Spanish four-piece Bones of Minerva issued their debut album, Blue Mountains, earlier this year, and cast themselves in a place somewhere between heavy rock, psychedelia and more aggressive, loosely-metallic fare. One finds this position established in the opening track, “Overcoming,” which though it clocks in at under five minutes long moves from noise-inspired start-stop riffing and soaring melodies into a fervent push of growls and tonally dense nastiness. This line, between heavy rock and metal, can be finer and finer depending on how a given band wants to toy with it, and Bones of Minerva do well throughout their hook-laden, self-released first outing to vary their methods on an almost per-track basis, so that while “Overcoming” makes that shift, an upbeat rocker like “Fear is a Biscuit,” which immediately follows, does not.

Accordingly, the four-piece of vocalist Blue, guitarist Ruth, bassist Chloé and drummer Koa don’t fall into a predictable pattern one way or the other. “Defenders” is pissed off almost to a blackened degree, but centerpiece “Eery Octopus” offers more drift, and in a mere 3:47, “Plastic Crown” efficiently ties the two sides together leading into the High Fighter-esque “Aces” and progressively-tinged finale “Whales.” Each cut has something different to offer that broadens the context of the record as a whole, and as their first full-length behind a 2014 EP titled Shot, the seven-song long-player both sees Bones of Minerva find their niche in terms of aesthetic and set themselves up for development going forward within that.

I’m not entirely sure where they’re headed or what exactly the ritual is in the video for “Overcoming,” but if they’re working on their own level, all the better as far as I’m concerned. Either way, I’m happy to host the premiere of the clip, which you’ll find below, followed by more background on the band, who’ll share the stage tomorrow night, June 28, at Wurlitzer Ballroom in their hometown with UK psych revelers Vodun. More info on that show can be found at the Thee Facebooks event page here.

Please enjoy:

Bones of Minerva, “Overcoming” official video

Bones of Minerva formed in 2013 in Madrid, Spain. Their eclectic sound is rooted in the genre of alt metal.

Formed by Blue (vocals), Chloé (bass), Koa (drums) and Ruth (guitars), they seek to merge heavy riffs with hypnotic rhythms, dreamy landscapes with vocals which range between shamanic and aggressive.

“Blue Mountains” is their first self-released album, after a previous Ep “Shot” in 2014, and they have thrown themselves completely into this new release, carrying out everything from the songwriting to the design and album art themselves. With it they intend to prove themselves and take their music as far as possible, with a raw live show which leaves no one indifferent. The band also does acoustic sets, adapting their music and using violin, acoustic guitar, percussion and even acapella vocals.

They are currently promoting the album, seeking to take their music as far as possible, with everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Bones of Minerva website

Bones of Minerva on Bandcamp

Bones of Minerva on Thee Facebooks

MotherSloth‘s new album, Moon Omen, is a weird one. Issued through Argonauta Records at the beginning of the month, it brings forth a cultish vision of doom that dips into influences from Alice in Chains to Danzig as it traverses a dark path of six deceptively memorable tracks — the sort of earworms that don’t beat you over the head with hooks, but wind up replaying themselves on the mental jukebox anyway in a “what just happened?” kind of retread. From the title-line howls in the opening cut “Shadow Witch” to the ambient unfolding of nine-minute closer “Moon Omen” and across the melodically resonant “Doomsday Cyborg” and mournful Cantrell-style churn of “Once Human” between, it’s a record that brings a deeply individualized context to a style of doom that draws from both modern and classic spheres. Also from who knows where else.

One would expect for any visual representation of Moon Omen to be accordingly bizarre, and the dark-hued video for “Shadow Witch” most certainly is that. I’m pretty sure the band is in there somewhere, but the whole affair is pretty obscure and willfully vague, and where later in the album, the Madrid three-piece dip into progressive melodies underscored by melancholy lead guitar on “The Firemill,” with “Shadow Witch,” it’s more about the dirge and the ritual, even unto the quiet, whispering break in the song’s second half that leads to the surprising, if brief, apex of all-out cacophony. I’m telling you, and I’m not lying, they do it strange and they do strange well. Moon Omen finds MotherSloth as much centered around atmosphere as basic songwriting, but both work together to serve an overarching purpose of bizarre evocation that’s almost bound to stay with you after the record is done, which of course is the whole idea.

If you haven’t heard Moon Omen in its entirety as yet, it’s available now through Argonauta and streaming in full on MotherSloth‘s Bandcamp page — both of which are linked at the bottom of this post. More background on the band and the video credits follow the clip itself, which you’ll find immediately below.

Hope you enjoy:

MotherSloth, “Shadow Witch” official video

Directed by: Hugo “Brutal Panacota” Martín
Production/ Film making/ Post production: Iván “Lobo” Moreno
Camera , Edition and VFX : Iván ”Lobo” Moreno
Production assistant: Malina Gancarz
Make up: Andrea Mena / Iris “Assa” Erza
Actors: Druid: Juan Carlos Zar
Punk guy: Jimmy Jazz
Witch: Leila Díaz
Witch Follower 1: MOnica Garcia .
Witch Follower 2: Iris ”Assa” Erza
Special thanks to Gloria Crespo and Mayte Moraleda for their support

MotherSloth is a Madrid-based band formed in 2008. In the band’s style, you can find several influences – ’70s inspired sounds combined with heavy guitar riffs and open chords, blended with spirally progressive melodies. After various formations, the band records demos under the title “Death Flowers” (2009), and plays live throughout Madrid with other avant-garde stoner bands. In 2012, with a more defined musical path, MotherSloth recorded their debut EP “Hazy Blur Of Life“, edited in 2013 by Peruvian underground label Dooom Records.

In late 2013, MotherSloth decided to focus on the instrumental songs they had been writing throughout the years, recording their new LP “Moribund Star” (2014), edited in 2015 with Germany’s Voodoo Chamber Records. In 2016 the band entered the studio to record their next album, consisting of 6 brand new songs, released by ARGONAUTA Records in CD/DD during Spring 2017.

MotherSloth is:
Dani – guitars and vocals
Moline – bass guitar and vocals
Oscar – drums

MotherSloth on Thee Facebooks

MotherSloth on Twitter

MotherSloth on Instagram

MotherSloth on Bandcamp

Argonauta Records website

Argonauta Records on Thee Facebooks

So the title of Spanish doomers MotherSloth‘s impending second album may or may not be Moon Omen. How do I know? Keen investigative reporting, of course. Digging deep. Meeting secret sources in underground parking garages while wearing overcoats and fedoras, smoke-obscured faces trading classified information back and forth. And then after all that I checked out their Thee Facebooks page and there’s a whole collection of photos there under the heading, “Recording Moon Omen.” That could also be a pretty reliable tell.

Whether or not that’s the name of the thing, the follow-up to MotherSloth‘s 2014 Moribund Star full-length debut will be released in Spring 2017 via Argonauta Records. That information is not classified — or at least not anymore — and the PR wire offers this public briefing:

Argonauta Records New signing: MOTHERSLOTH

We’re excited to welcome in our roster a new excellent act from Spain: MOTHERSLOTH.

MotherSloth is a Madrid-based band formed in 2008. In the band’s style, you can find several influences – 70?s inspired sounds combined with heavy guitar riffs and open chords, blended with spirally progressive melodies.

The band says: “We are happy to have arrived to Argonauta and cannot be more excited with the prospect of working together with Gero and the label, plus having high expectations on our next album which we believe it’s our best so far…”

After various formations, the band records demos under the title “Death Flowers” (2009), and plays live throughout Madrid with other avant-garde stoner bands. In 2012, with a more defined musical path, MotherSloth recorded their debut EP “Hazy Blur Of Life“, edited in 2013 by Peruvian underground label Dooom Records.

MotherSloth created and gathered a good impression after playing at Kanina Rock festival (2012+DVD), Madrid Stoner Festival (2013), and being featured in various compilations, genre specialized blogs, magazines and radios. In late 2013, MotherSloth decided to focus on the instrumental songs they had been writing throughout the years, recording their new LP “Moribund Star” (2014), edited in 2015 with Germany’s Voodoo Chamber Records and available here:

In 2016 the band entered the studio to record their next album, consisting of 6 brand new songs, to be released by ARGONAUTA Records in CD/DD during Spring 2017.

The band is:
Dani – guitars and vocals
Adrian – bass guitar and vocals
Oscar – drums

https://www.facebook.com/MotherSloth
https://twitter.com/MotherSloth
https://mothersloth.bandcamp.com/album/moribund-star
http://www.argonautarecords.com/

MotherSloth, Moribund Star (2014)

After a couple starter splits, singles and EP releases, Spanish four-piece Adrift made their full-length debut in 2008 with Monolito, an album that wore its winding post-Mastodon neo-prog metal influence on its sleeve. The complexity of rhythm and overall extremity finds further push in the forthcoming Alone Records follow-up, Black Heart Bleeds Black, which is darker atmospherically and more conscious of but not modeled after mid-period Neurosis‘ apocalyptic churn. Doomed in mood and guitar-led sensibility, its songs follow progressive structures to vicious ends and offer little hope to those who’d take them on.

More importantly, the overall impression Black Heart Bleeds Black gives is more individualized than was the first record, and Adrift work within a variety of forms that maintain their pummel even as they change the direction from which that pummel comes. Tonally, it’s metal, and I hear a bit of Converge‘s bombast in the screams of “Mallet Man,” but there’s more happening in these songs than any one band comparison can really convey, the two guitars of Macon and Jorge (the latter also vocals) working into and out of tandem stretches with an ease that skillfully undercuts the difficulty of what they’re actually doing.

And where a lot of prog (neo- or otherwise) seems to forgo its sense of songwriting to convey musicianship, even on the trace-state instrumental “Erich Zann Movement,” Adrift don’t lose the human feel to what they do — they’re just reeling back for the next blast, which of course arrives in the form of the 9:48 “Fury Roof.” In terms of giving a concise impression of what Black Heart Bleeds Black does, though, the seven-minute “Wolves Searching Dams” is densely packed with aggression and ambience in kind, relentlessly driven forward by frantic guitars, Jaime‘s drums and Dani‘s bass, as you can hear for yourself on the player below:

[mp3player width=460 height=120 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=adrift.xml]

For CD and/or vinyl preorders of Black Heart Bleeds Black, click here. Much thanks to Alone Records for granting permission to host the stream, and to find out more about Adrift, be sure to hit them up on Thee Facebooks or their Something Called MySpace page.

Spanish instrumentalists Reznik formed in 2005, and since the movie The Machinist was released in Spain in December 2004, it’s entirely possible the band — initially a four-piece, now a duo — took their name from Christian Bale’s character in that film, Trevor Reznik. Whether or not that’s the case, I don’t know, but the dates work out and I thought that movie kicked ass, so I’m going to run with it. If I’m incorrect and there’s some other significance to the band’s moniker, I’ll leave it up to the vast knowledge of the intertubes to correct my erroneous thinking.

Wherever they got their name, Didi (guitarra) and Lolo (batería) offer a ‘90s-influenced mix of noise rock and stoner groove, occasionally hitting a reference point of Fatso Jetson or some others from the Palm Desert scene, but usually relying on more grit than fuzz sonically. Of the 15 tracks on their first LP, El Mal (Alone), which follows two demos and a number of splits, not one of them is over three minutes long, which is probably for the best. What makes El Mal work is that it never really has time to get mired down in its sameyness. If Reznik were just jamming endlessly on the same riff for six or seven minutes, it might get tired really quick, but by the time a riff has worn out its welcome, à la later cut “Octiembre,” the song is over. It’s not a bad system they have worked out.

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