Posted in Whathaveyou on March 8th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Earlier this week, Edinburgh classic-style heavy rockers Hair of the Dog announced they were done, and it’s worth noting that their announcement came some four years after they actually marked the end of the band. Fair enough. They are not the only ones for whom life has taken unexpected directions in the 2020s, and what it turns out has happened is that the trio — who released their third album, It’s Just a Ride (discussed here), early in 2020 — came back together and enough had changed that they’re becoming a new band.
So it’s Hair of the Dog out and Elmsrow in, though how that shift will play out sound-wise is still to be heard. After reading the band’s post that you can see in the image below dutifully hoisted from their social media, I asked guitarist/vocalist Adam Holt — joined in either outfit by drummer Jon Holt and bassist Iain Thomson — for some more details about the transition from one to the next and where he thinks it might be leading. His answers are what you’ll find in the blue text below.
In a spirit of looking forward, dig:
So as our post says, we felt like we were on a bit of a roll on the lead up to “It’s Just a Ride”, we had just lined up a host of spring and summer festivals and were busy marking out a tour between them all – with a particular focus on spending time in Germany where a majority of our fan base is located. We were super stoked on the new record, really proud of it and just bursting to get it out and hit the road…
Then BOOM literally over night, Scotland and the entire UK is put into a lockdown that just went on and on, month to month until basically two years of our lives were gone along with 80% of my livelihood, out with the band.
That first lockdown also coincided nicely with the birth of my first child. So yeah, rough times. Showing your parents their grandson through the patio door as they sit on deckchairs on your lawn X amount of distance away in masks…my son was 3 months old by the time lockdown restrictions had eased enough for his grandparents to hold him for the first time.
I just fell out of love with music and quite frankly life.
I’m prone to bouts of depression, so I wallowed in that for months and then one day picked the guitar up and 1..2…3…..4……out came a succession of song ideas. But they weren’t Hair of the Dog.
I’d felt it for months but knew then that Hair of the Dog was done.
That chapter just felt done. I don’t think it would even feel right singing and playing those songs now, I don’t feel like that person anymore. The pandemic killed the momentum, killed the vibe, and ultimately killed the band we knew as Hair of the Dog.
So the only clear thing to do was to start a fresh…with a new name. We are so early in the process that we only finalised the name this week, Elmsrow.
How do the two bands compare? Well, it’s still myself, my brother Jon and our lifelong friend Iain. Musically though, the only similarity will be the odd lean towards the blues… but other influences include, Tool, Deftones, Kal-El (been really digging Kal-El of late), Dozer, Red Fang… yeah, far removed. It certainly fills a gap in what I personally would want to hear, which is usually a good sign. You got to be into the music you make.
I’d been getting really bad cramps in both my hands during HOTD last run of shows. To the point that my pick would just fall out my fingers because I couldn’t feel or move my hands. It’s been utterly devastating to have developed this, but as a result I’m going to be pulling back on the guitar work and focusing more on my love of unusual and challenging chords and chord sequences. There’s a lot of melody and harmony to be found under the heaviness. Iain really takes centre stage in Elmsrow, and gets an opportunity to show why he’s the best bass player in the underground, maybe even world…. in my opinion. And drummers will rejoice, as Jon too shines through on this new material.
It’s exciting, it will probably divide HOTD fans, but music needs to come from the heart and sadly, post-pandemic, my heart personally, was no longer in that band.
All we have at present is the name, the music (minus any lyrics) and a lot of exciting plans. One of these is a feature length documentary about the creation of our first new EP, but more specifically a look at what it’s like to be a band in the underground, what goes into being a band and why? Haha why do middle-aged men such as ourselves around the world NEED this in their life?
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 23rd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Wit a lineup that brooks no argument, Riffolution Festival 2022 is set for mid-September in Sheffield, UK. Note the likes of Truckfighters (whose Spring tour dates are waiting on rescheduling) and Godflesh up at the top, and a broad spectrum of subsequent heavies, from Spaceslug, Slomatics and Boss Keloid the first day to Raging Speedhorn, Slabdragger and Mastiff the second. All told it’s 37 bands on three stages — which says to me the schedule is going to be tight, but doable — over the two days, and jeez, if you happen to find yourself in South Yorkshire early this Fall, one is hard-pressed to think of heavier way to spend that time. Hell, Stubb are playing. And King Witch. Right on
This is a lineup where bands will know each other, be familiar, be friendly, be drinking. You should go, join the party. And by you I mean me. Get out into the world again. It’s time, right?
As seen on the internet:
Riffolution Festival 2022 Lineup
Riffolution Festival 2022 full line-up is here, feast your eyes on our biggest event to date!
37 bands over 3 stages, at our new venue Network in Sheffield.
Big thanks to Scarlet Dagger Design for the amazing work on the poster.
Weekend + day tickets, as well as t-shirt bundles are available through the Riffolution Promotions website, and they’re already flying out.
If you wish to play next years show, we’re happy to listen to suggestions. Submit your details on the website or even show your support by grabbing a ticket and attending.
See you in September! https://www.riffolutionpromotions.com/festival
SATURDAY: Truckfighters / Naxatras / Spaceslug / Witchrider / Ten Foot Wizard / Swedish Death Candy / AWOOGA / Slomatics / Boss Keloid / KING WITCH / Dystopian Future Movies / Hair of the Dog / Mountain Caller / Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight / Stubb / Psychlona / Suns of Thunder / The Lunar Effect / Elder Druid / Regulus
SUNDAY: GODFLESH / Raging Speedhorn / God Damn / Palm Reader / Svalbard / blanket / Slabdragger / Mastiff / Dog Tired / PIST / GURT / VIDEO NASTIES / Grave Lines / BEGGAR / Battalions / Gozer / Gandalf the Green
The ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the varied responses of publics and governments worldwide, and the disruption to lives and livelihoods has reached a scale that is unprecedented. Whatever the month or the month after or the future itself brings, more than one generation will bear the mark of having lived through this time, and art, artists, and those who provide the support system to help uphold them have all been affected.
In continuing the Days of Rona feature, it remains pivotal to give a varied human perspective on these events and these responses. It is important to remind ourselves that whether someone is devastated or untouched, sick or well, we are all thinking, feeling people with lives we want to live again, whatever renewed shape they might take from this point onward. We all have to embrace a new normal. What will that be and how will we get there?
Thanks to all who participate. To read all the Days of Rona coverage, click here. — JJ Koczan
Days of Rona: Adam Holt of Hair of the Dog (Edinburgh, Scotland)
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How have you been you dealing with this crisis as a band? As an individual? What effect has it had on your plans or creative processes?
I’ve welcomed my first child, River Holt, into the world – an official Corona-Baby! So my whole life has been flipped upside down in more way than one. As a band, Hair of the Dog, we’ve just been keeping in touch with weekly FaceTime drinking sessions – talking about music we’ve been listening to and ideas for new music. As an individual, I’ve been busy feeding and changing nappies haha. I have been working on some new stuff though, that might end up as a HOTD side-project. ;)
How do you feel about the public response to the outbreak where you are? From the government response to the people around you, what have you seen and heard from others?
Scotland has been typically Scottish about the whole thing, we drink even more and we turn to humour! Our government is an absolute shitshow run by a pair of clown shoes, so this is our way of coping with it all. There are many here who don’t view our government as “their” government.
What do you think of how the music community specifically has responded? How do you feel during this time? Are you inspired? Discouraged? Bored? Any and all of it?
I’ve seen a lot of good from the music community, a lot of folk trying to make the best of the situation and support those affected. But it’s hard not to feel discouraged – it’s going to be a long time until there is any resemblance of “normal” again, and how that will look is a grey area in itself. It may be the kid’s arrival occupying me more than usual, but I’ve not touched a guitar in weeks – I have no motivation at all at present, but that’s ok. I potter about in my studio on some of the other musical ventures I had in the works and have mentioned above.
What is the one thing you want people to know about your situation, either as a band, or personally, or anything? What is your new normal? What have you learned from this experience, about yourself, your band, or anything?
Well, having become a Dad and having been in a hospital during the epicentre of the pandemic here, I deeply admire those working in the NHS here in the UK – those people are the true hero’s at the moment and everything else just seems a bit trivial in comparison. I’m just enjoying getting to know my son and caring for him – much of what I wrote about for It’s Just a Ride.
Hair of the Dog are rockers, so perhaps unsurprisingly, their new song rocks. Their fourth album — which was given the working title of Vol. IV but has in the end been dubbed It’s Just a Ride — is due in the coming months for release through Kozmik Artifactz as the follow-up to 2017’s This World Turns (review here), and the progression the Edinburgh-based three-piece have undertaken in the last couple years is evident in the fuzzy riffs and melodies of the title-track, which balance an insistent rhythm off the vocal float from guitarist Adam Holt. That dynamic would seem to be particularly captured in the six-plus minutes of “It’s Just a Ride” as Adam and drummer Jon Holt continue to bring the sonic dynamic they’ve forged since they were children to fruition in songs only further fleshed out with the right-on bass work of Iain Thomson. I haven’t heard the entirety of It’s Just a Ride as yet, so can’t speak to how the song that shares its name might interact with the material around it, but if the underlying message of the title is maybe to take it easy and not worry about shit you can’t control, well, I’m more than willing to roll with that.
In the video, we see Hair of the Dog, well, rocking. They rock while rocking out, they rock while buttering bread, they rock in the studio with Graeme Young while making the album, the jam room, and while traveling in various vehicles, from tour vans to trains and planes. They rock having beers in airports, looking like they’re not sure where they’re headed next, and, presumably, waiting to get on stage and rock. Their shot-on-phone chronicles make welcome fodder alongside their actually performing the song in the rehearsal space, and their travels supporting This World Turns are represented — including some perhaps ill-advised drinking from the fountains of Tilburg, the Netherlands, during their stop at Roadburn Festival — and while if I’m not mistaken some of this footage has been seen before, the new context is obviously an appeal unto itself. That is to say, you’re getting a new song here, so quit complaining. It’s just a ride anyhow, or so said famous Cynical Anti-Establishment White Guy™ Bill Hicks, which I didn’t actually know until I read Adam Holt‘s answers to the interview questions below. See? This is how you learn things. You ask.
That important life-lesson aside, you should know that It’s Just a Ride has indeed been on a voyage headed toward its release for more than a year. While I’m not entirely certain what’s been behind the delay beyond the busy schedule of Kozmik Artifactz and perhaps that of the band as well, one knows from past experience that well-made heavy rock never gets stale, and as it happens, Hair of the Dog specialize in precisely that. I’ll post the exact release date when I have it, but given their scheduling of shows in March and over the early part of the summer, the target would seem to be somewhere in Springtime. Perfect.
Please enjoy the following video premiere and Six Dumb Questions:
Hair of the Dog, “It’s Just a Ride” official video premiere
Six Dumb Questions with Adam Holt of Hair of the Dog
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Alright, let’s dive in. The album’s done, in the can. What can you tell me about it? What’s the plan for release? How do the songs compare to This World Turns? Is there anything you’re trying to do differently this time out, or is it just a matter of continuing on the path?
We wanted to take a stripped back DIY approach with It’s Just a Ride. Our debut record, which ultimately lead to us being signed to Kozmik Artifactz and started this incredible ride, was much in that same vein. With this new record, the only help we had was with the recording, for which we headed back to Graeme Young of Chamber Studios here in Edinburgh. The production, mixing, artwork, promo photos and the video were all done by the three of us. This allowed us to ensure the final record was 100 percent our vision.
The other main difference with It’s Just a Ride, was that we wanted to include more of our less obvious influences into the mix. As children we would jam songs by Zeppelin, Hendrix and other bands of that era, these influences are quite apparent in our previous records. However, that was during the late ’90s/early ’00s and we were also big fans of bands such as Rage Against The Machine, The Deftones and Pantera. So the idea for this record was to bring more of the latter influences forward in the sound and keep just the vocals harking back to our more classic rock based influences.
The record was supposed to come out late 2019, but with pressing plant complications regarding the vinyl, we were forced to push this back to early 2020. However, this will work out well as we have been booked for several prominent UK festivals such as Hammerfest, Riffolution and Stonebaked Festival, which will give us a chance to air this new material.
Tell me about “It’s Just a Ride.” It’s the first audio you’re unveiling from the record, so how does it speak to what the rest does in music and theme? What are we seeing in the video?
The record is [also] called It’s Just a Ride which I’m sure many will know is a Bill Hicks quote. This is a mantra of sort that we as a band try to live our lives. With This World Turns the theme was more of a personal reflection of our own lives at that point and how no matter what we’re faced with “life goes on.” This time around, with the world around us in much more dark and uncertain times, I think it’s important that we all stop now and again to remind ourselves that “This is just a ride” – when all is said and done, did you make your ride count?
The video itself is just a homage of our ride as a band, the footage used is various clips from our time as a band from recording records and hanging out, to travelling to places such as Roadburn and other places we’ve played. It’s quite a personal video in that way, like a home-movie that we’ll be able to look back on and show our own children.
How was recording this time out? Did you go into it with any specific sound in mind, or was it just a matter of getting the songs to tape?
As previously touched upon, we went back into Chamber Studios here in Edinburgh with Graeme Young who has recorded all of our records. Graeme is one of Scotland’s top recording engineers, so we knew we’d get a solid recording as a foundation to work on. As always, we record all the music live in the one room, as we would when jamming in our practice space. From there, we took the recordings to my own home studio, where we were able to experiment and indulge without the restrictions of time and budget.
How prepared are you guys when you go in to record? Are the songs absolutely final, or is there some room for improv and rounding things out during the recording process?
We’re always 100 percent ready to record, studios cost a lot of money, so you can’t be wasting time when you are an underground band with limited budget. The songs structures are all final when it comes to hitting record, so the way to think of it is that we lay the foundations down in those first takes. Then we listen back and that’s usually when the music starts to speak to you, you start to hear little counter melodies and harmonies that weren’t there originally – so you start to decorate, shape and bring the whole thing together.
As mentioned, we took the recordings to my own home studio to mix, so we had a lot more time with this record to really go to town with layering the guitars and vocal tracks; as well as adding in different instruments and sounds – one track on the record has a cello solo!
I should also mention that never have lyrics when we come to record. This comes much later in the process for me. Once the mixes are done, I’ll take them into my car when I drive or on my phone to listen to as I walk my dogs, and again I’ll start to hear the melodies and words that the music is brings out of me.
When were the new songs actually written? You toured in Europe for This World Turns. Did that have any effect on the band going into making It’s Just a Ride?
I think we had the beginnings of a few songs as we were waiting for This World Turns to even come out! Once a record is sent off to the label we usually start writing again. We’ve been playing together now for over 15 years, so we’re very in tune with one another, writing new music has never been a problem – even a fun jam during a soundcheck can end up as something we’ll work into a song.
Something we did differently this time though was to go back to our original practice space – which was a summerhouse at Iain’s parents house up in the highlands of Scotland. That was Summer 2018, we took a long weekend off and travelled up. It was a great experience that transported us back to our youth. We just stayed up all night, drinking, jamming and having a laugh; and by the Sunday we had the material for the new record. We documented the whole process in our video diary’s which can be found on our YouTube channel.
When you tour and play with other bands I think it only motivates you more to get back home and start working on some new material. You subconsciously pick up little nuances from other sounds that you liked and those all become part of your make up as a band. With regards to It’s Just a Ride, what we took away from the This World Turns cycle, was simply that we wanted to make things a bit heavier!
Any plans or closing words you want to mention?
We’ll be playing a string of UK dates in promotion of the record, starting with Hammerfest 2020 in March, then Riffolution Festival and Stonedbaked Festival – we look forward to playing these new songs to our UK fans, with potential European dates to be added.
Posted in Bootleg Theater on February 26th, 2019 by JJ Koczan
Edinburgh three-piece Hair of the Dog are currently in the process of making their fourth album and second for Kozmik Artifactz, tentatively titled Vol. IV, and they’ve been posting videos assembled from footage captured in the studio. Funny faces, snacks, dudes laughing, playing songs with headphones on — all that stuff. They have two episodes out so far, and beneath all that goofery, what you’re seeing in them is a group creative process at work, the dudes in the band and the crew at Chamber Studios coming together to work as a team toward common ends. In the second episode, as drummer Jon Holt listens back to something he just recorded, there’s a quick moment where he hears something in his playing that no one else thinks is a big deal. The inevitable question: Does he want to re-record it? I don’t know whether they’d punch him in or if the whole trio — Adam Holt on guitar/vocals and Iain Thomson on bass — would have to lay down the song again, or if he’d work with scratch tracks or what, but this experience is completely universal.
If you’ve ever been in the studio with a band, this has happened. I don’t care if you were there recording, or if you were engineering the session, or if you were delivering a god damn pizza. If you were there for more than five minutes, you’ve seen this. There’s always one thing that somebody hears. Maybe no one else even hears it, but to them, it’s glaring. And I’m not going to invalidate that position either, by the way. I’ve been there too. Been that guy. But it’s inevitable that it happens. And usually it’s a not a big deal. What, the band plays the song again? Or even just the one person who heard the one thing plays that one part? Easy. But when a band is recording, these decisions feel huge. Maybe we should leave it because it’s a good mistake? Maybe we don’t want it to sound perfect. Maybe it was meant to be. All this stuff gets in your head while you’re recording and it’s really easy to lose perspective when you’re in the control room listening back to what’s about to become the definitive version of a song.
That kind of pressure is part of making a record, and that’s part of why you see Hair of the Dog laughing it off the rest of the time, because that levity helps alleviate some of the pressure they’re putting on themselves. So when they mug for the camera or make jokes about their shoes or whatever it is, understand there’s a current of purpose behind all that. It can be fun, and ideally it is, but it’s work too, and clearly what they’re doing matters to them enough to get the details just how they want them to be.
There are very likely more of these coming, but you can see the first two below. Hair of the Dog‘s last album, This World Turns (review here), was released in 2017.
Please enjoy:
Hair of the Dog, Making Vol.IV – Studio Diary – Day 1
Hair of the Dog, Making Vol.IV – Studio Diary – Day 2
Hair of the Dog return to Chamber Studios, Edinburgh, to record their fourth studio album on Kozmik Artifactz. The have just finished recording with Graeme Young of Chamber Studios, and have made the decision to mix and produce the album themselves, within lead guitarist/vocalist, Adam Holt’s, home studio.
Speaking of the album Adam said:
“We’re taking this one in a new and exciting direction. The HOTD sound is still very much a part of the mix, but we’re exploring heavier sounds and influences. We always try to hint within each album, where the next album might go in terms of sound, and we think This World Turns paved the way for us to introduce some of our metal roots. The world is so fucked up right now and this has definitely resonated with us, we’ll be addressing much of our opinions of life in 2019 on this new record.”
Whilst we are currently in hiding as we mix our new record, we are happy to announce that we will be headlining Red Crust Festival in Edinburgh on the 4th May alongside some killer bands from across the UK – including 1968 and our dear sisters Juniper Grave.
Attendees will be treated to some exclusive performances of our new material.
The currently un-named record, will be out later this year via German purveyors of killer sounds, Kozmik Artifactz.
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 15th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
And so we see Roadburn 2018 once again open its gaping maw of righteousness to hurl forth another barrage of acts to its long-since-completely-overwhelming lineup. You know how many distinct acts are discussed in the press release below? 32 by my count. And granted, I’ve never been much for counting, and a couple of them were previously announced and are playing additional sets, etc., but do you see my point?
My point is this: Roadburn 2018 makes an announcement for its smallest venue — the get-there-super-early-no-earlier-than-that Cul de Sac — and tightens up a few other odds and ends, and all of a sudden you’ve basically got an entire other festival being announced. 30 bands? That’s a fest. Roadburn throws it all out there like, “Oh it’s nothing. We do this every year.” And they do.
So who’s my absolute gotta-see on this list? If you read the names below and have been hanging around here for a bit, you can probably already guess it’s Comet Control. I was hoping they’d be added since they’re touring with Earthless and still supporting 2016’s much-loved Center of the Maze (review here). I’ll be there for them for sure — scheduling conflicts be damned. If it means there’s a chance I might get to watch that band play “Artificial Light,” I don’t care if I have to set up a tent in the middle of the Cul de Sac floor. I’m not missing it.
Here’s the update from the PR wire:
Roadburn 2018: Cul de Sac bands, pre-show party & more!
Roadburn’s artistic director, Walter Hoeijmakers comments: “The sales of day tickets alongside weekend passes have surpassed our expectations and we’re on course for another sell out year at Roadburn. We couldn’t be happier as we dive headlong into putting the finishing touches to the 2018 edition.
“We still have the side programme to announce, and of course, the all important schedules, but for now, we think there’s plenty for you to sink your teeth into with this announcement. The depth and variety of talent on show here is truly stunning.”
CUL DE SAC The Cul de Sac may be Roadburn’s smallest venue, but each year a hell of a lot of talent is packed into it’s confines. 2018 is no different with a stellar line up of bands both big and small who will be squeezing into the diminutive space and packing an enormous punch.
THURSDAY will see Une Misère reprise their performance with a second set. They’ll be joined by instrumental duo Insect Ark, hard rockin’ New Yorkers Mirror Queen, Dutch force of nature – Black Decades, the droning riffs of Galg, plus your personal soundtrack to the end of times courtesy of Sum of R.
FRIDAY has Earthless’ tour mates, Comet Control preparing for lift off, extreme metallers Départe from Down Under, Danish export Hexis, Dutch death metal darlings, Ulsect and a second set from Worship that promises some special surprises.
SATURDAY will see Planning for Burial perform again, mining his back catalogue for gems. Hair of the Dog will return to Roadburn, and be joined by fellow 2016 alumni Concatenatus, plus Mania’s mix of doom and black metal, and Phantom Winter’s suffocating sludge.
SUNDAY sees tour mates Bison and LLNN roll into Tilburg in an uncompromising fashion. They will be joined by the progressive sounds of Hidden Trails, a dual pronged Dutch attack in the form of Dystopia and Nefast, and visceral Italians, Syk.
SAN DIEGO TAKE OVER Good news for fans of psychedelic riffs! There are new additions to the San Diego Take Over, and they’re sure to bend your mind further into previously unknown directions. Unraveling the threads that run between the family of bands that make up the SDTO would require a headspace much clearer than anyone involved is quite capable of, but suffice to say that the pedigree running through the bands is of the standard you have come to expect.
RED OCTOPUS mix influences such as early Sabbath, Hawkwind and Can into a psychedelic wonderland.
ARCTIC is a California power trio steeped in the roots of early 70’s blues/psych, á la Blue Cheer and Band of Gypsies, while drawing elements of modern heavy, reminiscent of early Sleep. Heavy, sludgy, stoner psych played with a slow, driving energy. The band features three pro skaters, Figgy on guitar, Frecks on drums and Nuge on bass.
VOLCANO is a soundtrack for an ancient apocalypse. Primordial rhythm and afro-inspired melodies fill their grooves. The rumble in the distance grows, the forest falls silent. Let their trance fuel the dance, while theres still time. Let the lava flow…
PHARLEE was forged in the middle of the white-hot psychedelic jam scene in San Diego, California from members of Harsh Toke, Sacri Monti and Joy. But don’t let their geographical origin and associated acts mislead you. Pharlee walks their own path on scorched-earth. Forgoing the weed-fuelled jams of their counterparts for full-on the speed-ruled riffage. Partying off the sounds of Priest, Motorhead, Betty Davis and ACID, Pharlee create a new shrilling sound.
The San Diego Takeover is supported by the Performing Arts Fund NL.
TOBY DRIVER & ZVI These two component parts of Kayo Dot will be making their presence felt at Roadburn 2018 as they perform (separately) on Thursday, 19 April.
As a solo performer, on guitar, keyboard, and voice, Toby Driver has been exploring dark, austere neofolk akin to Grouper, Talk Talk, Current 93, and others, with a subtle progressive and unsettling edge, featured in his recent release, Madonnawhore (The Flenser, 2017). Along with songs from Madonnawhore, he will also be performing pieces from his forthcoming solo album, They Are The Shield, and additionally, a few left turns are of course to be expected.
Zvi is guitarist / vocalist Ron Varod (Kayo Dot, Sabbath Assembly, Psalm Zero, Myrkur) performing and recording solo since 2004. During the 40 minute run time of Zvi’s 2016’s Death Stops Us All, Varod gently wakes us up with a whispered vocal over nylon string guitar, pummels us with throbbing noise and lulls us back to sleep with droned out suspended clusters and Talk Talk-esque clean guitars.
RRRAGS Formed by singer / drummer Rob Martin (formerly of Bliksem), guitarist Ron Van Herpen (Astrosoniq, ex-The Devil’s Blood) and Rob Zim (bass, Lords of Altamont), RRRags emulates the sounds and styles of power trio’s such as Grand Funk, Blue Cheer and James Gang. But in addition to their fuzzed-out and soulful approach, there are also touches of psychedelica and psyfunk, which sets the band apart from the current crop of Sabbath worshipers, or old school hardrock devotees.
HARD ROCK HIDEOUT Roadburn’s annual pre-party returns! For those in Tilburg on Wednesday evening, before the festival kicks off “proper”, we welcome Roadburners to the city in style! This year we have teamed up with Babylon Doom Cult Records in Belgium to present speed metallers Bütcher, and Speed Queen, plus genre-crossing Witch Trail.
The Hard Rock Hideout is FREE and will take place at the Cul de Sac.
As with last year, the festival’s wristband exchange will be open on Wednesday, April 18 between 18.30-23.00 for early arrivals to pick up their passes in advance of Roadburn kicking off on Thursday.
Posted in Reviews on September 29th, 2017 by JJ Koczan
Here we are, gathered for round four of the Fall 2017 Quarterly Review. After the technical issues with the site for the last couple days, I’m glad to have everything back up and running, and one more time I thank Slevin and Behrang Alavi for making that happen. Though I have no idea what it might actually entail, I don’t imagine switching hosts on the fly for a site with as much content as this one has is easy, but they of course killed it and it is thoroughly appreciated. We move forward, as ever, with 10 more records. So let’s go.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Hallatar, No Stars Upon the Bridge
Finland’s Hallatar was formed after the passing of Trees of Eternity vocalist Aleah Starbridge, life partner of guitarist and songwriter Juha Ravio (also Swallow the Sun). In the new outfit, Ravio pays homage to Starbridge with the debut long-player No Stars Upon the Bridge (on Svart) by using her poems as lyrics, samples of her voice reading on “Raven’s Song,” “Spiral Gate” and the piano-backed centerpiece “Pieces,” and by bringing in Amorphis vocalist Tomi Joutsen and ex-HIM drummer Gas Lipstick to complete a trio playing nine tracks/40 minutes of deeply mournful/beautiful death-doom. The extremity of lurch in “The Maze” late in the record is matched by the gorgeousness of the chants and shimmering guitar on closer “Dreams Burn Down,” and from the opening strains of “Mirrors,” the emotion driving No Stars Upon the Bridge is sincere and affecting. Cuts like “Melt” and the mostly-whispered-until-it-explodes “My Mistake” have a sense of the theatrical in their delivery, but that makes them no less genuine, and though one wouldn’t wish the circumstances leading to the band’s formation on anybody, there’s no question that with Hallatar, Ravio turns tragedy into a lush, resonant catharsis.
Cultish echoes pervade Black Magic, the debut album from Swedish doom-rolling four-piece Alastor, and it’s not so much that the initials-only four-piece of guitarists H and J, bassist/vocalist R and drummer S take influence from Electric Wizard and Black Sabbath, it’s what they do with that influence that’s most striking. Black Magic is made up of three extended tracks – “Enemy” (11:51), “Nothing to Fear” (7:42) and “Black Magic” (14:27) – and with a deep tonal engagement, each one embarks on a huge-sounding sprawl of doom. Yes, the guitars owe the swirl in “Nothing to Fear” to Jus Oborn, but the echoes behind R’s voice there and the melody have an almost New Wave-style feel despite the “all right now!” drawn right from the Ozzy playbook. In other words, Alastor are preaching to the converted, and that holds true in the snowblinded Luciferian spaciousness of the title-track’s early going as well, but the converted should have no problem finding the gospel in what they’re hearing, and as “Black Magic” rounds out with its chanted feel, Alastor affirm the potential to progress within this sound and to continue to develop it into something even more their own than it is now. Familiar superficially, but sneaky in the details, so watch out.
Lima-based four-piece The Dead-End Alley Band aren’t far into opener “Red Woman” before the dark-psych vibe and languid groove have properly emphasized just how much the guitar of Leonardo Alva and the organ of Sebastian Sanchez-Botta (also vocals) complement each other. Propelled by the rhythm section of bassist/vocalist Javier Kou and drummer Jafer Diaz, Storms is the third album from them behind 2015’s Odd Stories (discussed here) and 2013’s debut, Whispers of the Night (review here), and it continues to blend fuzz and classic garage doom impulses on songs like “Headstone Fortress” and the shuffling “Thunderbolts and Lace,” the latter of which wah-trips to the max around a stirring boogie before “The Clock has Stopped” weirds out on extra vocal echoes and nine-minute closer “Waiting for the Void” brings in the progressive touches of pan flute and percussion. Even in the earlier, shortest track “Need You (It’s Enough),” The Dead-End Alley Band bring no shortage of personality to the proceedings, and confirm that the rough edges of their early outings have matured into essential aspects of who they have become as a band, completely in control of their craft and able to conjure an atmosphere both classic and individual.
Making their debut on Kozmik Artifactz, Scottish trio Hair of the Dog give their guitar-led compositions plenty of time to flesh out on This World Turns, their third album, as they demonstrate quickly on the nine-plus minute titular opener and longest track (immediate points), but one would hardly call their songwriting indulgent there or anywhere else as “This World Turns” flows easily into the following seven-minute push of “Keeping Watch over the Night” in a resolute one-two punch that soon gives way to the shorter and more driving “Ctrl-Alt-Del,” touching on influences from Thin Lizzy and Scorpions en route as well as modern practitioners like Kadavar, whose stamp can also be heard on side B launch “The Colours in Her Skin.” That’s not to say Hair of the Dog — guitarist/vocalist Adam Holt (interview here), bassist Iain Thomson and drummer Jon Holt – don’t leave their own mark as well, just that their blend stems from multiple sources. A bit of Lynottism surfaces in the penultimate “In Death’s Hands” as well, which has a more subdued feel despite fervent rhythmic movement underlying, and closer “4AM” soars with enough vigor and soul – and a little falsetto – to give This World Turns a suitably smooth and vibrant finish.
With ties to Motorpsycho through guitarist Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan, Soup issue their sixth long-player in the five-track lush melodicism of Remedies, which feels particularly aptly named for the immersion the wash that opener “Going Somewhere” is able to elicit. That is, of course, just the first of the spacious, semi-folk-infused progressions, and it’s with the longer-form “The Boy and the Snow” (11:33) and the psychedelic purposeful meandering of “Sleepers” (13:35) that Remedies truly unveils its considerable breadth, but the Crispin Glover Records release holds a sense of poise even in the two-minute centerpiece church organ interlude “Audion,” and the harmonies of “Nothing Like Home” bring to mind peak-era Porcupine Tree patience and fluidity while holding fast to the bright, orange-sunshiny warmth of the atmosphere as a whole, instruments dropping out just before three minutes in to showcase the vocals before returning to embark on the march to the final crescendo, not at all overblown but with just a touch of extra volume to let listeners dive deeper into the moment. Remedies feels quick at 42 minutes, but turns out to be just what the doctor ordered.
Prolific psych-progging Stockholmers Kungens Män return with Dag & Natt, a 2CD/2LP issued through Kungens Ljud & Bild (CD) and Adansonia Records (LP) that overflows with jazzy fluidity and gorgeous immersion. The band’s last studio outing was late-2015’s Förnekaren (review here), and whether it’s 13-minute pieces like opener “Morgonrodnad” and the even-more-krautrocking “Aftonstjärnan” or the seemingly complementary inclusions of the kosmiche-minded “Dag” and wonderfully drifting “Natt,” the album as a whole is a joy and a boon to anyone looking for an extended psychedelic meander. The saxophone of Gustav Nygren on the aforementioned leadoff and “Natt” makes a particularly striking impression, but with a steady, languid wash of guitar, synth and warm bass throughout, Dag & Natt wants nothing for flow, and the gentle, classy spirit is maintained even as the penultimate “Vargtimmen” ups the sense of thrust leading into the finisher payoff of “Cirkeln är Slut.” As of now, Kungens Män should be considered a too-well-kept secret of Scandinavia’s psych underground, though listening to Dag & Natt, one wonders just how long they’ll stay that way.
Whether it’s through the striking and gruesome cover art or through the lumbering post-Sabbath, post-Cathedral stoner-doom nod contained within, Smoke Wizzzard’s five-song self-titled debut LP thoroughly earns its third ‘z’ – and, for that matter, its second one – with played-to-form thickness and a tonal push that starts with 10-minute opener/longest track (immediate points) “Astro Lord” and continues to swagger and swing with due viscosity through “Reptiles” after the minute-long punker curveball “Soul Train.” The highlight of the Pittsburgh trio’s first outing might be “The Pass,” which has a hazy patience and some rightly-featured bass tone, but as “Run with the Wolf” moves from its early Electric Wizard muckraking to cap with piano and included howls for a doomier feel, it becomes clear Smoke Wizzzard have yet to play their full stylistic hand and the real highlights may still be yet to come. Fair enough. Something tells me getting stranger is only going to be a boon to Smoke Wizzzard’s approach on the whole, so bring it on.
If you hit up Highburnator’s Bandcamp and download their name-your-price Keystoned State EP, you might note the fifth and final inclusion is the entire live-recorded, 28-minute release presented as a single track. No doubt the Pennsylvania three-piece intend the four-song outing to be taken just that way. They begin with the “mad as hell” speech sampled from the 1976 film Network and from there unfold a potent riffly brew met head on with harsh East Coast hardcore-style vocals and more metallic growls. That’s nine-minute opener and longest track (immediate points) “The Brass Rail,” and it sets the tone for what follows on the eponymous “Highburnator” before “Desert Funeral” and the Sleep-style nod of “Peaking at the Coffin” push into even more stonerly vibes. This melding of pissed-off disaffection and mid-paced heavy rock groove is particular to the sludge of the Eastern Seaboard – think of it as regional fare – but Highburnator find space for themselves in the rawness of their riffs and the charm of their puns, and by the time they’re through the four songs, it makes sense why they might want to present the full onslaught as a single entity, essentially giving it to their listeners on one overflowing platter. Got the munchies? It’s right there waiting.
Greek psych-doomers The Curf made their debut in 2007 with I and then went radio silent until last year’s Royal Water EP. Their sophomore full-length, Death and Love, then, arrives via Fuzz Ink Records with some amount of intrigue behind it, but either way, the sans-pretense heavy roll the band unfurls on “Dark Hado,” and the more uptempo “Smoke Ring,” the dig-in low end of “Lunar Lair” and the scream-topped start-stoppery of “California” present a varied take brought together through heft as well as the crispness of production and delivery, such that when it wants to, Death and Love can bite down hard, but as on the closing title-track or the earlier “Order ‘n’ Sin,” it can rumble out spaciousness as well. Whatever might’ve taken The Curf so long to put together a second album beats the hell out of me, but if they were looking to make an argument for a third one, they do so convincingly across these nine songs, which hold firmly to their overarching flow despite the emergent stylistic range.
For now, Ulls is the solo-project of Barcelona-based David Trillo, formerly guitarist/vocalist for the heavy progressive trio Lord Summerisle, but the hope seems to be to build a full band at some point in the future. The I EP might rightly be called a demo, then, but for the professionalism and cohesiveness of sound with which its three songs are presented and the clarity of intent behind them. With Trillo rumbling away on bass beneath, six-minute opener “Inhumat” fleshes out its arrangement with organ alongside guitar swirl and sets up the classically swinging strut of “Llot Convuls,” on which the drums post-midsection lead the way through starts and stops à la a restless King Crimson and the guitar joins with no less angularity. Eight-minute closer “L’Emersió de l’Executor” brings about a thicker overall tone, but holds to a similar mood through its first half, Trillo finding room after about the four-and-a-half-minute mark for a standout solo executed with the bass running fluidly alongside that carries the song to its fading finish just before seven minutes in, at which point a residual drone takes hold to lead the way out. That ending is telling when it comes to various impulses that might show themselves in Ulls going forward, but as an initial demonstration, suffice it to say that I makes it plain Trillo shouldn’t have much trouble finding other players to come aboard the band with him.
Across a skillfully constructed six-track course, Edinburgh trio Hair of the Dog smoothly brought together influences modern and classic on their third album, This World Turns. Released through Kozmik Artifactz this past July, it’s an unpretentious 41-minute rocker that comes out swinging with the semi-garage riff of its nine-minute opening, longest and title-track (immediate points), opening to a rolling groove that’s just the first of many by the time the record is done — its emphasis on sonic clarity as much as organic chemistry, songwriting as much as execution.
And if the world is turning — spoiler alert: it is — so too is the craftsmanship of Hair of the Dog, who fluidly transition between the parts and pieces of the follow-up to 2016’s The Siren’s Song and play between classic guitar-led impulses, the near-metallic shuffle of cuts like “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” — where Scorpions and Iron Maiden come together at last — and the key-laced-but-still-post-Thin Lizzy low-end groove of “In Death’s Hands,” unfolding a deceptive breadth of approach that ties together easily via clean production value courtesy of an ongoing collaboration with engineer and obviously benefits from the band’s work since making their self-titled debut in 2014. An ongoing collaboration with producer/engineer Graeme Young of Chamber Studios is only bolstered by the mixing work of James Atkinson of Gentlemans Pistols, and as they make their way toward the classy, smoothly realized crescendo of closer “4AM,” the three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Adam Holt, bassist Iain Thomson and drummer Jon Holt continue to easily draw a line between rocker soul and heavier push, resulting in a style that’s timeless in its refusal to belong to any single era or another.
With a performance slated for next month at the potentially-lethal-sounding-or-at-very-least-liver-taxing Riffs and Rum 5 in Manchester, England, a live album upcoming, and work already started on a fourth long-player to answer the growth on display throughout This World Turns, Adam took some time out to discus Hair of the Dog‘s mission on the record, the progression across their three outings to-date and the writing and recording processes from which This World Turns‘s righteous, heavy-rock-for-heavy-rockers moments in songs like “Keeping Watch over the Night” and “The Colours in Her Skin” resulted.
Please enjoy the following Six Dumb Questions:
Six Dumb Questions with Hair of the Dog
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You’ve said that these songs are more personal for you than The Siren’s Song or the self-titled. What kind of experiences are you expressing on This World Turns, and now that the album has been released and you have a little distance from it, how do you feel about that expression? What is This World Turns ultimately saying about Hair of the Dog as a band and as people?
I wouldn’t say they are more or less personal than our other songs. All of our songs stem from our life experiences, from a real place — but with This World Turns, the subject matter is definitely more mature in nature. This is just a reflection of where we are in our lives as three men. Jon is married and has two young children. Iain is now married and has a cottage out in the countryside. And I am soon to be married this October. These things — especially bringing new life into the world — force you stop and view your life in a new light, as well as the world around you, which I’m sure we can all agree, is a fucked up mess right now!
Before I had the lyrics and title for This World Turns, I had the idea for the cover. The reaper staring out over the sea towards earth. I liked that image, to me there is as sort of comfort in that image which reflected the ideas I had floating about for the lyrics. I’m the reaper looking at the world, you the listener are the reaper looking at the world – is this how you want your life to be? Is this how you want your world to be like? You never know when that scythe will swing, so would you be happy with what you have if it did, right now? And I think that’s ultimately what This World Turns is about. It’s a record about reflection.
This World Turns — tomorrow is a new day, don’t take your life for granted, life can change – but the world will always continue to turn regardless.
Tell me about opening with the title-track. When did you know that was the one you wanted to leadoff the record, and was that before or after you had named the album? How did that song come together?
“This World Turns” was the first song we wrote for this album. I think we started jamming the various riffs for it very soon after The Siren’s Song was sent off to Kozmik. We even premiered it and “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” at Roadburn Festival in April 2016, so that gives you an idea as to how far along we were with the record even by then!
Like most bands, we have our own “pet names” for our songs so we can identify them – “This World Turns” was naturally called, “The Big One” and remained that way right up until the week before we recorded it, when I wrote the lyrics. I am pretty shit when it comes to writing my lyrics, often leaving them to the very last moment – I like to worry the other two, keep them on their toes! But sometimes it just takes longer for me to hear and feel what the lyrics should say.
The music itself was very natural, I think we wrote it over the space of a few jams – each riff just seemed to naturally lead to the next. It is such a fun song to play from a musician’s point of view. It definitely set the bar for how we wanted the rest of the record to sound, which is why I felt it should be the song to kick the whole album off, set the tone sort of thing – it just had that feel to it, and we always go with what feels right to us.
Talk about your experience in the studio making This World Turns. How long were you recording? What was it like working with Graeme Young again to get the songs down and then bringing in James Atkinson from Gentlemans Pistols to handle mixing? Was that the result of something specific you wanted to do differently coming off of The Siren’s Song?
We recorded the music for This World Turns in four days, then I took a two-week break to write the lyrics – an approach I haven’t used before. This was partly because I didn’t have any solid lyrics by the time we started recording, but also because I wanted to really take time to let the songs settle with me and see if that brought something new to my writing – which it did.
I always write my lyrics in my local pub. I sit with my headphones in, with the songs on repeat and basically wait until one or two words, perhaps even a phrase, comes to me. Once I get that starting point, I just go with them and the rest of the song follows. For example, with the song “This World Turns,” I kept hearing this phrase “keeps you safe inside its lies,” I’d sing it over and over all day. It’s hard to describe, there’s a definite click moment with my lyrics, when everything just comes together and flows.
Working with Graeme is awesome. I’ve known G as a friend for many years and worked with him on various bands. We call G the secret fourth member of HOTD because, as well as working with us on all of our records, he is the man that plays any keys or synth on the records. He is an extremely skilled recording engineer and as a musician himself, has a great ear for music. He pushes us really hard and always gets the best performance from us. Not to mention he also puts up with a lot of shit from us — mostly me — during the recordings too. We like to drink in the studio and this can often lead to the recordings taking back seat to our antics.
As for James, that was really just to bring something fresh into the fold, try something new. I had got chatting to James after we both played Roadburn 2016, and I asked him if he’d like to mix the album. I’m a big Gentlemans Pistols fan, and really love his work on their albums, so I knew he’d bring some magic to our record – and he didn’t disappoint.
One of the aspects I find most striking about This World Turns is the classic feel of the riffs and the construction of the songs still has a deeply modern sound. Three albums in, do you feel like you know what you want to get out of a recording experience with Hair of the Dog? What were your goals for the sound of This World Turns?
That’ the HOTD sound… We take pride in that, so when people pick up on that it’s rewarding. We love those bands, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Cream, Deep Purple, Hendrix. Our parents and teachers introduced us to these bands — one of the first songs I ever learned on a guitar was “Hey Joe.” But we also grew up on a diet of Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, C.O.C., Down, Metallica. The list goes on.
When we started, over 15 years ago, we just jammed songs by all of these great bands we liked – extending riffs, adding in parts, making songs heavier — and from these jams, we eventually started to write our own songs. We never sat down and decided we’d sound like this or that… we just developed this sound over many years jamming together. We just wish the audience was there for us when we started, because back in 2001 nobody wanted to hear our music!
In terms of recording, we love it, it’s like a holiday for us – time to hang, have some beers, do what we love and annoy Graeme as much as we can. We didn’t have any goals as such for This World Turns, as I have mentioned, we record live for the most part and we always enter the studio with the songs polished – so it’s just about having a good time, enjoying it, letting the creativity flow and make something we are proud of.
We like the spontaneity and experimentation that only manifests in the studio. Sometimes the best parts of our records come from stupid jokes and conversations we have after a few beers: “This song needs an orchestra; The Beatles had an orchestra, why can’t we?” Next thing you know, we’re dialing up some string sounds and adding them in. The studio is a musician’s toy box. Once you have those songs recorded, you start to hear all the melodies and counter-melodies hidden within the song that you couldn’t hear in the practice room – it’s a magical time.
How do you feel about what you’ve accomplished across your three records to-date, and is there anything in particular you’ll look to change next time?
We are incredibly proud of the three records we have put out so far, and we are extremely humbled by the positive response each record has received around the globe. With each album we grow as a band, as does our fan base. We love to play our music and doing so with that support and encouragement from our fans is a dream come true.
Next time? Well here’s an exclusive for you, we already have around three songs for our fourth album. We are going a bit heavier on this one. It will still have that HOTD sound to it, but we are experimenting with darker, heavier riffs.
You’re playing Riffs and Rum 5 in Manchester in Oct. with Pist, 1968 and others. Any other plans or closing words you want to mention?
Yeah we are looking forward to that show, we haven’t played England that much, which is shameful considering it’s right on our doorstep. But we will certainly put on a killer show, that’s for sure – free rum all night and three Scotsmen?! What could go wrong!
Plans, plans, plans… we have quite a lot coming up actually…
Our track “My Only Home” which had to be dropped from the vinyl version of The Siren’s Song is being featured on an up-and-coming double-vinyl project between several prominent independent labels – think that’s all I can say about that at the moment.
We are putting out live album in between This World Turns and our next studio album. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing it and it rocks, definitely one for the HOTD super fans! More on that to come soon.
And finally, the wheels are in motion to get the Dog back over to Europe in 2018. We hope to play a few of the summer festivals and dot a few headline shows around those.
