Posted in Whathaveyou on March 10th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Guitarist Shane Trimble of High Reeper has produced all three of the band’s albums to-date, so if you want an example of his work, you don’t have to look farther than the bottom of this post for their most recent outing, 2024’s metal-tinged rager Renewed by Death (review here), released in continued alliance with Heavy Psych Sounds. As High Reeper have been around for a bit — and Trimble‘s production/engineering isn’t limited to his own projects, as you can see below — I think what makes this a “launch” for Sletner Sound is the fact that now there’s a physical, dedicated recording studio, instead of helming recordings in the DIY/homemade style.
Wilmington, Delaware, is where the spot is located, so adjacent to any number of metropolitan areas. I know a fair amount of the people who might visit this site on a day-to-day are artists as well as fans. In a literal sense, it might be news you actually can use. There are equipment lists and such on the studio’s site, should you want to investigate further.
From the PR wire:
Shane Trimble of High Reeper Launches New Recording Studio, Sletner Sound, in Wilmington, DE
After nearly 30 years in the audio industry, producer and engineer Shane Trimble — guitarist of High Reeper — has officially opened Sletner Sound, a new recording studio in Wilmington, Delaware.
Trimble, who worked closely with legendary engineer and mentor Mike Tarsia, carries forward the Sigma Sound legacy, honoring Tarsia’s influence following his passing. With an extensive portfolio that includes mixing records for Bongzilla, Black Rainbows, The Pilgrim, High Reeper, and more, Trimble has cultivated a sound that blends classic techniques with modern production.
“I wanted to create a space that continues the tradition of the studios I grew up working in — where artists can push creative boundaries while getting the best possible sound,” says Trimble.
Sletner Sound is now booking for 2025. Artists and producers looking for a professional recording and mixing environment can visitwww.sletnersound.comfor more details.
For media inquiries, interviews, or studio bookings, please contact: Shane Trimble shane@sletnersound.com
About Sletner Sound
Founded by Shane Trimble, Sletner Sound is a professional recording studio in Wilmington, DE, dedicated to high-quality audio production. With decades of experience in engineering, mixing, and recording, Sletner Sound provides a space where artists can create music with expert guidance and top-tier sound.
Posted in Reviews on October 18th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
So this is it for the second of two Quarterly Review weeks around here, bringing the total to 100 releases covered since last Monday, with 10 more still to come next Monday.
110 releases, mostly (not all) from about April through November.
That’s insane. More, I’m not in any way prepared to call it or any other Quarterly Review comprehensive. It’s nowhere near everything that’s come out or is coming out. It’s a fraction at best. There’s just so much.
I’m not going to attach a value judgment to that. It’s not good, it’s not bad; it simply is. My processes remain largely unchanged, and whether it’s a net positive that the underground is either sparse and fractured or flooded with bands to such a point that Gen-X reunions underwhelm in the face of so much good, new music being made, I’ll be here regardless. And even if there were a fifth as many bands out there as there are right now, no doubt I still couldn’t keep up.
See you Monday.
Quarterly Review #91-100:
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Elder, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios
While it’s by no means Elder‘s first captured-live release, as they’ve put out festival sets from Roadburn and Sonic Whip in years past, Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios answers any what’s-all-this-about questions with the sound of the performances themselves. It’s a single LP, somewhere about 40 minutes long, and in Elder terms that translates to three songs — “Merged in Dreams/Ne Plus Ultra” (15:33), “Lore” (13:54) and “Thousand Hands” (9:21) — so by no means is it expansive, or comprehensive in representing this era of Elder‘s presence on stage or scope in songwriting. Why put it out instead of some recorded tour night or a compilation of songs from different shows? Same answer as before: the sound of the performances. For sure Live at BBC Maida Vale Studios is a fan-piece, but it is live, and Elder sound fantastic — and it’s probably a pretty decent memory for the band to celebrate — so you’re not at all going to hear me argue.
Simon Price, now formerly of UK heavy psych forebears The Heads, returns with the first Kandodo outing since 2019’s K3 (review here) and a reoriented focus on intimacy rather than operating in a full-band style. That is to say, the five-track/44-minute release sounds like the solo album it is. That, however, doesn’t stop “Fuzzyoceans” from casting an expanse in its just-under-11 minutes, with a central rhythmic bounce around which layers of synth and guitar conjure a wash of experimentalist flourish. Lo-fi beatmaking starts in “Chamba7,” the opener, and sounds higher budget as “Theendisinpsych Pt. 1” borders on psych techno — “Theendisinpsych Pt. 2” follows immediately and moves from sustained keyboard notes and a sampled David Bowie radio interview to an evocative, shimmering drone; it isn’t arhythmic, but it doens’t have a ‘beat’ per se — and becomes part of the avant garde soundscape (the lightning part) in closer “Freefalling,” which unfolds in stages of variable volume and hum with some howling leads snuck in near the end. It’s a deep dive and at times a challenging listen. So yes, exactly what one would hope.
When High Reeper‘s third LP, Renewed by Death, was announced back in July, it was notable how much the album’s narrative seemed to position them as a metal band rather than heavy/doom rock, which even though 2019’s Higher Reeper (review here) had its harder-hitting moments, is kind of how I’d come to think of them. The eight songs of Renewed by Death aren’t hyper-aggressive — though you wouldn’t call “Torn from Within” ‘chill’ by any means — but they feel sharper in their composition than the last record, and if High Reeper want to say that “Lamentations of the Pale” and “Jaws of Darkness” are their take on doom metal, I’d only emphasize how much that take feels like High Reeper‘s own in being cognizant of the traditional metal and doom aspects of their sound and making them groove as fervently as they do. The Eastern Seaboard is lucky to have them.
A low-key highlight of 2024, the collaboration between Norwegian neofolkers Ævestaden and heavy progressive instrumentalists Kanaan — titled Langt, Langt Vekk and comprising nine songs of varied intent, arrangement and origin — resounds with creative depth. It’s in Norwegian, and plays a lot off of traditional folk instrumentation and vocal styles — not to mention the songs themselves, which are also traditionals — but as the two sides come together even just on a three-minute instrumental piece like “Fiskaren,” there’s an organic forested space rock to be found, and whether it’s the somehow-catchy “Farvel” or “Habbor og Signe,” the cosmic-leaning “Vallåt efter C.G. Färje” or the wistful progeadelia that resolves in “Vardtjenn,” the reverence for the material is palpable, and also the reverence for the process itself, for each of these two entities contributing to something grander than either might be able or inclined to conjure on their own. That the collection worked out to be gorgeous, both worldly and otherworldly, and to cast such a breadth while remaining cohesive in mood is a credit to all involved. It could’ve been an absolute mess. It very much is not.
Slugs are Legal Now contains two live sets from experimental doomers MC MYASNOI, one from Harpa and one from R6013, both venues in the band’s hometown of Reykjavík, Iceland. The setlists are identical at six-per, but the performances are varied in a way that becomes part of the personality of the whole, which is immersive in its droning stretches, sometimes harsher in the noise being made particularly on the rougher R6013 songs, but still able to be heavy in a piece like “Step on Ur Neck” in a way that feels conversant with the likes of Ufomammut or Boris, and neither the moody post-darkjazz of “Nytrogen” nor the drums-and-rumble-do-a-minute-or-two-of-free-psych “lea%rdi%rdx2%rcx” a short time later (watch out for your speakers with that one), do anything to dissuade that impression. “Terror Serpentine” finishes both halves of Slugs are Legal Now with 11 minutes of grim sprawl, and in the culmination, that it’s the keyboard that’s shredding instead of one or the other of the guitars feels suitable to the weirdo nuance MC MYASNOI seem to come by so naturally and pair with a progressive will to grow by screwing with convention. Not going to be for everybody, but those ready to take a risk might find the reward waiting.
Back after two years with further affirmation of their comfort with the EP format, Connecticut two-piece Turkey Vulture run a condensed gamut in the six songs and 12 minutes of On the List, with the duo of vocalist/guitarist/bassist Jessie May and drummer/backing vocalist Jim Clegg giving specifically Misfits-y early punk impressions on “Fiends Like Us,” which “Untitled” takes more of a garage angle on in following before they metal-up for “Dollhouse” and the 48-second grind-punker “Adults Destroy,” which leads to thrashing in “Harvest Moon” offset by doomly swing, and the closing “Jill the Ripper,” going out on a note that toys with goth Americana in the vein of The Bad Seeds and boasts banjo, guitar, percussion and, crucially, accordion from Steve Rodgers in a multifaceted guest spot. The accordion makes it. Turkey Vulture‘s output is generally pretty raw and that’s true with On the List as well, but there’s character in them coinciding with the flow from one aspect of their sound to the next between the songs, and the EP ends up conveying a lot about what works in the band for something that’s 12 minutes long.
Doubly-bassed Brussels longform doom explorers Ghost:Whale certainly don’t get any less consciousness melting on the second disc of Dive:Two, which manifests its plunge across three extended pieces each given the title “Dub:Whale” and assigned a Roman numeral, but by then the five songs of the album’s first 67 minutes (as opposed to the 57 of the concluding trilogy) have already passed in the hypnotic, cosmic-doom push of “Under Pressure” and the synth-laced chug nod in the second half of “Les Danses des Sorcieres” that seems to come to a head in the speedier “Ultimas Palabras.” The shortest inclusion at nine minutes and by its finish spending some time cruising around a Truckfightersian desert, “Ultimas Palabras” gives over to “Godzilla” and “Eye of the Storm,” a kind of second LP within the first CD, led into by the synth of “Godzilla” — not a cover — and arriving at the farthest reach in the electronics-infused expanses of “Eye of the Storm,” for which the drums mostly sit out and the noise spends 21 minutes venturing into the unknown. Ghost:Whale are not fucking around. And obviously the “Dub:Whale” tracks are a divergence in intention, harnessing the power of repetition in a different way, but either it’s a logical extension or my brain has just gone numb from the low-end. Fine in any case, honestly.
Do I really need to tell you these guys are up to some shenanigans? They called the band Sheepfucker and Kraut, for crying out loud. Heavy rock chicanery ensues over eight tracks rife with willful misbehavior, culminating with “Broner” after turning the album’s progression into a kind of playground running between heavy rock, classic and psychedelic instrumentalism, metal and jams. It’s not a little, and I guess a namedrop for Mr. Bungle is somewhat obligatory, but the Bulgarian outfit make themselves welcome in the swath of ground they cover, punkish in their glee on top of everything else in “Bobanei” and the pop-adjacent “Look at Me,” which would seem to have some satire behind its chorus but is a standout hook just the same. They’re not all nonsense, or at least not at the expense of their songwriting in “Rich Man” and “Jolly Roger,” or “Did You Know” mirroring “Look at Me” in the penultimate spot on side B, but if people having fun while making music is a problem for you, I mean, really, you might want to have a good long think on what that’s all about. Yeah, it’s over-the-top. That’s the idea.
In some ways, LungBurner‘s second LP of 2024, Natura Duale, reminds of earliest Yatra in bringing together vicious sludge metal and a breadth of atmosphere, but the Atlanta outfit have more of a post-metallic bent as the solo of “Barren” nonetheless dares to soar, and opener/longest track (immediate points) “Requiem” establishes the first of the album’s nods in a build of standalone guitar in the spirit of YOB, and in combination with a churn that wouldn’t feel out of place on Neurot and a crush in centerpiece “(Prey) Job” that opens to a classic stoner metal swagger in its verse, the righteousness here takes many forms, most of them dark, grueling and heavy — this definitely applies to the Celtic Frosting put on the proceedings by the finale “Astral Projection” — but not without a corresponding reach or purpose. LungBurner are served by the complexity of character, and Natura Duale grows more vivid as it goes.
With their material steeped in fantasy and horror/sci-fi lore, a goodly portion of it being of their own making, Michigan’s Bog Wizard continue to find the thread between tabletop gaming and sometimes monolithic sludge. The bulk of Journey Through the Dying Lands, which is their second release in a row done in collaboration with a game company, is dedicated to opener “I, Mycelium,” which stretches across 19:50 and unfolds in stages that don’t bother to choose between being brutal or fluid, the band winding up coming across as dug-in as one might expect Bog Wizard to be in the endeavor. There are two more studio tracks, in “Dodz Bringare,” which is black metal until it slams into the doom wall, and “Hagfish Dinner,” on which they depart for two minutes of harmonized chant-like vocals over resonant acoustic guitar. They’re not done yet as Ben Lombard (guitar/vocals), bassist Colby Lowman and drummer/vocalist Harlen Linke offer a glimpse at some live-on-stage banter before tearing into the thrasher “Stuck in the Muck” and backing it with another live track, this one a take on “Barbaria” from 2021’s Miasmic Purple Smoke (review here) that by the time it builds to its galloping finish has already long since demanded every bit of volume you can give it.
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 15th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Consider the notion of Philly’s High Reeper as a ‘Heavy’ metal band. That’s Heavy metal as opposed to heavy metal, taking the heft of heavy rock and roll and transposing it onto a more aggressive backdrop. Is that what’s happening on their third full-length, Renewed by Death? Could be; I haven’t heard the record yet. Certainly the first single “Torn From Within” seems to bring together a metallic bite with a density of groove, and the death-rides-a-snake-past-phallic-monoliths (takes one to know one there, Obelisk guy) cover art feels like it’s likewise positioning the band more toward a metal sphere. Maybe that’s how High Reeper want to distinguish themselves this time around. Will be interesting to hear how it unfolds across the full album when the time comes.
That time, incidentally, is Oct. 4. High Reeper have been to Europe and back (not their first trip, I think) alongside labelmates Hippie Death Cult in the time since I was fortunate enough to see them at Desertfest New York 2022 (review here), and while it’s a little sad that they didn’t take advantage of the chance to call their third LP ‘Highest Reeper‘ in the one-upping spirit of 2019’s Higher Reeper (review here) and their 2017 self-titled debut (review here), I get that maybe they didn’t want to write themselves into a corner. What would you call a fourth album in that case? This is how amps end up going to 11, although that too was pretty goddamned metal.
The PR wire brings news of Renewed by Death for your perusal. Track’s at the bottom of this post:
East Coast heavy metallers HIGH REEPER to release new album “Renewed By Death” on Heavy Psych Sounds; debut single streaming now!
US heavy metal quintet HIGH REEPER return strong with their third studio album “Renewed By Death”, to be released on October 4th through Heavy Psych Sounds. Stream their fierce new single “Torn From Within” now!
Three years after appearing on the “Doom Sessions Vol.5” split, HIGH REEPER are back with their most ambitious album yet. “Renewed By Death” is a true heavy metal assault: eight tracks that take you on a journey to the darkest depths and leave you there to rot, featuring monolithic riffs that pummel you from the opening of the album to the close, guitar solos reminiscent of George Lynch and Dave Navarro, and powerful vocals that deliver a knockout blow. This album showcases the band’s desire to keep evolving and exploring new sounds and ideas.
Listen to High Reeper’s new single “Torn From Within”
About the song, the band comments: “We wanted to lean into our love of 80s and 90s metal without pulling away from our love of 70s doom. ‘Torn From Within’ sets the tone for what this album is about – if you love something set it on fire and watch it writhe, see what’s born from the ash.”
“Renewed By Death” was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Shane Trimble at the band’s brand new studio Sletner Sound, in Wilmington Delaware with Justin Di Pinto also engineering. The cover was done by Solomacello and photos of the band were done by Drew Wiedemann.
TRACKLIST: 1. Renewed By Death 2. Alluring Violence 3. Lamentations of the Pale 4. Broken Upon The Wheel 5. Jaws of Darkness 6. Smoldering Remains 7. Torn From Within 8. Echoes of Mortality
Born of Sabbath City dealing in Hard Rock from the soul… HIGH REEPER is a heavy metal band from Delaware/Philadelphia. Shortly after forming in 2016, they were signed to Heavy Psych Sounds Records and have since released two full-length albums and one split EP. They supported their first two releases with almost 90 dates over three tours in Europe alone, including stops at HPS Fests Rome and Innsbruck, Desertfest Berlin and Antwerp, headlining their venue at Desertfest London, Esbjerg Fuzztival and many other killer shows abroad and in the US.
Originally with a sound deeply rooted in modern stoner metal while still giving a nod to classic heavy metal records, HIGH REEPER’s sound has continued to evolve with each LP and through lineup changes. The result of which helped produce their upcoming 2024 full-length length which is a 35-minute assault of brand new metal that finds the band looking clearly forward while at the same time exploring their influences from the 80s and early 90s. Their third studio album “Renewed By Death” will see the day in the fall of 2024 on Heavy Psych Sounds.
HIGH REEPER is Zach Thomas — Vocals Pat Daly — Rhythm guitars Shane Trimble — Lead guitars Jimmy Althouse — Bass Justin Di Pinto — Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on May 19th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Two bands left to announce, huh? Well, having been in Baltimore earlier this month to see them, Holy Fingers would sure as shit be a welcome addition to this bill, and if Heavy Temple are back from Europe by then (and I’m not sure they will be), they’d be my other pick, though certainly Heavy Psych Sounds wouldn’t be out of line to tap either Ecstatic Vision or Ruby the Hatchet for those spots, again pending their availability.
Whoever remains to be added, it’s already a pretty sick bill for Heavy Psych Sounds Fest 2023 in New York and Baltimore. Bongzilla‘s new record will be out by then, The Golden Grass put out a banger this year, that Gozu album is a beast, so yeah, toss in Lüger from Montreal and The Atomic Bitchwax who are always welcome, add even more cool bands, and it’s a Heavy Psych Sounds Fest. At the Saint Vitus Bar. I remember a time when nobody went to heavy rock shows in New York. Not a label from Italy is hosting a festival in Brooklyn. Time is very, very weird.
I’m gonna say that’s enough since you probably stopped reading anyhow, skimmed the lineup and clicked off, either to buy tickets or elsewhere. Safe travels, either way.
From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York & Baltimore to take place on November 10-11th with Bongzilla, The Atomic Bitchwax and more; tickets on sale
In cooperation with Saint Vitus Bar and Savage Party, Heavy Psych Sounds Records take over the East Coast with the first edition of Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York & Baltimore, to take place respectively at Saint Vitus Bar and Metro Gallery on November 10-11th, 2023. Ten bands are already confirmed, don’t wait to get your tickets!
“We are stoked to organize one of our HPS Fests on the US East Coast for the very first time! After conquering the West Coast in March, we are ready to rock the East Coast too!” says Rajko Dolhar from Heavy Psych Sounds.
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest New York 2023 Saint Vitus Bar – 1120 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222 BUY TICKETS
Heavy Psych Sounds Fest Baltimore 2023 Metro Gallery – 1700 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201 BUY TICKETS
With BONGZILLA THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX HIGH REEPER THE GOLDEN GRASS GEEZER BLACK LUNG WITCHPIT COSMIC REAPER GOZU LÜGER + two more bands TBA
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
True, most of the lineup for Up in Smoke 2022 — set for Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 in, as ever, Pratteln, Switzerland — was previously announced, and some of it goes back to what the fest would’ve been in 2020, but I’ve got two reasons for posting it now. First, it’s a new announcement and the festival’s social media has fallen into some kind of digital chasm I don’t and couldn’t hope to understand, and second, that lineup is perfect.
Seriously, they say there are more bands coming. Don’t on my account. This’ll be just fine. There was one band on this poster with whom I was not immediately familiar by name, and that was Midnight Deadbeats, who released their debut album, Moonshine Carnival, in late 2020 on Sixteentimes Music. You can stream it below. To me it sounds like earliest Dozer and if you think I’m about to complain about that you’re out of your mind. And everybody that surrounds on this bill is someone I’d like to see, whether I’ve seen them before or not. Fu Manchu and Slomosa. Irist and Orange Goblin. Naxatras and Echolot. Stoned Jesus and Sasquatch and Mars Red Sky and The Heavy Eyes. Greenleaf. Somali Yacht Club, High Reeper and Hippie Death Cult. Fucking a.
I won’t get there — these Fall fests are perennially out of my reach — but god damn what a show this weekend will be. Sound of Liberation is handling the promotion and that’s where to go for social media at this point. They just made the announcement that follows:
UP IN SMOKE FESTIVAL: LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT
Hey friends,
Today we’re absolutely stoked to present you the majority of bands for our beloved Up In Smoke Festival!
Get ready for three days of heavy psychedelic, stoner rock and doom at the Z7 Fabrik in Pratteln, Switzerland!
Already (re-)confirmed for 2022:
FU MANCHU – ORANGE GOBLIN – ELDER – STONED JESUS – PALLBEARER – GREENLEAF – SASQUATCH – NAXATRAS – MARS RED SKY – SOMALI YACHT CLUB – ELECTRIC CITIZEN – SLOMOSA – MOTHER ENGINE – IRIST – HIPPIE DEATH CULT – HIGH REEPER – THE HEAVY EYES – CARSON – ECHOLOT – MIDNIGHT DEADBEATS
More bands to be announced!
Tickets: https://www.sol-tickets.com
Tickets + 3 Day Sleepover Ticket: http://www.z-7.ch
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Yeah, totally. High Reeper and Hippie Death Cult, from Philly and Portland, Oregon, respectively, have both previously been announced for a bunch of Fall fests in Europe. You can see the names below. That’s had me pretty much waiting for this announcement, though I’ll admit I hadn’t pegged that they’d be out together, just that they’d be out. Full volume and safe travels to all.
I was lucky enough to see High Reeper at Desertfest New York in May, and bet your ass I’ll be front and center for Hippie Death Cult at Psycho Las Vegas, as both are the kind of band who, years from now, I’ll be bragging about having seen, not because I expect they’ll be playing arenas — though weirder shit has happened — but because they’re quality acts participating in a generational boom of heavy rock. And if you recognize the moment you’re fortunate to be living in, then all you can really do is do your best to show up and see it happen in person, because the terrifying truth is, it’ll happen even if you’re not there. Shudder at the thought.
Dates came down the PR wire from Heavy Psych Sounds. There are open slots, so if you can help, do that:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS announce HIGH REEPER-HIPPIE DEATH CULT FALL TOUR 2022
We are proud to announce a super doom combo coming in Europe this Fall:
HIGH REEPER and HIPPIE DEATH CULT !!!
!!! DON’T MISS THEM !!!
HIGH REEPER – HIPPIE DEATH CULT EUROPE FALL 2022 WE 28.09.2022 IT BOLOGNA FREAKOUT TH 29.09.2022 IT TREVISO ALTROQUANDO FR 30.09.2022 OPEN SLOT SA 01.10.2022 FR ENSISHEIM WOOODSTOCK GUITARES SU 02.10.2022 CH PRATTELN UP IN SMOKE TU 04.10.2022 OPEN SLOT WE 05.10.2022 OPEN SLOT TH 06.10.2022 OPEN SLOT FR 07.10.2022 DE ULM HEXENHAUS SA 08.10.2022 DE MUNICH KEEP IT LOW SU 09.10.2022 NL LEUUWARDEN INTO THE VOID FEST TU 11.10.2022 UK WE 12.10.2022 UK TH 13.10.2022 UK FR 14.10.2022 UK SA 15.10.2022 UK SU 16.10.2022 BE ANTWERPEN DESERTFEST TU 18.10.2022 OPEN SLOT WE 19.10.2022 DE KIEL SCHAUBUDE TH 20.10.2022 OPEN SLOT FR 21.10.2022 DE DRESDEN HPS FEST SA 22.10.2022 DE BERLIN HPS FEST SU 23.10.2022 OPEN SLOT MO 24.10.2022 PO WROCLAW KLUB AKADEMIA TU 25.10.2022 AT WIEN VIPER ROOM WE 26.10.2022 OPEN SLOT TH 27.10.2022 CH MARTIGNY SUNSET BAR FR 28.10.2022 OPEN SLOT SA 29.10.2022 IT CECINA SCUOLA RITMI FUZZ’NROLL SU 30.10.2022 IT NIMIS LUPUS IN FABULA
HIGH REEPER is: Shane Trimble- guitar Zach Thomas- vocals Pat Daly- guitar Tyler Yoder- bass Justin Di Pinto- drums
HIPPIE DEATH CULT is: Eddie Brnabic – Guitar Laura Phillips – Vocals / Bass Ryan Moore – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
In a manner not dissimilar from how its California fests took largely the same expansive lineup from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to San Francisco, Heavy Psych Sounds is bringing a circus to Berlin and Dresden on Oct. 21 and 22. In association with Greyzone and ElbSludgeBooking, the label has assembled a lineup that includes HPS bands and others like 1000mods and Gozu, and that sense of community outreach isn’t to be understated. The synergy between booking and releasing is a big part of what has allowed Heavy Psych Sounds to become the underground nexus it is, able to do more for bands than many other outlets. The festivals in cities across Europe and now in the US as well are another extension of that.
That’s not really an insight as to the lineup here or the label’s ethic or taste — also choice — but the fact is this is Heavy Psych Sounds doing what it does. More power to them, and so on.
From the PR wire:
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST BERLIN & DRESDEN full lineup announcement
Heavy Psych Sounds Records & Booking will smash Berlin and Dresden with their highly acclaimed mini festival-series, the HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST!
In cooperation with Greyzone Concerts and ElbSludgeBooking, Heavy Psych Sounds has revealed the full lineup for the upcoming HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST BERLIN & DRESDEN !!!
The HPS Fest Berlin & Dresden will be taking place 21st and 22nd of October, 2022 at the Festsaal Kreuzberg and Urban Spree in Berlin and Chemiefabrik in Dresden !!!
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS FEST – BERLIN & DRESDEN @ Festsaal Kreuzberg / Urban Spree, Berlin @ Chemiefabrik, Dresden October 21st and 22nd 2022
feat. 1000 MODS NICK OLIVERI BELZEBONG BLACK RAINBOWS ACID MAMMOTH THE LORDS OF ALTAMONT HIGH REEPER SLEEPWULF TONS HIPPIE DEATH CULT GOZU OREYEON WEDGE MOTHER ENGINE
BERLIN TICKETS PRESALE: https://www.greyzone-tickets.de/produkte/602
BERLIN FB OFFICIAL EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1358860387859773/
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 15th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
I have said so many times in the past, but of all the festivals throughout any given ‘normal’ year in the sphere of Sound of Liberation‘s booking itinerary, I always wanted to go to Keep it Low in Munich. Yeah, part of that is because Colour Haze regularly shows up — kind of the house band — and any opportunity you can take advantage of to see them in your life is a thing worth doing, but also the general vibe of the artwork, what seems like kind of a laid back feel and intention. At this point it’s been going on long enough (without me in attendance) that I’m sure a community of familiar faces has been built up, and as the first lineup announcement for Keep it Low 2022 on Oct. 7 & 8 comes out, I’m in the same boat as ever thinking that if this was the complete festival, done, one shot, blamo, then you’d say it was looking to be a killer couple days in Germany.
That Friday lineup is unstoppable, and Saturday is more populated but right behind it with Fu Manchu and Unida at the top of the bill so far and a reunion slot for The Great Escape (feat. members of My Sleeping Karma), as well as US imports like The Heavy Eyes, High Reeper and Hippie Death Cult (waiting for that tour announcement any minute now). Maybe they’ll all go together and call it the Triple-H tour, thereby proving that they too remember pro wrestling in the mid-1990s.
Alright, maybe not. Either way, with more to come, here’s what the fest has to say about its own badass doings:
KEEP IT LOW – LINE-UP NEWS & SINGLE DAY TICKETS ON SALE
Dear Keepers,
today we’re happy to reveal the first bands for our upcoming Keep it Low festival 2022! Additionally, Single-Day Tickets are now on sale!
