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Ghorot Announce Tour Dates & New Album Recording Plans

Posted in Whathaveyou on June 7th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

ghorot

As will happen pretty much every year, the lineup for Crucial Fest in Salt Lake City this August is smokin’, and it includes Boise-based trio Ghorot, who also toured the West Coast last Fall in order to promote their 2021 debut album, Loss of Light (review here). That was a nine-day stretch in the Northwest and this is nine days in the Southwest, so there’s perhaps some indicator of how much touring the band will do on any given run, but one way or the other, like that last tour, they’ve got some good shows with killer acts — Denver with Velnias walks by and waves — and word that they’re getting ready to record their second album, with Andy Patterson no less, is certainly welcome too. One imagines they’re playing new songs on the road, and I’m sure I won’t be the first one to tell you that’s how you do it. Walk right off stage and into the studio.

Safe travels and kick ass to the band. Not a doubt in my mind they’ll trip it up at the shows and then make sure it’s dead in the studio with Patterson at the helm. If you’re not looking forward to that record yet, you probably should be.

The following dates came from the internet. I asked bassist/vocalist Carson Russell for a quote to go with, just something to make it more than a post cut and pasted from social media — they call it “value added content” in a corporate world I’m so, so, so happy I no longer inhabit — and he dropped the notice of the new recording, so there you go. Sometimes it’s good to ask, even if it means you have to wait an extra couple minutes (that were being waited anyway) to put the post up. Lesson probably not learned.

Info:

ghorot tour poster

Ghorot rides through the Southwest US this August!! Where will we see you on our path of destruction?

“Ghorot is bringing the blackened doom-metal punishment to the Southwest US this August,” says bassist/vocalist Carson Russell “We’re thrilled to be hitting a bunch of new cities on our path to Crucial Fest 11 in Salt Lake City. Following the festival, Ghorot will be remaining in SLC to record our sophomore full-length album at The Boar’s Nest with legendary engineer Andy Patterson. PREPARE THYSELF.”

8.18 The Elbow Room Bar with @flawlessvictory775 + the scattering
8.19 Thee Parkside with Slegë + @vindulaband (presented by SubliminalSF)
8.20 The Blue Lagoon with Vultures At Arms Reach + @_dvvell_
8.21 @knucklehead_hwood with TBA (presented by The Elegy Ensemble)
8.22 Til Two Club with Kushtaka + Lvciferian Death Mechanism
8.23 Yucca Tap Room with MutilatedTyrant + Mosara
8.24 Moonlight Lounge with @ritualnoiseabuse + TBA
8.25 Hi-Dive Denver with Velnias + Celestial Wizard
8.26 Crucialfest at Metro Music Hall with Mizmor, Marissa Nadler, The Otolith, and more

SEE YOU BASTARDS ON THE ROAD
Artwork by @neosabbathh

US Label Transylvanian Recordings
EU Label Inverse Records

Ghorot are:
Carson Russell: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Brandon Walker: Drums, Vocals
Chad Remains: Guitars, Amplifiers, Vocals

https://facebook.com/ghorot
https://instagram.com/ghorotdoom
https://ghorot.bandcamp.com

https://youtube.com/channel/UCyyMi4his1tCFb-uwG4QGhA
https://transylvaniantapes.bandcamp.com/

https://inverserecords.bandcamp.com/

Ghorot, Loss of Light (2021)

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Ghorot Announce Fall West Coast Tour Supporting Loss of Light

Posted in Whathaveyou on August 17th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

ghorot

Optimists in spite of their sound, it would seem, Boise, Idaho’s Ghorot announce today a stretch of tour dates to take place in October supporting their recently-issued debut album, Loss of Light (review here), meeting up with the likes of Brume and Old Blood along their nine-day course. I mean, hey, could happen, right? I think when you scorch earth as hard as these dudes do, you’ve pretty much disinfected everything anyhow.

Wouldn’t that be fun? If you could cure plague with riffs? Alas.

We head into an unknowable Fall coming out of an unknowable Summer, living in an uncertain present born of fake past looking ahead to a disastrous future. You want me to tell you this tour will happen? Fine, I will. I certainly hope it does, for the band’s sake as well as anyone who might show up — I’ve never seen any of these bands, and I’d like to — but I admit that every time I post a stretch of tour dates at this point there’s that little voice-o’-trauma in my head going, “Yeah, really? You think?”

So I don’t know. I’m not a fucking epidemiologist. How about you check before you go and let’s leave it at that?

From the PR wire:

ghorot western us tour

Ghorot – Fall 2021 Western US Tour Announcement

“We’re thrilled to announce Ghorot will be bringing the blackened-doom punishment to the Western US this October! Joining us for select dates will be San Francisco’s internationally-recognized doom trio BRUME (Magnetic Eye Records) and Los Angeles’ occult rock/acid doom quintet OLD BLOOD (Metal Assault Records). Our debut album Loss of Light (Transylvanian Recordings/Inverse Records) has been receiving killer press around the globe, and we can’t wait to share this filth live and in person with you all!”

Fall 2021 Western US Tour Dates

10.21 THURS Sparks, NV The Elbow Room with Brume
10.22 FRI Sacramento, CA Cafe Colonial with Brume
10.23 SAT Oakland, CA Elbo Room Jack London with Brume
10.24 SUN Eugene, OR Old Nick’s Pub with Old Blood
10.25 MON Portland, OR High Water Mark
10.26 TUES Olympia, WA Cryptatropa Bar with Old Blood
10.27 WED Seattle, WA Substation with Old Blood
10.28 THURS Bellingham, WA Karate Church
10.29 FRI Spokane, ID The Viking
10.30 SAT Moscow, ID Revolver

Ghorot are:
Carson Russell: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Brandon Walker: Drums, Vocals
Chad Remains: Guitars, Amplifiers, Vocals

https://facebook.com/ghorot
https://instagram.com/ghorotdoom
https://ghorot.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/channel/UCyyMi4his1tCFb-uwG4QGhA
https://transylvaniantapes.bandcamp.com/
https://inverserecords.bandcamp.com/

Ghorot, Loss of Light (2021)

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Quarterly Review: Per Wiberg, Body Void, Ghorot, Methadone Skies, Witchrot, Rat King, Taras Bulba, Opium Owl, Kvasir, Lurcher

Posted in Reviews on July 16th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

the-obelisk-fall-2016-quarterly-review

In my hubris of adding an 11th day to this Summer 2021 Quarterly Review — why not just do the whole month of July, bro? what’s the matter? don’t like riffs? — I’ve rendered today somewhat less of a landmark, but I guess there’s still some accomplishment to be felt in completing two full weeks of writing about 10 records a day, hitting triple digits and all that. Not that I doubted I’d get here — it’s rare but it’s happened before — and not that I doubt I’ll have the last 10 done for Monday, but yeah. It’s been a trip so far.

Quarterly Review #91-100:

Per Wiberg, All Is Well In the Land of the Living But for the Rest of Us… Lights Out

per wiberg all is well in the land of the living but for the rest of us lights out

The cumbersome-seeming title of Per Wiberg‘s new solo EP derives from its four component tracks, “All is Well,” “In the Land of the Living,” “But for the Rest of Us…” and “Lights Out.” The flow between them is largely seamless, and when Wiberg (whose pedigree as an organist/keyboardist includes Opeth, Candlemass, Big Scenic Nowhere and more others than I can count) pauses between tracks two and three, it feels likewise purposeful. It’s a dark mood inflected through the melodies of the opener and the atmospheric piano lines of “But for the Rest of Us…,” but Wiberg offers a driving take on progressive heavy rock with “In the Land of the Living” and the build in the subsequent “Lights Out” is encompassing with the lead-in it’s given. Wiberg sounds more comfortable layering his voice than even on 2019’s Head Without Eyes, and his arrangements are likewise expressive and fluid. Dude is a professional. I think maybe that’s part of the reason everybody wants to work with him.

Per Wiberg on Facebook

Despotz Records website

 

Body Void, Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth

Body Void Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth

Massive, droning lurch, harsh, biting screams and lumbering, pummeling weight, Body Void‘s third album and first for Prosthetic, Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth, boasts feelgood hits like “Wound” and “Laying Down in a Forest Fire,” bringing cacophonous, Khanate-style extremity of atmosphere to willfully, punishingly brutal sludge. It is not friendly. It is devastating, and it is the kind of record that sounds loud even when you play it quietly — and that’s before you get to “Pale Man”‘s added layers of caustic noise. Front to back in the four songs — all of which top 12 minutes — there’s no letup, no moment at which the duo relent in order to let the listener breathe. This is intentional. A conjuring of aural concrete in the lungs coinciding with striking lines like “Your compromises are hollow monuments to your cowardice” and other bleak, throatripping poetry of dead things and our complicity in making them. Righteous and painful.

Body Void on Facebook

Prosthetic Records website

 

Ghorot, Loss of Light

ghorot loss of light

Ghorot is the three-piece of bassist/vocalist Carson Russell (also Ealdor Bealu), drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker and guitarist Chad Remains (ex-Uzala), and Loss of Light is a debut album no less gripping for its push into darkness, whether it’s the almost-toying-with-you Sabbath-style riff of “Harbinger” or the tortured atmospherics in the back end of “Charioteer of Fire,” which follows. Competing impulses result in a sense of grueling even through the barks and faster progression of “Woven Furnace,” while “Dead Gods” offers precious little mourning in its charred deathsludge, saving more ambience for the 12-minute closer “In Endless Grief,” which not only veers into acoustics, but nods toward post-metal later on, despite holding firm to cavernous growls and wails. Obscure? Opaque? There isn’t a way in which Loss of Light isn’t heavy. Everywhere they go, Ghorot carry that weight with them. It is existential.

Ghorot on Facebook

Transylvanian Recordings on Bandcamp

Inverse Records on Bandcamp

 

Methadone Skies, Retrofuture Caveman

methadone skies retrofuture caveman

Lush from the outset and growing richer in aural substance as it plays out, the 17:56 longest/opening (immediate points) title-track of Methadone Skies‘ latest work, Retrofuture Caveman, is an obviously intended focal point, and a worthy one at that. Last heard from with 2019’s Different Layers of Fear (review here), the Romanian four-piece break down walls across the bulk of this fifth full-length, with “Retrofuture Caveman” itself setting the standard early in moving instrumentally between warm heavy psychedelia, prog, drone, doom and darker black metal. It’s prog heavy that ultimately wins the day on the subsequent linear build of “Infected by Friendship” and centerpiece “The Enabler,” but there’s room for more lumber in the 11-mminute “Western Luv ’67” and closer “When the Sleeper Awakens” offers playful shove riffing in its midsection before a final stretch of quiet guitar leads to a last-minute volume burst, no less consuming or sprawling than anything before, even if it feels like it finishes too soon.

Methadone Skies on Facebook

Methadone Skies on Bandcamp

 

Witchrot, Hollow

witchrot hollow

Stood out by the gotta-hear bass tone of Cam Alford, the ethereal-or-shouting-and-sometimes-both vocals of Lea Reto, the crash of Nick Kervin‘s drums and the encompassing wah of Peter Turik‘s guitar, Toronto’s Witchrot offer a striking debut with their awaited first full-length, Hollow, oozing out through opener/longest track (immediate points) “Million Shattered Swords” before the stomping wash of “Colder Hands” sacrifices itself on an altar of noise, leading to the more directly-riffed “Spiral of Sorrow,” which nonetheless maintains the atmosphere. Things get noisier and harsher in the second half of Hollow, which is presaged in the plod of “Fog,” but as things grow more restless and angrier after “Devil in My Eyes” and move into the pair “Burn Me Down” and “I Know My Enemy,” both faster, like blown-out Year of the Cobra toying with punk rock and grunge, Witchrot grow stronger for the shift by becoming less predictable, setting up the atmospheric plunge of the closing title-track that finishes one of 2021’s most satisfying debut albums.

Witchrot on Facebook

Fuzzed and Buzzed Records website

DHU Records store

 

Rat King, Omen

Rat King Omen

Omen is the first long-player from Evansville, Indiana, four-piece Rat King, who use rawness to their advantage throughout the nine included tracks, at least one of which — “Supernova” — dates back to being released as a single in 2017. With manipulated horror samples and interludes like the acoustic “Queen Anne’s Revenge” and “Shackleton” and the concluding “Matryoshka” spliced throughout the otherwise deep-toned and weighted fare of “Capsizer” and the chugging, pushing, scream-laced “Druid Crusher,” Omen never quite settles on a single approach and is more enticing for that, though the eight-minute “Vagrant” could well be a sign of things to come in its melodic reach, but the band revel in the grittier elements at work here as well — the thunderplod of “Glacier,” the willful drag of “Nepenta Divinorum,” and so on — and the ambience they create is dreary and obscure in a way that comes across as purposeful. Is Omen a foreshadow or just the name of a movie they dig? I don’t know, but I hope it’s not too long before we find out.

Rat King on Facebook

Rat King store

 

Taras Bulba, Sometimes the Night

Taras Bulba Sometimes the Night

What was Earthling Society continues to evolve into Taras Bulba at the behest of Fleetwood, UK’s Fred Laird. Sometimes the Night (on Riot Season) is a mostly solo affair, and truth be told, Laird doesn’t need much more than his own impulses to conjure a full-sounding record, as he quickly shows on the acid lounge opener “The Green Eyes of Dragon,” but the guest vocals from Daisy Atkinson bring echoing presence to the subsequent “Orphee” and Mike Blatchford‘s late-arriving sax on “The Sound of Waves,” “The Big Duvall” and “House in the Snow” highlight the jazzy underpinnings of the organ-laced “Night Train to Drug Town” and the avant, anti-anything guitar strum and piano strikes of “One More Lonely Angel.” No harm done, in any case, unless we’re talking about the common conception of what a song is, and hey, if it didn’t need to happen, it wouldn’t have. An experiment in vibe, perhaps, in psychedelic brooding, but evocative for that. Laird‘s no stranger to following whims. Here they lead to moodier space.

Taras Bulba on Facebook

Riot Season Records website

 

Opium Owl, Live at Hodila Records

Opium Owl Live at Hodila Records

I’ll admit, there’s a part of me that, when “Intro” hits its sudden forward surge, kind of wishes Opium Owl had kept it mellow. Nonetheless, the Riga, Latvia-based double-guitar (mostly) instrumental heavy psych four-piece offer plenty of serenity throughout the four-song live set Live at Hodila Records, and the back and forth patterning of the subsequent “Echo Slam” is all the more effective at winning conversion, so fair enough. “Stone Gaze” dips into even bigger riffage, while “Tempest Double” dares vocals over its quieter noodling, dispensing with them as it pushes louder toward the finish. For a live recording, the sound is rich enough to convey what would seem to be the full warmth of Opium Owl‘s tonality, and in its breadth and its impact, there’s no lack of studio-fullness for the session-style presentation. Live at Hodila Records may be formative in terms of establishing the methods with which the band — who formed in 2019 — will continue to work, but showcases significant promise in that.

Opium Owl on Facebook

Hodila Records on Facebook

 

Kvasir, 4

kvasir 4

Doled out with chops to spare and the swagger to show them off, Kvasir‘s eight-song debut LP, 4, puts modern heavy rock riffing in blender and sets it on high. Classic, epic heavy in “Where Gods to to Pray” and a more nodding groove in “Authenticity & the Illusion of Enough” meet with the funkier starts-stops of “Slow Death of Life” and the languid Sabbathism of “Earthly Algorithms.” “Chill for a Church” opens side B with trashier urgency and suitable rhythmic twist, and “The Brink” sets its depressive lyric to a ’70s boogie swing, not quite masking it, but working as a flowing companion piece for “The Black Mailbox,” which follows in like-minded fashion, letting closer “Alchemy of Identity” underscore the point with a rawer take on what once made The Sword so undeniable in their groove. There’s growing to do, patience to learn, etc., but Kvasir make it easy to get on board with 4 and their arguments for doing so brook little contradiction. Onto the list of 2021’s best debut albums it goes.

Kvasir on Facebook

Glory or Death Records on Bandcamp

 

Lurcher, Coma

lurcher coma

Lurcher might go full-prog before they’re done, but they’re not their yet on their four-song debut EP, Coma, and the songs only benefit from the band’s focus on impact and lack of self-indulgence. The leadoff title-track has an immediate hook that brings to mind an updated, tonally-heavier version of what Cave In innovated for melodic post-hardcore, and the subsequent “Remove the Myth From the Mountain” follows with a broader-sounding reach in its later solo that builds on the heavy rock foundation the first half of the song put forth. Vocalist/guitarist Joe Harvatt — backed by the rhythm section of bassist Tom Shortt and drummer Simon Bonwick — is prone, then, to a bit of shred. No argument as that’s answered with the Hendrix fuzz at the outset of “All Now is Here,” which both gets way-loud and drones way-out in its seven minutes, in turn setting up the lush-and-still-hard-hitting capper “Cross to Bear,” which rounds off the 26-minute release with all the more encouraging shifts in tempo, flowing melody, and mellotron sounds to add to the sweeping drama. I know the UK underground is hyper-crowded at this point, but consider notice served. These cats are onto something.

Lurcher on Instagram

Trepanation Recordings on Bandcamp

 

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Ghorot Announce Debut Album Loss of Light out July 23

Posted in Whathaveyou on May 11th, 2021 by JJ Koczan

Boise, Idaho, conjurers-of-beasts Ghorot will present their debut full-length, Loss of Light, like so much poison injected into the veins of summer’s scorch. The five-track outing brings the trio of bassist/vocalist Carson Russell (also Ealdor Bealu), drummer/vocalist Brandon Walker and guitarist Chad Remains (ex-Uzala) to places blackened, deathly and sludged, but loud or quiet, the atmosphere surrounds and fills the lungs with a rawness of purpose that’s as rich as it is harsh. In following up 2019’s The Pit: Eternal EP, the duo-turned-trio unfurl a metallic take that only acknowledges the lines between subgenres en route to setting them on fire.

Good fun? Oh most certainly it is, whether it’s the burn marks left by “Woven Furnace” or the 12-minute mournful extremity of closer “In Endless Grief.” It’s the super-fun-time slaughter your summer is begging for.

Ghorot sent the cover art and following announcement along the PR wire:

ghorot loss of light

GHOROT – Loss of Light

Today is the day!! We here at Ghorot are thrilled to announce our crushing debut full-length album Loss of Light will be released on Friday, July 23rd, and we will be working with Oakland underground legends Transylvanian Recordings as well as Finland’s Inverse Records to bring our creation to life across the planet on several physical formats! Cassettes, CDs, and 2 variations of vinyl are being created as we speak. Two weeks from today, Tuesday, May 25th, we will launch the music video for our first single off the new record “Dead Gods”, as well as kick off the album pre-order campaign. Keep your eyes peeled to be the first to get your limited edition copies of Loss of Light and immediate digital download of the first single.

This album has been nearly 2 years in the making, and we are so truly honored to have worked with such excellent, talented friends in the creation of Loss of Light. Z.V. House of Rabbitbrush Audio conducted the recording and mixing of the record as well as helped produce the bludgeoning onslaught of sound you will soon bear witness to. Mastering was handled by legendary engineer James Plotkin (Electric Wizard, Conan, Sunn). The brooding, beautiful artwork for the record was created by Stephen Wilson aka Unknown Relic.

Already confirmed for Treefort Music Fest 2021, Ghorot will soon be announcing a second festival appearance this fall as well as tour dates for the early winter in support of the new record. Pre-Orders, Singles, Music Videos, and so much more is coming your way soon…

PREPARE THYSELF

https://facebook.com/ghorot
https://instagram.com/ghorotdoom
https://ghorot.bandcamp.com
https://youtube.com/channel/UCyyMi4his1tCFb-uwG4QGhA

Ghorot, The Pit: Eternal (2019)

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