Homecoming, whose very moniker speaks to their desire to evoke an emotional response in their listener — no matter who you are or what it is, you feel some way about the notion of going home — will release their second album this Spring. Titled Those We Knew as if to underscore the evocative point, the six-song outing follows late-2019’s LP01 (review here) and is the band’s first for UK imprint Copper Feast Records, which snagged the band this past summer following their appearance at Desertfest London 2023.
The Parisian four-piece draw as much from progressive metal as progressive heavy rock, and they meet the nine-minute urgency-parade of “Tell Me Something” at the album’s outset with the slower creep into volume of the subsequent “Red Rose,” which begins acoustic and follows a linear course of emotive heavy focused more in the melodic flow where the song prior spun heads on the way to, well, spinning more. Elements recognizable from the likes of Mastodon, Neurosis, maybe even Paris’ own Abrahma or similarly textured units given to shimmering guitars like those heard in “Gift of Eyes,” which premieres below and closes the record.
It’s not a minor journey to get there as regards acquiring bumps and bruises, but Homecoming offer encouragement along the way and the scope of “Tell Me Something,” the smoothness with which it departs its earlier aggro-isms for more atmospheric fare before building back up around blackened squigglies and a chugging rush, sets up (and fulfills) any expectation or anticipation for breadth one might have. Like the music propelling them, the vocals are dynamic, switching between lower-register cleans and harsher growls. By the time “Gift of Eyes” lays out its headspinning course, Homecoming have already brought that melodic style into focus on “Red Rose,” set up the bright-toned intertwining leads of “Blood of My Blood” as well as its screaming payoff, subtly reaffirmed their penchant for ironic titles with “Interlude II” at 9:02 (though some days we all need a nine-minute interlude), and landed in the 11-minute “Shores.”
The latter pushes guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Théo Alves Guiter, guitarist/backing vocalist Renaud Fumey-Seguy, bassist Basile Chevalier and drummer Theo Giotti about as far they go, but there’s another level of intensity reserved for “Gift of Eyes,” the position of which as the closer after “Shores” would make it an epilogue were it not so forcefully delivered. Pairing the melodic singing and contorting riffery gives the track a particularly progressive feel even among its compatriots, and with lyrical mention of symmetry to boot, Homecoming tie that proggy urgency back to the start of Those We Knew before dropping everything.
Minimalism and consumption follow, in that order, to end the record. Homecoming let go of the angularity that brought them through the first half of “Gift of Eyes” and dig into quiet standalone guitar, but the explosion is coming and they rightly saved the more extreme barks for the second half. Speaking of epilogues, though, “Gift of Eyes” has its own in the subdued, sweetly contemplative guitar that ends after the assault has subsided. Like “Tell Me Something New,” or “Shores,” or hell, even “Interlude II,” it’s kind of an album unto itself.
So much the better that you can hear it here. Comment from the band and info from the PR wire follows.
Please enjoy:
Théo Guiter on “Gift of Eyes”:
This tune is a treatise of the hubris of which man is capable, the folly of attempting to grasp the infinite and the possibility of stumbling upon something far greater, as incomprehensible in its immensity as in its designs. Each glance demands a sacrifice, a gift.
Lyrics: Light, filtered through bars Can’t conceal the stars Demented by the erudite scroll I correlate it all
Halls carved in strange stone, The symmetry is wrong Thrown into this cell Entombed in waking hell Demented by the effort of it all Don’t let me fall asleep
Halls hewn in strange stone, The symmetry is gone
Now the walls they grow and writhe I hear the wails of thousand lives Calling me there Anywhere’s better than here
Now they seem to carry on To conclude their fateful song Calling me home Take my eyes for your throne
Wrenching the macula brings no anguish Keeping these is all but useless Adorn the vitreous wreath with this gift of eyes
Light Eyes on the inside This my gift to you Borne to spy the space between the veil and and all that we were meant to see
New album ‘Those We Knew’ Out April 19th 2024 on Copper Feast Records LP, CD, download and streaming
The album reveals the band’s well-honed personality, fusing grunge, 90s rock and progressive metal. “Those We Knew” showcases remarkable vocal work that guides the listener through various musical tableaux. The vocals adapt to the moods and unite the tracks, tying together the influences. The gloomy, heavy, sometimes hushed 90s tones collide with endless imagination, peppered by ethereal atmospheres, enticing introspection.
TRACK LISTING ‘THOSE WE KNEW’ 1. Tell Me Something 2. Red Rose 3. Blood Of My Blood 4. Interlude II 5. Shores 6. Gift Of Eyes
Lyrics composed by Theo Alves Guiter Mixed and mastered by Francis Caste at Sainte-Marthe Studios, Paris. Artwork by Vaderetro Studios
Produced by Noon Brings The Fire Distributed by Copper Feast Records Promoted by Shake Promotion
Posted in Whathaveyou on June 14th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Always right on to see a band get signed based on the strength of their live performance, and it would seem that Copper Feast Records, having caught the Paris-based Homecoming in at Desertfest London, has subsequently picked up the band to release their 2020 debut, LP01 (review here), on vinyl. Sad to say I didn’t see Homecoming at Desertfest London, but that the label ends up classifying the central genre as “post-whatever” below makes a fair amount of sense considering the prog/crush crossover happening in their sound. That record had both encouraging reach and sharp songcraft in the now (or in the couple-years-ago, as it were), and if we’re lucky maybe they’ll have a follow-up in the offing before too long.
The band kicked off a tour in support of LP01 on June 8, and you’ll find the remaining dates included below, in addition to the announcement of their signing as per Copper Feast‘s social media. Dig:
Surprise! It’s time to welcome the newest addition to the Copper Feast family!
Our favourite discovery of Desertfest London – Homecoming have signed with us as we prepare to reissue their debut album ‘LP01’ on vinyl for the first time.
This Parisian post-whatever stoner/sludge metal powerhouse are in the midst of a massive European tour that we thoroughly suggest you do what you can to see in the flesh.
For fans of Soundgarden, Baroness and if you’ve been following us for a while, Sleeping Giant
Homecoming – LP01 Spring Tour 2023 (remaining dates) 14.06 SZEKESFEHERVAR, Hungary Nyolcas Műhely 15.06 OSTRAVA, Czech Republic @ Rock Hill Club 16.06 WROCLAW, Poland Klub Szalonych 17.06 OPOLE, Poland San Diego // Opole 18.06 BERLIN, Germany RESET – Live Club Berlin Kreuzberg 19.06 NEED HELP 20.06 LYON, Le Farmer Le Farmer 24.06 ZURICH, Switzerland Dynamo Zürich 07.07 PARIS, Olympic Cafe Olympic Café 8.07 ANGERS, T’es Rock Coco T’ES ROCK COCO, Bistrot Culturel
Caligari heavy blues rockers King Howl will release their third album, Homecoming, on June 9 through Electric Valley Records. With a liberal dose of harmonica at the outset and an uptempo kick to match, hints of Grinderman in its second half, the 11-track/40-minute LP begins at a burn with “The Rooster,” the slide-guitar-inclusive “From the Cradle” and the fuzzier shove and Hendrixian lead flourish of “The Train,” a salvo of three songs none of which hits three minutes in length, and only really the last of which speaks to the band’s foundation in heavy rock. In this way, the Sardinian four-piece of vocalist Diego Pani (also harmonica), guitarist Marco Antagonista, and the dual-Alessandro rhythm section of bassist Alessandro Cau and drummer Alessandro Sedda hone momentum and seem immediately to bring their listener along with them as they move through, not recklessly or haphazard, but with vitality enough to match their bluesy aesthetic.
“John Henry Days” is longer at 4:25, broader, more patient and fuzzier, like Five Horse Johnson in the old days and a raucous rollout in its back half, though it ends with the acoustic guitar peppered throughout. “Motorsound” and “Slowly Coming Down” put further emphasis on the variety in King Howl‘s sound, swapping out the high-energy swing of the former — like a retro take on ’10s retroism — for a mellower unfolding, languid in its melody and semi-psych echoing solo and filled out by fuzz-coated bass notes, closing side A with a hint toward further expansion to come even as “Tempted” (2:50) arrives to revitalize the thrust that began the album on “The Rooster,” slide guitar and all, before “Jupiter” plays back and forth in loud/quiet trades and build-and-runs, fuzzed enough to evoke both very large planets and ancient deities, if somewhat understated in its finish.
The organ that sweeps in on “The Great Blue Heron” and the buzzsaw lead that cuts through its back half likewise speak to classic heavy rock influences, but it’s all tied to blues rock either way and King Howl offer an example of that root in the mid-tempo piece before giving over to “Gimme Shelter,” a cover of the Rolling Stones‘ iconic single. I’ll admit that personally I’m not a fan of the song — I saw the band once in the ’90s, so I’ve got that going for me — but it makes sense in light of the purported on-the-road-in-the-1960s-narrative the album follows even if it’s somewhat sonically superfluous, and I’ve been arguing back and forth with myself whether or not it makes the album stronger. I’m not sure it does, though King Howl deserve credit for taking something that just about everyone on the planet has likely heard whether they know/like it or not and making it their own. That’s not a minor achievement. If you’re the type to skip, maybe you skip it. If not, maybe you have that song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. As with all things: Choose Your Adventure.
But if the record is going to be called Homecoming, then the place to end it is “Home,” and that’s exactly what King Howl do. The closer (premiering below) is the longest inclusion at 5:43 and pulls together a lot of what works best throughout Homecoming in terms of groove, melody and the balance of elements in the mix; the vocals are in focus but not overbearing, the jabs of rhythm guitar are bright but not blinding, the rhythm is fluid and steady but not boring, the organ adds to each build into the hook, and so on. There’s a break after the midpoint with quiet standalone vocals, but to King Howl‘s credit, they finish by bringing it all the way back to an apex and then fading it out long, whether that’s the heavy blues train departing the station, seeming not so much like the song or story is ending but that we’re the ones leaving it behind. Fair enoough.
King Howl revel in their rougher-edged moments — “Tempted,” “The Train,” etc. — and offer diversity in their approach enough to hold fickle modern attentions, but the highlight of Homecoming, the finale aside, is the fact that they have a heavy blues sound, harmonica, organ and all, that comes across as organic when so much heavy blues is an absolute put-on on the part of those making it. Yes, they’re engaging with a folk tradition outside of their own — i.e., the African-American folk roots out from which blues music grew over a century ago — but they don’t sound like they’re pretending to be something they’re not in terms of style, and a big credit for that goes to Pani‘s vocals, which feel natural and developed over the course of the band’s three full-lengths to-date.
There’s a lot to dig into and a lot to dig, but King Howl are engaging throughout Homecoming and sound comfortable in their skin and like they didn’t have to sacrifice their edge to get there, setting stage-ready vibrancy to the cause of good-time classic heavy blues, and then some. Six years after their second long-player, Rougarou (they covered Canned Heat there, having already done Skip James and Blind Willie Johnson on 2014’s debut King Howl Quartet), this return speaks of the living done in the interim and benefits from the care put into its crafting.
“Home” premieres below, followed by more info from the PR wire.
Please enjoy:
King Howl, “Home” track premiere
King Howl on “Home”:
“Home” is the last track of our new album, ‘Homecoming.’ An angry but hopeful homecoming that concludes an epic in music, a round trip of growth and change, of damnation, redemption, and rebirth. A classic rock song with a blues feeling and the guts of stoner rock, empowered by the Hammond organ.
KING HOWL from Cagliari, Sardinia, play HEAVY BLUES: the raw sounds of the blues are filtered by a multitude of different musical influences coming from stoner rock, 70’s classic rock, funk, and punk in a crossover labored with spontaneity and naturalness, a flow of sounds that never stops.
King Howl attracted conspicuous attention with their first full-length “King Howl Quartet” (2012, Talk About Records/Go Down Records), which imposed a personal sound, pushed by singles like “Morning” and “Drunk.”
In 2014, the 4-track “Truck Stop Ep” (Talk About Records) brought new nuances to King Howl’s trademark, developing a more mature songwriting exposed in songs like “Kerouac” or “Time to say Goodbye.” In July 2017, King Howl released their last full length called “Rougarou.” 10 tracks of blues fueled – booze-soaked Rock’n’Roll, another proof of the band’s peculiar sound defined through years on the road, represented by bangers such as “Gone,” “Screaming” and “Demons.” The band toured all of Italy and central Europe several times, often included in the bills of international festivals such as Pietrasonica Festival, Time in Jazz, Duna Jam, Maximum Festival, Crumble Fight Fest, Freiburg Fuzz Fest, Swanflight Festival, Narcao Blues, Aglientu Summer Blues and opening (among others) for Mud Morganfield, Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man, Greenleaf, My Sleeping Karma, Siena Root, Bob Margolin.
King Howl’s new album, titled “Homecoming” will be released by Electric Valley Records on June 16, 2023. The work represents a new chapter in the band’s stylistic universe, spurring King Howl’s trademark sound while mixing it with new compositional and sound influences. A mix of blues, stoner, psychedelia, and classic rock that paints the soundscape of an on-the-road story set in 1960s America. The album was recorded in Sardinia by Roberto Macis and Willy Cuccu and mixed by Nene Baratto and Richard Behrens at Big Snuff Studio in Berlin, a key production hub for international heavy Psych (Kadavar, Samsara Blues Experiment, Elder, Wucan). Artwork by Elena Cabitza.
Tracklisting: 1. The Rooster 2. From the Cradle 3. The Train 4. John Henry Days 5. Motorsound 6. Slowly Coming Down 7. Tempted 8. Jupiter 9. The Great Blue Heron 10. Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones cover) 11. Home
King Howl: Diego Pani – Voce, Armonica Marco Antagonista – Chitarra Alessandro Cau – Basso Alessandro Sedda – Batteria
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 1st, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Staring at the poster of the finished lineup, there’s nothing more to do than congratulate the Desertscene crew on Desertfest London 2023. You could spend an entire day at any single stage in any single venue and call it front-to-back a good time. I’ve been posting festival lineups for Desertfest since it started in 2012 and this is the biggest and best it’s ever been. If you’re going, I’ll tell you flat out I’m jealous. It looks like it will be an amazing experience, and right up to the last lineup announcement, it’s quality as much as quantity when it comes to who is playing, on what stage, and when. It is the heavy festival ideal; a lineup that crosses generations and geographies to give those fortunate enough to be there something they’ll never forget.
So that’s it. Go if you can. Here’s the reportedly final update:
Desertfest London announces final bands and day splits for 2023, including Nebula, Dozer, Fatso Jetson + more
Desertfest London have announced the final bands and day-splits for 2023’s line-up, which will be taking place across Camden from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th May and promises to be heavier than the King’s coronation crown.
The final few bands to join the already stellar line-up includes the heavy groove rocking trio Nebula, Sweden’s stalwarts of stoner Dozer and the godfathers of the Desert Fatso Jetson. French post-metallers Year Of No Light will also be playing their first London show since 2013.
Also joining the line-up is Antwerp’s Gnome who will bring their dirty riffs, anarcho-punks Bad Breeding to get everyone fired up and acclaimed virtuoso Cellist Jo Quail to bring another dynamic to proceedings.
Electric Funeral will also be keeping the party going with a Sabbath covers set at Friday night’s after party and the festival is completed with Elder Druid, Kurokuma, Firebreather, Earth Moves, Untitled With Drums, Graywave, Mountains, Rosy Finch, Lowen, Homecoming, Wall and Death Wvrm.
The final additions join festival headliners and cult heroes Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats who will be playing the Roundhouse for the very first time. As one of the most widely-requested bands in the Desertfest-sphere, Uncle Acid’s trippy and melodic riff-driven hard-rock is uniquely original, yet an utterly timeless beast and will close Desertfest 2023 in a mystical cloud of doom and awe.
Friday’s headliners are none other than Swedish heavy-blues maestros Graveyard who will draw out raw emotion with their lyrical prowess & introspective compositions whilst Saturday welcomes back Corrosion of Conformity who have not been on UK soil since 2018 so expect big, loud and memorable things from their appearance at the festival!
Full Line-Up for Desertfest London 2023:
FRIDAY 5TH MAY ELECTRIC BALLROOM GRAVEYARD KADAVAR CHURCH OF MISERY VALLEY OF THE SUN SPACESLUG ELECTRIC FUNERAL (AFTER PARTY)
UNDERWORLD DISCHARGE BAD BREEDING DAWN RAY’D KUROKUMA TERROR COSMICO
POWERHAUS YEAR OF NO LIGHT SUM OF R EARTH MOVES WYATT E IRON JINN
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 30th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
The sadly-usual caveats that apply to everything circa 2021 — announcements, life, etc. — are of course in play here. Is DoomFarmFest 2021 going to happen? Well, I’m no viral expert — and that should probably be the end of the sentence, but it’s not — but it seems to me the fact that it’s in a barn, which is presumably a pretty well ventilated area, plus the fact that it’s in a kind of remote locale, means that you’ve got a likelier chance than something in a major urban center that’s perhaps about to come under lockdown scrutiny again. That doesn’t mean DoomFarmFest will, or can, or should be anything less than diligent in observing any and all local, national, international and — let’s face it — reasonable restrictions, I’m just saying we don’t know what those might be by the time the end of next month comes. Or next week, for that matter.
And anyway, if you’re getting either your information or your opinions on such things from my ass, shame on you.
But as I’ve said once or twice at this point, I’m choosing to err on the side of positivity. If that makes dumb in the face of cynicism-as-intelligence, then fine. I’ll be dumb.
2 days packed with concerts from dusk till dawn. Come join the harvest of the DOOMFARM in the wastelands of Brandenburg. The stage is in a huge barn on a ancient farm outside of Putlitz, Brandenburg.
After a season of enjoying riffs with our online eventson DoomFarmTV, the time of harvest has come to the farm of doom. 12 bands bringing you doom, psychedelic, black metal funeral doom, post-metal, stoner, sludge, bloodthirsty metal, dope doom bong metal, that will be a feast to your ears.
Fuzzy fields and distorted cows roam stoned through the meadows. After months of silence, our Post quarantined needy ears will rejoice to the drone of heavy riffs and growls through the night.
Free camping & shower. Food and bar will be there! We will be following all current and local hygiene requirements. To ensure the health of our crew and guests Everyone MUST bring a Negative test result or proof of vaccination, or convalescence. Stay doomed! Stay healthy!
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 27th, 2021 by JJ Koczan
Once upon a whenever it was, I said of Swedish doomers Malsten‘s 2020 debut album, The Haunting of Silvåkra Mill, “I’d watch this band do a live stream playing this record front-to-back. Just saying.” Well, turns out that very opportunity will present itself as the band will take part in Electric Sabbath‘s virtual DoomFarmFest 3, which as you might guess is the third ‘online festival’ — of 2021, no less — to come from the booking concern. Malsten are one of two Swedish-native acts, the other is the sludgier Kråkslott, and because why the hell wouldn’t it, the lineup goes from Bulgaria’s Obsidian Sea to New Zealand’s Nameless Grave to Paraguay’ Mudum and the multinational Inkarnation, as well as several others throughout continental Europe.
And indeed, Malsten will perform the entirety of The Haunting of Silvåkra Mill live. They hit me up to tell me so themselves, so I know it’s true. No clue what anyone else is doing, but the streaming event is set for May 8. I have no idea how long it’s running, but there are nine bands involved, so it might just be your evening spoken for. If it was in-person, it would be two days’ worth, but if it was in-person, you probably wouldn’t have a band from New Zealand playing, so take what you can get.
Info follows here as per the PR wire, and
Electric Sabbath presents DoomFarmFest Online Edition #3 of 2021
9 bands from all over the globe, bringing that heavy riffage to your screen. Join us once again as we indulge in some dirty distorted riffs to ease our isolated earlobes.
Follow us on Electric Sabbath and hit that like button!
Posted in Reviews on March 26th, 2020 by JJ Koczan
Thursday. Everyone doing well? Healthy? Kicking ass? Working from home? There seems to be a lot of that going around, at least among the lucky. New Jersey, where I live, is on lockdown with non-essential businesses shuttered, roads largely empty and all that. It can be grim and apocalyptic feeling, but I’m finding this Quarterly Review to be pretty therapeutic or at least helpfully distracting at a moment when I very much need something to be that. I hope that if you’re reading this, whether you’ve been following along or not, it’s done or can do the same for you if that’s what you need. I’ll leave it at that.
Quarterly Review #31-40:
Slift, Ummon
The second album from French space/psych trio Slift is a 72-minute blowout echoshred epic — too aware not to be prog but too cosmic not to be space rock. Delivered through Stolen Body Records and Vicious Circle, Ummon is not only long, it speaks to a longer term. It’s not an album for this year, or for this decade, or for any other decade, for that matter. It’s for the ongoing fluid now. You want to lose yourself in the depths of buzz and dreamy synth? Yeah, you can do that. You want to dig into the underlying punk and maybe a bit of Elder influence in the vocal bark and lead guitar shimmer of “Thousand Helmets of Gold?” Well hell’s bells, do that. The mega-sprawling 2LP is a gorgeous blast of distortion, backed by jazzy, organic drum wud-dum-tap and the bass, oh, the bass; the stuff of low end sensory displacement. Amid swirls and casts of melodic light in “Dark Was Space, Cold Were the Stars,” Slift dilate universal energy and push beyond the noise wash reaches of “Son Dong’s Cavern” and through the final build, liftoff and roll of 13-minute closer “Lions, Tigers and Bears” with the deft touch of those dancing on prior conceptions. We’d be lucky to have Ummon as the shape of space rock to come.
Two LPs telling two different stories released at the same time, Grinding Teeth/Zero Sleep (on Consouling Sounds) brings Josh Graham‘s aural storytelling to new cinematic reaches. The composer, guitarist, synthesist, programmer, visual artist, etc., is joined along the way by the likes of Jo Quail, Ben Weinman (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan), Dana Schecter (Insect Ark), Sarah Pendleton (ex-SubRosa) and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) — among others — but across about 90 minutes of fluidity, Graham/IIVII soundtracks two narratives through alternatingly vast and crushing drone. The latter work is actually an adaptation from a short sci-fi film about, yes, humanity losing its ability to sleep — I feel you on that one — but the former, which tells a kind of meth-fueled story of love and death, brings due chaos and heft to go with its massive synthesized scope. Josh Graham wants to score your movie. You should let him. And you should pay him well. And you should let him design the poster. And you should pay him well for that too. End of story.
Following the initial sax-laden prog-rock burst and chase that is opener “Gadfly,” Berlin’s Coogans Bluff bring a ’70s pastoralia to “Sincerely Yours,” and that atmosphere ends up staying with Metronopolis — their fifth album — for the duration, no matter where else they might steer the sound. And they do steer the sound. Sax returns (as it will) in the jabbing “Zephyr,” a manic shred taking hold in the second half accompanied by no-less-manic bass, and “Creature of the Light” reimagines pop rock of the original vinyl era in the image of its own weirdness, undeniably rock but also something more. Organ-inclusive highlight “Soft Focus” doesn’t so much touch on psychedelics as dunk its head under their warm waters, and “The Turn I” brings an almost Beatlesian horn arrangement to fruition ahead of the closer “The Turn II.” But in that finale, and in “Hit and Run,” and way back in “Sincerely Yours,” Coogans Bluff hold that Southern-style in their back pocket as one of several of Metronopolis‘ recurring themes, and it becomes one more element among the many at their disposal.
An underlying current of social commentary comes coated in Rough Spells‘ mysticism on Ruins at Midday, the Toronto unit’s second LP. Recorded by Ian Blurton and presented by Fuzzed and Buzzed and DHU Records, the eight-track LP has, as the lyrics of “Chance Magic” say, “No bad intentions.” Indeed, it seems geared only toward eliciting your participation in its ceremony of classic groove, hooks and melodies, even the mellow “Die Before You Die” presenting an atmosphere that’s heavy but still melodic and accessible. “Grise Fiord” addresses Canada’s history of mistreating its native population, while “Pay Your Dues” pits guitar and vocal harmonics against each other in a shove of proto-metallic energy to rush momentum through side B and into the closing pair of the swaggering “Nothing Left” and the title-track, which is the longest single cut at five minutes, but still keeps its songwriting taut with no time to spare for indulgences. In this, and on several fronts, Ruins at Midday basks in multifaceted righteousness.
Upside the head extreme sludgeoning! UK trio Goblinsmoker take on the more vicious and brutal end of sludge with the stench of death on A Throne in Haze, A World Ablaze (on Sludgelord Records), calling to mind the weedian punishment of Belzebong and others of their decrepit ilk. Offered as part two of a trilogy, A Throne in Haze, A World Ablaze is comprised of three tracks running a caustic 26 minutes thick enough such that even its faster parts feel slow, a churning volatility coming to the crash of “Smoked in Darkness” at the outset only to grow more menacing in the lurch of centerpiece “Let Them Rot” — which of course shifts into blastbeats later on — and falling apart into noise and echoing residual feedback after the last crashes of “The Forest Mourns” recede. Beautifully disgusting, the release reportedly furthers the story of the Toad King depicted on its cover and for which the band’s prior 2018 EP was named, and so be it. The lyrics, largely indecipherable in screams, are vague enough that if you’re not caught up, you’ll be fine. Except you won’t be fine. You’ll be dead. But it’ll be awesome.
Progressive metal underpins French trio Homecoming‘s aptly-titled first record, LP01, with the guitars of second cut “Rivers of Crystal” leading the way through a meandering quiet part and subsequent rhythmic figure that reminds of later Opeth, though there’s still a strong heavy rock presence in their tones and grooves generally. It’s an interesting combination, and all the more so because I think part of what’s giving off such a metal vibe is the snare sound. You don’t normally think of a snare drum determining that kind of thing, but here we are. Certainly the vocal arrangements between gruff melodies, backing screams and growls, etc., the odd bit of blastbeating here and there, bring it all into line as well — LP01 is very much the kind of album that would title its six-minute instrumental centerpiece “Interlude” — but the intricacy in how the nine-minute “Return” develops and the harmonies that emerge early in closer “Five” tell the tale clearly of Homecoming‘s ambitions as they move forward from this already-ambitious debut.
Tracked in the same sessions as the Budapest outfit’s 2019 album, Ima (review here), it should not come as a major surprise that the six-track/49-minute Logos from Lemurian Folk Songs follows a not entirely dissimilar course, bringing together dream-drift of tones and melodies with subtle but coherent rhythmic motion in a fashion not necessarily revolutionary for heavy psych, but certainly well done and engaging across its tracks. The tones of guitar and bass offer a warmth rivaled only by the echoing vocals on opener/longest cut (immediate points) “Logos,” and the shimmering “Sierra Tejada” and progressively building “Calcination” follow that pattern while adding a drift that is both of heavy psych and outside of it in terms of the character of how it’s played. None of the last three tracks is less than eight minutes long — closer “Firelake” tops nine in a mirror to “Logos” at the outset, but if that’s the band pushing further out I hear, then yes, I want to go along for that trip.
Progressive heavy rockers Ritual King display a striking amount of grace and patience across their Ripple Music-issued self-titled long-player. Tapping modern influences like Elder and bringing their own sense of melodic nuance to the proceedings across a tightly-constructed seven songs and 42 minutes, the three-piece of vocalist/guitarist Jordan Leppitt, bassist Dan Godwin — whose tone is every bit worthy of gotta-hear-it classification — and drummer/backing vocalist Gareth Hodges string together linear movements in “Headspace” and “Dead Roads” that flow one into the next, return at unexpected moments or don’t, and follow a direction not so much to the next chorus but to the next statement the band want to make, whatever that might be. “Restrain” begins with a sweet proggy soundscape and unfolds two verses over a swaying riff, then is gone, where at the outset, “Valleys” offers grandeur the likes of which few bands would dare to embody on their third or fourth records, let alone their first. Easily one of 2020’s best debuts.
You know what? Never mind. You ain’t weird enough for this shit. Nobody’s weird enough for this shit. I have a hard time believing the two souls from Portugal who made it are weird enough for this shit. Think I’m wrong? Think you’re up for it and you’re gonna put on Sunflowers‘ Endless Voyage and be like, “oh yeah, turns out mega-extreme krautrock blasted into outer space was my wavelength all along?” Cool. Bandcamp player’s right there. Have at it. I dare you.
Italian heavy rockers Maya Mountains formed in 2005 and issued their debut album, Hash and Pornography, through Go Down Records in 2008. Era, which follows a narrative about the title-character whose name is given in lead cut “Enrique Dominguez,” who apparently travels through space after being lost in the desert — as one does — and on that basis alone is clearly a more complex offering than its predecessor. As to where Maya Mountains have been all the time in between records — here and there, in other bands, etc. But Era, at 10 tracks and 44 minutes, is the summation of five years of work on their part and its blend of scope and straight-ahead heavy riffing is welcome in its more heads-down moments like “Vibromatic” or in the purposefully weirder finale “El Toro” later on. Something like a second debut for the band after being away for so long, Era at very least marks the beginning of a new one for them, and one hopes it continues in perhaps more productive fashion than the last.
but Homecoming offer encouragement along the way and the scope of “Tell Me Something,” the smoothness with which it departs its earlier aggro-isms for more atmospheric fare before building back up around blackened squigglies and a chugging rush, sets up (and fulfills) any expectation or anticipation for breadth one might have. Like the music propelling them, the vocals are dynamic, switching between lower-register cleans and harsher growls. By the time “Gift of Eyes” lays out its headspinning course, Homecoming have already brought that melodic style into focus on “Red Rose,” set up the bright-toned intertwining leads of “Blood of My Blood” as well as its screaming payoff, subtly reaffirmed their penchant for ironic titles with “Interlude II” at 9:02 (though some days we all need a nine-minute interlude), and landed in the 11-minute “Shores.”
