The sense of resignation in “Future Man” and the notes of synthy maybe-string sounds in mourning for humanity’s decline are likewise quaint and prescient in hindsight, released as the track was on 2015’s Melk en Honing by San Diego-based industrialist Tristan Shone, otherwise known as Author & Punisher. For in the years that would follow, the species would become increasingly screwed, but, you know, there’s probably no way Shone could’ve known that unless he read the news or a book or whatever. Perish the thought.

Author & Punisher released Melk en Honing through Housecore Records, the imprint owned by Phil Anselmo of Pantera, Down, Superjoint Ritual, etc., who also co-produced. And I don’t know, there might be some uncredited backing vocals in there, maybe in “Disparate” — after the Seals & Croft reference; “Summer breeze makes me feel…” — in the spoken part? Mumbling something on mic in the drawdown of “Callous and Hoof?” Whatever.

Comprised of eight songs running a CD-era-esque 53 minutes, Melk en Honing — ‘milk and honey’ in Dutch — followed two full-lengths through Seventh Rule Recordings in 2012’s Ursus Americanus and 2013’s Women and Children, and both were crucial to the development of the project after 2010’s Drone Machines began the turn from earlier dub outings toward the industrial doom sound Shone would gradually refine. And, with Melk en Honing, whether it’s the frenetic post-intro-drone verse of “Callous and Hoof” or the drawn-out lumbering stretch in the song’s second half, whether it’s the “The Barge” pounding its beat like the rhythm of a boatman’s oars or the gnashing, still somehow hooky affirmation in closer “Void, Null, Alive,” the idea throughout is clearly impact.

Sure enough, the songs hit clearer than, say, “Flesh Ants” from Ursus Americanus and push the vocals forward in a way that Author & Punisher would continue to develop as the production grew more expansive, first across 2018’s Beastland (discussed here) and then through 2022’s Krüller (review here), the latter of which brought a melodic focus that seems extrapolated in part from what’s happening in a song like “Shame” or “Void, Null, Alive” here, where Beastland — the band’s first album through Relapse — brought harsher fare on average.

Melk en Honing has a balance, and because Shone‘s approach is streamlined, the shifts between melody and dissonance, that extra bit of crush that Author & Punisher beats offer that no one else in the modern industrial set — all those bands with numbers in the names and the ones with the punk rock logos — has been able to match, and the impression of breadth all shine through the recording. It’s raw in the sense of trying to bring a notion of organic performance to a sound that is inherently programmed. Doing that, you’re going to lean a lot on vocals, and Author & Punisher does.

But the songs stand up to that as well. Yes, there are the various boops and blips, likely homemade samples and manipulations set to apocalyptically heavy purposes, the churn of time’s gears grinding through our mortality and all sorts of other flowery hyperbole for a sound so wrenchingly cathartic. Given whatever volume can be spared, “The Barge” — only it and “Disparate” top eight minutes; Shone‘s background in doom showing itself in starting with a longer track — is sharp corners and hard edges, pummeling with a chant droning behind as it plods its relatively simple but almost universal rhythm, but it’s also catchy. Amid all the screams and slow march, it’s got a hook. So does “Cauterize,” “Shame,” “Future Man,” “Disparate,” “Callous and Hoof,” “Teething” and “Void, Null, Alive,” which if you’re keeping track at home, is all of them.

Those take different forms. In “Disparate,” it’s the ultra-weighted delivery late of the title-lyric. In “Callous and Hoof,” it’s the spoken part after the initial frenzied bounce. In “Teething,” it’s the line “Straight like teeth, like making love.” Sometimes it’s a chorus or sometimes it’s just another part put in, but there’s something to grab the listener throughout, so that as much as Melk en Honing can be the concrete-toned onslaught of machine music that it is, it’s also a collection of composed, thought-out songs — literally, they not only had to be thought of or written, but programmed out ahead of time — with a mindful execution and arrangement. Many of the verse lines are short, straightforward in language if not necessarily always the idea behind it, and feel born out of the music, though the play between “callous” and “chaos” in “Callous and Hoof” is a more purely linguistic nuance, and not at all the only one, so lyrics are not to be considered an afterthought. They’re essential, here and elsewhere in Author & Punisher‘s catalog. And even if “I’m not looking for madness/But it’s found” is a little awkward in the phrasing in “Cauterize,” it’s all a work in progress.

To that, Author & Punisher‘s seemingly ongoing evolution is fascinating in part because it includes new sounds. When a band grows, it’s not like they invent a new guitar. And to my knowledge, Shone isn’t writing software — though he builds his own hardware, which you can read about a lot on the internet — but between the two albums before and the two that have thus-far followed, Melk en Honing introduces concepts and actual sounds that broaden the scope of Author & Punisher, and while that’s gone on since, this was the pinnacle of Shone‘s progression at the time and comes across like someone who’s spent the better part of the decade prior exploring and finding his aesthetic and is ready accordingly to reach out to an audience waiting to find him. He’d already toured hard by 2015, but certainly that ethic hasn’t abated in the years since (2020-2021 notwithstanding).

I don’t know what Author & Punisher — which in addition to Shone now includes Ecstatic Vision‘s Doug Sabolik on human-guitar — have planned for 2024. I don’t even know what kind of sandwich they want from the deli; I’m winging it here. But they had a sale on merch recently and I get the emails about that kind of thing, and well, sometimes just seeing a name is enough to make you want to listen to a thing. As always, I hope you enjoy.

Thanks for reading.

—

Decided I’m going to leave the Quarterly Review where it is for the time being. This one was actually pretty easy to put together and to write, and after the last one ended with a what-have-I-done-with-my-life existential crisis, I’m going to let myself be satisfied with the 50 records covered and pick up either next month or in January. Still a ton of stuff from 2023 to cover — I’ll get you yet, Dun Ringill — and still more on the way.

I think I might be streaming the Mars Red Sky album next Thursday. Look for a review either way. Lamp of the Universe too, and there was a four-way split on Totem Cat I want to write about, then not a ton else is imperative before the year-end coverage starts, which will take a few days on the back end. It’s always a while putting lists together and such. I have a file I’ve started. I’ll get there. We do this every year.

And to that end, thanks if you’ve contributed to the year-end poll. Things are taking shape.

That’s it for me. Week was a week, but I didn’t have to go pick up The Pecan at school for beating anybody and she’s got her ADHD meds patch now so I guess we’re proceeding. Not calling “out of woods” at this point in terms of behavior, but a couple smoother weeks on either side of the Thanksgiving holiday have been easier to live through.

I hope you have a great and safe weekend. I’m gonna go hit Costco in a bit with The Patient Mrs., then look forward to an early start for a hopefully mellow-ish weekend. Have fun, watch your head, hydrate. All that important stuff. See you back here on Monday.

FRM.

The Obelisk Collective on Facebook

The Obelisk Radio

The Obelisk merch

Well now, this seems ambitious. That’s not me trying to be backhanded or say I think it can’t or won’t happen — Eyehategod have spent the entirety of their 30-year career of sticking a collective middle finger in the face of the universe, and in so doing helped to define an essential element of what sludge became in their wake — just that as frontman Mike Williams comes back from a liver transplant, a 39-date US tour is a hell of a way to do it. Granted, if anyone can, it’s Williams, and it’s Eyehategod — on whom the universe has consistent shit in response to the aforementioned middle finger — but again, pretty ambitious.

They’ll play with Phobia, Cro-Mags, Negative Approach, The Obsessed, Pig Destroyer and others on the run, the dates for which appear below, hand-delivered by the PR wire:

EYEHATEGOD Announces Left To Starve Summer Tour With Negative Approach, Cro-Mags, And More On Select Dates

EYEHATEGOD will kick off a thirty-nine-date US mega tour next month. The Left To Starve summer takeover will commence on August 1st, run through September 13th, and includes performances with Capitalist Casualties, Phobia, Primitive Man, Negative Approach, Antiseen, Cro-Mags, Pig Destroyer, The Obsessed, and Mountain Of Wizard on select dates! The journey also marks frontman Mike IX Williams’ lengthiest tour since undergoing liver transplant surgery this past December.

Comments IX Williams, “This band, for better or worse, has endured a mind-numbing and brain-expanding thirty years of making some of the most criminally riff filled and abhorrent sounds ever heard on the planet earth. No middle ground; EYEHATEGOD is either wonderfully loved or instinctively hated. Predicting the future accidentally and preaching the end time message, see the band LIVE now before something else bad happens…”

EYEHATEGOD – Left To Starve Summer Tour:
8/01/2017 Boozers – Corpus Christi, TX
8/02/2017 Lowbrow – El Paso, TX
8/03/2017 Club Red – Phoenix, AZ w/ Capitalist Casualties, Phobia
8/04/2017 Dive Bar – Las Vegas, NV w/ Capitalist Casualties, Phobia
8/05/2017 Los Globos – Los Angeles, CA w/ Capitalist Casualties, Phobia
8/06/2017 Blue Lamp – Sacramento, CA w/ Capitalist Casualties
8/07/2017 Elbow Room – San Francisco, CA w/ Capitalist Casualties
8/08/2017 Dante’s – Portland, OR w/ Capitalist Casualties
8/09/2017 El Corazon – Seattle, WA w/ Capitalist Casualties
8/11/2017 Marquis Theater – Denver, CO w/ Primitive Man
8/12/2017 Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM w/ Primitive Man
8/13/2017 Korova – San Antonio, TX w/ Negative Approach
8/14/2017 Trees – Dallas, TX w/ Negative Approach
8/15/2017 89th Street – Oklahoma City, OK w/ Negative Approach
8/16/2017 The Gig – Beaumont, TX w/ Negative Approach
8/18/2017 South Port – New Orleans, LA w/ Negative Approach
8/19/2017 Ground Zero – Spartanburg, SC w/ Antiseen, Negative Approach
8/20/2017 The Muse – Wilmington, NC w/ Negative Approach
8/21/2017 The Earl – Atlanta, GA w/ Negative Approach
8/22/2017 Broadberry – Richmond, VA w/ Negative Approach
8/24/2017 Middle East – Boston, MA w/ Cro-Mags
8/25/2017 Montage – Rochester, NY w/ Cro-Mags
8/26/2017 Cafe 611 – Frederick, MD w/ Cro-Mags, Pig Destroyer
8/27/2017 Saint Vitus Bar – Brooklyn, NY w/ Cro-Mags
8/28/2017 Chameleon Club – Lancaster, PA w/ Cro-Mags
8/30/2017 Mexicali – Teaneck, NJ w/ Cro-Mags
8/31/2017 Outpost – Kent, OH w/ Cro-Mags
9/01/2017 Spirit Hall – Pittsburgh, PA w/ Cro-Mags
9/02/2017 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL w/ Cro-Mags
9/03/2017 Cobra Lounge – Chicago, IL w/ Cro-Mags
9/04/2017 Triple Rock Social Club – Minneapolis, MN w/ Cro-Mags
9/05/2017 Rock Island Brewing – Rock Island, IL w/ Cro-Mags
9/06/2017 Club El – Detroit, MI w/ Cro-Mags
9/08/2017 Ace Of Cups – Columbus, OH w/ The Obsessed, Mountain Of Wizard
9/09/2017 The Pinch – Washington, DC w/ The Obsessed, Mountain Of Wizard
9/10/2017 Golden Pony – Harrionsburg, VA w/ The Obsessed, Mountain Of Wizard
9/11/2017 Ziggys – Chattanooga, TN w/ Mountain Of Wizard
9/12/2017 Sidetracks – Huntsville, AL w/ Mountain Of Wizard
9/13/2017 Vinyl Music Hall – Pensacola, FL w/ Mountain Of Wizard

http://www.eyehategod.ee
http://www.facebook.com/OfficialEyeHateGod
http://www.thehousecorerecords.com
http://www.thehousecorerecords.com
http://www.thehousecorestore.com
http://www.facebook.com/housecorerecords

Eyehategod, “Medicine Noose” official video

This one’s for all the marbles. Or at very least tiddlywinks. The last day of The Obelisk’s Summer 2016 Quarterly Review begins. I’ll admit that when I was planning this out — started soon after the last Quarterly Review was finished in early April; that one ran late, this one has run early — I decided to take it easy on myself the last day. Still 10 reviews, so not that easy, but in terms of what’s included today, a lot of is stuff I feel pretty comfortable talking about, whether it’s bands I’ve covered before (which a lot of it is, now that I look at the list) or whatever. If you’ve been keeping up this week, thanks. I hope you found some cool music.

Quarterly Review #41-50:

Atomikylä, Keräily

From the Finnish hotbed of Tampere, Atomikylä made a striking impression with their 2014 Svart Records debut, Erkale (review here), giving a take on psychedelic black metal that was immediately and truly their own in its balance of elements. The band, featuring members of Dark Buddha Rising and Oranssi Pazuzu, return with doom-jazz fervor on sophomore full-length, Keräily, with three songs covering yet-unnamed stylistic reaches and offering a get-to-the-studio-and-see-what-happens experimentalism to go with their plotted course on 18-minute opener and longest track (bonus points) “Katkos,” which is followed by the building horn freakout “Risteily” (9:15), from which a space rock push takes hold on drums, resulting in maddening guitar swirl – because of course – and closer “Pakoputki” (6:55), which consumes with a darker thrust and more up-front blackened vibe that still holds onto some of the psychedelia in its layers of guitar. Keräily progresses effectively from Atomikylä’s debut and highlights just how individualized they are as a group. They continue to have the potential to do really special work, and the argument is easy to make they’re already doing it.

Atomikylä on Thee Facebooks

Svart Records

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Sunnata, Zorya

As opener and longest track (bonus points) “Beasts of Prey” careens toward its apex finish near the 12-minute mark and the title-track begins is crashing, harmonized intro before moving into an Alice in Chains-via-stoner verse, the distance Poland’s Sunnata cover on their second full-length, Zorya, begins to really unveil itself. There doesn’t seem to be a genre within the heavy sphere that’s off limits. They never get into death metal, but heavy rock, doom, psychedelia, prog, sludge – it’s all in play at one point or another in Zorya’s five-track/50-minute run. The reason the album works and isn’t just a haphazard mash of styles is because Sunnata, who’ve been active in Warsaw since the last decade, make each one their own and thus bend genre to suit their purposes and not the other way around. They continue to impress through the rush of “Long Gone,” the airy expanse of “New Horizon” and the more brooding closer “Again and Against,” conjuring effective flow from what in less capable hands would be disparate components.

Sunnata on Thee Facebooks

Sunnata on Bandcamp

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White Dynomite, Action O’Clock

I have kind of a hard time with White Dynomite. Not musically – the Boston five-piece’s new EP, Action O’Clock (on Ripple) typifies their accessible punk rock; a reminder of a time when the style used guitars – but conceptually. Their lineup features bassist Tim Catz and vocalist Craig Riggs (on drums) of Roadsaw, as well as guitarist Pete Knipfing (also Hey Zeus, Lamont), vocalist Dave Unger and guitarist John Darga, and while I can’t argue with the charm of a track like “Werewolf Underwear” or “Evil Ballerina” — the lyric “Tutu woman, too too much for me” alone makes Action O’Clock worth the price of admission, let alone “I got fangs in my pants” from “Werewolf Underwear” – but I haven’t yet been able to listen to the band in the context of it having been six years since the last time Roadsaw released an album, and thinking about years passing, priorities and whatnot. They sound they’re having a blast all the way through, and I won’t begrudge them exploring other influences, I guess I just miss that band.

White Dynomite on Thee Facebooks

Ripple Music website

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Horehound, Horehound

Pittsburgh newcomers Horehound formed just last year, so one might go into their self-titled debut full-length thinking it’s an early arrival, but in an unpretentious seven-track/33-minute collection of straightforward but engaging doom rockers, the five-piece demonstrate a clear idea of what they want to do sonically. While it may not represent where they’ll ultimately end up as a band, its songs sound fleshed out in terms of direction and the resultant feel on the release is much more album than demo. So be it. A particular highlight is “The Waters of Lethe,” on which a sweeter melody emerges in the guitar and vocals, but neither will I discount the low-end crunch and vocal call-and-response in closer “Waking Time” or the more uptempo thrust of second cut “Sangreal.” Not that Horehound don’t have room to grow, but their initial offering preaches well to the converted and should give them a solid foundation to work from in that process.

Horehound on Thee Facebooks

Horehound on Bandcamp

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Sulfur Giant, Beyond the Hollow Mountain

Beyond the Hollow Mountain is the first full-length from Portuguese mostly-instrumentalists Sulfur Giant, who bring together influences from classic progressive rock, psychedelia and heavy rock so that when they dip into Iommic riffing on “Vertigo,” it’s no stranger than the peaceful jamming of “Whisper at Dawn,” which follows. Friendly if not exactly innovative, Sulfur Giant’s debut makes its chief impression with the four-piece’s instrumental chemistry, which brings about an easy flow within and between the eight tracks, which having already been issued digitally will see vinyl release later this year on Pink Tank Records. It’s hard to ignore what organ adds to “Evermore,” but “Sea of Stone” sneaks in some vocals amid its thicker-riffing and Sungrazer-style exploration, and “Magnolia” and the galloping “Unleash Fears” follow suit, so Sulfur Giant have a few tricks up their collective sleeve they hold back from the initial roll and gallop of the opening title-track. All the better.

Sulfur Giant on Thee Facebooks

Pink Tank Records

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New Planet Trampoline, Dark Rides and Grim Visions

Never say never in rock and roll. From Cleveland, Ohio, the psych-rocking four-piece New Planet Trampoline called it quits in 2008, leaving behind an unfinished album. After coming back together for 2014’s The Wisconsin Witch House EP, the ‘60s-stylized outfit set themselves to the task of finishing what became Dark Rides and Grim Visions, basking in the glow of early Floyd, Beatles and others of the ilk while keeping a harder edge to songs like “Grim Visions” and a healthy cynicism to “We’ll Get What We Deserve” and the tongue-in-cheek keyboard-laced closer “Haunted as Fuck.” Of the several more extended tracks, the nine-minute “Acts of Mania” is the longest, and provides suitable patience and atmospherics to stand up to its scope. All told, Dark Rides and Grim Visions is a formidable journey at 13 songs/68 minutes, but after more than half a decade away, it’s hard to hold New Planet Trampoline having their say against them, particularly when that say is as lush and dreamy as “This is the Morning.”

New Planet Trampoline on Thee Facebooks

New Planet Trampoline on Bandcamp

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Hypnos, Cold Winds

With their second LP, Cold Winds (on Crusher Records), Gothenburg’s Hypnos seem to be betting that the next step in the retro game is NWOBHM. They make a convincing argument; it’s kind of how it went the first time around, and their songwriting offers a top-notch look at the moment where Thin Lizzy bounce became Iron Maiden gallop, as on second cut “I’m on the Run,” just minutes after opener “Start the Hunt” featured a flute solo. Broken into two sides, each one works its way toward a longer finale – “Det Kommer en Dag” (7:23) on side A and “1800” (8:32) on side B – but sonic diversity and changes in song structure throughout do much to keep Cold Winds from feeling overly plotted, and like their countrymen in Horisont, Hypnos offer a seamless melding of classic heavy rock and metal, soaring and scorching on “Descending Sun (Unrootables White)” and swinging and swaggering immediately thereafter on “Cold September,” both accomplished with unwavering command.

Hypnos on Thee Facebooks

Hypnos at Crusher Records

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Honky, Corduroy

Texas boogie rockers Honky were last heard from with 2012’s 421 – which I’ll assume is the “going to 11” equivalent for getting high – and their eighth outing, Corduroy, finds bassist JD Pinkus (Butthole Surfers, Melvins) and guitarist Bobby Ed Landgraf (Down) hooked up with drummer Trinidad Leal of Dixie Witch and Housecore Records for the release. To call is business as usual for the underrated outfit in the classic swing and grit they hone would only be a compliment, songs like “Baby Don’t Slow Down,” “Bad Stones” and the harmonized “Double Fine” offering soul as much as push, ‘70s influences given a modern kick in the ass throughout as a swath of guests, including Melvins drummer Dale Crover, come and go, perhaps none making their presence felt as much as Rae Comeau, whose work on “Bad Stones” makes that song a highlight – not to take away from the a capella cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick,” here retitled as “Mopey Dick,” that closes. Chicanery ensues, booze flows, good times are had for those who’ll have them.

Honky website

Housecore Records website

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Cheap Wine, Sad Queen

Distinguished as on centerpiece “The Rambler” by their use of organ amid a semi-retro heavy boogie style, French five-piece Cheap Wine recorded Sad Queen – as the cover art says – live for Celebration Days Records. It’s somewhere between an EP and album, and strips away some of the individual track length of their 2013 debut, Mystic Crow, in favor of maximizing the energy put into each piece, the subdued “Intro” and “Opening” that start sides A and B, respectively, aside, though as “Opening” feeds cleanly into the quiet, airy and soulful beginning of the title-track, even that seems to have a tension that builds toward its eventual release, different from the shuffling raucousness of the post-“Intro” opener “Cyclothymic” maybe, but palpable nonetheless. They close somewhat melancholy on “Yesterday’s Dream,” but the complementary guitar of Valentin Constestin and keys of Ahn Tuan aren’t to be missed, nor how well work in concert with vocalist Mathieu Devillers, bassist Valentin Lallart and drummer Louis Morati.

Cheap Wine on Thee Facebooks

Celebration Days Records website

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Gurt & Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight, Guppy

The UK heavy scene excels at not taking itself too seriously. To wit, Gurt and Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight get together for a split (on When Planets Collide for CD and HeviSike cassette) and, they call it Guppy and the first two songs are “Owlmegeddon” and “Super Fun Happy Slide.” It kind of goes from there. Recorded together, sharing a drummer and collaborating on the centerpiece, “Revolting Child,” it’s basically two outfits who are close friends coming together to have a good time, but that doesn’t take away from Gurt’s sludgy intensity on “I Regret Nothing” or the nodding heavy rock Trippy Wicked hold forth on closer “Reign.” Taking its title from the two band names put together, one can only wonder if this will be the last conjoined offering Gurt and Trippy Wicked will make, or if there might be a whole school of guppies in the future. Frankly, this sounds like too good a party to only throw it once.

Gurt on Thee Facebooks

Trippy Wicked on Thee Facebooks

When Planets Collide website

HeviSike Records

—

Last time we heard from Austin boogie-hard-and-boogie-all-the-time three-piece Honky, they were announcing a UK tour to be performed this July/August in the burly company of Desert Storm. As the PR wire now confirms, their first album in four years, Corduroy, will be out May 27 via Housecore Records. The record finds the band joined by Dixie Witch‘s Trinidad Leal on drums, which if that doesn’t mean anything to you, should. If Dixie Witch were putting out the albums today that they were putting out 10-15 years ago, you can bet your ass you’d know who they were. As it stands, like Honky, they’re way underrated, so in addition to being ass-kicking Texan heavy rockers, it’s a good fit on multiple levels.

The new song “Outta Season” is streaming in advance of the album release, and you’ll find it under the info below. Enjoy:

HONKY: Long-Running Austin-Based Superboogie Trio Featuring Butthole Surfers, Melvins, Down, And Dixie Witch Alumni To Release Corduroy Full-Length This Month; New Track Posted

When you think of Texas, what comes to mind? Big skies? Big trucks? Hot women with big… hair? Everything, as they say, is bigger in Texas… And that what ain’t bigger is more bizarre. After all, in a state that refers to itself as a republic, things can get pretty skewed.

Enter HONKY, who proudly carries the torch held by the likes of Bloodrock, Pantera, ZZ Top and the red-headed stranger himself, Mr. Willie Nelson. This Austin superboogie trio was founded in 1996 by long time Butthole Surfer/part time Melvins bassist JD Pinkus, Bobby Ed Landgraf (Down, Skrew, …) on guitar, and Trinidad Leal (Dixie Witch) on them skins. Together the riff-rocking three-some have released some of the best stripped down, butt-shakin’, rock ever cut to wax, tape, or CD and have toured with the likes of Nashville Pussy, the Reverend Horton Heat, Fu Manchu, Melvins, Peter Pan Speedrock, Down, and David Allan Coe.

HONKY’s newest release (and eighth overall!) entitled Corduroy is another feast of down and dirty rock, rollin’ across the finish line on May 27th via on Philip Anselmo’s Housecore Records. Boasting nine tracks thick enough to eat with a fork but you’ll wanna keep a spoon handy so ya don’t miss out on that gravy, Corduroy was produced by JD Pinkus and mastered by Paul Leary with artwork and layout by Ryan Everett. Drum duties were handled by a more-than-qualified group of drummers, including Leal, Michael “Night Train” Brueggen (Blackula, Syrup, Supagroup), Dale Crover (Melvins), and even original HONKY drummer, Lance Farley, all makin’ the grooves proper. Guest appearances include Mark “Speedy” Gonzales and the Fantasma Horns, as well as the band’s favorite Honkette, Rae Comeau.

Corduroy Track Listing:
1. Corduroy
2. Baby Don’t Slow Down
3. Outta Season
4. Bad Stones
5. Ain’t Got The Time
6. Double Fine
7. Snortin’ Whiskey
8. I Don’t Care
9. Mopey Dick

Get down with HONKY live on their upcoming Texas and UK dates with additional live performances to be announced soon.

HONKY with Desert Storm:
6/11/2016 R.O.T. Rally @ Cowboy Harley-Davidson – Austin, TX
7/08/2016 Boneshakers – Corpus Cristi, TX
7/09/2016 White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
7/26/2016 Portland Arms – Cambridge, UK
7/27/2016 The Cavern – Exeter, UK
7/28/2016 The Underworld – London, UK
7/29/2016 The Bullingdon – Oxford, UK
7/30/2016 Red Sun Festival – Cardiff, UK
7/31/2016 Craufurd Arms – Milton Keynes, UK
8/01/2016 Exchange – Bristol, UK
8/02/2016 The Iron Road – Evesham, UK
8/03/2016 Arches Venue – Coventry, UK
8/04/2016 The Anvil – Bournemouth, UK

http://www.facebook.com/groups/76991967660/
http://www.honky.net
http://www.facebook.com/housecorerecords/
http://www.thehousecorerecords.com

Honky, “Outta Season”

Admittedly, I don’t know much about the West Coast rooms that Eyehategod are playing on this brief run over the next couple weeks, but every show on the East Coast seems like a special event and I’d expect the same applies for out west. Brighton Music Hall should be resoundingly violent and it’s a place I could actually go, which is an appeal in itself. The Clash Bar in Jersey is a tiny room that Eyehategod seem likely to just level. The Saint Vitus Bar is the Saint Vitus Bar; that’s a draw on its own. And the show at the Ottobar? Vitus (the band) and Eyehategod on the same bill with Cro Mags and Misery Index? God damn. Hard to imagine the therapy everyone in attendance will need after so much head trauma.

I’m showing my regional roots in the Northeast for sure, and I’ve no doubt Alex’s Bar in Long Beach and Strummers in Fresno will be just as memorable for those out that way — these are rooms I wish I knew — but either way, it looks like Eyehategod are doing it up for this quick run before they spend a month in Europe in March/April.

The PR wire has more:

EYEHATEGOD: Louisiana Volume Dealers To Kick Off 2015 Live Invasion

Louisiana volume dealers, EYEHATEGOD, are readying for another bout of live demolitions this month commencing with a set of California rumblings through Bakersfield, Lancaster, Long Beach, San Luis Obispo and Fresno. From there, the band will head east to sonically traumatize Boston, Massachusetts, Clifton, New Jersey, Brooklyn, New York for two nights and a very special show in Baltimore, Maryland with the Cro Mags, Saint Vitus and Misery Index!

EYEHATEGOD:
1/22/2015 Jerry’s Pizza & Pub – Bakersfield, CA
1/23/2015 Moose Lodge – Lancaster, CA
1/24/2015 Alex’s Bar – Long Beach, CA
1/25/2015 Sweet Springs Saloon – San Luis Obispo, CA
1/26/2015 Strummers – Fresno, CA
2/04/2015 Brighton Music Hall – Boston MA
2/05/2015 The Clash Bar – Clifton, NJ
2/06/2015 Saint Vitus – Brooklyn, NY
2/07/2015 Saint Vitus – Brooklyn, NY
2/08/2015 Ottobar – Baltimore, MD w/ Cro Mags, Saint Vitus, Misery Index

Over two-and-a-half decades, EYEHATEGOD have helped define the NOLA sound: down-tuned, blues-inflected guitars awash in furious distortion, underpinning the tormented screams of Mike IX Williams over a thundering rhythm section. Though it was a long time between riffs, EYEHATEGOD reemerged stronger and more determined than ever before. EyeHateGod personifies desperation and addiction in the various backwaters of forgotten America, punctuated by the “N’awlins” sound of rebellion and pollution resulting in triumph over adversity. EyeHateGod is an exclamation mark on an already storied career, a statement of rebirth, catharsis, self-preservation and a sign of things to come.

Order EyeHateGod via Housecore Records HERE.

http://www.eyehategod.ee
http://www.facebook.com/OfficialEyeHateGod
http://www.thehousecorerecords.com

Eyehategod, Eyehategod (2014)

They’re from New Orleans, they play sludge, and they’re friends with Philip Anselmo, but they’re not EyeHateGod and they’re not Crowbar. Housecore Records upstarts haarp (properly written sans capitalization and with the double-A, much to the chagrin of Microsoft Word’s autocorrect function) make their full-length debut with The Filth, an aptly-titled hour of sludgy malevolence, more modernly metallic than the prior-mentioned Nola outfits, and capped off with brutal (again, in the metal sense) vocals courtesy of Shaun Emmons, who fronts the old-school single-guitar four-piece with a three-layer approach: high screams, mid-range gutteral bellows and low growls. Across The Filth’s nine tracks, he’s consistently a focal point, but there’s room left for the riffs of Grant Tom as well. It seems haarp are interested mostly in being as heavy and as loud as possible at all times.

That isn’t an approach I’m about to degrade. It works for haarp, and from the start of the album with “The Rise, the Fall” (companioned by closer, “The Fall, the Rise”), they prove they’re good at it. Doesn’t do much for dynamics, but haarp leave changing tempos to handle most of that, drummer Keith Sierra Jr. seeming to land no less heavily on his kit when playing slow or fast, and bassist Ryan Pomes opening The Filth highlight “A New Reign” with deeply metallic rumble. There are some flashes of melody in Tom’s guitar work on that track, and on the closer, but they’re mostly swallowed in the wall of noise brought out in the production, which makes the overall haarp sound engulfing. Scott Hull mastered The Filth and Housecore’s engineer-in-residence David “The Puma” Troia recorded with Anselmo himself credited as producer, so the band comes out of it sounding clear and full, though Emmons’ vocals are disproportionally high in the mix at times. A cut like nine-minute centerpiece “Peerless” dominates, but listening, I can hear the mute at the end of each rhythmic snippet of screaming, and it distracts me from the music surrounding.

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