamonds” official video

Honeybadger, “Diamonds”

Now some six years removed from their second full-length, Desert Show (review here) Greek heavy trio Green Yeti announce the coming of their new album, Necropolitan. The band were in the studio this past December putting it together, and with the unveiling of the artwork and tracklisting, they would seem to be signaling that the work is done and ready to roll out.

If you heard the last outing, you already know that’s good news. If you didn’t hear it, or it’s been a while, it’s streaming below for a refresher. Either way, that record marked a notable shift from the band’s early-2016 debut, The Yeti Has Landed, which was comprised entirely of extended songs, the shortest of which was nine minutes long — none of the other three was under 16 — as the band broke “Black Planets” and “Bad Sleep” into two parts each, still leaving the last part of the latter as a 15-minute stretch, with the 10-minute “Rojo” between.

It’s been long enough that it’s basically impossible to know whether that movement toward relatively shorter tracks was a fluke of that batch of material or emblematic of how the band will continue to develop this time out — the fact that there are seven songs on Necropolitan make me think perhaps it is — but you’ll notice that while they’re ready to show off the art and the names of the component pieces, there’s neither a release date listed, nor a lead single, nor info about whether it’ll be self-released or issued through a label. Desert Show, you might recall, came out through Cursed Tongue Records.

Their post follows as hoisted from social media:

We are very happy as we are approaching the release of our third studio album!

It is called “NECROPOLITAN” and as always it has a story to tell. The concept is inspired by the “Covid years”.

This is the front cover art by Alfian Setyo.

Necropolitan Playlist

1. Syracuse
2. Witch Dive
3. Jupiter 362
4. Golgotha
5. Dirty Lung
6. Kerosene
7. One More Bite

https://www.facebook.com/greenyetiband/
https://instagram.com/greenyetiband
https://greenyeti.bandcamp.com/

Green Yeti, Desert Show (2017)

Athens-based heavy trio Bastard Sword release their debut album, I, through Sound Effect Records on March 3. The record follows only a five-song demo that includes three tracks recorded at their very first live performance together on Dec. 23, 2022 (there are also two rehearsal-room songs), so they are very much a new band, formed earlier last year at the whim of guitarist/vocalist/synthesist Achilles Charmpilas, who also engineered the recording and is known for his work in 2 by Bukowski, playing bass in Sun and the Wolf, the theatrical Dirty Granny Tales, and so on.

In classic I’m-a-producer-and-songwriter-and-I-have-demos-let’s-make-a-band-and-album fashion, the narrative has it that Charmpilas put Bastard Sword together with bassist Odysseas Tziritas and drummer/backing vocalist Akis Kapranos, who in addition to having been in Septicflesh and other more viscerally metal outfits is a film critic (he also apparently wrote for Metal Hammer, which is a nice line on the CV to be sure), and they began to put the record together from the songs he wrote, not playing live until that show that at least part of was recorded for the demo. Bastard Sword I, or just I if you’d like to keep it casual — I like to pretend every record named I is done so in homage to Goatsnake; care to join me? — comprises nine tracks and runs a humidly fuzzed 44 minutes, frontloaded with languid psychedelic doom and given in its later reaches to airier instrumentalist passages.

You can see the story below as told by the band, and that’s great — blessings and peace upon the narrative, as always; I include these things because it’s important to know what people are saying about their own work and how they’re saying it, both for now and posterity — but one of the key aspects of I is that its songs started out as instrumentals. Vocals aren’t an afterthought by any means, which is proved quickly by the if-Conan-wrote-“Black-Sabbath” vibe in aptly-titled opener “Il Gigante,” but knowing that helps one understand the construction of the album and its blend of increasing-tempo doom chicanery across “Il Gigante,” its six-minute leadoff salvo companion “Hierophant,” the increasingly rocking “Witching Brethren” and the brash shove of “Santeria de Sangre” on side A, as well as the interaction between a song like “Ghost in the Beehive” (premiering in the lyric video below), which takes the noddy progression of C.O.C.‘s “Albatross” and sets it to its own, well-established-by-then penchant for rolling, and the subsequent atmospheric drifter “Anthropocene,” which rises mostly but not completely instrumental with some duly Mediterranean scale work in its second half to be consuming and urgent while still slow in its march, and the spacious interlude “The Orbital Mechanist” that follows. Figuratively and literally in the case of the vinyl, I is a record with two sides.

Nothing wrong with that, and on a debut, it’s that much more encouraging that a band is looking to explore a range of ideas with Charmpilas‘ at root. The album is best summarized perhaps in its last two tracks, the fuzz-grooving penultimate cut “Tenbones,” which is a vocal highlight and finds Bastard Sword with a sound ready to stand alongside the likes of modern melodic heavybringers like Elephant Tree, and the keyboard-inclusive instrumental finisher “Tooth Rattler,” which takes the terrestrial vibe of “Tenbones” and launches it into the air, not quite leaving Earth’s atmosphere but still way up where the oxygen is light.

More even than “The Orbital Mechanist,” the closer is cinematic, and speaks maybe to some underlying ambition on the part of Charmpilas to manifest broader evocations moving forward, it also functions to create a kind of multi-avenued persona to Bastard Sword in the present, so that what starts out like it’s going to be a fairly predictable if well-executed stoner doom record in tone and spirit becomes something richer and more consuming. After the four songs on side A build to the outright blaster-Kyuss metalpunk shove of “Santeria de Sangre” — which might take its name from its solo in addition to its ritualistic lyrics — and Bastard Sword reaffirm their place in reverb-drenched cosmic lurch in “Ghost in the Beehive,” the transition into “Anthropocene” is stark but pulled off in a well-it’s-done-so-that’s-that unpretentious manner, even as it exponentially increases the scope of the entire LP, never mind the prospects for future growth on the part of the band.

And the safe bet is that whatever Bastard Sword do next — dare I predict: II? — it will be at least somewhat different since, you know, they’re a band now. Even if Charmpilas continues to write the material alone — and mind you I have no idea whether or not he will — his frame of mind will be changed since he knows both that he’s making a record to follow-up this one and even if only subconsciously considering the other players involved and what they’ll bring to it. This is to say, building an album over the course of months alone may have given Charmpilas the freedom to explore reaches he might not have had he set out with the strict intention to reside solely in a genre pocket of heavy, heady doom, but it’s inevitable that what comes after will be informed by these songs, even if that happens as a purposeful contrast. One doesn’t necessarily believe in authenticity as an ideal — you might as well chase gods — but the organic nature of I is crucial to how it unfolds, since it seems most like the placement of the material toward its various ends, be it the tempo-build of side A or side B’s ambient branchout after “Ghost in the Beehive” with “Tenbones” as a swinging, weighted, grounded counterpoint in conversation with “Witching Brethren” earlier, came after the fact of the songs themselves.

So there’s consciousness in how I is presented, but the songs were there first. And whether it’s “Tenbones” with its line of organ rolling alongside the riff or the way “Tooth Rattler” incorporates fuzz into its soundscaping, or the chugga-chug of in the verses of “Witching Brethren,” the darker cultish atmosphere that’s ultimately something of a misdirect for the audience in “Il Gigante,” or the extended solo that takes over “Hierophant” and doesn’t look back, there are any number of inclusions here that could be a model for Bastard Sword to work from. You could base a whole band’s sound on “Santeria de Sangre,” or “Ghost in the Beehive,” or even “The Orbital Mechanist” if you worked hard enough at it. That Bastard Sword don’t, at least not yet, gives I a formative but encouraging spirit. Wherever they might end up, they’re off to an auspicious, deceptively immersive start.

You’ll find “Ghost in the Beehive” on the player below, followed by the video credits and the aforementioned narrative, slightly edited for length — which given the thought-dump above feels like the pot calling the kettle black, but so it goes — as well as the preorder links, credits, etc. If it wasn’t made clear above, “Ghost in the Beehive” doesn’t encapsulate everything on offer throughout the album, but it does kick a good deal of ass, so it’s a representative sample just the same.

Please enjoy:

Bastard Sword, “Ghost in the Beehive” video premiere

More like this in our upcoming inaugural LP “Bastard Sword I”: https://bastardswordgr.bandcamp.com/album/bastard-sword-i

Sound Effect Records preorder: https://www.soundeffect-records.gr/bastard-sword

Bastard Sword shall appear live on March 19th, as part of Sound Effect Records’ anniversary festival. Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/552898130027799/

This video contains footage shot by Isidora Charmpila and Dimitris MacFeegle. They both bought expensive cameras and did their best to shoot great vids, only for us to waltz in and saturate the shit out of them – just like we do with our guitars. Our thoughts are with them, but we regret nothing.

This video additionally includes footage from “The Visitor” (1979) and “The Devils” (1971), two films that you really need to watch if you haven’t already. It goes without saying that we do not own the rights to any of that, so, remember all you humans and algorithms happily munching on this video: Snitches Get Stitches.

—

At the start of 2022, a band was quietly born in a basement opposite the church of the Sacred Belt in Kypseli, Athens, Greece.

Achilles Charmpilas had just come out of two years stuck in the aforementioned basement, not doing gigs. The plan was to play and compose some new and adventurous music, learn new musical tricks and generally take the dry spell as an opportunity to reset, and get better at stuff he had been meaning to try out.

Well, at least in theory. What actually happened was that he simply reverted to his teen self, growing up in northern Greece in the 90s, vibing out on Sabbath, Motorhead, Hawkwind, Kyuss, Cathedral, Earth and Sleep.

In a few months, a torrent of music poured out of his fingers, travelled through a ridiculous array of distortion and fuzz pedals (a collection he has been building up since his time as a music instrument repair guy and touring bass player in Berlin), into an Orange and a Laney amp, out of a speaker, etcetera etcetera. You get the point. Before long, almost without realising, there it was. More than an album’s worth of material. Just hanging out on a hard drive. Waiting.

But, what to do with it? Achilles decided that a first step would be to get some outside perspective. In the end of the day, this might simply be a midlife crisis in the making, right? I mean, who needs another derivative doomy band in 2022? Come on dude, get over yourself.

Achilles sent a demo to Yiannis from Sound Effect Records, with whom he had previously collaborated in 2 by bukowski’s last release to date, Her Kind Fight Everything. A few sweat soaked days later (waiting for a big review is the worst), Yiannis reached out. He dug it. What a relief. There were insightful and welcome notes and comments, but one stood out: “there are too many instrumental doomy bands out there, why don’t you try some vocals?” Achilles’ personal projects have been mostly instrumental for over 20 years. Singing? What fresh hell is this?

Enter Akis Kapranos, a fellow veteran musician, film and single-malt scotch buff. He had previously played with important bands of the original Black Metal scene, like Septic Flesh and Thou Art Lord. An offer was accepted between drinks, and that, as they say, was that. Last piece of the puzzle was the bass. Bass is important, Bastard Sword would need an outstanding player. Well, as it so happens, Achilles had been producing music with an Athens scene wunderkind named Odysseas Tziritas. Odysseas inexplicably took the bait and the three met in a derelict but historic rehearsal space in Exarchia and jammed out for a few magical hours.

It worked. It really worked. A couple of months later, the newly fangled psychedelic doom power trio played their first show to an amazing audience in a kick ass punk bar called Bad Tooth. That was it, there was proof. The band works. Let’s get out there and make some noise.

Although the band members have hundreds of shows under their collective belt, as of this writing they have only done one live recording and one show together. Next stop: Side Effects Festival @ Gagarin.

The upcoming album Bastard Sword I was recorded in a tiny basement over the period of 10 months. The initial demos with all instruments recorded by Achilles were used as the basis. Akis and Odysseas joined just in time to contribute to it, making the album finally sound like a real album.

Tracklist
1. Il Gigante (06:01)
2. Hierophant (06:14)
3. Witching Brethren (04:58)
4. Santeria de Sangre (04:12)
5. Ghost in the Beehive (05:47)
6. Anthropocene (06:32)
7. The Orbital Mechanist (01:51)
8. Tenbones (03:44)
9. Tooth Rattler (04:55)

Recorded, Mixed and Produced by Achilles Charmpilas @ Sacred Belt Studios
Cover art by Valbona Canaku
Photography by Isidora Charmpila
Mastered by Kostas Ekelon

Bastard Sword are:
Achilles Charmpilas (vocals / guitars / synths / engineering)
Akis Kapranos (drums / backing vocals)
Odysseas Tziritas (bass)

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Sound Effect Records website