Barcelona-based classic heavy rockers The Mothercrow will release their second album, Foráneo, in Sept. 17 through Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones. I won’t pretend to have a full grasp on the lineup changes and shifts in methodology that have taken place within the band since their debut, Magara, came out in 2019 — vocalist Karen Asensio and guitarist/backing vocalist Max Eriksson have at least traded out rhythm sections since then; Jaume Darder is on drums and Daniel Ribeiro handles bass this time around — but it’s all apparently been in the works for a while, as lead-single “Howling” began to come together at the dawn of the decade and the video for it premiering below was filmed a little over year ago, in the deserty-looking Monegros region, westward inland from Spain’s east coast.
The setting makes sense, and desert-plus-riffs shouldn’t be a giant mental leap to make for denizens of the heavy rock underground, but if they’d filmed “Howling” in a dimly lit blues bar, I don’t think you’d be able to say they were wrong. Of course, that ’70s-born swagger does just fine baking in a hot sun, and kudos to The Mothercrow for even lugging speaker cabinets all the way out there to perform in front of rock formations casting long afternoon shadows, but the point is there’s more going on with the track than the desert visual holds, striking as it is. The swinging groove and sultry melody come across like a combination born for trouble, and one suspects that’s the impression they’re looking to make. I haven’t heard the rest of Foráneo, so can’t speak to how “Howling” fits on the record as a whole, but certainly Magara had intertwining moments of greater and lesser charge, and I’d expect no less dynamic to show itself on the follow-up, despite personnel swapping in and out of the lineup.
A release show for Foráneo is set for Sept. 27 at El Sótano in Madrid with The White Coven, so if you’re looking for something beyong the exact issue date, that’ll probably work. As for preorders and all the rest, keep an eye out as they’re surely coming soon, and in the meantime, maybe it’s cool to just dig into the clip below and let tomorrow worry about tomorrow, as no doubt it would anyway.
Please, enjoy:
The Mothercrow, “Howling” video premiere
The Mothercrow on “Howling”:
The essence of Howling came about as an attempt to write a song with a propulsive groove that drives steadily forward, like an old steam train. Going Down by Freddie King is perhaps the most obvious influence, but unlike it, it’s far away from the standard blues progression.
The song was one of the first to be completed, and we even recorded a demo of it back in 2020, using a professional recording studio. Unfortunately it never saw the light of day, since we were far from happy with the result. We did however learn our lesson and could identify exactly what we needed to improve for the next time we went into the studio.
Everyone felt that there was a sexual swagger about the beat that needed further exploring, so we decided to write a fitting lyric. Forbidden attraction became the overall topic, with some sexual innuendos more subtle than others. We tried to have fun with it and make something playful that would do the song justice. It’s also our first song that relies heavily on shouted backing vocals, perhaps another reference to the blues.
During the recording session, percussion instruments were added to propel the beat further, and even a stand up piano was added as a final touch to the end. Howling always felt like a single to us, so it was an obvious choice when we were going to record our first music video for this album. We went four hours by car out in the desert of Monegros, to find the perfect location.
VIDEO CREDITS Directed and Edited by: Ismael Conejero Direction of Photography: Cultural Dogs Colour graded by Víctor Gómez Produced by: Muricec Films & The Mothercrow
Released by Discos Marcarras Records & LaRubiaProducciones
The Mothercrow: Karen Asensio – vocals Max Eriksson – guitar Jaume Darder – drums Daniel Ribeiro – bass
Madrid-based instrumentalists Deriva will release their new four-song EP, Nona/Décima/Morta, on March 13 through LaRubia Producciones. The video for the previously-issued single “Aqua Vitae” premieres below, and as its low-lighting balletic undulations unfold amid ambient guitar ahead of the band diving into the 28-minute outing’s most outwardly crushing procession, so too there arrives a poem to set the mood. I’ve included it under hte video player in the original Spanish, and if you have the captions on as I always do because I’m old, you can see the English translation, which relates to the notion of sleep as a kind of death and dreams as visions we forget much as humans live entire lives in denial of mortality. As the band play through the song amid stark spotlights, a ceremonial-feeling cutting of ties, some light fetishism and arthouse mosh from dancer Miroslava Fernández, and so on, these ideas linger like a guided meditation and the music grows correspondingly more intense, the push that takes over following the midsection atmospheric break peppered with double-kick to add physicality to the surge.
Over the course of the outing, Deriva — who made their self-titled full-length debut in 2016, followed with the three-songers Haiku I and Haiku II in 2019 and 2021, respectively, and have apparently had this EP in the works for a while as opener “Ignis ex Cinere” was issued as a single in 2022 — apply metallic precision and progressivism to an atmospheric backdrop. “Ignis ex Cinere” gathers itself over its first minute-plus around jazzy drums from Rory Reagan and bass punch from Javier Justo before evening out to let the intertwining guitars of Javier “Muñi” Muñoz and Daniel “Minchi” Garea lead with tricky up-front float toward the next volume surge, which by the time they’re three minutes into the seven-and-a-half-minute cut, has peaked again in consuming style and dropped to guitar soon joined by violin in a momentarily serene, pastoral stretch, Reagan‘s toms returning to mark the beginning of the build in earnest, and they don’t tease the last payoff long before they’re in it because they don’t need to. A wailing solo over an intentionally angular, choppy closing section cuts out and “Aqua Vitae” arrives with a switch back to post-rocky airiness.
But again, the inevitable burst isn’t far off. Deriva work in volume trades throughout Nona/Décima/Morta — the title with similar flex in having multiple potential translations; I don’t know which is correct and I’d rather not embarrass myself by getting it wrong — but “Aqua Vitae” is both the shorted inclusion on the EP and the most metal, the clear, full production of Alex Cappa at Metropol Studios in Madrid allowing the impact of the kick drum to coexist with the guitar in the midsection break, which is also shorter than that of “Ignis ex Ciniere” and slams starkly at 3:10 into a hard-riffed wall of distortion. Establishing itself with declarative hits before shifting into the actual march that defines the procession for its remainder, “Aqua Vitae” turns corners you didn’t realize were there, a twist of lead guitar and emergent soloing matching the adrenaline of the drums, dark and majestic but not hopeless. It comes to a head and ends, Russian Circles-style, bringing the synthier landscape of “Lux Aeris” — Julio Martin is credited with contributing the synth — as a plotted line of guitar smooths the shift into the next heavy section.
The structural pattern becomes familiar, but Deriva do well in giving each of these four pieces its own character, whether that’s the headbang-fodder bounce of “Aqua Vitae” or the way each song has its movement from a subdued intro to a push of heavy progressive metal but does it a bit differently. Where “Aqua Vitae” can’t wait to dig into its crunch, “Lux Aeris” spreads out over the course of its start. There’s room — it’s the longest track at 8:29 — and they use it. The first two and a half minutes or so build up patiently and don’t so much suddenly ignite in full, distorted tone as draw a more complete line from one end to the other in that time, handing one part to the next, almost seamless. Intricate rhythmic jumps and tremolo guitar, so much organized chaos, persist over a central pattern of groove, and as with “Ignis ex Ciniere” and “Aqua Vitae,” they’ll finish loud, but getting there routes through a resonant, bright clearing, as the more all-at-once shove back to full-impact lurks in the background, never quite gone. In a suitable-enough meta-level manifestation of their aural back and forth, Nona/Décima/Morta also shifts between longer and shorter pieces in succession, “Mortuus Terra” rounds out by finding something of a middle ground between the two extremes of Deriva‘s sound.
I’m not sure if they intentionally paired “Lux Aeris” (‘the light of the air’) and “Mortuus Terra” (‘dead earth’) next to each other for any reason more than the fluidity with which the finale takes hold from the song before it, but given the level of consideration throughout in sound and presentation, I’d be willing to believe it. And “Mortuus Terra” is a build as well — ebbs and flows; that’s life — though it holds back its flood for longer than did “Lux Aeris,” and while it moves into cycles of guitar chug and low-end punctuating, tom runs and snare adding to the round-we-go vibe, lead guitar releases that tension in a way that’s about more than just clicking on this or that pedal, and once they hit thar stride, there’s no real going back. The single movement at the end feels like it’s underscoring the point, and all the more because its execution stands out from its three companions while being rooted in similar tones and atmospherics. A concept, extrapolated, that is emblematic of the sculptor’s care put into Deriva‘s craft and the effectiveness with which they immerse the listener in their dynamic.
It will ring familiar enough on first blush, but the deeper you go, the more you’ll find. I don’t know if the video is NSFW or not. Depends on where you work, I guess. Either way, if you need to click off the tab, the song is still there, and the Bandcamp player that will hold the full release is at the bottom by the links. I know you know. I kept the poem and recording info in Spanish. Minimal language barrier, appropriate to aesthetic and the band’s intent. You’ll be fine.
Enjoy:
Deriva, “Aqua Vitae” video premiere
“Los sueños son pequeñas muertes, tramoyas, anticipos, simulacros de muerte, el despertar en cambio nos parece, una resurrección y por las dudas, olvidamos cuanto antes lo soñado. A pesar de sus fuegos, sus cavernas, sus orgasmos, sus glorias, sus espantos. Tal vez quiera decir que lo que ansiamos, es olvidar la muerte, apenas eso.”
“Aqua Vitae” Grabado en Metropol Studios con Alex Cappa 2023, en colaboración de Julio Martin a los sintetizadores. Video producido por David AJ y protagonizado por Miroslava Fernández.
Grabado en Metropol Estudios Madrid por Alex Cappa
Deriva is an instrumental cinematic post-metal machine from Madrid, Spain. Deriva creates “movies for your ears” that encompass raw emotion ranging from melancholy and contemplation to rage and explosivity. From beginning to end of each composition, each note and phrase is meticulously rendered to perfection to create an emotive effect that draws attention and tells a story throughout the music. Each instrument weaves a delicate tapestry and is highly conversational amongst the instruments. As if in a heavy discussion, the guitars converse in a way that is both supportive and opposing of each other throughout the story. Like the microscopic intermingling layers of carbon fiber, the bass and drums create a rhythmically robust foundation that is both lightweight and extremely strong in which the guitars can float upon. Deriva is the Ennio Morricone, Danny Elfman, and Hans Zimmer of post-metal.
Tracklisting: 1. Ignis ex Ciniere (7:37) 2. Aqua Vitae (5:44) 3. Lux Aeris (8:29) 4. Mortuus Terra (6:30)
Deriva live: Mar 21 Moby Dick Club Madrid, Spain Mar 26 Bloc Glasgow, UK Mar 27 Retro Manchester, UK Mar 28 Little Buildings Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK Mar 30 The Dev, Camden London, UK
Deriva are: Javier Muñoz (Muñi) – Guitar Rory Reagan – Drumms Javier Justo – Bass Daniel Garea (Minchi) – Guitar
Posted in Whathaveyou on September 27th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
I hadn’t listened (at least consciously; there’s a lot that comes and goes through my ears in a given day) to Bones of Minerva‘s 2022 Embers album, but if there was one band who didn’t actually play the thing about whom I heard a lot at SonicBlast Fest in Portugal last month, it was this Madrid-based four-piece, whose stylistic gamut runs between ambient drone, crushing sludge and teeth-gnashing ‘core of this or that variety. Melodic when they’re not furious, quiet when they’re not loud, the four-piece would seem to have earned that word-of-mouth, and it’s sounding more and more like I’m about to earn paying eight euro for the download. So it goes.
Lesson learned on my part, I guess. Iberian heavy doesn’t screw around. They’ll play France and Germany for the first time next month, and while I know there’s a good deal of tribalism in the Euro heavy underground — nobody talks about it, but each region has its regionalism — the fact that they’ll be out with Svalbard from the UK should help bring soon-to-be-crunched skulls to the room. For the rest of us, if you can get down with volatility, the Embers stream is down there at the bottom of the post, and now you too get to tell someone you heard about this band from word of mouth. Isn’t it amazing how that works.
From the PR wire:
Bones of Minerva Join Svalbard for German and French Tour Dates
Following their UK tour, including a performance at Bristol’s esteemed ArcTanGent festival, Madrid-based post-rock/metal band Bones of Minerva will be joining the British post-metal outfit Svalbard on their upcoming October tour. The Spanish quartet will be supporting Svalbard during their shows in Germany and France, making their debut appearances in both countries.
States Bones of Minerva: “We just can’t wait to play these shows with Svalbard. They are an incredible band, and we are so grateful and excited to be joining them on the road.”
Bones of Minerva in Germany & France in October: 10/15: Cologne, DE @Helios 37 10/16: Berlin, DE @Urban Spree 10/17: Dresden, DE @Chemiefabrik 10/18: Neunkirchen, DE @Strummsche Reithalle 10/19: Paris, FR @Backstage By The Mill
Since the release of their sophomore album, EMBERS, last year, Bones of Minerva has been on a busy ride. In June 2023, they performed at Azkena Rock in the Basque Country, sharing the stage with legendary acts like Melvins and Iggy Pop. And recently, after completing their August UK tour successfully, they played an intense gig with fellow Spanish grungy noise rockers Rosy Finch. Additionally, they are lined up for a series of other shows across Europe.
Long-time friends Chloé (bass), Eustaquia (vocals), and Ruth (guitar) started Bones of Minerva in 2013, with Nerea joining on drums in early 2018. Like a chimera, their music is a menagerie of sound: the vocalist Eustaquia shifts from hypnotic melodies to savage growls, pairing introspective lyrics with dreamy landscapes whilst Nerea is a powerhouse of crashing progressive rhythms that pairs with the band’s heavy riffs and swirling basslines to brutal effect.
Their debut, Blue Mountains (2017), was initially self-released, with a reissue through Nooirax and La Rubia Producciones the following year. Two years of nonstop activities saw them play festivals like Download Madrid and Resurrection Fest and dates all over Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
In early 2022, the band announced their signing with Spanish label Aloud Music (Toundra, Viva Belgrado) alongside La Rubia Producciones once more to release their second full-length. A new single, “Swamp,” was released soon after as a 7″ to mark the beginning of this new chapter, and on 16 September of the year, their second album, EMBERS, was released in full.
The band opted for a live recording at Metropol Studios (Madrid) with producer Alex Cappa, a process that has seen the band hone their sound and expand into progressive and post-rock territory on tracks like “Merula or Silence.” EMBERS is a journey that takes the listeners through smoke, across forests and swamps, to the very roots of mother earth herself. It is the remnants of fire ready to surge at any moment as a roaring force.
Hey there and welcome back to the Spring 2023 Quarterly Review. Today I’ve got another 10-record batch for your perusal, and if you’ve never been to this particular party before, it’s part of an ongoing series this site does every couple months (you might say quarterly), and this week picks up from yesterday as well as a couple weeks ago, when another 70 records of various types were covered. If there’s a lesson to be learned from all of it, it’s that we live in a golden age of heavy music, be it metal, rock, doom, sludge, psych, prog, noise or whathaveyou. Especially for whathaveyou.
So here we are, you and I, exploring the explorations in these many works and across a range of styles. As always, I hope you find something that feels like it’s speaking directly to you. For what it’s worth, I didn’t even make it through the first 10 of the 50 releases to be covered this week yesterday without ordering a CD from Bandcamp, so I’m here in a spirit of learning too. We’ll go together and dive back in.
Quarterly Review #11-20:
Smokey Mirror, Smokey Mirror
Those in the know will tell you that the vintage-sound thing is over, everybody’s a goth now, blah blah heavygaze. That sounds just fine with Dallas, Texas, boogie rockers Smokey Mirror, who on their self-titled Rise Above Records first LP make their shuffle a party in “Invisible Hand” and the class-conscious “Pathless Forest” even before they dig into the broader jam of the eight-minute “Magick Circle,” panning the solos in call and response, drum solo, softshoe groove, full on whatnot. Meanwhile, “Alpha-State Dissociative Trance” would be glitch if it had a keyboard on it, a kind of math rock from 1972, and its sub-three-minute stretch is followed by the acoustic guitar/harmonica folk blues of “Fried Vanilla Super Trapeze” and the heavy fuzz resurgence of “Sacrificial Altar,” which is long like “Magick Circle” but with more jazz in its winding jam and more of a departure into it (four minutes into the total 7:30 if you’re wondering), while the Radio Moscow-style smooth bop and rip of “A Thousand Days in the Desert” and shred-your-politics of “Who’s to Say” act as touch-ground preface for the acoustic noodle and final hard strums of “Recurring Nightmare,” as side B ends in mirror to side A. An absolute scorcher of a debut and all the more admirable for wearing its politics on its sleeve where much heavy rock hides safe behind its “I’m not political” whiteness, Smokey Mirror‘s Smokey Mirror reminds that, every now and again, those in the know don’t know shit. Barnburner heavy rock and roll forever.
Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows, Hail to the Underground
The moral of the story is that the members of Melbourne’s Jack Harlon and the Dead Crows — may they someday be famous enough that I won’t feel compelled to point out that none of them is Jack; the lineup is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Tim Coutts-Smith, guitarist Jordan Richardson, bassist Liam Barry and drummer Josh McCombe — came up in the ’90s, or at least in the shadow thereof. Hail to the Underground collects eight covers in 35 minutes and is the Aussie rockers’ first outing for Blues Funeral, following two successful albums in 2018’s Hymns and 2021’s The Magnetic Ridge (review here), and while on paper it seems like maybe it’s the result of just-signed-gotta-get-something-out motivation, the takes on tunes by Aussie rockers God, the Melvins, Butthole Surfers, My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division (their “Day of Lords” is a nodding highlight) rest organically alongside the boogie blues of “Roll & Tumble” (originally by Hambone Willie Newbern), the electrified surge of Bauhaus‘ “Dark Entries” and the manic peaks of “Eye Shaking King” by Amon Düül II. It’s not the triumphant, moment-of-arrival third full-length one awaits — and it would be soon for it to be, but it’s how the timing worked with the signing — but Hail to the Underground adds complexity to the narrative of the band’s sound in communing with Texan acid noise, country blues from 1929 to emo and goth rock icons in a long-player’s span, and it’ll certainly keep the fire burning until the next record gets here.
Minimalist in social media presence (though on YouTube and Bandcamp, streaming services, etc.), Sardinian one-man outfit Noorag — also stylized all-lowercase: noorag — operates at the behest of multi-instrumentalist/producer Federico “WalkingFred” Paretta, and with drums by Daneiele Marcia, the project’s debut EP, Fossils, collects seven short pieces across 15 minutes that’s punk in urgency, sans-vocal in the execution, sludged in tone, metallic in production, and adventurous in some of its time changes. Pieces like the ambient opener “Hhon” and “Amanita Shot,” which follows headed on the quick into the suitably stomping “Brachiopod” move easily between each other since the songs themselves are tied together through their instrumental approach and relatively straightforward arrangements. “Cochlea Stone” is a centerpiece under two minutes long with emphasis rightfully on the bass, while “Ritual Electric” teases the stonershuggah nuance in the groove of “Acid Apricot”‘s second half, and the added “Digital Cave” roughs up the recording while maybe or maybe not actually being the demo it claims to be. Are those drums programmed? We may never know, but at a quarter of an hour long, it’s not like Noorag are about to overstay their welcome. Fitting for the EP format as a way to highlight its admirable intricacy, Fossils feels almost ironically fresh and sounds like the beginning point of a broader progression. Here’s hoping.
With the notable exceptions of six-minute opener “Era” and the 8:36 “Uhtceare” with the gradual build to its explosion into the “Stones From the Sky” moment that’s a requisite for seemingly all post-metal acts to utilize at least once (they turn it into a lead later, which is satisfying), Sweden’s KOLLAPS\E — oh your pesky backslash — pair their ambient stretches with stately, shout-topped declarations of riff that sound like early Isis with the clarity of production and intent of later Isis, which is a bigger difference than it reads. The layers of guttural vocals at the forefront of “Anaemia” add an edge of extremity offset by the post-rock float of the guitar, and “Bränt Barn Skyr Elden” (‘burnt child dreads the fire,’ presumably a Swedish aphorism) answers by building tension subtly in its first two minutes before going full-barrage atmosludge for the next as it, “Anaemia,” and the closing pair of “Radiant Static” and “Murrain” harness short-song momentum on either side of four minutes long — something the earlier “Beautiful Desolate” hinted at between “Era” and “Uhtceare” — to capture a distinct flow for side B and giving the ending of “Murrain” its due as a culmination for the entire release. Crushing or spacious or both when it wants to be, Phantom Centre is a strong, pandemic-born debut that looks forward while showing both that it’s schooled in its own genre and has begun to decide which rules it wants to break.
Healthyliving, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief
A multinational conglomerate that would seem to be at least partially assembled in Edinburg, Scotland, Healthyliving — also all-lowercase: healthyliving — offer folkish melodicism atop heavy atmospheric rock for a kind of more-present-than-‘gaze-implies feel that is equal parts meditative, expansive and emotive on their debut full-length, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief. With the vocals of Amaya López-Carromero (aka Maud the Moth) given a showcase they more than earn via performance, multi-instrumentalist Scott McLean (guitar, bass, synth) and drummer Stefan Pötzsch are able to conjure the scene-setting heft of “Until,” tap into grunge strum with a gentle feel on “Bloom” or meander into outright crush with ambient patience on “Galleries” (a highlight) or move through the intensity of “To the Gallows,” the unexpected surge in the bridge of “Back to Back” or the similarly structured but distinguished through the vocal layering and melancholic spirit of the penultimate “Ghost Limbs” with a long quiet stretch before closer “Obey” wraps like it’s raking leaves in rhythm early and soars on a strident groove that caps with impact and sprawl. They are not the only band operating in this sphere of folk-informed heavy post-rock by any means, but as their debut, this nine-song collection pays off the promise of their 2021 two-songer Until/Below (review here) and heralds things to come both beautiful and sad.
Even before Vermont freak-psych two-piece MV & EE — Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, both credited with a whole bunch of stuff including, respectively, ‘the real deal’ and ‘was’ — are nestled into the organic techno jam of 19-minute album opener “Free Range,” their Green Ark full-length has offered lush lysergic hypnosis via an extended introductory drone. Far more records claim to go anywhere than actually do, but the funky piano of “No Money” and percussion and wah dream-disco of “Dancin’,” with an extra-fun keyboard line late, set up the 20-minute “Livin’ it Up,” in a way that feels like surefooted experimentalism; Elder and Valentine exploring these aural spaces with the confidence of those who’ve been out wandering across more than two decades’ worth of prior occasions. That is to say, “Livin’ it Up” is comfortable as it engages with its own unknown self, built up around a bass line and noodly solo over a drum machine with hand percussion accompanying, willfully repetitive like the opener in a way that seems to dig in and then dig in again. The 10-minute “Love From Outer Space” and nine-minute mellow-psych-but-for-the-keyboard-beat-hitting-you-in-the-face-and-maybe-a-bit-of-play-around-that-near-the-end “Rebirth” underscore the message that the ‘out there’ is the starting point rather than the destination for MV & EE, but that those brave enough to go will be gladly taken along.
Israeli trio The Great Machine — brothers Aviran Haviv (bass/vocals) and Omer Haviv (guitar/vocals) as well as drummer/vocalist Michael Izaky — find a home on Noisolution for their fifth full-length in nine years, Funrider, trading vocal duties back and forth atop songs that pare down some of the jammier ideology of 2019’s less-than-ideally-titled Greatestits, still getting spacious in side-A ender “Pocketknife” and the penultimate “Some Things Are Bound to Fail,” which is also the longest inclusion at 6:05. But the core of Funrider is in the quirk and impact of rapid-fire cuts like “Zarathustra” and “Hell & Back” at the outset, the Havivs seeming to trade vocal duties throughout to add to the variety as the rumble before the garage-rock payoff of “Day of the Living Dead” gives over to the title-track or that fuzzier take moves into “Pocketknife.” Acoustic guitar starts “Fornication Under the Consent of the King” but it becomes sprinter Europunk bombast before its two minutes are done, and with the rolling “Notorious” and grungeminded “Mountain She” ripping behind, the most unifying factor throughout Funrider is its lack of predictability. That’s no minor achievement for a band on their fifth record making a shift in their approach after a decade together, but the desert rocking “The Die” that closes with a rager snuck in amid the chug is a fitting summary of the trio’s impressive creative reach.
Following-up their 2017 debut, Stoner Circus, Austrian trio Swanmay offer seven songs and 35 minutes of new material with the self-issued Frantic Feel, finding their foundation in the bass work of Chris Kaderle and Niklas Lueger‘s drumming such that Patrick Àlvaro‘s ultra-fuzzed guitar has as strong a platform to dance all over as possible. Vocals in “The Art of Death” are suitably drunk-sounding (which doesn’t actually hurt it), but “Mashara” and “Cats and Snails” make a rousing opening salvo of marked tonal depth and keep-it-casual stoner saunter, soon also to be highlighted in centerpiece “Blooze.” On side B, “Stone Cold” feels decidedly more like it has its life together, and “Old Trails” tightens the reins from there in terms of structure, but while closer “Dead End” stays fuzzy and driving like the two songs before, the noise quotient is upped significantly by the time it’s done, and that brings back some of the looser swing of “Mashara” or “The Art of Death.” But when Swanmay want to be — and that’s not all the time, to their credit — they are massively heavy, and they put that to raucous use with a production that is accordingly loud and vibrant. Seems simple reading a paragraph, maybe, but the balance they strike in these songs is a difficult one, and even if it’s just for the guitar and bass tones, Frantic Feel demands an audience.
“Death will come swiftly to those who are weak,” goes the crooning verse lyric from Garden of Ash‘s “Death Valley” at the outset of the young Edmonton, Alberta, trio’s self-titled, self-released debut full-length. Bassist Kristina Hunszinger delivers the line with due severity, but the Witch Mountain-esque slow nod and everybody-dies lyrics of “A Cautionary Tale” show more of the tongue-in-cheek point of view of the lyrics. The plot thickens — or at very least hits harder — when the self-recorded outing’s metallic production style is considered. In the drums of Levon Vokins — who also provides backing vocals as heard on “Roses” and elsewhere — the (re-amped) guitar of Zach Houle and even in the mostly-sans-effects presentation of Hunszinger‘s vocals as well as their placement at the forefront of the mix, it’s heavy metal more than heavy rock, but as Vokins takes lead vocals in “World on Fire” with Hunszinger joining for the chorus, the riff is pure boogie and the earlier “Amnesia” fosters doomly swing, so what may in the longer term be a question of perspective is yet unanswered in terms of are they making the sounds they want to and pushing into trad metal genre tenets, or is it just a matter of getting their feet under them as a new band? I don’t know, but songs and performance are both there, so this first full-length does its job in giving Garden of Ash something from which to move forward while serving notice to those with ears to hear them. Either way, the bonus track “Into the Void” is especially notable for not being a Black Sabbath cover, and by the time they get there, that’s not at all the first surprise to be had.
Checking in at one second less and 15 minutes flat, “The Bends” is the first release from Milwaukee-based three-piece Tidal, and it’s almost immediately expansive. With shades of El Paraiso-style jazz psych, manipulated samples and hypnotic drone at its outset, the first two minutes build into a wash with mellow keys/guitar effects (whatever, it sounds more like sax and they’re all credited with ‘noise,’ so I’m doing my best here) and it’s not until Sam Wallman‘s guitar steps forward out of the ambience surrounding at nearly four minutes deep that Alvin Vega‘s drums make their presence known. Completed by Max Muenchow‘s bass, which righteously holds the core while Wallman airs out, the roll is languid and more patient than one would expect for a first-release jam, but there’s a pickup and Tidal do get raucous as “The Bends” moves into its midsection, scorching for a bit until they quiet down again, only to reemerge at 11:10 from the ether of their own making with a clearheaded procession to carry them through the crescendo and to the letting-go-now drift of echo that caps. I hear tell they’ve got like an hour and a half of this stuff recorded and they’re going to release them one by one. They picked an intriguing one to start with as the layers of drone and noise help fill out the otherwise empty space in the instrumental jam without being overwrought or sacrificing the spontaneous nature of the track. Encouraging start. Will be ready when the next jam hits.
The fucking intensity of this band. Following on from last year’s divine-comedic EP, Seconda Morte (review here), Alicante, Spain, heavy noise rock trio Rosy Finch offer further evidence of their general not-screwing-around nature with the 20-minute/three-song pro-captured live-in-studio clip ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions.’ Premiering below, the session features three tracks — “Oxblood,” “Gin Fizz” and “Ruby” — taken from the band’s 2020 sophomore full-length, Scarlet (review here), and makes no apologies either for the fullness of its tonal assault or the way in which, like the record itself, the songs are able to shift between melodic, atmospheric heavy and rawer punishment.
Founding guitarist/vocalist Mireia Porto and bassist Óscar Soler share vocals in a way they couldn’t on Scarlet since the latter hadn’t joined the band yet when the record came out, representing their live presence with Juanjo Ufarte holding the march steady on drums. On paper, their approach shouldn’t work at all, but like Seconda Morte, these new takes on Scarlet cuts harness noise vibes without losing their ambience, cacophony without sacrificing groove, and have enough space to account for melody as well as the caustic, “Gin Fizz” blending grunge, riot-grrrl screams and sludge metal with purpose and force alike after the outright nastiness that emerges in “Oxblood” and before “Ruby” digs even deeper, comprising most of the second half of the video by itself.
Worth noting that Marcos Baño, who directs here, also helmed the clip for “Purgatorio” from the EP last year, the indoor portion of which was filmed at the Creative Madness Lab, and the collaboration is successful again in conveying the righteous fury as well as the scope of these songs. It may be that some of the intent behind ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ — the last three words there indicative of a series — is to demonstrate the way Rosy Finch now handle the work of the band’s earlier incarnation, which they wield like a weapon, but to more generally showcase what they bring to the stage in a live setting; considerably more than simple aggression but plenty of that as well, deliberate in execution and the build and release of tension as it is.
That aggro sensibility has been a defining feature of their output to-date — though I’ll emphasize that it’s not all that’s happening in their songs and this video proves that again — and as such they’re somewhat subject to the perils of inhabiting a place between styles, crossing lines of heavy rock, punk, metal and noise while refusing to commit to just one approach. Or three. The tradeoff there is Rosy Finch are a more interesting band for the breadth, and if a given listener/viewer was undecided on whether or not to catch them performing, say, at Desertfest London 2023 where they’ll play next month, it’s hard to imagine taking in ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ and not coming down in their favor.
Please enjoy:
Rosy Finch, ‘Live on Creative Madness Sessions’ premiere
Rosy Finch full performance at Creative Madness Lab
Andalusian atmospheric heavy rock three-piece Santo Rostro will issue their fourth album, Después no habrá nada, on March 10 through Spinda Records, Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones. At 34 minutes and five songs, it’s barely as long as the list of links at the bottom of this post, but that’s plenty enough time for the Jaén trio to make their impression in fuzz, space and largesse, crafting a kind of heavy rock that, whether it’s celebrating riffs for crunch’s sake on “Carcasa Digital” or twisting around the more progressive headspins of “Matriz” later on, resounds with persona and purpose alike.
Self-recorded, the album is likewise heavy and movement-based, even in its basic construction; the individual tracks — “Telerañas” (3:50), “Carcasa Digital” (4:29), “Aire” (5:44), “Matriz” (8:09) and the instrumental “Después no habrá nada” (11:52) — being arranged shortest to longest to draw the listener further in as “Carcasa Digital” picks up from the post-grunge melodic noise rock of “Telerañas” to intertwine synth with the fuzzy crunch of (also vocalist) Miguel Ortega‘s guitar and Antonio Gámez‘s bass; Alejandro Galiano‘s snare drum tapping away furiously beneath the keyboard-topped swirl of “Carcasa Digital” before the whole thing shifts into a proggy run of start-stops and sweeps back into the build, ending with more of a tempo push than a swell of volume.
There’s grace here, and the listener is never in doubt Santo Rostro are going to get where they’re going, but the process of how that happens is what makes the record an exciting and grabbing listen, the jabs of keys in “Telerañas” and the beginning there of the almost manic guitar runs runs that typify the album as a whole (or at least as a most), and the sneaky entry of what on many albums would be a culmination-riff after the three-minute mark — it put me in mind of something Genghis Tron might use to make a declaration earlier in their career, but there isn’t much in common between the two bands otherwise, save for a generalization like “they’re intense” — and the trio’s Andalusian-folk-informed semi-psychedelic atmospheres emerging from the physicality of the music itself, angular and immediate in rhythm, but with an overarching flow like some kind of overly complex hyper-run-on sentence that just won’t end and maybe you forgot what you wanted to say when you started it but Santo Rostro still know what they’re doing when they’re spinning circles around the inside of your brain. Dance, baby, dance.
And then doom a bit, because indeed, Después no habrá nada (English: ‘Then there will be nothing’) isn’t screwing around when it comes to heft as one of the tools in its stylistic shed. The first three tracks — what one assumes is side A — drop hints of the largesse to come in “Matriz” and the title-cut, the acoustic guitar that starts “Aire” and remains beneath for the duration, the electrifying surge in the layers of the solo in the song’s second half ascends to its peak, the band exquisitely tapping aspects of regional heavy psych, less garage than Mía Turbia, in which Ortega drums, but certainly aware of the likes of Mind!, Atavismo and Híbrido and the post-Viaje a 800 cohort’s ability to create a flowing current from seemingly hairpin turns. Santo Rostro aren’t nearly as drift-minded or kosmiche as some of those, and they’re not trying to be, but there are shared elements just the same, as “Matriz” begins side B with an immediate run of full synth-complemented fuzz and sprinting progressive heavy.
This out-of-a-cannon madcap sproing is destined to hit a wall, but the infectiousness of Después no habrá nada‘s energy isn’t to be understated as the band’s rhythmic tension is taken in by the listener, turned into a skin-tightening grip as “Matriz” grows more spacious in its chorus, Ortega‘s gruff vocals (yes, in Spanish) echoing over. The bass and guitar foreshadow just after the four-minute mark, but they’re still in full-go mode, and not to be lost in the cacophony is the sense of control on the part of the band holding it all together even when the song itself sounds like it’s struggling to come apart.
You could debate who’s won as the drums crash out at 5:17 and not-just-a-but-the-slower-riff is introduced, taking the clue dropped in “Telerañas” and bringing that righteous nod forward as the foundation for the rest of the track. They set it up in grand style, Galiano keeping time on the crash, Gámez underscoring with warmth the guitar and the organ line that emerges to join the slow march. The ending of “Matriz” is a standout moment that grows noisier and its own kind of frantic in the layering despite the drop in pace, but the shift is intentional and smoothly done as Santo Rostro give themselves an arrival point to go along with all that going.
Of course, they’re not done yet. “Matriz” howls by the time it’s done, the vocals and guitar as stretched out as they’re going to get, and the closer “Después no habrá nada” takes off like nothing ever happened, effectively resetting the pieces on the board for another game as they bounce and careen, build and run through the first couple minutes of the title-track, vague in genre — if some dude was screaming on it circa the three-minute mark, you’d say it sounded like Enslaved, but in reality Santo Rostro aren’t nearly so metal — but right on in affect and, by this time, well established in their doing-their-own-thing ethic.
As noted, “Después no habrá nada” is instrumental, but that aside it accounts for most of what Santo Rostro do throughout the album that shares its name, including the prog-out-into-slowdown at 4:30, the echoing atmospheric lead lines thereafter and the keys bolstering the moment’s impact, a fluid jam proceeding until before seven minutes in the drums break and an acoustic guitar enters to set up the final section, a cosmic payoff that, while keeping the acoustic guitar beneath like in “Matriz,” unfolds with due sense of exhalation. Ortega throws some shred into the fray, but the ending is less about one player than the total immersion crafted by the three of them. It stops, invariably, and hums into a fade, but the acoustic returns for another minute-plus of grows-more-urgent strum before cutting to silence, as though the album could end any other way.
It’s been six years since Santo Rostro issued their third full-length, The Healer, and coming up on 10 since they made their self-titled debut, and while Después no habrá nada carries forward some of the sonic facets and attitude of their prior work, the change from English to Spanish lyrics and titles and the choice to record themselves can only be said to suit them. They make themselves at home in the stormy, jazzy feverishness, and effectively contrast that later on with more straight-ahead groove, furthering the whole-record experience at no cost to the individual tracks in terms of the impression made. Después no habrá nada, like any kind of extreme music or really anything, won’t be universally received, but for those willing to put in the effort to keep up with it, the satisfaction is commensurate.
The album is streaming in its entirety below, followed by some more basic info and the aforementioned barrage of links.
Please enjoy:
‘DESPUÉS NO HABRÁ NADA’ by Santo Rostro. Out 10th March 2023.
Spanish psych-doom rockers SANTO ROSTRO are back in business with their 4th studio album ‘Después no habrá nada’ – to be released on 10th March 2023 via Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones & Spinda Records.
Andalusian power trio returns with a dark-psych rock album, with long tracks including complex instrumental developments, processed atmospheres and a dirty sound plenty of echoes, different modulations and occasional synths.
Many things have changed in SANTO ROSTRO since they put out ‘The Healer’ in 2017, and this is obviously reflected in this new album. ‘Después no habrá nada’ is the result of a more mature band, with thousands of kilometers touring both Spain and EU on their back, several TV appearances and a couple of stand-alone video-singles – and everything 100% DIY.
The album was produced by the band itself; then recorded and mixed by Raúl Pérez at La Mina (Spain); and mastered by Mario G. Alberni at Kadifornia Mastering (Spain). Behind the artwork is The Braves Church, based on photographies by Manu Rosaleny.
Digital 300x CD Digipack 150x Black Vinyl 150x Orange Translucent Vinyl
TRACK-LIST: 1. Telarañas 2. Carcasa Digital 3. Aire 4. Matriz 5. Después no habrá nada
SANTO ROSTRO: Miguel Ortega: guitars Antonio Gámez: bass, vocals Alejandro Galiano: drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 20th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
It’s relevant news and all that, but you’ll pardon me if I take a second to feel good posting about Healthyliving as the trio look to follow-up their 2021 two-songer Until/Below (discussed here), because my first instinct was to not. The reason for that was, well, it looks like their impending debut, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief, is going to be pretty well hyped, and that kind of thing is generally a turnoff. However, when the below press release came through and I did my usual shrug and ‘well this is too cool for me,’ I took a breath and reminded myself that that attitude is bullshit and that it usually does nothing more for me than to make me miss out on good music. So I took a listen to the track they’re streaming — you can hear it at the bottom of the post — and here we are.
So maybe it will be too cool for my ass in the end — it don’t take much — but at least I didn’t let that stop me from hearing it. Hype comes and goes. Good music lasts longer. I’ll try to get a review going somewhere along the line for Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief, even if it’s the Quarterly Review after the next one, and I’m sure with the heaps of critical plaudits headed their way mine will be sub-drop-in-bucket level, but screw it. I’m just glad I get to hear it.
Art, copious narrative, links and song follow, courtesy of the PR wire:
HEALTHYLIVING TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM; SONGS OF ABUNDANCE, PSALMS OF GRIEF, ON THE 7TH APRIL
FIRST TRACK, “GALLERIES”, OUT NOW
THE BAND SHALL PLAY THEIR FIRST EVER SHOW AT ROADBURN 2023
healthyliving is the project of long-time collaborators and friends who met through the European underground metal scene – Amaya López-Carromero (Maud the moth), Scott McLean (Falloch, Ashenspire) and Stefan Pötzsch. Having worked on various musical projects together for years, Amaya, Scott’s and Stefan’s artistic and personal connection coalesced organically and fuelled a small transnational collective across Scotland, Spain and Germany.
Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief is their concise and direct debut full-length album, funded by Creative Scotland and will be co-released on the 7th April by the band and LaRubia Producciones, followed by a debut live performance at the prestigious Roadburn Festival in Tilburg.
Of the first track, “Galleries”, lyricist Amaya says, “Scott made an amazing video for it, using some clips I had taken from our rehearsal space in Germany during one of our first rehearsals. The lyrics on the song make reference to this physical space and building, and what it signified for us at that time; mostly new beginnings, hope and choices to be made in our lives – not just at band level. I think the video is deeply significant.”
Artistically, the band draws from the beauty and horror of the banal to create a kaleidoscopic and evocative musical world which commutes across genre borders. The album, Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief, covers “everyday emotions which are apparently unrelated and mundane” but were chosen for their ability to represent common ground we all share as humans. Indeed, the band themselves describe their music as the soundtrack to “digesting our humanity”, coming to terms with the hopes and fears we all share.
A nocturnal haze of guitar layers lap like mammoth waves, as healthyliving taps into something primal and transfixing with their hypnotic sound. Amaya’s eerie and cosmic vocals sit atop the storm, leaving the listener to find pure human vulnerability and emotion in frequently turbulent and unfettered vocal turns.
Vocalist Amaya expands, “The magic of musical composition/songwriting for me lies in its capacity to create worlds outside of reality where both performers and listeners can explore and process things. A sort of microholiday from everyday life or an exciting meditative state, so I hope that we can share this experience with anyone who listens to the album.”
healthyliving honour this natural connection; something which is reflected in the simplicity, rawness and immediateness of their approach to songwriting. “Whenever an idea was found to be inspiring the whole song and structure needed to be written and finished within the same session.” says guitarist Scott. “Going back to work on it later or changing it was not allowed.” It’s a testament to the band’s conviction in instinct over pre-planning. Stefan confirms – “I’m into things being quite straightforward and intuitive despite the distance between us.”
Amaya continues, “All of the lyrics were written using free-association of the music with memories, or emotions that popped into my head in a dream-like manner.” She continues, “I titled “To The Gallows” first, as a summary of the main and oppressive feeling of the song; being stuck in a seamless feedback cycle of abuse that keeps repeating itself in a sisyphus-like vein. “To The Fields” has an opposing energy, invoking growth, vulnerability and hope.”
The Scottish community from which the band mainly operate (and where Scott and Amaya still reside) is clearly of utmost importance to the band. The three members of healthyliving appear in other Scottish musical projects – Ashenspire, Falloch, Maud the moth, All Men Unto Me – are included. “The community has taken a really long time to form and it’s amazing that now there is so much going on around it.” says Scott. “The best thing is being able to create such a wide variety of music with close friends. There is something happening nearly everyday in relation to our little community of musicians which is really incredible and exciting.”
Amaya adds, “Feeling part of an artist community is absolutely crucial to survive long term and have any chance of thriving as an independent artist. When I lived in Madrid, I would go to lots of local shows and felt a relevant part of the scene there, even if there were not many opportunities for us regarding international activity or funding. It was slightly heartbreaking having to start again from 0 when I moved to the UK. Although I stayed in contact with all my friends back in Spain it took me a long time to find my footing again and the right people with a shared vision here in the UK.”
Stefan adds “lest we forget the connection I feel as a friend and fellow musician to Amaya and Scott.” He adds this answer from his home in Germany, “It feels really effortless and rewarding.”
Amaya concludes, “I love connecting people together, and collaborating with others, so I am hoping to build something across the two countries; a mega-scene defined by shared interests and motivations rather than by geographical location.”
SONGS OF ABUNDANCE, PSALMS OF GRIEF TRACK LISTING: 1 – UNTIL 2 – DREAM HIVE 3 – GALLERIES 4 – TO THE FIELDS 5 – TO THE GALLOWS 6 – BLOOM 7 – BACK TO BACK 8 – GHOST LIMBS 9 – OBEY
Songs of Abundance, Psalms of Grief was recorded at Chamber Studio, Edinburgh, engineered by Graeme Young (DVNE, Idlewild), produced and mixed by Scott McLean and mastered by Brad Boatright (The Armed, Sleep, Stranger Things OST).
Posted in Whathaveyou on February 10th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
Okay, so, you’re probably going to notice pretty quickly the spaciousness in Santo Rostro‘s new single, “Telarañas,” what with all that cavernous echo and reverb tonality, vocals calling up from the mix and so on. Killer, right from the moment the song bursts in just when it should. As the Andalusian trio bring it forward through its utterly-consumable sub-four-minute run, you’ll notice that that space that feels so open at the beginning of the song has begun to fill up. By the end of the track, it becomes a full-on wash of clearheaded atmospheric heavy psych, pushing forward in a way that reminds me of bands like Arc of Ascent, who’ve mastered the art of bringing together grounded groove and lysergic effects plunge. The band’s fourth album — first I’ve heard, I’ll say outright; I ain’t perfect and I’m just about never Johnny Groundfloor — is called Después No Habrá Nada, and with the unveiling of the opening track today and the launch of preorders comes confirmation of a March 10 release through Spinda Records, Discos Macarras and LaRubia Producciones.
Yes, this is another post about Spinda engaging in a multi-label conglomerate to get behind a new release. Also yes, I recognize that Spanish imprints have been doing this for years, and that all three involved parties here — four if you count the band, which it’s fair to do — are based in Spain, but the last few weeks have seen Spinda making announcements that broaden this ethic to other places in Europe and beyond, and I’ll gladly reiterate that I think it’s a good thing.
Perhaps you don’t give a shit about any of that and just want to rock the tune and see if you’re interested. Go for it. But while you do, just keep in the back of your mind the sort of team ethic and extended reach that’s possible when independent labels like this work together. Teamwork, dream work, and all that. Then blow out the airlock and get ready to launch into open cosmos because that’s pretty much where this one goes.
Enjoy:
‘DESPUÉS NO HABRÁ NADA’ by Santo Rostro. Out 10th March 2023.
Spanish psych-doom rockers SANTO ROSTRO are back in business with their 4th studio album ‘Después no habrá nada’ – to be released on 10th March 2023 via Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones & Spinda Records, although the single “Telarañas” is coming out on 10th February. The pre-order for vinyl, compact discs and digital editions starts that same day.
Andalusian power trio returns with a dark-psych rock album, with long tracks including complex instrumental developments, processed atmospheres and a dirty sound plenty of echoes, different modulations and occasional synths.
Many things have changed in SANTO ROSTRO since they put out ‘The Healer’ in 2017, and this is obviously reflected in this new album. ‘Después no habrá nada’ is the result of a more mature band, with thousands of kilometers touring both Spain and EU on their back, several TV appearances and a couple of stand-alone video-singles – and everything 100% DIY.
This way, we find ourselves with a more balanced and determined sound, with a tremendous solid and seamless rhythmic base, powerful and organic at the same time, with a dance of tempos that accelerate and slow down at the right time – there’s no clapperboard in here.
In ‘Después no habrá nada’ you’ll find from doom to sludge, with high doses of progressive metal and even Andalusian heavy psych. It could be understood as a great mix of bands such as Viaje a 800, Adrift, Oransi Pazuzu, Mastadon or Russian Circles, but with an imprint that only SANTO ROSTRO has. This new album is a kind of a personal delirium and hangover; with some rehearsal room taste and accumulated fatigue.
The album was produced by the band itself; then recorded and mixed by Raúl Pérez at La Mina (Spain); and mastered by Mario G. Alberni at Kadifornia Mastering (Spain). Behind the artwork is The Braves Church, based on photographies by Manu Rosaleny.
‘Después no habrá nada’ comes out on 10th March 2023 through Discos Macarras, LaRubia Producciones and Spinda Records in the following editions:
Digital 300x CD Digipack 150x Black Vinyl 150x Orange Translucent Vinyl
TRACK-LIST: 1. Telarañas 2. Carcasa Digital 3. Aire 4. Matriz 5. Después no habrá nada
SANTO ROSTRO: Miguel Ortega: guitars Antonio Gámez: bass, vocals Alejandro Galiano: drums
